{"id":471,"date":"2021-04-09T10:57:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T14:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ria\/?page_id=471"},"modified":"2025-01-22T09:12:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T14:12:22","slug":"wolof-unit-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ria\/wolof\/wolof-unit-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Unit 2: Modou Faty Sarr"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Title<\/td>Conversation with Modou Faty Sarr<\/td><\/tr>
Interviewer<\/td>Fallou Ngom<\/td><\/tr>
Subject<\/td>Medicinal plants, the value of writing books in Wolof Ajami <\/td><\/tr>
Content<\/td>In this interview, Modou Faty Sarr (or M\u00f3odu Faati Saar in the standard Wolof Latin script orthography) talks about his family history, educational trajectory, professional activities, and reflects on how he learned Wolof Ajami locally called Wolofal<\/em>. Mr. Sarr was born in 1957 in Diourbel, Senegal. He discusses the legacy of his grandfather, S\u00ebri\u00f1 M\u00f3odu G\u00e9y J\u00ebmm\u00f3oy, who lived an exceptionally long life of over one hundred years. His grandfather was a prominent follower of Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba (1853-1927), the founder of the Muridiyya Sufi order in Senegal. Mr. Sarr also discusses how he became a tailor and his travels to Benghazi (Libya) and Abidjan (C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire). He describes how he became interested in writing books in Wolof Ajami dealing with medicinal plants, astrology, calendars, and the calculation of time. He said that he was inspired by the work of Dr. Kawusu Sambu (pronounced in Wolof as G\u00ebwsu S\u00e0mbu), a famous medical doctor in Fann Hock in Dakar who promoted the medicinal virtues of local plants. In addition to Wolof, Mr. Sarr has recorded the names of important local plants with medicinal virtues in other larger Senegalese local languages such as Pulaar, Mandinka (Soose), Joola, and S\u00e9er\u00e9er. His books include drawings of medical plants that help local healers to correctly identify them. He laments that the current Senegalese education system only focuses on teaching \u201clanguage\u201d (mostly French), from elementary school to university, rather than teaching \u201cknowledge\u201d (substantive topics). He advocates for the teaching of substantive topics to students early on and in their native languages to successfully convey the local knowledge and its significance. Mr. Sarr also reflects on his experience with learning Wolof Ajami, suggesting that this was easier in the past when people communicated mostly through letter writing, and not through phone calls or social media like nowadays. <\/td><\/tr>
Language<\/td>Wolof<\/td><\/tr>
Script<\/td>Wolof Ajami (locally called Wolofal)<\/td><\/tr>
Location<\/td>Touba, Senegal<\/td><\/tr>
Pedagogical content\/application<\/td>Includes relevant linguistic, stylistic and cultural skills as identified in our assessment guidebook\/ ACTFL guidelines<\/td><\/tr>
Access condition and copyright<\/td>These materials are subject to copyright and are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. For use, distribution or reproduction beyond these terms, contact Professor Fallou Ngom (fngom@bu.edu).<\/td><\/tr>
Contributors<\/td>Fallou Ngom, Ablaye Diakite, Elhadji Djibril Diagne, Daivi Rodima-Taylor, Gana Ndiaye, Alison Parker, and Frank Antonelli.<\/td><\/tr>
Required citation information<\/td>Fallou Ngom (PI), Ablaye Diakite, Daivi Rodima-Taylor, Elhadji Djibril Diagne, Gana Ndiaye, and other contributors. 2023. \u201cConversation with Modou Faty Sarr.\u201d https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ria\/wolof\/wolof-unit-2\/<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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