Alice Werner was a miscellaneous writer, poet and teacher of the Bantu

Bantu languages

The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...

 language. She has lived in New Zealand, Mexico, America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and throughout Europe. She was initially educated in Germany before moving to England.

After visiting Nyasaland

Nyasaland

Nyasaland or the Nyasaland Protectorate, was a British protectorate located in Africa, which was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Since 1964, it has been known as Malawi....

 in 1893 and Natal

Natal, South Africa

Natal is a region in South Africa. It stretches between the Indian Ocean in the south and east, the Drakensberg in the west, and the Lebombo Mountains in the north. The main cities are Pietermaritzburg and Durban...

 in 1894, her writings were focused on African themes.

In 1917 she became a part of the School of Oriental Studies, moving up from lecturer to reader to professor of Swahili and Bantu languages before retiring in 1929-1930.

In 1928, Alice Werner received the degree of Director of Literature from the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

. Following her retirement, she received the title of Emeritus Professor from the same University. In 1931 she was awarded the Silver medal of the African Society, of which she was Vice-President.

Works

• A Time and Times (poems) (1886)
• O'Driscoll's Weird (1892)
• The Humour of Italy (1892)
• The Humour of Holland (1893)
• The Captain of the Locusts (1899)
• Chapinga's While Man (1901)
• Native Races of British Central Africa (1906)
• The Language Families of Africa (1915)
• A Swahili History of Pate (1915)
• Introductory Sketch of the Bantu Languages (1919)
• The Swahili Saga of Liongo Fumo (1926)
• Swahili Tales (1929)
• Structure and Relationship of African Languages (1930)
• The Story of Miqdad and Mayasa (1932)
• Myths and Legends of the Bantu (1933)