Learning Wolof

During our in country training we have been learning Wolof. The first thing we learned was the greetings – which are very important here. There are general greetings and specific greetings. All conversations will begin with salaamaleekum, for which the response is maleekum salaam, and then the following could be exchanged – sometimes all, sometimes just a few…

Greeting: Nanga def? How do you do?

Response: Maaŋ fi rek. I am here only. (The ŋ is an ng sound – like bung)

A less formal version of this is -

Greeting: Jaama ngaam? Do you have peace?

Response: Jaama rek. Peace only.

Greeting: Sa yerem jaama? Is your body at peace?

Response: Jaama rek. Peace only.

Greeting: Naka waa kër ga? How are the home people?

Response: Ñuŋ fa rek. They are there only.

Greeting: Mbaa defuñu dara? I hope there is no trouble?

Response: Déédéét defuñu dara. No there is no trouble.

Greeting: Naka ligeey bi? How is the work?

Response: Ligeey baangi fi rek. The work is here only.

You will see that each greeting has a set response – if you are asked ‘is your body at peace’ you can’t say ‘no, actually I have a really bad headache’ for example!

Some of the more specific greetings include

Greeting: Jaama nga fanaan? Do you spend the night in peace? (Good morning)

Response: Jaama rek. Peace only.

Greeting: Naka bécék bi? How is the afternoon?

Response: Bécék baaŋ fi rek. The afternoon is here only.

The list goes on, depending on what time of day it is. These greetings just have to be learned so that you can fire them off, but I have had a great reaction from people when you can respond properly. The first time I tried jaama nga fanaan was in the little bitik (shop) near Helen – I said it to an older man, who was so surprised he could barely spit out jaama rek in response before he burst out laughing! He kept saying good good good over and over again after that and laughing!

I have enjoyed learning – we have covered how to buy things at the market, how to introduce ourselves and how to get around on public transport. All very useful stuff, and I have been able to put it into practice, but you can tell that we have only just scratched the surface. We now have an optional thirty hours tuition which we can take, and I am keen to continue with it. 

Shimoni taking over from the teacher!