This article focuses on metalinguistic glosses in three narratives translated into Wolof : Camara Laye’s L’Enfant noir (Goneg nit ku ñuul gi), Mariama Bâ’s Une si longue lettre (Bataaxal bu gudde nii) and J.M.G. Le Clézio’s L’Africain (Baay sama, doomu Afrig). We argue that these texts reveal three different uses of glosses that provide information about the translators’ projects and construct different ethos : the translator as go-between (Goneg nit ku ñuul gi), the linguist as activist (Bataaxal bu gudde ni) and the translator as storyteller (Baay sama, doomu Afrig).