Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T02:01:55.615Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Reframing Vernacular Culture on Arabic Fault Lines: Bamba, Senghor, and Sembene's Translingual Legacies in French West Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Extract

This PMLA cluster invites us to rethink questions of language, script, and literary traditions in a long-historical framework. Several other essays here address the inter-imperial dynamics accompanying the rise of Arabic from a localized dialect to a transregional language with a religious valence. My contribution considers the legacy of the Arabic language in the twentieth-century sub-Saharan West African context, in its contact with Senegalese vernaculars and with French as an imperial challenger. It further explores the broader implications of retracing the longue durée history of Arabic-script vernaculars for comparative work in postcolonial studies.

Type
Theories and Methodologies
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Ahmad, Aijaz. “Between Orientalism and Historicism.” Orientalism: A Reader. Ed. Macfie, A. L. New York: New York UP, 2000. 285–97. Print.Google Scholar
Amanat, Abbas. “Iranian Identity Boundaries: A Historical Overview.” Iran Facing Others: Identity Boundaries in a Historical Perspective. Ed. Amanat, and Vejdani, Farzin. New York: Palgrave, 2012. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austen, Ralph A. Trans-Saharan Africa in World History. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.Google Scholar
Babou, Cheikh Anta. Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the Founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853-1913. Athens: Ohio UP, 2007. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bamba, Amadu. “Jihād ul-nafs.” Masālik al-jinān fī jamʿ mā farraqahu al-daymān. Touba: Dā'irat Rawḍ al-Rayāḥīn, 2014. 35154. Print.Google Scholar
Bourrel, Jean-René. Introduction. Léopold Sédar Senghor: Poésie complète. Ed. Brunel, Pierre. Paris: CNRS Planète Libre, 2007. 329–34. Print.Google Scholar
Camara, Sana. “A'jami Literature in Senegal: The Example of Sëriñ Muusaa Ka, Poet and Biographer.” Trans. R. H. Mitsch. Research in African Literatures 28.3 (1997): 163–82. Print.Google Scholar
Conklin, Alice. A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895-1930. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1997. Print.Google Scholar
Diop, Babacar, et al., eds. L'impact des journaux en langues nationales sur les populations sénégalaises. Dakar: Association des Chercheurs Sénégalais, 1990. Print.Google Scholar
Fal, Arame. “OSAD's Experience in the Publishing of Books in National Languages.” Literacy and Linguistic Diversity in a Global Perspective: An Intercultural Exchange with African Countries. Ed. Alexander, Neville and Busch, Brigitta. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2007. 3138. European Centre for Mod. Langs. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.Google Scholar
Hall, Bruce. A History of Race in Muslim West Africa, 1600-1960. New York: Cambridge UP, 2011. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, Christopher. France and Islam in West Africa, 1860-1960. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunwick, John. West Africa, Islam, and the Arab World: Studies in Honor of Basil Davidson. Princeton: Wiener, 2006. Print.Google Scholar
Irele, Abiola. “What Is Negritude?African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory. Ed. Olaniyan, Tejumola and Quayson, Ato. Malden: Blackwell, 2007. Print.Google Scholar
Kesteloot, Lilyan. Comprendre les poèmes de Léopold Sédar Senghor. Issy-les-Moulineaux: Classiques Africains, 1986. Print.Google Scholar
Klein, Martin A. Islam and Imperialism in Senegal: Sine-Saloum, 1847-1914. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1968. Print.Google Scholar
Levtzion, Nehemia. “Islam in the Bilad al-Sudan to 1800.” The History of Islam in Africa. Ed. Levtzion, and Pouwels, Randall L. Athens: Ohio UP, 2000. 6391. Print.Google Scholar
Levtzion, Nehemia. “Patterns of Islamization and Varieties of Religious Experience among Muslims in Africa.” Introduction. The History of Islam in Africa. Ed. Levtzion, and Pouwels, Randall L. Athens: Ohio UP, 2000. 118. Print.Google Scholar
Markovitz, Irving. Léopold Sédar Senghor and the Politics of Negritude. New York: Atheneum, 1969. Print.Google Scholar
Mumin, Meikal. “The Arabic Script in Africa: Understudied Literacy.” The Arabic Script in Africa: Studies in the Use of a Writing System. Ed. Mumin, and Versteegh, Kees. Boston: Brill, 2014. 4176. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ndiaye, Seydou Nourou. “Un pionnier de la presse dans les langues nationales.” Walfadjri/L'aurore 12 June 2007: 8. Print.Google Scholar
Ngom, Fallou. “Ajami Scripts in the Senegalese Speech Community.” Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 10.1 (2010): 123. Print.Google Scholar
Peterson, Brian J. Islamization from Below: The Making of Muslim Communities in Rural French Sudan, 1880-1960. New Haven: Yale UP, 2011. Print.Google Scholar
Robinson, David. Paths of Accommodation: Muslim Societies and French Colonial Authorities in Senegal and Mauritania, 1880-1920. Athens: Ohio UP, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
Samb, Amar. Essai sur la contribution du Sénégal à la littérature d'expression arabe. Dakar: IFAN, 1972. Print.Google Scholar
Senghor, Léopold Sédar. “À l'appel de la race de Saba.” Œuvre poétique. 5th ed. Paris: Seuil, 1990. 6065. Print.Google Scholar
Senghor, Léopold Sédar. “Allocution de M. le Président de la République du Sénégal, coopération Arabo-Africaine, conférence des ministres des affaires étrangères, Dakar, 19 avril 1976.” 1977. Centre de Documentation des Archives Nationales de la République du Sénégal, Dakar. TS.Google Scholar
Senghor, Léopold Sédar. “At the Call of the Race of Sheba.” The Collected Poetry. Trans. Dixon, Melvin. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1991. 4145. Print.Google Scholar
Senghor, Léopold Sédar. “Comme les lamantins vont boire à la source.” Postface. Œuvre poétique. 5th ed. Paris: Seuil, 1990. 160–73. Print.Google Scholar
Senghor, Léopold Sédar. “Les fondements de l'africanité, ou négritude et arabisme.” Université du Caire, Cairo. Feb. 1967. Centre de Documentation des Archives Nationales de la République du Sénégal, Dakar. TS.Google Scholar
Senghor, Léopold Sédar. “Laïcité.” Négritude et humanisme. Paris: Seuil, 1964. 422–24. Print. Vol. 1 of Liberté.Google Scholar
Senghor, Léopold Sédar. “La poésie négro-africaine de langue française.” Réception organisée par la SACEM en l'honneur des poètes. Paris. 30 Jan. 1979. Centre de Documentation des Archives Nationales de la République du Sénégal, Dakar. TS.Google Scholar
Senghor, Léopold Sédar. “Transcription de l'Assemblée Nationale Constituante, 1ère séance du 18 septembre, 1946.” 1946. Centre de Documentation des Archives Nationales de la République du Sénégal, Dakar. TS.Google Scholar
Senghor, Léopold Sédar. “Vues sur l'Afrique noire ou assimiler, non être assimilés.” 1945. Négritude et humanisme. Paris: Seuil, 1964. 3969. Print. Vol. 1 of Liberté.Google Scholar
Sharma, Sunil. “Redrawing the Boundaries of ʿAjam in Early Modern Persian Literary Histories.” Iran Facing Others: Identity Boundaries in a Historical Perspective. Ed. Amanat, Abbas and Vejdani, Farzin. New York: Palgrave, 2012. 4962. Print.Google Scholar
Spleth, Janice. “The Arabic Constituents of Africanité: Senghor and the Queen of Sheba.” Research in African Literatures 33.4 (2002): 6075. Print.Google Scholar
Suleiman, Yasir. Arabic in the Fray: Language Ideology and Cultural Politics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2013. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tageldin, Shaden. “The Place of Africa, in heory: Pan-Africanism, Postcolonialism, Beyond.” Journal of Historical Sociology 27.3 (2014): 302–23. Print.Google Scholar