African language Flagship Program

Administered by American Councils for International Education, the African Overseas Flagship Program addresses the critical need for U.S. professionals to speak, read, write, and understand these languages at the highest levels of functional proficiency. As such it is designed to raise the proficiency of students in these languages to the “superior” or “professional” level (ILR 3, 3+, 4/ACTFL "Superior" or "getting to professional: 2+, 3" levels) through an intensive program tailored to students' professional interests and academic specializations.

The African Flagship Program is for the undergraduate level only. The program has both a stateside and an overseas program. American Councils administers the overseas programs only. The logical progression would be for a student to start with the stateside undergraduate program and then proceed to the overseas program in Zanzibar, Tanzania for Swahili and /or Ibadan, Nigeria for Yoruba

The Stateside Component

The Stateside African Flagship Program is administered by The University of Wisconsin-Madison for Yoruba and Howard University for Swahili and prospective applicants should contact those universities directly.

The Overseas Component

The Overseas program is hosted by two universities and language centers in Tanzania and Nigeria. It features formal coursework in discourse development, individualized tutorials, biweekly excursions, and home-stays with local families. Participants benefit from extensive opportunities for professionally focused language development and language utilization through regular university courses in their area of specialization and internships with local organizations