Boubacar Barry is one of the leading figures in West African historiogra- phy. His authoritative study of 400 years of Senegambian history is unri- valled in its detailed grasp of published and unpublished materials. Taking as its subject the vast area covering the Senegal and Gambia river basins, this book explores the changing dynamics of regional and Atlantic trade, clashes between traditional African and emergent Muslim authorities, the slave trade and the colonial system, and current obstacles to the integra- tion of the region's modern states. Professor Barry argues cogently for the integrity of the Senegambian region as a historical subject, and he forges a coherent narrative from the dismemberment and unification which char- acterized Senegambia's development from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. This newly translated study is a vital tool in our understanding of West African history. Senegambia and the Atlantic slave trade African Studies Series 92 Editorial Board Professor Naomi Chazan, The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Professor Christopher Clapham, Department of Politics and International Relations, Lancaster University Professor Peter Ekeh, Department of African American Studies, State University of New York, Buffalo Dr John Lonsdale, Trinity College, Cambridge Professor Patrick Manning, Department of History, Northeastern University, Boston Published in collaboration with THE AFRICAN STUDIES CENTRE, CAMBRIDGE A list of books in this series will be found at the end of this volume Senegambia and the Atlantic slave trade Boubacar Barry University Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar Translated from the French by Ayi Kwei Armah CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, United Kingdom 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia Originally published in French as La Senegambie du x^ au xix* siecle: traite negriere, Islam et Conquete coloniale by Editions L'Harmattan, Paris 1988 and © L'Harmattan, 1988 First published in English by Cambridge University Press 1998 as Senegambia and the Atlantic slave trade English translation © Cambridge University Press 1998 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. Typeset in 10/12pt Times NR [s E ] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Barry, Boubacar. [Senegambie du XVe au XIXe siecle. English] Senegambia and the Atlantic slave trade /Boubacar Barry; translated from the French by Ayi Kwei Armah. p. cm. - (African studies series; 92) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0 521 59226 7. - ISBN 0 521 59760 9 (pbk.) 1. Senegambia - History. I. Title. II. Series. DT532.25.B37 1997 966.305-dc21 97-6026 CIP ISBN 0 521 59226 7 hardback ISBN 0 521 59760 9 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2002 For Ai'da, Sow-Pullo. To the People of Senegal, cordial hosts to thousands of Guineans looking forward to the coming of a Greater Senegambia, Land of Peoples without frontiers. Contents Preface page xi I Senegambia from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century: a haven for incoming populations, a station for migrants on the move 1 1 Senegambia in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: dependence on the Sudan and the Sahara 5 2 Social dynamics in Senegambia 26 3 The Atlantic trading system and the reformation of Senegambian states from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century 36 4 The partition of the Senegambian coast in the seventeenth century 46 II Senegambia in the eighteenth century: the slave trade, ceddo regimes and Muslim revolutions 55 5 The slave trade in the eighteenth century 61 6 The strengthening of ceddo regimes in the eighteenth century 81 7 Muslim revolutions in the eighteenth century 94 8 The impact of the slave trade: economic regression and social strife 107 III Senegambia in the first half of the nineteenth century: legitimate trade and sovereignty disputes 127 9 The crisis of the trans-Atlantic trading system and the triumph of legitimate trade in the first half of the nineteenth century 133 ix x Contents 10 Popular rebellions and political and social crises in Futa Jallon 148 11 Futa Jallon expansion into the Southern Rivers region 158 12 The colony of Senegal and political and social crises in northern Senegambia 177 13 Defeat of the holy warriors in northern Senegambia 195 IV Senegambia in the second half of the nineteenth century: colonial conquest and resistance movements 207 14 Colonial imperialism and European rivalries in Senegambia 213 15 Last-ditch resistance movements of legitimist rulers in northern Senegambia 223 16 The conquest of the Southern Rivers region 243 17 The balancing act of the Almamis of Timbo in their attempts to cope with centrifugal forces 263 18 Bokar Biro and the conquest of Futa Jallon 284 19 Mass resistance movements among the Joola and the Konyagi 294 Conclusion 303 Notes 315 Bibliography 334 Index 350 Preface This book is not about the Senegambian Confederation that brought present-day Senegal and Gambia together after the Kaur Conference of 1981. It is about the Greater Senegambia region, that vast stretch of terri- tory covering the two great river basins, the Senegal and the Gambia River valleys, understood as an inclusive region beginning at the sources of the two rivers high on the Futa Jallon plateau, and ending at their mouths on the Atlantic coast. It comprises a West African region bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, the Sahara desert, the Savanna grasslands and the Equatorial forest. In times past this region embraced all the states that now share the area: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, as well as parts of Mauritania, Mali, and Guinea Conakry. Each of these six nation-states falls, wholly or in part, within the Greater Senegambian zone. All are now confronted, after a quarter century of independence, with a serious teething crisis threatening, in the long run, to block all likelihood of the region's population ever freeing itself from chronic underdevelopment and its grotesque sequel, neg- ative development. Responses to the impasse, sad to say, have been unimag- inative: a proliferation of such white elephants as the Senegal River Valley Development Authority (OMVS), the Gambia River Valley Development Authority (OMVG), the Sahel Region Inter-State Anti-Drought Committee (CILSS), the West African Economic Community (CEAO), and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). This is a mere sample from the long roster of regional and sub-regional organiza- tions of which the six Senegambian States are members, full or associate. Each also belongs, under OAU auspices, to several continental organiza- tions. Finally, each belongs to the hydra-headed United Nations system. Levels of involvement differ, but the goal is constant. The region's states, having failed to achieve political union, are groping, through these multiple memberships, at meaningful economic integration. For they see integration as a way to ensure the survival of the population within frameworks less sti- fling than the frontiers of our artificial states. Each such regional or sub-regional agency was born long on hope. All XI xii Preface have come up short on achievement. The cause is an original flaw: each of these states left over from the nineteenth-century colonial order clings to its sovereignty. And that divisive heritage frustrates progress toward future union. It was this impasse that moved me to undertake this study on the geopolitical dismemberment - past and present - of Greater Senegambia. My initial plan was to highlight the insight that in the same period (from the fifteenth to the twentieth century) which saw the region's dismember- ment, there was also an opposite movement toward political and economic unification in Greater Senegambia. An awareness of this countervailing process, I think, is necessary for the accurate understanding of regional trends toward unity and fragmentation. It is an understanding indispens- able now, if we are to break free of the futureless political and economic straitjackets into which our nation-states have double-locked the Senegambian people behind artificial frontiers. I do not intend to parrot the insincere slogans mouthed by officials singing our peoples' common cul- tural and ethnic identity even as they themselves busily harden barriers between states, blocking the free movement of people, goods, ideas. My aim is different. While I have no intention of obscuring differences and con- trasts between the region's diverse component parts, the main thrust of my work will be to highlight their complementarity. For that is the factor that points most clearly to the region's potential unity. And that potential needs to become reality if the region's peoples are to survive. My aim, in short, is to contribute to a spirit of unity, much as Kwame Nkrumah, Cheikh Anta Diop and, more recently, Edem Kodjo have done. I hope to do this by giving our present generations the historical consciousness needed for coping with life in these ceaselessly challenging times. Our artificial frontiers have a clear function: to legitimize each nation- state's claim to sovereignty. They are also grounded in a peculiar history. Whoever wishes to understand the active hostility of our nation-states to the creation of a Greater Senegambia - a union of the region's peoples - must first understand that history. Today we cannot sidestep the issue of political unity in a federal framework within which all member states will give up their international sovereignty. That is the prerequisite for the cre- ation of a viable regional space.