Abstract

Expert Interviews as a Method of Research in African Language Literatures

Lutz Diegner
(Institut für Afrikanistik, Universität Köln)

Research in African language literatures can be carried out using different kinds of methodological approaches. In this paper, I will argue that the philological baseline of most of these approaches can be complimented by a second empirical component consisting in expert interviews, i.e. interviews with insiders of the African language speakers’ community and its literature. Basing my argument on examples from my own research in Swahili contemporary novels in Tanzania and Kenya in 2003/2004, I will show how expert interviews can be conceived as a dialogue of readings, providing some reflections on the results of this method of research.