The Sunuy Xale (Our Children) project promotes material in Wolof language for children. The aim is to support language learning and the development of cultural identity by making music, stories, and illustrations from the children’s point of view.
The project started from my initiative for a Wolof-language music play school in 2015. The music play school aims to support children of Wolof-speaking parents living in Finland in supporting Wolof language and culture through music. Karoliina Halsti-Ndiaye, an expert in Senegalese dance, soon joined the activities, and the cooperation with Familia ry, which supports families of two cultures, began.
In pedagogy, we want to emphasize the comprehensiveness of learning, as our example is the Wolof culture in Senegal. In the music play school, we sing, play, dance, rhyme, and learn the language holistically.
Our audience and target group consists of native Wolof speakers and bilingual children using Wolof as their home language.
Sunuy Xale’s activities consist of a weekly music play school in Helsinki, Finland, and music, books, and animation publications.
The first book and music publication ”Sunuy Xale” was published in 2019. The books consist of music sheets, a digital music album, stories, and illustrations. The book’s illustrations and stories present West African everyday life and the cultural environment. The development of cultural identity is strengthened by providing stories that children can easily identify with. Stories are written by using colloquial but correct wolof language.
Wolof is spoken in the regions of Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania and it has a strong role in Senegal as a widely spoken uniting native language. Today Wolof speakers live around the World. This project aims to publish material only in the Wolof language, so it works within Wolof-speaking communities around the World.
Music Clubs are organized in cooperation with Familia ry, and the Senegal-Suomi association in Finland. In Senegal, our collaborator is the Oceanium Association. Sunuy Xale was selected to be part of ISME’s World Conference program in 2020.
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sunuyxale(a)gmail.com