Wolof Sufi Oral Narratives’ Structure and Function

Abstract

This study explores the unstudied rich Wolof Sufi oral cultural productions and their contribution to the knowledge about Islam in Senegal. It only focuses on oral production by Sufi leaders and their followers. This consists of an oral corpus of the life stories of past and current Sufi leaders, woven by multiple (re) tellers across generations, designed in such a way that they can give Sufi adepts examples to follow and, possibly, reproduce. The storytelling varies according to the speaker’s skills and charisma, the audience’s expectations and context of the performance. The combination of all these factors makes the structure of the stories unique, especially compared to those coming from western cultures. Keywords: Narrative, Sufism in Senegal, Sufi oral Production, Islam in Senegal.