Abstract
Mandinka communities across West Africa have rich oral and written traditions. Their oral traditions, which are embodied by the jali (griot) caste, have served for centuries to transmit multiple forms of knowledge to generations. Besides their oral traditions, multiple forms of literacies coexist with illiteracy in their communities in Senegambia. The first and oldest form literacy in Mandinka communities is Ajami, the use of the modified Arabic scriptures to write Mandinka that resulted from Islamization. Additionally, French and British colonizations of Senegal and The Gambia have introduced the Roman script in Mandinka communities, which have resulted in some people possessing one or multiple forms of literacy while others are illiterate and perpetuate their rich oral traditions. Today, Mandinka Ajami remains the primary means of written communication for many Mandinka speakers in Senegambia. They keep their records of various events and transmit various forms of knowledge in this medium. Using the Mandinka Ajami archives at Boston University, this paper focuses on the innovations that Mandinka scholars have made on the classical Arabic script to develop their own Ajami writing system, the people who use the system, the types of documents they produced, and their significance in Senegambian Mandinka communities.
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