African Language Resources

The Department of African American Studies in partnership with the Center for African Studies supports the African language learning needs of students and faculty. Currently, we are offering courses in Amharic, Igbo, and Kiswahili. Arabic is available through the Department of Near Eastern Studies. Students from other UC campuses can enroll in courses through the UC Online Cross Campus Enrollment System(CCES). Some of the courses offered include AFRICAM 11A – Elementary Swahili, AFRICAM 11B – Elementary Swahili,  AFRICAM 10A – Intermediate Swahili, AFRICAM 10B – Intermediate Swahili, AFRICAM 15A – Advanced Swahili, AFRICAM 15B – Advanced Swahili, AFRICAM 16A – Elementary Igbo, AFRICAM 16B – Elementary Igbo, AFRICAM 18A – Elementary Amharic, AFRICAM 18B – Elementary Amharic, AFRICAM 21A – Intermediate Amharic, AFRICAM 21B – Intermediate Amharic. They along with students from California State Universities, California community colleges and select other local higher education institutions may be eligible to enroll in other UC Berkeley courses through various programs. Members of the larger community can enroll through concurrent enrollment via UC Extension.

The Center for African Studies offers Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships in the academic year and summer that provide tuition and a stipend to students studying an African language and taking relevant African Studies courses. For eligibility, requirements and other details, visit the Center’s FLAS page.

Over the years, Berkeley students have also studied Afrikaans, Bamana, Lingala, Malagasy, Shona, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu among other languages. While we are not offering these languages now, the Center for African Studies encourages Berkeley faculty, staff and students to indicate your ability to speak or interest in learning African languages by completing this online survey. There are also options to study these languages in the summer at other Programs and with FLAS fellowships.

Contact the Center for African Studies for more information on studying African languages: asc@berkeley.edu.