Message from Prof. Herman Batibo, WOCAL President
	     18th  November 2006

	1. Name of Congress:
	The Congress in Brazil will be known as SPECIAL WOCAL 6. The theme of this special Congress will be Exploring 
        the African Languages Connection in America. (Some members have suggested that the title be limited to “Latin 
        America” rather than America as a whole, since we have already had WOCAL in North America). The theme was 
        specially chosen to emphasize the fact that the Congress is much broader on African languages as a whole rather 
        than just African based Creole languages in Latin America. 

	2. Dates:
	The tentative dates for the Congress are August, 11 to 15th , 2008, at the Universidade de Saõ Paulo. The 
        Congress will therefore last 4 to 5 days. This is in order to allow some time for excursions, plenary meetings 
        and personal interaction. 

	3. Abstracts:
	The Organizing Committee intends to send out a CALL FOR PAPERS by next month so that prospective participants 
        start sending in their abstracts. Since the Congress is being held in Latin America for the first time, it is 
        good that it starts being advertised early. Although according to our Constitution only two languages are used 
        at our congresses, namely English and French, perhaps the Committee could make an exception to this Special 
        Congress by allowing Portuguese to be used as well, as long as there is effective translation/interpretation 
        arrangement into English and/or French.

	4. Keynote Speakers:
	The Organizing Committee plans to invite a number of keynote speakers. Since they have close connections with 
        Lusophone countries like Angola, Mozambique and some West African countries, most of these speakers will come 
        from there. I have asked the Organizing Committee to inform these people in good time so that they may start 
        to prepare their talks and also to select more general topics, especially at the opening sessions.

	5. Other Arrangements: 
	The organizing Committee is currents working on the other particulars, such as congress venues, accommodation 
        and meals, local and international transport, financial sources, contacts with sister Departments in the 
        region and other logistics.