Fallou Ngom’s African Studies Review Distinguished Lecture
NEH Ajami project director Fallou Ngom’s African Studies Review Distinguished Lecture “Beyond Orality: Non-Europhone Sources and African Studies in the 21st Century” can now be viewed here.
Author: Rodima-Taylor
Our Scholars at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting
The African Studies Association 62nd Annual Meeting, “Being, Belonging and Becoming in Africa,” took place in Boston, MA, from November 21-23, 2019, in Boston Marriott Copley Place. The Annual Meeting featured presentations and contributions by several of our NEH Ajami Research Project scholars. NEH Ajami project director Fallou Ngom was chosen to present this year’s […]
David Robinson on Ethnohistorical Fieldwork in West Africa
Our project member Dr. David Robinson describes his experience preparing and carrying out interviews in Senegal and Mali in the linked article “Interviewing, Intermediaries and Documents: Senegal and Mali,” published in Mande Studies (vol. 20, 2018). He emphasizes the importance of his assistants or intermediaries for the choice of informants and the conduct of the […]
Boston University Libraries Uploaded the World’s Largest Digital Collection by Mande Scholars
By Eleni Castro, Fallou Ngom, Daivi Rodima-Taylor Boston University scholars and digital collections experts recently completed uploading the largest to date digital collection of Mande scholars’ work in the world. The project EAP 1042, funded by the British Library/ARCADIA focused on the archives of Mandinka scholars of Casamance, Senegal. The BU team digitized over 18,000 […]
The Social Life of African Ajami: Connecting the Grassroots, Mediating the Mundane
By Daivi Rodima-Taylor, Mustapha H. Kurfi, and Fallou Ngom Grassroots Ajami literacy has been historically high in the communities of West Africa. While often viewed through the lens of its religious historical origins, it is increasingly evident that the use of Ajami scripts in a variety of African languages extends far beyond religious and educational […]