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Phoenix Project

Strengthening and sustaining languages

We are supporting a ground-breaking project to study and support languages in Namibia called 'Transnationalizing Modern Languages: Global Challenges'.

The work aims to enhance effective communication and sensitise students, teachers and professionals to the role of translation in a country characterised by high levels of multilingualism, where English and Afrikaans are spoken among many indigenous languages.

Cardiff University is collaborating with the University of Namibia (UNAM) and the Universities of Bristol, St Andrews and Warwick in the UK, after securing a major Arts and Humanities Research Council grant under the Global Challenges Research Funding scheme.

We are developing training tools for future doctors and health workers, and collaborating with colleagues in Languages and Media Studies to develop local programmes aimed at enhancing and maintaining language capabilities among other young professionals.

Dr Nelson Mlambo sitting with Professor Loredana Polezzi, looking at a laptop, with Professor Jairos Kangira standing behind
Dr Nelson Mlambo, English lecturer at the University of Namibia, Professor Jairos Kangira, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Namibia, and Professor Loredana Polezzi, Translation Studies at Cardiff University.

As a multilingual and multicultural society, Namibia needs institutions that nurture multicultural dialogue in different contexts and ways for peace and mutual coexistence. UNAM finds itself well placed to play this critical role of promoting intercultural communication.

Professor Jairos Kangira Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Namibia,

Benefits for Wales

We believe better interpretation and translation can make a significant contribution to objectives such as poverty reduction and health promotion.

Lessons learnt will be taken home to the UK to help turn multilingualism, particularly in bilingual Wales, into a resource for social cohesion, cultural creativity and economic growth.

The project has established contacts and ongoing collaborations between academic institutions and voluntary organisations in Wales and Namibia, providing opportunities for student residencies in each country.

Among the project’s outputs are a student prize for short films on ‘youth and multilingualism’, run in collaboration with Cardiff-based charity Watch Africa, and a collaborative version of the online course Working with Translation to be run jointly by Cardiff University and UNAM staff in 2018.

Our aim is to create educational resources which can be used by school teachers as well as health or media professionals and their trainers, and to take home some important lessons on how to make the most of the linguistic resources of multicultural societies.