A tale from the Baynunk territory, told by Issouf Coly calls in all the animals of his bestiary to join around the fire: the hyena, the hare, monitor lizard, monkey, and the lion.

Also, Issouf introduced human beings in his story: a child sheltered by an old lady. And the tale takes a surprising turn…

Time for you to discover the first part of this narrative…

Taalintaal! Let’s take a walk with Issouf Coly in the forest…

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 2

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