Se débrouiller à Dakar : langue(s) et culture(s) urbaines dans la bande dessinée Goorgoorlou de T.T. Fons

Abstract

In his successful comics seriesGoorgoorlou, the Senegalese journalist and cartoonist T.T. Fons depicts the difficulties of the day-to-day life in Dakar through the tragicomic adventures of the hero Goor, a symbol of the Senegalese everyman struggling with debts, political unrest, social distress and cultural paradoxes. This article introduces the economic, political and cultural context before discussing the linguistic features and the Italian translation of the series. Through vibrant images and a shared urban language, T.T. Fons shapes a national conscience out of a satirical publication and offers the readers a window into the dynamic linguistic landscape of Dakar. Goor speaks to all those who feel abandoned and deceived by the government in a way that truly reflects the multi-faceted linguistic system of urban Senegal: a skilful and authentic blend of French, Wolof, humoristic distortions and local idioms. Because its linguistic configuration acts as a de facto legitimation of an emerging urban culture between the late 1980s and the early 2000s, providing a suitable translation of the comics series into Italian has proved to be a challenging endeavour.