'Ajami Literature and the Expansion of Literacy and Islam: The Case of West Africa

FAIN: RZ-260906-18

Boston University (Boston, MA 02215-1300)
Fallou Ngom (Project Director: December 2017 to present)

Research and preparation for online and print publications of texts written in the West African languages Fula, Hausa, Mandinka, and Wolof that use Arabic script (‘Ajami). (36 months)

'Ajami is the Arabic term that refers to languages other than Arabic that are written in the Arabic script. 'Ajami has been instrumental in the spread of Islam beyond the Arab heartland and, while 'Ajami literatures of the Middle East and Asia are well-documented, scholars have tended to overlook the rich 'Ajami legacies of sub-Saharan Africa. This project will highlight the 'Ajami literatures of Hausa, Mandinka, Fula, and Wolof and their role in the spread of literacy and Islam in West Africa. Available on a freely accessible multimedia website, a general interpretive essay comparing the four literatures will be accompanied, for each of the four languages, by twenty digitized 'Ajami manuscripts. Each will include interpretive materials, annotations, Latin alphabet transcription, and French and English translations. Of these twenty, a select five will feature video interviews and recitations by native speakers. A selection of the work will be published in the journal Islamic Africa.

Associated Products

Ajamī Literature and the Expansion of Literacy and Islam: The Case of West Africa (Web Resource)
Title: Ajamī Literature and the Expansion of Literacy and Islam: The Case of West Africa
Author: Fallou Ngom et al.
Abstract: This work focused on Ajami literatures of four main languages of West Africa (Hausa, Mandinka, Fula, and Wolof) and making selected Ajami manuscripts and their transcriptions and annotated translations in French and English widely available. We drew on existing manuscript collections and new manuscripts that our teams collected and digitized, publishing a selection of them with interpretive materials in web galleries that are freely accessible to the scholars, students, teachers, students, and the public interested in Islam and Africa. Ajami literatures hold a wealth of knowledge on Islam, history, politics, culture, and African writing traditions that have been largely neglected. Our project is the first comparative approach of several major African languages written in Ajami, examining the different patterns of Ajami development in these four languages and literatures, and the multiple forms and custodians of Ajami literacy in West Africa. It also marks the first time that such varied African Ajami documents have been translated into two major European languages (French and English) and made freely accessible. It is also the first time that the musical traditions that accompany African Ajami texts in West Africa are captured and made available on a multimedia website along with the original texts, their Roman script transcriptions, and annotated translations.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://sites.bu.edu/nehajami/
Primary URL Description: See abstract.

"Ajami Literacies of Africa: the Wolof, Mandinka, Hausa and Fula Traditions," a double special journal issue of Islamic Africa, volumes 14.2 and 15.1. (Article)
Title: "Ajami Literacies of Africa: the Wolof, Mandinka, Hausa and Fula Traditions," a double special journal issue of Islamic Africa, volumes 14.2 and 15.1.
Author: Fallou Ngom
Author: Daivi Rodima-Taylor
Author: David Robinson
Author: Rebecca Shereikis
Abstract: The articles of the special issue make three main contributions. First, they establish important historical dimensions of the role of Ajami literacy in mediating the lives of grassroots communities that have not yet been systematically studied. Secondly, they enable unique comparative perspectives on Ajami use in four major West African languages, contributing to the interpretive and contextual analysis of Ajami literacies and their social role. The special issue articles draw on the materials in our African Ajami collections, analyzing various manuscripts and topics and situating them socially and temporally in their communities of origin. Thirdly, the articles explore the role of digital technologies and methods in studying and preserving African Ajami texts.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://brill.com/view/journals/iafr/14/2/article-p119_001.xml?rskey=POXVr6&result=1
Primary URL Description: Link to the open-access version of the first half of the special issue. Second half is to come in 2024.
Access Model: open-access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Islamic Africa
Publisher: Brill

---