Prof. Fallou Ngom was awarded funds for “Digital Preservation of Fuuta Jalon Scholars’ Arabic and Ajami Materials in Senegal and Guinea”
Professor Fallou Ngom (Anthropology) was awarded $129,837 (£107,920) by the British Library for his project titled “Digital Preservation of Fuuta Jalon Scholars’ Arabic and Ajami Materials in Senegal and Guinea.” The project will digitally preserve 50,000 pages of endangered Arabic and Ajami manuscripts (texts written with the modified Arabic script) produced by scholars from West Africa who lived between the 18th and early 20th century. The archives to be preserved in this project between May 2022 and May 2025 will be the largest digital records of such materials in the world. The archives will enhance scholars’ understanding of how some enslaved Africans were educated and acquired Arabic and Ajami literacy skills before their captivity in the Americas.