I am not of Senegambian descent, but I will try my best to explain the outlook of three peoples who make up around 50% of the population & how Atlantic relations affected the trajectory of generations to come. I will also mention the cultural landscape surrounding them in the country of Senegal & Gambia. I will mention the Wolof, who make up around 40% of the population in Senegal & around 16% of the population in the Gambia. In addition, we will be discussing the closely related Sereer people of today, many of them living in current day Senegal (around 16% of the population) & being a very minor part of the Gambia (3% of the population there today). Lastly, we have the Tukolor who make up 15% percent of the population and are centered along the Senegal River Valley. These three have been in close contact for generations, intermixing linguistically & culturally as the centuries have gone past.
Society In Senegambia Today & Generations prior
The Upper Guinea(region running from Senegal to Liberia) is very French. That has made its way into the culture of the peoples living in the Senegambia. If you can read and speak in French, you are a formidable force. Wolof is another signifier of power & that is exemplified in the fact that today, most of the peoples in Senegambia speak Wolof. The Sereers and Tukolors (who themselves are a mix of Serer and Fula peoples) have teamed up with many other peoples, ethnicities and nations within Senegal & Gambia to resist the “Wolofization” of the entire region. They feel that sooner or later, their languages and customs will go extinct. No suprise, since this is paramount in the ever present will to power in culture. Nonetheless, Wolof is today the lingua franca of the Senegambia region & Islam (Sufism type) is the preferred mode of worship. The mysticism being a testament to the marabout priests of the past & their impactful healing power. It also helped that the Wolof had an on and off relationship with Islam(frequently mixing it with their animist beliefs) & the Sereer always strongly resisted it up until French colonization.
At a certain time & point, the ancestors of these peoples followed cultural norms and practices that were distinct but at times overlapped We can attribute that to their semi-unification during the reign of the Wolof empire, which in 1350 had finally gained its independence from Mali & moved up the power ladder. Its Fula province, Futa Tooro, up north was the base for the Tukolor of today & the most devout when it came to Islam. The vassals/provinces of Siin/Saloum for the Sereer (although Siin was more mixed) were the Sereer bases of the kingdom. The remaining provinces of Waalo, Cayor & Baol, although sometimes mixed with other peoples, was principally Wolof.
Life was very caste-like. Iron bases & cloth were its currency, as recorded by Portuguese lancados who wanted to imitate it to their advantage. In terms of leadership, that started at the provincial level in the hands of the founding families of different towns & villages. The leaders of these families were called Maad, Laman or Burba interchangeably. Several generations within a family could change identities within these people groups as they saw fit. There was no strict sense of what it means to be Wolof , Tukolor or Sereer. Immersing yourself in the culture was all you needed to do. However, when it came down to caste, that stayed static unless you were enslaved & incorporated. Slaves were considered potential & had the chance for upward mobility. Identifying with a certain caste would certainly determine your life/occupation until another event changed the circumstances of your family. One can compare this system to India’s caste system that we see today. Or to how citizenship in the United States could change for me if I went to a country abroad.
The upper class for both the Wolof/Sereer were usually the freemen (diambour), the nobility(garmi) and free peasants(badolo). The middle class were usually the artisans, soldiers, griots or anyone specializing in any type of mercantile/occupation. People in a perpetual state of servitude (known as slaves in the Western World) constituted the lowest of the rung. Enslaved soldiers were usually above other enslaved people & agricultural slaves were at the bottom. They were either bound to the crown or were a part of the household that they served.
The more Islamacized Tukolour had more rigid and well-developed hierarchies in their midst. The five castes mainly consisted of the aristocratic chiefs or leaders of the Muslim spiritual realm called the Torobe. Next, you have the Rimbe, making our administrators, farmers and merchants. Afterwards, you have the artisans which were the Nyenbe. Constituting fourth and fifth place, like the Sereers/Wolofs were the slave castes. Primarily the Gallunkobe(these are slaves who were recently freed or anyone who was a descendent of a slave. Then, there was the Matyube, who were enslaved people taken in raids or bought in slave markets. Status was inherited, intermarriage was not common among castes and upward mobility was every difficult among the Tukolor.
Political & Economic Tide Turnings
The independence that Djolof gained from Mali would turn the tides of the region forever. After its independence during the 1350’s. they were able to influence the Tukolor empire /state of Futa Tooro. They moved on to incorporate their Sereer neighbors and others. Known as a manufacturing people, things were moving up and down the Senegal River, notably gum, hides, cotton textiles, ivory, kola nuts, salt, horses, indigo, and beeswax. They owed no tribute to anyone, so wealth grew in the kingdom substantially. Its government was also similar to its predecessors, wherein the king of Djolof was elected by a council of members coming from each state within the empire. Slave soldiers policed and exacted tribute from other states & this led many provinces feverish to get away from the administrative powers further inland.
By the mid 15th century, the Portuguese/Spanish decided to set up shop in today’s Senegambia near the Senegal river. Relationships between the coastal provinces and these European merchants went very smoothly, with the latter providing much when it came to fast turnaround times and melding with the intricate economic system that ran from north to south along the multiple rivers of the Upper Guinea. Much of this was used also by the Mande/other Fula traders who we will get into during a later blog post.
The coastal provinces couldn’t believe their luck with their new trading buddies and as a result, there was much intermarriage with the Portuguese during these periods and the women residing there. They no longer needed the administrative province, Djolof, for their livelihood. Bit by bit, they fought each other bitterly. The Portuguese assisted these movements with mainly horses bred in Cape Verde(which were bigger than the horses typically bred in the Senegambia), guns, cloth and iron currencies. The Portuguese also took the opportunity to prop up nobles they felt were in line with their economic interests, many times offering military assistance.
As soon as the 1600s came to the horizon, the Portuguese were gone. There were better prospects for them in in today’s Guinea-Bissau. They did not take with them the seeds they sowed, however, & the instability led to the disintegration of the empire into smaller state (the largest, richest and most stable of them being Cayor) and the growth of the Tukolor further up north. Alcohol became necessary for religious and ceremonial proceedings among these new coastal Wolof/Sereer states especially the elite. Many were also addicted to the substance and individuals preyed on whomever they could get their hands on. The developments, on and off relationship with Islam among the Wolof, repulsion of Islam by the Sereer and other factors led to the Muslim castes & priests(namely Nasir al-Din) from Tukolor Futa Toroo to take up arms and lead jihads along the coast. The French, and the British, who had now supplanted the Portuguese were attentive to these new developments.
Where Did They Go In The Americas?
Initially, many Sereer, Wolof and Tukolor made up at least a third of peoples going across the Atlantic Ocean as forced migrants before 1550. Most went to newly acquired colonies through the asiento & landed in the countries/territories of today’s Cuba, Panama, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Mexico and many other Latin countries in the Americas. They became the base and early African ancestors of the population in today’s Latin America, even for those who identify as “white”. Many served as soldiers in militias, interpreters and the like. They brought their music, newly acquired Latin acumen via transshipment from Cape Verde & horse-riding skills from their homelands enriched the cattle industry of Argentina & Chile. Unfortunately, for the Iberians, they also brought their rebellious spirit. Raids from maroon societies they formed were so destructive that the Iberian governments created a law imposing an extra tax for anyone who decided to purchase & bring in Wolof peoples due to their unruliness. This may have played a role in their eventual nonexistence going into the 17th century Latin America.
From the 17th century ongoing, many of these peoples went to French speaking islands like French Guiana, Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique & French Louisiana(where the women were prized for beauty & cooking). They were also an important minority in British/USA ran South Carolina, where the Wolof contributed greatly to rice growing skills. Jamaica, Barbados, Dominica & other English speaking islands had a small amount of Wolof as well, although they would never reach even close to being even 10% of forced migrants coming to the English part of the world during the 1600s.
Prelude To French Influence
After the 1800s, the trade in enslaved persons eventually coming to an end. Islam was becoming more and more powerful in the region due to Fula jihads. Many converted due to the safety it offered. Power was also generating force along the European bases of St. Louis & Goree forts near the coast. The mixed children of traders and royal African women and their descendants were becoming more influential along the area. Known as signares, these mixed-race peoples, often women, held much power and frequently married European men. Women like Caty Louette in the 1700’s immersed themselves in the culture of their European paternal line, through holding balls and wearing extravagant flowing dresses. They owned many slaves and estates along the coast
The consequences of this was the drain of populations in certain areas & migrations to other states such as the Sereer state of Saloum & the Wolof state of Cayor. It subsequently also made the area ripe for French colonization after the Berlin Conference of 1884, which happened officially in 1895. Nonetheless, this history is forgotten by most of its citizens and people in Senegal are worried about present day matters like the economy & stable government. The old monarchs & kings are no more & the youth are slowly giving up old traditions for the national sense of pride exuding from this 63-year-old country.