Norbert Cyffer was born on May 16, 1943, in Dortmund. After undertaking a private journey from the northernmost to the southernmost point of the African continent in the 1960s, he decided to study African Studies at the University of Hamburg in 1965. There, his doctoral supervisor, Johannes Lukas, then Director of the Department of African Languages and Cultures, gave him Kanuri materials to work on. This marked the beginning of Norbert Cyffer's lifelong passion for this language. In 1968, to collect data for his dissertation, “Syntax of Kanuri”, he embarked on his first fieldwork trip to Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria, where he devoted five months primarily to recording and analyzing oral Kanuri texts of various genres. He completed his dissertation in February 1974.
Just two months later, Norbert Cyffer took up a position as a research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Nigerian Languages (CSNL) at Ahmadu Bello University (Kano Campus, Nigeria). His first major project at CSNL was the compilation of a Kanuri-English dictionary together with his American colleague John P. Hutchison, which represented a significant contribution to Kanuri language research. The two linguists were able to establish a research office in Maiduguri, the center of Kanuri society. Since they lived in the Gamboru district during this time, they were given the Kanuri names Ali Gamboru (Norbert Cyffer) and Tijani Gamboru (John P. Hutchison), under which they would later publish some of their works. Interest in advancing the further development of the Kanuri language also arose among the elites of Kanuri society; in 1975, the Kanuri Language Board (KLB) was established by the Council of the Borno Emirate. Norbert Cyffer and his colleague John P. Hutchison played a key role in developing a uniform Kanuri orthography. Their second draft, completed in 1975, was officially recognized as the Standard Kanuri Orthography (SKO) just a few months later and finally published in 1979.
In the 1970s, the Nigerian government sought to increasingly introduce Nigerian languages as a medium in school teaching. When the University of Maiduguri was founded in 1976, Norbert Cyffer became increasingly involved in the Kanuri Research Unit at the newly opened Department of Languages and Linguistics, in addition to further work on dictionaries and orthography. In addition to continuing basic research, the focus of his work at that time was on the development of Kanuri teaching at the university level (BA and MA courses) and teacher training. Many of today's Kanuri professors at the University of Maiduguri were his first students.
In 1981, Norbert Cyffer returned to Germany, where he was appointed Professor of African Philology at the Institute of Ethnology and African Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz the following year. His research in northeast Nigeria returned to the spotlight in 1990 when he worked on the subproject “Change and Continuity of Language, Literature, and Music in the Lake Chad Region” at the University of Frankfurt's Collaborative Research Center (CRC) “Cultural Development and Linguistic History in the Natural Environment of the West African Savanna”.
In 1994, Norbert Cyffer was appointed full professor at the Department of African Studies at the University of Vienna. This period was primarily characterized by two Austrian Science Fund (FWF) research projects he led, focusing on language contact research in northeast Nigeria: “Linguistic Innovation and Conceptual Change in West Africa” and “Dynamics of Linguistic Change in Northeast Nigeria”. In close collaboration with the University of Maiduguri, he made significant contributions to Kanuri research during several research stays in Nigeria. The recognition of his academic work within Kanuri society is demonstrated by the fact that the Shehu of Borno awarded him, as a European, the title of Shettima Luggama Kanuribe (Advisor on the Kanuri Language) in 2005.
Even after his retirement in 2011, Norbert Cyffer remained connected to the Department of African Studies. Between 2012 and 2017, he led his last FWF project, “Understanding and Misunderstanding Grammar - The Perception of Grammatical Categories in the Languages of the Lake Chad Area”. The work from this research project culminated in his magnum opus, a monumental grammar of Kanuri, which he compiled together with Umara Bulakarima, who was one of his first students at the University of Maiduguri.
Norbert Cyffer will be remembered not only as an outstanding scientist, but also as a person with diverse interests, a good friend, and a colleague. During his time in Maiduguri, many colleagues were able to take advantage of his hospitality in his always open house. Whether over a beer or a glass of wine, Norbert Cyffer was always an interesting and humorous conversationalist, always with a joke to tell. The workshops he played a key role in organizing at Gumpoldskirchen Castle, near his home in the vineyards south of Vienna, will remain unforgettable. Staff and many students will also fondly remember the apple tarts he personally baked, which were a staple at every celebration at the department.
We, the colleagues of the Department of African Studies, former staff members, and his former students, mourn the loss of this loving and outstanding person who passed away unexpectedly on March 12, 2025.
Georg Ziegelmeyer
