By: Charles Becker
I was deeply saddened when I learned of the death of Sonja Fagerberg
Diallo last 5 March in the United States. She had always been fully
committed to the policies of literacy in West Africa. Living in
Senegal for over 30 years, she founded and ran for many years the NGO
ARED (Associates in Research and Education for Development), a
leading organization in the promotion of African languages.
Sonja was one of the first members of the H-West-Africa list.
Yo Alla yurmo mo yaafoo mo ! Yal na la suuf sedde ! Que la terre lui
soit légère !
——
Through university training and thirty years of field research and
work in West Africa, Sonja developed the following skills and
interests:
NON-FORMAL EDUCATION and TRAINING focusing on:
1. adult literacy and non-formal education
* design, implementation, and evaluation of literacy projects
* development of materials (basic literacy and post-literacy materials)
2. post-literacy materials (on legal training, health, management,
conflict resolution, participatory rural appraisal, land tenure,
natural resource management, environmental protection, etc.)
3. language teaching
4. development of language teaching manuals
PUBLISHING IN NATIONAL LANGUAGES having:
1. developed and published over 150 books in Senegalese languages
2. worked on developing distribution networks for books in Senegalese languages
3. developed post-literacy modules based on the published books
APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY encompassing:
1. field research skills (i.e. data collection in a rural setting)
2. research on traditional systems for storing and transmitting information
3. evaluation of educational projects in rural areas.
As well as English Sonja spoke French and Pulaar. She was based in
Dakar, Senegal since 1976, and traveled extensively throughout West
Africa. Promoting national languages also took Sonja to Europe and
North America to meetings and work sessions, where she had occasion
to bring members of the Pulaar speaking and learning community.
From 1969 to 73, Sonja completed a B.A. at the University of
Minnesota, with a major in African Studies.From 1973-75, she
completed a M.A. at the University of Wisconsin in African
Literature. Subsequently awarded a National Defense Foreign Language
scholarship for all three years of graduate study she was also
awarded a scholarship to study Arabic at the Bourguiba Institute in
Tunis, Tunisia for one summer. She also completed from 1976 to 82,
her Ph.D. in African linguistics at the University of Wisconsin, and
was then awarded a one year Fulbright-Hayes research grant for
doctoral dissertation research in the Gambia.
Sonja’s professional years included:
From 1990: Founder and executive director of Associates in Research
and Education for Development (ARED). The primary focus of this
non-profit organization is to work on the development of educational
materials in African languages. To this end, ARED has contracts with:
USAID, Lutheran World Relief, the International Institute for the
Environment and Development, German development organizations (both
GTZ and InWent), OXFAM-America, OXFAM-Great Britain, Banyan, FAO,
Canadian Research and Development Institute, and others, as well as
numerous local NGOs. To date ARED has published 150 titles, sold over
800,000 books, and trained more than 9000 community teachers and
activists.
From 1998: A founding member of a Senegalese association, Centre des
Etudes, de Recherche et de Formation en Langues Africaines, an
association dedicated to community-based educational projects.
1988 to 1998: A founding member of a local Senegalese association
called the Groupe d’Initiative pour la Promotion du Livre en Langues
nationales which published literature in the Pulaar language.
1989-90: Worked for Culture for African Development under a UNICEF
contract to write and implement a basic 18 month literacy program in
the Pulaar language. They wrote and published literacy materials, 2)
worked on a basic curriculum, 3) trained trainers, 4) trained
village-level teachers, and 5) implemented this program in 20
villages in the Region of Kolda (Casamance) with over 600 students in
the program.
1987-89 : Worked as a research associate at IFAN (a research
institute of the University of Dakar) to work with a university team
on fundamental research in two areas: 1) development of
post-literacy materials in Pulaar, and 2) computerizing a trilingual
dictionary project in Pulaar-English-French coordinated by Dr.
Christian Seydou in Paris and in collaboration with Dr. Fary Kâ at
IFAN.
1988: Worked for World Education as Project Coordinator of a
literacy project involving the Association for the Renaissance of
Pulaar in Senegal. The project included the following components: 1)
management training, 2) development of basic literacy materials, 3)
development and publishing of post-literacy materials, 4) training
village-level trainers.
1988: Worked with an OXFAM-UK team specializing in herders
associations, developing and implementing community projects for
herder’s groups in northern Senegal, such as training auxiliary
veterinarians, setting up cereal banks, etc. At the same time, they
carried out extensive socio-economic research in the zone and
published two books in Pulaar based on our research. (These books
have won an award from the European Economic Community, and have been
published as post-literacy materials in literacy classes.)
1986: Developed a set of language and cross-cultural training
materials in Pulaar for use in Guinea. This contract was with a
consortium of religious organizations (Joint Christian Ministries in
West Africa) and Peace Corps-Guinea.
1985: Contracted by AFRICARE-Senegal to research and write rural
development project proposals.
1982-85: Worked extensively with a grassroots Senegalese NGO, the
Association for the Renaissance of Pulaar, on the development of
literacy materials and teacher training in that language.
1984: Wrote a set of language training materials in Pulaar for use
in Mali by a consortium of religious organizations (Joint Christian
Ministries in West Africa) and Peace Corps-Mali.
1979: Contract with United Bible Societies to carry out a
socio-linguistic dialect survey of Pulaar throughout the Sahel.
Research entailed extensive travel within Senegal, the Gambia,
Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroun.
1978-81: Held five consecutive short-term contracts to develop
language training materials in Pulaar dialects for Peace Corps.
Research included working in villages in Senegal, the Gambia, Niger,
and Burkina Faso.
1977 : Contract with the Cultural Archives of the Gambian to
evaluate literacy programs in the Pulaar and Mandinka languages.
Included travel to Senegal, Gambia, Mali, and Guinea.
RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS:
“A Brief Survey of Pulaar/Fulfulde Dialects”, paper prepared for
presentation at the 1979 Zaria (Nigeria) conference on “Savannah
Nomads”, 170 pages,
Ph.D. dissertation, Syntactic Expansions in Text: Beyond SVO in
Pulaar Oral Narrative Performance, University of Wisconsin, 1982.
“Discourse Strategies in Pulaar: The Use of Focus” in Studies in
African Linguistics, vol.14, #2, 1983.
Collaborated on The Islamic Regime of Fuuta Tooro with David Robinson
and Moustapha Kane, Michigan State University African Studies Center,
1984.
“Milk and Honey: Developing Written Literature in Pulaar” in The
Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature, Indiana University
Press, N° 43, 1995, pp. 67-83.
“Constructive Interdependence: The Response of a Senegalese Community
to the Question of Why Become Literate”, in The Making of Literate
Societies, Ed. David Olson and Nancy Torrance, Blackwell, 2000, pp.
153-78.
Du Manuscrit au texte définitif: Guide du secretaire de rédaction,
co-authored with Sylvia Dorance and Anja Frings, DSE/ARED
Publication, 2001.
“Learning to Read Woke me Up”, in Adult Education and Development
IIZ/DVV, N°58. Germany, 2002, pp. 45-60.
“Publishing for New Literates”, in Courage and Consequence: Women
Publishing in Africa, Africa Books Collective, 2002, pp. 1-9.
“Searching for Signs of Success: Enlarging the Concept of Education
to Include Senegalese Languages”, in Afrikanisch-europäisch-islamisch
? Entwicklungsdynamik des Erziehungswesens in Senegal, Ulrike
Wiegelmann, ed., IKO Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation, 2002,
pp. 165-191.
“Opportunity or Innovation: The story of ARED”, unpublished
manuscript prepared for the InWent/UNESCO conference in Hamburg,
2002, 40 pages.
Langues africaines : de l’oral à la publication (Guide du
développement de la langue écrite) with Fary Ka, InWent/Edilis
publication, 2005.
“Learner Centered Processes and Approaches: The Connection between
Non-formal Education and Creating a Literate Environment”, published
on-line by UNESCO, 2006, 38 pages.
“Pedagogical Innovations in Literacy Programs: Lifelong Learning as
both a Method and a Goal”, to be published by UNESCO in 2008, 47
pages.
Guide de redaction des manuels en langues africaines, with Sylvia
Dorance, InWent/ARED Publication, in process.
* various manuals for language teaching, including:
- An Introduction to Pulaar: Northern Senegal
- Advanced Readings in Pulaar
- A Practical Guide and Reference Grammar to the Fulfulde of Maasina
- Introductory Fulfulde Manual for Peace Corps - Burkina Faso
- An Introduction to Pulaar for Gambia and the Casamance
* editor of an extensive variety (150 titles to date) of
post-literacy materials in Pulaar:
- collections of oral traditions (Silaamaaka e Pullooru, Taali
Taalanaadi Cukalel Pulel, Pulareeji, Sammba Gelaajo Jeegi etc.)
- novels (Ndikkiri Jom Moolo, Nguurndam Neddanke, B e Njahii Be
Ngartaani, Wulaango Naawoore, etc.)
- socio-economic studies (Nguurndam Ferlankoobe, Nabbuuji Na’i, etc.)
- historical studies (Bookar Biro, Hammadi Manna, etc.)
- socio-cultural studies (Nguurndam Julliibe, Pijirlooji Sukaabe, etc.)
- translations from French (Intat Anniinnde, Bokar Biro, etc.)
- ecological studies (Kelmeendi Pudooji, Ngaynaaka nder Sahel, etc.)
- basic literacy curriculum (reading and math skills) in Pulaar
- legal rights curriculum in Pulaar
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