Documentation of Cifungwa Folktales

The Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP) provides grants worldwide to for the linguistic documentation of endangered language and knowledge. Grantees create multimedia collection of endangered languages. These collections are preserved and made freely available through the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) housed at the library of SOAS University of London.

Cifungwa [ISO 639-3 Ula] is an endangered Benue-Congo, West Kainji language that is spoken in the Ringa communities of Rafi Local Government area, Niger state, Nigeria (10°23'34.4"N 6°27'46.6"E). Due to war, migration and the political hegemony of the Hausa people, the speakers are generally shifting to speaking Hausa. As a result of this, various aspects of their culture (e.g. religion, folktales and music) are being forgotten. Only about 20 of 1000 speakers of Cifungwa currently practice their culture/religion. The project aims to document Cifungwa folktales with help from these few local practitioners. The result of the field research will be pictures, annotated audio, audiovisual data, a dictionary, and texts which will be made available to the community. In addition, my PhD thesis will be based on some aspects of the data. Primary investigator: Samuel Akinbo

Project Details


Location: Nigeria, Western Africa, Africa Organiser(s): Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Project partner(s): University of British Columbia Funder(s): Arcadia Funding received: £8,060.00 Commencement Date: 01/2013
Project owner? Update this project



Related Projects

Archive Collage

Understanding Mandate Palestine through the publications and archive of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem

This project digitised 33000 pages of rare books (1619-1950) and archives (1919-1950) from the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, preserving endangered materials on M…

Explore project
EAP1402 Pub003

19th-century documents from the Peruvian asylum el Manicomio del Cercado

The Victor Larco Herrera Hospital in the centre of Lima, Peru, was closed in 1917. Its archives, dating back to 1859, consist of medical documentation as well as administrativ…

Explore project
EAP1306 Silk Museum

The Caucasian Silk Circle: Digitising Photo Collection of the State Silk Museum in Georgia

The State Silk Museum of Georgia holds the only documentary evidence of the practice of sericulture in the 19th century. Taken during expeditions of the Caucasian Sericulture …

Explore project