Interdisciplinarity is a key goal for many research institutions including universities but
how to achieve this goal remains an open question for discussion in academic fora.
Interdisciplinarity constitutes both a challenge and an opportunity. While it is a natural way
to do research in the natural sciences it is not always so clear how this collaboration can
occur in the arts and humanities. Poems and novels for instance as well as many works of art
historical and philosophical treatises linguistic descriptions and literary criticisms are
usually written or produced by single authors. In this lecture I argue that research in
African languages and literatures lends itself naturally to an interdisciplinary approach
despite the challenges that scholars in the arts and humanities disciplines may face.
