Short Abstract

African indigenous languages are endangered by war, displacement, and state collapse. Stable-space language documentation and revitalization models fail. This panel urges conflict-sensitive, community-led, multidisciplinary approaches: history, methods, ethics, healing, digital innovation.

Long Abstract

Several indigenous languages in Africa face endangerment, while others are disappearing. Armed conflict, terrorism, displacement, and state collapse reshape African linguistic landscapes. Endangered languages carry indigenous knowledge and identity, yet war’s impact on local languages remains understudied. Existing language documentation and revitalization (LDR) models often assume stable contexts. Conflict affects language vitality and refracts LDR efforts. This panel calls for rethinking LDR to develop models suited to conflict-affected spaces. It invites contributions from linguistics, anthropology, history, peace and conflict studies, and digital humanities. It asks how LDR can remain ethical and effective when communities are displaced or fragmented. Five themes structure discussions: historical marginalization that makes languages vulnerable to conflict; methodological adaptations amid insecurity, restricted access, and ruptured intergenerational transmission; ethics, safety, consent, archiving, data sovereignty, and informant protection; language in memory, healing, reconciliation, mother-tongue education, and psychological support, where revitalization becomes cultural resilience, not mere preservation; and digital humanities and technological innovation in LDR. Conflict-sensitive LDR requires shifting from archive-driven to community-centered, multidisciplinary frameworks. Rather than treating conflict as an external obstacle, it treats instability as a defining condition for language work. Information derived can offer practical lessons for researchers, funders, and institutions, and inform policy in unstable settings beyond Africa. By uniting these perspectives, the panel interrogates what a conflict-sensitive, community-led approach to LDR looks like and what it contributes to African studies. The goal is speaker agency, safety, and intergenerational continuity.

Keywords: armed conflict; violent displacement; language endangerment; community-led documentation; language revitalization;

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