Jangal ma Wolof (Youtube)

Sister Marie’s YouTube channel African Diaries is a wonderful resource not only for learning Gambian Wolof but also for learning about the Gambia generally. The account contains many various playlists like Jangal ma wolof (Teach me Wolof) to engaging and even personal Vlogs like “Spend the day with me in The Gambia” where viewers tag along as Sister Marie runs errands, and “House Tour in The Gambia” where Sister Marie graciously shares with viewers her own home. Other popular videos include “Do’s and Don’ts in The Gambia” and “Traditional Cooking in The Gambia during Ramadan”.

This blog post will be about the Jangal ma Wolof series. These videos are now 3 years old, but still incredibly helpful. Sister Marie even includes recap videos that go over the content of several lessons/videos in one. The videos run from 8 to 15 minutes and cover a wide variety of popular or useful phrases to know in Wolof. For example, Lesson 3 centers around shopping conversations, getting to know someone and directional statements (I am going to…). Some videos contain translations for up to 10/15 words, the perfect amount to not be overwhelming for beginning learners.

Sister Marie writes in her video descriptions, “Knowing, speaking and communicating in an African language is very important to us as African people. It is a very big part of our cultures and has a connection to our traditions. Keeping our languages alive means keeping the legacy of our honoured ancestors alive! So let us continue spreading the knowledge and open up our heart to want to learn African languages. It is never too late to start, extended family!”

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Jangal ma Wolof – First Episode (Introduction including grammar, dialect differences, gender neutrality, spellings, etc)

Jangal ma Wolof – Tenth Episode (Family Members: he/she, mother/father, boy/girl)