chapter 3 Wolof and Wolofisation: Statehood, Colonial Rule, and Identification in Senegal
Unwelcome Identifications: Colonial Conquest, Independence, and the Uneasiness with Ethnic Sentiment in Contemporary Senegal
The ethnic friction which characterises classic interpretations of African states is remarkably absent in Senegalese society. Senegal is often presented as a soci- ety dominated by Wolof-speakers, particularly in the urban agglomeration of Dakar, which has assimilated large groups of immigrants both socially and lin- guistically.1 This has increasingly led scholars to define Senegal as a predomi- nantly ‘Wolof society’, whose language is spreading widely (which is sometimes seen as being linked to Murid Islam as well). The Wolof language has migrated from the region of the capital and other urban communities, such as Saint- Louis, Tivaouane, Thiès, Diourbel, and Kaolack, into the southern coastal belt towards the Gambian border. This has strongly influenced the interpretation of the history of what is present-day Senegal. Pre-colonial states are therefore often described as ‘Wolof states’; their ruling dynasties – if there were any – are defined as ‘Wolof’. The Wolof nature of Senegal’s political structures is not seri- ously in question.2 As Senegambia is located on the early modern sea routes to India and the slave ports of the so-called Guinea Coast, information on its inhabitants was available to Europeans from an early period. Such information was also pro- vided by Eurafricans, who were most strongly present in Casamance and the Cacheu-Bissau area.3 Moreover, European officials managed commercial fac- tories on Senegalese land for centuries, starting as early as the sixteenth cen- tury, although their interest was often focused more on the acquisition of slaves and less on the concrete political realities in the hinterland. Nevertheless,
1 Diouf, Mamadou, ‘Assimilation coloniale et identités religieuses de la civilité des originaires des Quatre Communes (Sénégal)’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 34(3), 2000, 565–87, 570. 2 Diop, Abdoulaye Bara, La société Wolof: tradition et changement: Les systèmes d’inégalité et de domination (Paris: Karthala, 1981), 16–7. 3 Mark, Peter, ‘The Evolution of “Portuguese” Identity: Luso-Africans on the Upper Guinea Coast from the Sixteenth to the early Nineteenth Century’, Journal of African History 40(2), 1999, 173–91.
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Podor Dagana DIMAR FUUTA Saint- Louis GANDIOLAIS T OORO W AALO Matam Diadj- N’Guick Oulingara Nar-Niomre Louga Vereck and Kebemer Keur Matar Binta Tilmakka CAP-VERT Bakel PENINSULAKAAJOR JANDER Tivaouane DakarRivere Tanma GET Touba JOLOF Diourbel Gorée BAWOL Diakhao Goudiry GOSSAS See Fatick Guinguinéo detailed SIIN map Kaolack SALUUM Kantar Dionwar RIP Kael Tambacounda Niodior LOWER NIANI Bathurst BADIBU SALOUM WULI (Banjul) BARRA Janekunda Serekunda Balanghar FULADU Sanyang KEYANG BULUF Velingara FOGNY Bignona Sédhiou Ziguinchor Oussouye Oukout BAYOTTES Youtou Cap Skirring Suzanna Cacheu Bissau
Map 2 Senegambia commercial activities brought early contact with pre-colonial states such as Kajoor, Bawol, Waalo, Jolof, Siin, Saluum, Fuuta Tooro, Bara in present-day Gambia, and Kaabu in Casamance (Map 2).4 From the time of the French conquest in the second half of the nineteenth century, the available source material on local communities becomes more reliable. After the final French victory in the internecine wars in the interior of
4 Becker, Charles, ‘Histoire de la Sénégambie du XVe au XVIIIe siècle: un bilan’, Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 25(98), 1985, 213–42, 230.