The speaker was a soldier in the French Army during World War I, he produced recordings with German linguists in the POW camp Wünsdorf in 1908. On one of his recordings in Wolof he asked not to be deported to another camp. This was not understood by the German linguists. The recording was archived as a speech sample. Serigne Matar Niang from Dakar was the first listener who understood Abdoulaye Niang’s sung and spoken words and translated the recordings in 2014. Serigne agreed to be a speaker for the audio track we produced on the basis of the historical recordings with Abdoulaye Niang (Lautarchiv Berlin) for the exhibition Branching Streams/Sketches of Kinship at the Théodore Monod Museum of African Art in Dakar (https://reconnecting.art/en/branching-streams-stretches-of-kinship-exhibition-at-dakart-biennale-2024/), where Aboulaye Niang’s recorded voice was audible from May 18 to September 15, 2024.

Speakers: Abdoulaye Niang and Serigne Matar Niang
Text: Abdoulaye Niang and Anette Hoffmann
Production: Anette Hoffmann
Sound editor: Rosemary Lombard
Languages: Wolof, English, and French