Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Languages and Literatures - African Languages University of Florida

The specialization in African Languages enables students to develop the critical, analytical, and interpretive tools essential for successfully working and living in today's increasingly globalizing world. It focuses on a selected group of languages that function as languages of wider communication (lingua franca) in their sub-Saharan African regions. Through study of these languages students not only gain communicative proficiency in the language(s) of their choice, but also an understanding of the diverse literary and cultural traditions that make Africa such a unique and complex continent today.

The B.A. in Foreign Languages and Literatures (FLL) provides students with a comprehensive knowledge of a specific language (or languages) and advanced familiarity with the cultural practices and traditions associated with the language(s) of specialization. The major in FLL enhances critical thinking and communication skills and provides students with a cross-cultural understanding of our contemporary world. The program allows students the flexibility to explore a single or dual language specialization as well as the opportunity to study culture through interdisciplinary fields of critical concentration, such as Comparative Cultural Studies, Film and Visual Culture, Intensive Area Studies, Literary Studies, and Medieval and Early Modern Studies. A major in FLL offers an excellent basis for a variety of careers, including graduate study in an area of foreign language and culture and/or in the humanities and social sciences, as well as careers in education, international development, diplomacy and government, national security, communications, law, journalism, arts and culture, publishing, and global business. Participation in UF study-abroad programs or a UF approved program is highly encouraged.

The African languages specialization of the Foreign Languages and Literatures major offers students the opportunity to gain proficiency in any of the following languages: Akan/Twi (Ghana – West Africa), Amharic (Ethiopia - the Horn of Africa), Swahili (eastern and central Africa), Wolof (Senegal and the Gambia – West Africa), Yoruba (Nigeria and Benin – West Africa and the Diaspora), and Zulu (South Africa). The specialization in African languages offers a unique opportunity when it comes to seeking employment in multi-national corporations or research undertakings based on the African continent. It also prepares students for the rigors of graduate studies in the humanities and for fields such as comparative literature, religious/ diaspora studies, African cinema, developmental practices, humanitarian services, language learning businesses, translations & interpretation for United Nations organizations and other international agencies, to mention just a few.