Wolof language and literature: an introduction

Wolof language is knowing a period of rapid increment of its status and prestige, which is making it, from being one of the several local languages of Senegal, the second vehicular language of the country alongside with French. To this increasing status, also a rapid evolution of Wolof literature is accompanied: this particular development has started before the independency of Senegal, with the activity of Muridiyya brotherhood at the beginning of the 20th. This paper aims at being an introduction to the Wolof language from these two aspects: the socio-linguistic one, where the extents and limitations of the employment of Wolof in Senegal will be outlined, and the literary one, when the rapid developments in Wolof literature – and particularly poetry – from the beginning of the last century will be presented