Serer history

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junjung from the Kingdom of Sine
.

The medieval history of the

Almoravid movement (which would later result in the Serers of Takrur migration to the south),[1] to the 19th century Marabout movement of Senegambia[2][3][4]
and continuation of the old Serer paternal dynasties.

Resistance to Islam, 11th century

Further information: Islamization of the Sudan region

According to Galvan (2004), "The oral historical record, written accounts by early Arab and European explorers, and physical anthropological evidence suggest that the various Serer peoples migrated south from the Fuuta Tooro region (Senegal River valley) beginning around the eleventh century, when Islam first came across the Sahara."

Pulaar speaking herders originally, migrated through Wolof areas and entered the Siin and Saluum river valleys. This lengthy period of Wolof-Serer contact has left us unsure of the origins of shared "terminology, institutions, political structures, and practices."[5]
: p.52 

Professor Étienne Van de Walle gave a slightly later date, writing that "The formation of the Sereer ethnicity goes back to the thirteenth century, when a group came from the Senegal River valley in the north fleeing Islam, and near Niakhar met another group of Mandinka origin, called the Gelwar, who were coming from the southeast (Gravrand 1983). The actual Sereer ethnic group is a mixture of the two groups, and this may explain their complex bilinear kinship system".[6]

After the

Ghana empire, the Serers resisted conversion and engaged in the battlefield to defend not only the Serer religion, but also their own power and wealth especially the Serer "Lamanic class" whose wealth and power was achieved through the Lamanic lineage.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

The Serer earned their living from agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, boat building (an ancient Serer tradition) and transporting people over the river.[16][17]

The

Tekrur in the 11th century which led to the Serers of Tekrur exodus only affected those Serers living in Tekrur at the time. It did not apply to all Serer people. The Serer people are very diverse and spread throughout the Senegambia founding towns and villages, the Serer names of these towns and villages still remain today.[18]

...the Serer traversed vast expanses of territory during pre-colonial times and saw the entire region [the Senegambia region] as their home, as their history of migration in the area clearly shows..

— Godfrey Mwakikagile, [19]

In Senegambia, southward migration

In the

Lebou – Mengue or Mbengue is a Lebou surname).[21]
However, these Serer and Lebou rulers of Jolof (predominantly a Wolof area) became assimilated into Wolof culture.

Migration from Kabuu to Sine

The actual foundation of the Kingdom of Sine is unclear, but in the late 14th century Mandinka migrants entered the area. They were led by a matrilineal clan known as the Gelwaar. Here they encountered the Serer, who had already established a system of lamanic authorities, and established a Gelwaar led state with its capital in or near a Serer lamanic estate centred at Mbissel.[5]: p.54 [22][23]

Marriages between the Serer paternal clans such as

Saloum (Maad a Sinig and Maad Saloum respectively).[25][26][27][28]

Guinea Bissau.[29][30] In reporting this tradition, Henry Gravrand did not notice that this is actually a description of the 1867 (or 1865) Battle of Kansala.[23]

King Njaajan Njie

See also: Kingdom of Jolof, Kingdom of Sine, and Waalo

Pulaar rather than Wolof, emphasizing once again his character as a stranger of noble origins." Njaajan Njie was the founder of the first Wolof kingdom and claimed by the Wolof as their ancestor.[34] On the topic of his origins, Sallah adds that "Some say that Njajan Njai was a mysterious person of Fulani origin. Others say he was a Serer prince."[35]

John Donnelly Fage suggests although dates in the early 13th century (and others say 12th century) are usually ascribed to this king and the founding of the empire, a more likely scenario is "that the rise of the empire was associated with the growth of Wolof power at the expense of the ancient Sudanese state of Takrur, and that this was essentially a fourteenth-century development."[36]

Defeat of Portuguese slave raiders

In 1446, a Portuguese caravel carrying the Portuguese slave trader - Nuno Tristão and his party attempted to enter Serer territory in order to carry out slave raiding. None of the adult passengers of that caravel survived. They all succumbed to Serer poisoned arrows except five young Portuguese (or fewer). One of them was left with the task to charter the caravel back to Portugal. Nuno was amongst those killed.[37][38]

19th century Marabout Movement

Main article:
The Battle of Fandane-Thiouthioune

The Battle of Fandane-Thiouthioune also known as The Battle of Somb was a

Muslim Marabout movement of Senegambia and the Serer people of Sine.[39][40] On 18 July 1867, the leader of the Marabouts Maba Diakhou Bâ launched a jihad in the Serer Kingdom of Sine but was defeated and killed by the forces of Maad a Sinig Kumba Ndoffene Famak Joof, King of Sine.[41][42][43]

Maba Diakhou, a rather charismatic leader in the Marabout sect saw the propagation of Islam in Senegambia and an Islamic empire as his divine mission.

Senegambians.[44]

The effects of Islam

Although by the end of the twentieth century most Serer had converted to Islam (about 85% by the 1990s),

Islamization has created a division between "believers" of Islam and "non-believers" such as the orthodox Serers who adhere to Serer religion.[46][47][48]
Klein notes that :

"The most important factor dividing the peoples of Senegambia was the differential impact of Islam. In this, the Serer stood out as the one group that had undergone no conversion."(Martin A. Klein)[48]

This division is not just religious but also has an ethnic dimension. As opponents of Islam for nearly a

millennia, anti-Serer sentiments are not uncommon.[49] However, the Serer countries, especially the Sine area of Senegal, is reported to be a true bastion of the anti-Islamic.[47][50]

Present

Main article: Serer people

At present, the Serer population is estimated to be over 1.8 million based on population figures for

Gambia and Mauritania (2011) – excluding the Serers living in the West and elsewhere. They are more numerous in Senegal than in Gambia and Mauritania. Though traditionally mixed-farmers, boat builders and land owners, the Serers are found in all major professions including politics, medicine, literature, commerce, law, agriculture, etc.[51] Polyculture and boat building is still practiced by some Serers. Due to their Lamanic land inheritance system, they tend to have valuable land. Recently however, President Abdoulaye Wade's land reform law has affected many Serer farming communities in Senegal and they've lost their properties.[52]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ See Mwakikagile, Ethnic Diversity and Integration in the Gambia:, p224 & The Gambia and Its People:, p 138; Klein, Islam and Imperialism in Senegal Sine-Saloum, 1847–1914, pp 7 & 63, Gravrand, vol. 1. La Civilisation sereer, Cossan pp 115–18; & La civilisation Sereer, Pangool p 13
  2. ^ Klein, Martin, Islam and Imperialism in Senegal, Sine-Saloum, 1847–914 pp 62–93
  3. ^ Sarr, Histoire du Sine Saloum, pp 37–39
  4. ^ Diouf, Niokhobaye. pp 727–729 (pp 16–18)
  5. ^ a b c Galvan, Dennis Charles, The State Must Be Our Master of Fire: How Peasants Craft Culturally Sustainable Development in Senegal Berkeley, University of California Press, 2004 p.51
  6. ISBN 978-0-7656-1619-7
    .
  7. ^ David Robinson. Muslim Societies in African History. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  8. ISBN 1-55876-322-8
  9. ISBN 0-230-60648-2
  10. ISBN 2-7068-1503-5
  11. ^ Oliver, Roland Anthony, & Fage, J. D., "Journal of African History", Volume 10, Cambridge University Press (1969)
  12. ^ "The African archaeological review", Volumes 17–18, Plenum Press (2000)
  13. Levtzion, Nehemia
    , "Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History", pp 77–79, Cambridge University Press (1981) (Scholar)
  14. ^ Trimingham, John Spencer, "A history of Islam in West Africa", pp 174, 176 & 234, Oxford University Press, USA (1970)
  15. ^ For more information about Serer Lamanic lineage and class, see : Galvan, Dennis Charles, "The State Must Be Our Master of Fire:"
  16. ISBN 1-84353-083-X
  17. ^ Mwakikagile, Godfrey, The Gambia and its people, p 11; & Ethnic diversity p 97
  18. ^ See : Gamble, David P. & Salmon, Linda K. (with Alhaji Hassan Njie); (in French) Becker, Charles, "Vestiges historiques, trémoins matériels du passé clans les pays sereer"', Dakar, 1993., CNRS – ORS TO M
  19. ISBN 9987-16-023-9
  20. ^ Mwakikagile, Godfrey, "Ethnic Diversity and Integration in the Gambia", p225
  21. ^ Mwakikagile, Godfrey, "Ethnic Diversity and Integration in the Gambia", p 224
  22. ISBN 978-0-8047-0621-6
    p.8
  23. ^ a b Sarr, Alioune, Histoire du Sine-Saloum (Sénégal) Introduction, bibliographie et notes par Charles Becker. 1986-87, p 19
  24. ^ For Maysa Wali's reign, see : Sarr, Alioune, "Histoire du Sine-Saloum" (Sénégal), (introduction, bibliographie et notes par Charles Becker), in Bulletin de l'IFAN, tome 46, série B, nos 3–4, 1986–1987. p 19. See also : (in French) Éthiopiques, Volume 2, pp 100–101, Grande imprimerie africaine (1984)
  25. ^
    Babacar Sédikh Diouf
    ). "La question Gelwaar et l’histoire du Siin", Dakar, Université de Dakar, 1987, 69 p.
  26. ^ a b Sarr, Alioune, "Histoire du Sine-Saloum" (Sénégal), (introduction, bibliographie et notes par Charles Becker), in Bulletin de l'IFAN, tome 46, série B, nos 3-4, 1986–1987. p 19
  27. ^ Gravrand, Henry, "Le Gabou dans les traditions orales du Ngabou", Éthiopiques 28 special issue No, socialist journal of Black African culture (1981)
  28. ^ Sarr, Alioune, p 19
  29. ISBN 0-7286-0003-X
  30. ISBN 0-521-20413-5
  31. ISBN 978-0-7146-1737-4
    .
  32. ISBN 978-0-521-53452-9
    .
  33. ISBN 978-0-8264-9515-0. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link
    )
  34. ^ Anyidoho, Kofi, "Cross rhythms", Volume 1, "Occasional papers in African folklore", p 118, Trickster Press (1983)
  35. ISBN 9780823919871 [2]
  36. ISBN 978-0-521-20981-6
    .
  37. ^ Hair, Paul Edward Hedley, "The Use of African Languages in Afro-European contacts in Guinea : 1440-1560", [in] "Sierra Leone Language Review", no. 5, 1966, p. 13 [3]
  38. ISBN 0-86078-626-9
  39. ^ Sarr, Alioune, "Histoire du Sine-Saloum", Introduction, bibliographie et Notes par Charles Becker, BIFAN, Tome 46, Serie B, n° 3-4, 1986–1987. pp 37-39
  40. ^ Diouf, Niokhobaye. "Chronique du royaume du Sine" Suivie de notes sur les traditions orales et les sources écrites concernant le royaume du Sine par Charles Becker et Victor Martin. (1972). Bulletin de l'Ifan, Tome 34, Série B, n° 4, (1972). (pp 727–729, pp 16–18)
  41. ^ Sarr, Alioune, "Histoire du Sine-Saloum " (Sénégal) Introduction, bibliographie et notes par Charles Becker. 1986-87, pp 37-39
  42. ^ Klein, pp 90-91 & 103
  43. ^ Diouf, Niokhobaye, pp 728–29
  44. ^
    ISBN 0-520-06611-1
  45. ISBN 978-0313279188
    .
  46. ^ Thiaw, Issa Laye, "La Religiosité des Sereer, Avant et Pendant Leur Islamisation", Éthiopiques, No: 54, Revue Semestrielle de Culture Négro-Africaine. Nouvelle Série, Volume 7, 2e Semestre 1991.
  47. ^ a b Thiam, Iba Der, "Maba Diakhou Ba Almamy du Rip" (Sénégal), Paris, ABC, Dakar-Abidjan, NEA, 1977, p44
  48. ^ a b Klein, p 7
  49. ^ Thiaw, Issa Laye, "La Religiosité des Sereer, Avant et Pendant Leur Islamisation", Éthiopiques, No: 54, Revue Semestrielle de Culture Négro-Africaine, Nouvelle Série, Volume 7, 2e Semestre 1991
  50. ^ Galvan, "The state must be our master of fire:", pp 41, 44, 65, 260 & 305
  51. ^ Blanchet, Gilles "Élites et changements en Afrique et au Sénégal", ORSTOM (1983) pp 182–185
  52. ISBN 90-8728-056-4

Bibliography
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