ABSTRACT
The academic discipline of “German” in sub-Saharan Africa is a relic left behind by the colonizers when they withdrew in the 1960s. Whereas German could rely on the political determination of the colonizers before political independence, the subject has since struggled to establish an identity of its own in the various African countries: it has tried-not always successfully-to combine the inherent requirements of the discipline with the socio-educational requirements of young African students in those 39 universities in 16 sub-Saharan countries where German is presently taught-by 98 lecturers and 16 Lektors sent by the state-funded Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service).1
