Dr. Chantal Gishoma
Short-Term Fellow
July 2025
Bio
Chantal Gishoma is a distinguished scholar specializing in African-language literatures, colonial and decolonial literature, gender and equality, and the didactics of foreign languages (French–Kinyarwanda). She taught languages and literature at the College of Education, University of Rwanda, from 2003 to 2012, and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bayreuth (Germany), where she contributes to the research project “Philosophy and Genre: Creating a Textual Basis for African Philosophy.” Dr. Gishoma is also an associate researcher at PLIDAM-INALCO (Pluralité des langues et des identités: didactique, acquisition, médiation) in Paris.
Gishoma’s research lies at the intersection of literature, anthropology, and African philosophy, with a particular focus on the work and thought of the Rwandan philosopher and poet Alexis Kagame (1912–1981). Her publications cover a wide range of topics, including translation studies, literary criticism, the mechanisms of war and violence, gender equality, and women’s rights, with a special emphasis on using radio drama as a medium of social engagement.
Among her notable works are The Poetic Philosophy of Alexis Kagame (forthcoming with Peter Lang) and her co-edited volume Theorizing Violence: African Philosophies of War (forthcoming with Routledge). Her earlier publications include a bilingual translation of Un destin rwandais into Kinyarwanda, as well as numerous articles exploring the literary and philosophical legacies of Alexis Kagame and broader issues of linguistic identity and minority writing in Africa.
Research
Literature in African Languages, Colonial and Decolonial Literature, Gender and Equality, Foreign Language Teaching (French-Kinyarwanda)
Regions
East Africa (Rwanda, Burundi)
Languages
Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Swahili, French
Books
The Poetic Philosophy of Alexis Kagame, forthcoming, Peter Lang (open access)
Theorizing Violence: African Philosophies of War (co-edited with Albert Kasanda and Alena Rettová), forthcoming, London: Routledge.
Un destin rwandais, traduction en kinyarwanda (co-authored with Christophe Calais and Nathan Réra), bilingual edition, Paris: Les belles Lettres, 2014.
Articles
“The Legacy of Alexis Kagame: Responses to Conceptions of Colonisation and Evangelisation in Rwanda,” in Pierre-Philippe Fraiture (ed.), Unfinished Histories. Empire and Postcolonial Resonance in Central Africa and Belgium, Leuven, Leuven University Press, 2022, pp. 231-250.
“Minority writing for the Future of a Linguistic Majority: Alexis Kagame’s commitment to teaching on Kinyarwanda,” in Minorities Between Globalization and Area Approches. Definition, Contructions, Realites, Indentities, and Memories, Ninth Annual Symposium of the Consortium for Asian and African Studies (CAAS), Paris: INALCO, 2018, pp.154-167.
« Le chantre du Maitre de la Création d’Alexis Kagame: Histoire de l’homme au sein de l’univers » (The Cantor of the Master of Creation by Alexis Kagame: The story of man in the universe), Le Point 42 (2014), L’âme de l’Afrique: épopée, contes et légendes (special edition), pp. 60-61
« Une facette méconnue d’Alexis Kagame: le poète auto-traducteur in La question de la poésie en Afrique aujourd’hui », Revue Etude littéraires Africaine 24 (2012), pp. 42-47p
« Des voix dans la poésie. Entretien avec Henri Meschonnic », La question de la poésie en Afrique aujourd’hui, Revue Etude littéraires Africaine 24 (2012), pp. 4-11.
