DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — For decades Senegal, a former French colony in West Africais touted as the bastion of the French language in the region. Leopold Sedar Senghor, the country’s first president and poet, is considered one of the founders of the concept of Francophonie, a global alliance of French-speaking countries.
But many say a shift is underway. While French remains the country’s official language, enshrined in the constitution, its influence is waning. It gives way to Wolof, the most spoken local language – and not just on the streets, where the latter has always been dominant, but in the centers of power: government buildings, university corridors and mainstream media.
While the French president is hosting the annual Francophonie summit north of Paris, the president of Senegal is not attending in person. Instead, he sent the Secretary of State as his representative.
“Wolof is on the rise because the Senegalese people want to be seen,” says Adjaratou Sall, professor of linguistics at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, who started researching the Wolof language in 1998. “They want to break away from the colonial heritage and reclaim their own cultural identity.”
There are 25 languages in Senegal. Six of them have the status of national languages, but Wolof is largely dominant. Of the population of 17 million people, more than 12 million speak Wolof, compared to about 4 million French speakers.
But as in most former colonies, French has traditionally been the language of Senegalese political and cultural elites. The vast majority of schools across the country and all universities are French-speaking. All official documents are issued in French. Of the education rate in Senegal is approximately 60%, this excludes a large part of the population.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Africa’s youngest elected leader, was elected six months ago on an anti-establishment platform, and his rise reflected Senegalese youth’s frustration with the traditional, older political class. He has made a point of delivering all his official speeches in both languages, French and Wolof, and promised to give local languages prominence in schools, with French to be introduced later.
The shift comes as most West African countries are rethinking their relationship with France, which is losing its influence in the region. In some cases, such as Burkina Faso and Mali, which are ruled by military juntas, the separation from the French language came about abruptly: they dropped French as an official language and banned many French-language media.
The decline of French in Senegal was more subtle. But to a careful observer, the signs are everywhere: more and more billboards are bilingual or in Wolof. Although all university courses are still taught in French, Sall says professors and students speak Wolof to each other in the corridors, which would have been unthinkable when she started working. Some Senegalese writers publish their books in Wolof, and not in French.
“The nationalism that started to take root with the new administration certainly plays a role,” Fall said. “But another important factor is the revolution in the media, which started with Sud FM.”
Sud FM, the first private radio station in Senegal, started broadcasting programs in Wolof in 1994. The morning news program in Wolof now has more than 2 million listeners, said director Baye Oumar Gueye.
“We responded to a real need: to provide information to the population who do not speak French,” Gueye said in an interview in his office. “They can now participate in the exchange of information.”
He added: “The use of the French language is declining. If you want to regain your sovereignty, the first thing you have to do is have your own language.”
El Hadj Aip Ndiaye, who has been a taxi driver in Dakar for 45 years, says he still remembers the launch of Sud FM. “Everyone listened to it,” he remembers.
Ndiaye, who did not go to school and speaks very limited French, says he listens to the radio every day from 5 a.m. to midnight as he drives his yellow, rickety taxi on the dusty roads of Dakar.
“In the past, all the news on the radio was in French,” he said. “I couldn’t understand it. But with news in Wolof you can understand what they say. You understand the world better and you can participate in the conversation.”
“People are now proud to speak Wolof,” he said. ‘If you spoke Wolof in the past, you were judged as a farmer. But now even our president speaks a lot of Wolof, so people are not afraid to speak it.”
But even Wolof’s strongest supporters do not want a revolution. Fall, a professor of linguistics, said she dreamed of university courses being taught in Wolof and children being taught in their local language, whether Wolof, Serrer or Peul.
“We’re getting there, but it’s a process,” she said. ‘And we also need French. It is the language of openness, allowing us to communicate with others in the region.”
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Associated Press writers Ndeye Sene Mbengue and Babacar Dione in Dakar contributed to this report.