Senegal Hosts Francophone Scrabble Tournament

Senegal is playing host to the 37th Francophone Scrabble World Championships this week. Some 600 competitors from 21 countries are participating in Dakar, the nation’s capital. While their soccer team is admired around the world among aficionados of the game, the Senegalese are world beaters at Scrabble in French. The Ministry of Sport says it gives the game as much attention as soccer, and that could be true; Scrabble 2008 in Dakar has its own anthem.

In 2000, Ndongo Sylla and Arona Gaye won the pairs competition in Paris. Mr. Sylla is now an economic adviser to President Abdoulaye Wade. He said, “I first met Wade in 2000 in Paris where I was studying economics. I was Senegal's Scrabble champion and said I would soon be a world champion, and Wade said he would give me full support if I was. The next month, I did win. Since then, Wade has done plenty for Scrabble which is now at the forefront of Senegalese sport.”

Last year in Quebec, Senegalese participants won 3 of the 4 titles. Only 31-year-old Antonin Michel of France prevented a clean sweep for the Africans, and he is a legend in French Scrabble. He said, “It’s fairly simple why they are so good. Scrabble is a religion here. Nowhere else in the world can you find such excitement and dedication to the game. After all, this is the first place where I have seen street vendors selling Scrabble.” The tournament is being televised in Senegal.

Be that as it may, the hosts are leaving nothing to chance. The local players all participated in a 10-day training camp. And 14 local words from the Wolof dialect have been accepted by the games’ ruling body as legitimate additions to the French language; “thiof” is a local fish, and “xalam” is a kind of lute.

This journal is not going to take sides in this event, although more familiarity with the players might cause that to change. However, one must admit to a soft spot for the Senegalese. Imagine what their country could do if it had a higher literacy rate than 40% -- and not just on the Scrabble board.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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