Kofi Yakpo

As a linguist, I am interested in multilingualism – how, when and why people use various languages at the same time and how this changes the languages they use. These questions occupy me as a Postdoctoral Researcher in a project called Traces of Contact, at the Centre for Language Studies of Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands. I have also been looking at the processes by which new languages arise, and have written a descriptive Grammar of Pichi, a West African creole language.

Before turning to academia, I coordinated the Africa desk of the human rights organization FIAN International, which stands up worldwide for the Right to Food, and against the man-made causes of hunger. Later, I joined the team of the Green Party MP Thilo Hoppe in the German Parliament, assisting and advising him in his parliamentary work on rural development and the struggle against hunger.

Other than that, I have a long-standing passion for the performing arts. Under the artist name of "linguist", I formed the rap band Advanced Chemistry together with four childhood friends in Heidelberg, Germany in 1987, and we released a series of CDs and music videos in the 1990s. Since those days I have been keeping myself busy as a playwright, author, cultural commentator and discussion host every now and then.