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856 WOLOF
Murdock, George P. Africa: It Peoples and Their Culture History. New York, McGraw-
Hill, 1959.
Simoons, Frederick J. Northwest Ethiopia: Peoples and Economy. Madison: University
of Wisconsin Press, 1960.
Frederick C. Gamst
WOLOF The Wolof inhabit Senegambia in West Africa, from the river Senegal
in the north to the river Gambia in the south, and number more than 2.3
million people. They form 36 percent of the population of Senegal and 15 percent
of the population of Gambia. The region is ethnically mixed and also includes
Mandinka (Soose), Fulani (Fulbe) and Serer (see Mandinka; Fulani; Serer). The
Wolof are the dominant element in the former states of Waalo (Oualo), Kahoor
(Kayor), Jolof, Baol, Siin (Sine) and Saalum (Saloum) and were already occupying
this portion of West Africa when the first Portuguese voyagers reached
the coast in the middle of the fifteenth century.
Over time there have been major shifts in population. When they first established
contact with the Europeans, many Wolof moved from the interior regions
towards the coastal areas. Later, as peanuts became an export crop in the midnineteenth
century, there was movement into lands in southwestern Senegal
where the soil was more suitable for cultivation. In recent years, there has been
expansion towards the east and south in search of new areas for peanut cultivation
and a drift towards Dakar and its surrounding areas in search of employment.
Wolof are also to be found in small numbers in Mauritania and in the Casamance
region of Senegal south of Gambia.
Wolof is classified as a West Atlantic language of the Niger-Congo family
and is commonly spoken as a second language in Senegal by Serer, Fulani and
Mandinka, with perhaps 30 percent of the non-Wolof having a simple understanding
of the language. Since independence, increasing efforts are being made
to encourage the writing of Wolof—a new script has been officially adopted and
a Wolof-French dictionary prepared. Formerly, vernacular material was largely
limited to translations made by Catholic missionaries and had a limited distribution.
Wolof is also used as the language of trade outside the main Wolof areas.
Verbal skill is greatly prized as a sign of a mature adult, and Wolof philosophy
is contained in hundreds of proverbs, which are skillfully used in social interaction.
Children learn linguistic skills through riddles, storytelling and secret
languages. Stories are told by professional storytellers (griots) as a form of
entertainment.
Wolof have a culture, as well as social and political systems, that are typical
of the savanna zone of West Africa. Politically the country was divided into a
series of small states, power being concentrated in the hands of certain ruling
lineages. Formerly, in certain areas descent was traced through the female line,
but with the adoption of Islam, succession to office now follows the male line.
Nevertheless, the mother's kin play an important part in a person's life, providing