Linguistic shift underway in Senegal, where Wolof is overtaking French
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Transcript
00:00Amina grew up in Europe but is trying to start a new life in Senegal, the land of her ancestors.
00:07Every week, the 24-year-old takes Wolof classes online, at this Dakar café.
00:18It's a language that you need to master in order to integrate in social spaces, to live well,
00:24to be able to communicate with people and understand the culture and so on.
00:29Recently, new publishing houses that cater to a local readership have sprung up in Senegal.
00:35Ejo is among them, publishing in Wolof and a dozen other local languages.
00:43A publishing house should reflect the language spoken by the population.
00:47And the language spoken by the population here is in French.
00:50French is part of our history, but we need to claim ownership of our own language before expanding it to others.
00:58Shifts are also happening in education.
01:01Besides French, the government wants local languages to also be systematically taught in schools by 2029,
01:08as research suggests that this could help pupils do better across the curriculum.
01:14When children learn their mother tongue, they're more likely to succeed in school.
01:18They participate much more in class, they're more interested, they do better and the success rate is visibly higher.
01:24A pilot phase was introduced in 2018.
01:27Education authorities are developing linguistic maps to adapt teaching to reflect the needs of each part of the country.
01:36We have some challenges. One is teacher training.
01:39Another is whether it will be possible to produce enough teaching materials, enough textbooks for each national language.
01:45We have 20 codified languages, which is a lot.
01:50Things are changing in the digital space too.
01:53Wolof has been available on Google Translate since July, alongside some 30 other African languages.