Dyula is a language of the Mande language family spoken mainly in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali, and also in some other countries, including Ghana, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. It is one of the Manding languages and is most closely related to Bambara, being mutually intelligible with Bambara as well as Malinke. It is a trade language in West Africa and is spoken by millions of people, either as a first or second language. Similar to the other Mande languages, it uses tones. It may be written in the Latin, Arabic or N'Ko scripts.
Leo Viktor Frobenius was a German self-taught ethnologist and archaeologist and a major figure in German ethnography.
Rainer Polak is an ethnomusicologist and djembe drummer who has researched in the field of West African celebration music performances and written in the field of ethnomusicology.
The State Research Center for Optics and Material Sciences (OPTIMAS) connects two areas of research for which the University of Kaiserslautern has a national and international reputation, founded upon relevant contributions to the development of laser physics, photonics and plasmonics. Researchers in Kaiserslautern have also been prominent in the development of magnetic, electronic and molecular materials, as well as thin films, nanostructures and ultracold quantum gases. In order to continue building on this research foundation, OPTIMAS has been established at TU Kaiserslautern within the framework of the research initiative of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Heinz-Herbert Noll is a German sociologist.
Reinhold Wilhelm Buchholz was a German zoologist who made contributions in the fields of herpetology, carcinology and ichthyology.
Theodora Büttner is a retired East German historian. For many years she was a professor at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig. Much of her own research was focused on the precolonial history of Africa and on the anti-colonial liberation movements.
Anne Storch is a German linguist and professor of African studies at the University of Cologne.
Norbert Cyffer is a German-Austrian linguist and Professor Emeritus of African Studies at the University of Vienna. Cyffer is primarily interested in African languages and linguistics, particularly the Saharan languages of the Sahelian region. His research areas include morphology, syntax, language contact, sociolinguistics, typology, and applied linguistics.
Wilhelm Emil Mühlmann was a German ethnologist who served as Professor of Ethnology at the University of Mainz and Chair of Ethnology at the University of Heidelberg.
Marianne Schmidl was the first woman to graduate with a doctorate in ethnology from the University of Vienna. An Austrian ethnologist, teacher, librarian and art collector, Schmidl was plundered and murdered in the Holocaust by the Nazis because of her Jewish origins.
Georg Elwert was a German ethnologist and sociologist who was one of the leading exponents of German development sociology.
Thomas Bierschenk is a German ethnologist and sociologist. He is Professor of African Cultures and Societies at the Institute for Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Mainz.
Gerd Spittler is a German ethnologist.
Erdmute Alber is a German ethnologist with research focus in political and kinship anthropology. Since 2010 she has held the chair in Social Anthropology at the University of Bayreuth.
Gerhard Grohs was a German sociologist and African studies scholar. He was one of the pioneers of African Studies in Germany, Professor of Sociology at the Free University of Berlin (1969-75) and at the University of Mainz (1975-94).
Mamadou Diawara is an ethnologist of Malian origin. He is a professor for ethnology at the institute for ethnology at the Goethe University Frankfurt and deputy director of the Frobenius Institute in Frankfurt. He is also Director of Point Sud, a Research Center for Local Knowledge in Bamako, Mali.
Carola Lentz is a German social anthropologist and, since November 2020, president of the Goethe-Institut. She is senior research professor at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz.
Hans Peter Hahn is a German ethnologist, member of the board of the Vereinigung für Afrikawissenschaften in Deutschland and program officer of the 'Franco-German Master of Arts : Ethnology and its German-French perspectives'.
Heike Klippel is a German film and media studies scholar. She teaches at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, is one of the co-editors of the magazine Frauen und Film and was a founding member of the Kinothek Asta Nielsen e. V.
