We’re in Casamance, on Baynunk territory. The village suffers a severe drought, while a mysterious child taken in by an old lady has set off in search of food. One after the other, he has defeated the hare, the monkey, the monitor lizard, and stole their livestock. What will happen with the lion, king of animals, who enters the second part of this tale, following the first part presented last week…?

Here, Issouf Coly, whose amazing talent as a storyteller one can only bow to, brings us the twist of this fourth and final animal tale taking place in his village, Niamone, Senegal. Quite a peculiar tale, open to many possible readings and leaving its visibly captivated audience cracked up at the end of the narrative. The mystery lives on for now, unless someone informed happens to detain the missing keys to this story…

Meanwhile, let us follow Issouf into his world on more time, until the final kɔrʊkʊm pɛkɛs!…

Reminder: Baynunk is a language spoken in southern Senegal, as well as in neighbouring Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. It belongs to the Niger-Congo family (North-Atlantic branch, Tenda-Nyun group) and includes several dialectal variations. In 2006, Ethnologue.com estimated the number of Baynunk speakers around 6,200, figures leading to consider Baynunk an « endangered language » according to UNESCO standards. Widely understudied, Baynunk was finally codified in 2005 and now comprises an official spelling system.

Watch Tale 1

Watch Tale 2

Watch Tale 3

Watch Tale 4 – Part 1

Watch all our videos in Baynunk

Linguist: Sokhna Bao-Diop

Image & sound: Muriel Lutz assisted by Cheikh Tidiane Sall

Editing: Caroline Laurent

Video created within the ANR Sénélangues project