Interview with Alain Kiyindou

Maria Luísa Silva Gabriel

"The fact that there are collaborative spaces that allow people to connect with each other, exchange ideas, discuss and the fact that we have information and communication technologies help building a world that is more open, a world where borders are easier to overcome than before"

"… but when we look further, we realize that, unfortunately, despite this openness, there is an establishment that does not dissolve itself, does not get any weaker, that is always there and which considers the foreigner as the cause of all evils."

 

"the search for diversity demands that all languages of the world must be protected. But for now, … there are huge apparatuses that try to impose certain languages. We call this the Francophonie, but it is the same with the English language in other circuits, and we see that African countries do not have the same resources and means to defend their languages and to promote them… "

 

 

 

Biographical Note

Alain Kiyindou is the Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair of Emerging Practices in Information and Communication For Development (Université Bordeaux-Montaigne). He is a teacher and researcher in communication sciences at that same university (Département Médias, Information et Communication et Arts / MICA), Honorary President of the French Society For Information and Communication Sciences and permanent member of the French Committee for UNESCO. Originally from Congo-Brazzaville, he has studied and lived in Côte d'Ivoire and France. He is the co-author and editor: of Objets Connectés et Développement Intelligent (Harmattan, 2018), Les Pays en Développement Face à la Société de L'information (org. A. Kiyindou, L'Harmattan, 2009), Cultures, Technologies et Mondialisation (org. A. Kiyindou, L'Harmattan, 2009).

 

 

Interview with African-European Narratives (conducted by Maria Augusta Babo; video editing by João Meirinhos) ©2018.