those who know a little about africa, know that the lingua franca in african countries is more often than not that of their european colonizer. those who know a bit more, know that there are thousands of languages spoken on the continent, with the majority (if not all) being further divided among several dialects. while basic french aided my travels through senegal, mali, burkina faso, benin, and togo (i was pretty comfortable with english in ghana), i made my way more easily and respectfully by picking up a phrase or two of the local tongue. the following videos are a small slice of a handful of local languages as spoken by its native speakers.
wolof (senegal)
bambara (mali)
dogon (mali)
songhai (mali)
bariba (benin)
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