Sorosoro celebrated three years of existence on Thursday, December 8, over an event gathering field-leading speakers.

Novelist Irène Frain made a brilliant introduction to the evening, with the story of the Bishnoi community, in India. Led by Djambo, the community saw the light of day at the end of the 15th century in Rajasthan, and developed around 29 principles of life in harmony with nature. Way before environmental issues became popular, the Bishnoi had understood how crucial it was to protect trees so that people could have a chance to survive in such desert lands. Hundreds of them even got killed protecting these trees with their bare arms – trees the Rajas were after to build palaces…

Then, still on India, was the great linguist Anvita Abbi’s turn to give the audience a glimpse of language diversity in her country: 22 official languages adding to hundreds of mother tongues, not all listed. Abbi essentially spoke on the languages of the Andaman Islands, off the Indian shores, very unusual languages that came from Africa thousands of years ago. Only a handful of people can still speak these languages – a huge loss for humanity if they came to disappear.

Following whom came Colette Grinevald, member of the Sorosoro scientific board, and one of the pioneers of endangered language documentation as an academic discipline. Grinevald turned back on 40 years of fieldwork in Latin America, with a moving account of the time spent in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Bolivia, when the indigenous populations were beginning to assert their rights, asking linguists to help them codify and write their languages…

The second half of the evening shone some light on the work that Sorosoro has conducted over the past two years. A few films were shown, including a report on Marie-Adèle Jorédié’s Bb-Lecture program, in New Caledonia. Our guests loved the footage of Jorédié introducing books and reading to Kanak children in Xârâcùù language, proof that there are practical and non-aggressive ways of schooling and integrating children who speak a different mother language than the dominant one.

Africa was part of the show too, with how the hare escaped the hyena, a tale which held the audience spellbound, told by the amazing Issouf Coly, of the Baynunk community in Casamance, Senegal.

Turning over to Marcel Camara, a member of the Bedik community in eastern Senegal, who has translated all the footage filmed in his village, from Menik into French. Now living in France where he works as an educator, Camara shared how it feels to see the traditions and language of his people being filmed and preserved for the future. A very moving talk, backed with beautiful footage shot by Muriel Lutz on a high-colored Bedik celebration – sometime soon on sorosoro.org.

The Sessions ended with the screening of Yarwng, an indian film directed in tribal Kokborok language. Yarwng – Roots – is a love story hindered by the construction of a dam, causing entire villages of northeast India to end up underwater.

Many thanks to the Sorosoro team for being so efficient, and to all participants for their enlighteningly rich addresses! With hope that Sorosoro ever gets to celebrate birthday #4.