Ablaye (“Laye”) Diakité has been Program Coordinator for the English Department’s Global Learning Program in Senegal since 2019. During that time, he has gotten to know more than 75 of our students, to whom he has introduced to Senegalese culture and literature. Laye did his graduate work in Linguistics at Université Gaston Berger in Saint Louis, Senegal. He is also the Coordinator of the Endangered Archives Project at Boston University to preserve Ajami literatures in Africa, i.e. African language literatures that are alphabetized with an Arabic script, including Woolf, Mandé, Soninke, Pulaar, and other languages.
What is the nature of your literary research? Briefly describe what you do with Boston University for an audience who is unfamiliar with this kind of research.
I am a linguist, translator and researcher on West African languages. I am currently working with Boston University on EAP (Endangered Archives Preservation) in Fouta Djallon in the Republic of Guinea. It consists of digitizing fifty thousand pages of endangered archives written in Arabic and Fula Ajami. I first met Professor Wise in 2008 when he visited his colleague Professor Fallou Ngom who was teaching at Gaston Berger University in Saint Louis, Senegal as a Fullbright Scholar. It was during his stay that they (Professor Wise and Professor Ngom) first visited Alwaar as part of Professor Wise’s research on El Hadji Oumar Tall.
What have you enjoyed most about working with WWU students? How are WWU students different from students in Senegal? Are there other programs like the WWU Program in Senegal?
I have the most enjoyed WWU students’ desire to learn more about African culture in general and Senegalese culture in particular, their open-mindedness, their sense of adaptation to Senegalese culture during the program. There is no big difference between WWU students and Senegalese students. The only difference is that WWU students have the chance to have a program which helps them to spend three weeks in a foreign country in order to learn a different culture and meet people. There are other study abroad programs held at WARC (West African Research Center) in Dakar. But WWU’s program is the best because it combines African literature, history and religion, and students visit many areas.
What are some of the most memorable experiences you’ve had coordinating the program?
The most memorable experience experiences I have had coordinating the program are our visit in Alwaar, the cultural event in Tareeji near Podor on Fula fishermen tradition, and the presentation on Senghor in his home village in Djilor among others.
