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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Dakar Wolof and the Configuration of an Urban Identity
Author:McLaughlin, FionaISNI
Year:2001
Periodical:Journal of African Cultural Studies
Volume:14
Issue:2
Period:December
Pages:153-172
Language:English
Geographic term:Senegal
Subjects:urban population
ethnicity
Wolof language
Urbanization and Migration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Ethnic and Race Relations
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13696810120107104
Abstract:The turbulent period of political and social unrest at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s in Senegal gave rise to the 'Set-Setal' ('cleanse' in Wolof) movement in which the city of Dakar was recreated in the historical imagination of its youth. This essay argues that the 'Set-Setal' movement coincided with the emergence of a self-conscious urban identity among the Dakar population, evidenced by a variety of artistic expression (visual, musical) focusing on and exalting the culture of the city. Central to the notion of an urban identity is the role of Dakar Wolof, a variety of the Wolof language that has significantly diverged from the more conservative dialects spoken in the rural areas, primarily by incorporating massive lexical borrowing from French. Dakar Wolof is portrayed in sustained written form for the first time in two comic books that appeared in 1988 and 1989: 'Boy Dakar' by Ibou Fall and Aziz Bâ, and 'Ass et Oussou' by Omar Diakité. The essay discusses the hybrid nature of Dakar Wolof and its depiction in written form in the two comics. Finally, the essay argues that Dakar Wolof has had a profound effect on the notion of ethnicity in the Senegalese context and has contributed to the emergence of a de-ethnicized urban identity. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum.
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