The Wolof Empire of West Africa
By dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
The Wolof Empire (also translated as Jolof or Djolof) was a coastal empire in West Africa between the mighty Senegal and Gambia rivers. The Wolof empire thrived from the mid-14th century to the mid-16th century. The Wolof prospered on trade due to the two great rivers providing easy access from the resources of the African interior to the coast. The goods traded along these rivers included gold, hides, ivory, and slaves. The empire often traded with European merchants, first the Portuguese and then later primarily the French. Following the break-up of the Wolof Empire in the 16th century, a smaller state, the Wolof Kingdom persisted well into the 19th century. The Wolof language spoken by citizens of the empire is still widely spoken today in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania.
I wasn’t very familiar with the Wolof when I began my research. Even though there is a lot of sources on them as they are a very prominent research subject in French academia, with a large diaspora in modern France, they just were not an ethnic group I had done much prior reading on.
From approximately the 900’s the Wolof people inhabited an area between the Senegal River in the north and the Gambia River in the south. This West African region is often called Senegambia and covers what is today Senegal, Gambia, and southern Mauritania. Both language clues and pottery remains suggest that the ancestors of the Wolof had originally migrated here from Central or Eastern Africa. The Wolof fished, grew rice, herded cattle, sheep, and goats. They used iron for tools, pottery, and jeweler. The people in this area of West Africa also set up megalithic monuments and burial markers. The circles they built ranged up to 26 feet in diameter using stones up to 13 feet in height.
The wolof speaking people founded a new state named Djolof that was named for the central province where the king lived. The kingdom was initially a vassal of the Mali Empire.
Some sources cite the foundations of the empire as being the voluntary association of several small states beginning with Waalo in the north and that just prior to the empire's formation, Waalo was divided into villages ruled by separate kings using the Serer title Lamane.
Djolof kingdom remained part of the Mali empire's sphere of influence until the latter half of the 14th century. But then rather opportunistically during a succession dispute in 1360 the Wolof became permanently independent. Wolof's societal and political structures reveals that some of their institutions were borrowed directly from its larger predecessor.
Traditional accounts among the Wolof state that the founder of the Djolof kingdom (and later empire) was a semi-mythical figure named Ndiadiane Ndiaye, with many various iteration of the story. According to James Searing, the myth state that Ndiaye was "the first and only son of a noble and saintly “Arab” father Abdu Darday and a “Tukuler” woman, Fatamatu Sall." This gave him an Almoravid Islamic lineage and a link on his mother's side to Takrur (Fulani). James Searing adds that "In all versions of the myth, [Ndiadiane Ndiaye] speaks his first words in Pulaar (a Fulani dialec) rather than Wolof, emphasizing once again his character as a stranger of noble origins."
Ndiadiane is said to be born as Ahmad Abu Bakr. The legend of Ndiadiane Ndiaye begins with a dispute over wood near a prominent lake. This conflict almost leads to bloodshed among the rulers but was stopped by the mysterious appearance of a stranger from the lake. The stranger divided the wood fairly and disappeared, leaving the people in awe. The people then feigned a second dispute and kidnapped the stranger when he returned. They offered him the kingship of their land and convinced him to do so and become mortal by offering him a beautiful woman to marry. When these events were reported to the ruler of the Sine, also a great magician, he is reported to have exclaimed "Ndiadiane Ndiaye" in his native Serer language in amazement. The ruler of the Kingdom of Sine (Maad a Sinig Maysa Wali) then suggested all rulers between the Senegal River and the Gambia River voluntarily submit to this man, which they did.
As I’ve written in previous Black Kos (Oshun West Africa's Goddess of Love), one common feature of West and Central African mythology is the blending of historical rulers with mystical figures, spirits, and Gods. Thus many African Gods and Spirits are both real historical figures and mystical figures, in a process slightly similar to reincarnation. This conflating of the historical with the divine sometimes confuses people unfamiliar with this concept.
Professor Luis Fearing writes that "Most versions of the myth explain how the new dynasty superimposed itself upon a preexisting social structure dominated by the laman, Wolof elders who claimed "ownership" of the land as the descendants of the founders of village communities. The laman retained many of their functions under the new monarchical order, becoming a kind of lesser nobility within the new state, and serving as electors when the time came to choose a new king from the Njaay dynasty. John Donnelly Fage suggests that although dates in the early 13th 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."
Wolof believe in bad and good spirits, as well as witches. They think that all of these live in their villages. Bad spirits live in tall trees or grassy areas. The Wolof wear amulets to protect them from the bad spirits. A marabout, or spiritual leader with supernatural powers, is contacted when making important decisions.
The Portugese arrived in the Wolof Empire between 1444 and 1510, leaving detailed accounts of a very advanced political system. We know that the king was elected by a council of elders from candidates who belonged to a certain ancestral bloodlines (relatives of the founder). Some members of this council were rulers of the individual states within the Wolof confederacy.
Wolof society was hierarchical with several distinct classes. There was a developed hierarchical system involving different classes of royal and non-royal nobles, free men, occupational castes and slaves The royal family was at the top, then non-royal nobles (often the children of secondary wives and concubines of royalty), and free men. The latter category was further divided into castes depending on a man’s occupation such as blacksmiths, jewelers, tailors, griots (epic storytellers), and musicians. At the bottom of society were slaves taken during wars and raids in neighboring territories, and who were themselves divided into strata with skilled slaves at the top and unskilled agricultural laborers at the bottom. There was also a class of military slaves, the ceddo, which the elite used to enforce the payment of tribute and police other slaves. Griots were employed by every important family as chroniclers and advisors, without whom much of early Wolof history would be unknown. Wolof's nobility were nominally animists, but some combined this with Islam due to its spread by Berber traders, clerics and missionaries. However, Islam had not dominated Wolof society until about the 19th century. Most of the ordinary population remained close to their traditional animist beliefs.
Throughout the different classes, intermarriage was largely forbidden. Women could not marry upwards, and their children did not inherit the father's superior status. However, women had some influence and role in government. The Linger or Queen Mother was head of all women and very influential in state politics. She owned a number of villages which cultivated farms and paid tribute directly to her. There were also other female chiefs whose main task was judging cases involving women. In the empire's most northern state of Walo, women could aspire to the office of Bur and rule the state.
The Wolof eventually became the most powerful tribe south of the Senegal River. This territory had once been under the nominal control of the Mali Empire (1240-1465) after a successful campaign of expansion by Tiramaghan, a general of Sundiata Keita (1230-1255), the Mali king. The relationship between the two states is unclear, but the Wolof seem to have at least acknowledged the Mali kings as the main West African power. Wolof’s independence can be seen in the succession of their first king or burba, the semi-legendary Ndiadiane N’diaye, traditionally placed in the 13th century CE but more likely to have been in the second half of the 14th century. In any case, civil wars, attacks from tribes such as the Mossi people and the shift of lucrative trade routes, meant that the Mali kings slowly lost their grip on the outer regions of their empire. Around 1468, King Sunni Ali (1464-1492) of the Songhai Empire (c. 1460 - c. 1591) then conquered the rump of the ailing Mali Empire.
The Songhai were only present south of the Gambia River, and this permitted the Wolof in the north to exploit one of the few vacant areas the Songhai Empire did not control in West Africa (either through direct occupation or the enforcement of tribute). By the end of the 15th century, the Wolof Empire consisted of the three Wolof-speaking kingdoms of Cayor (Kajoor), Walo (Waalo) and Baol (Bawol), and states populated by speakers of Serer such as Sine and Salum. Eventually, the Wolof kings expanded into the Malinke territory north of the Gambia River which included the states of Nyumi, Badibu, Nyani, and Wuli. Consequently, the Wolof kings came to rule the whole of Senegambia, although this state may better be described as a confederacy of tribute-paying kingdoms rather than an empire proper (as it is often called).
The Wolof Empire was organized as five coastal kingdoms from north to south which included Waalo, Kayor, Baol, Sine and Kingdom of Saloum. All of these states were tributary to the land-locked state of Wolof. The ruler of Wolof was known as the Bour ba, ruled from the capital of Linguère. Each Wolof state was governed by its own ruler appointed from the descendants of the founder of the state. State rulers were chosen by their respective nobles, while the Bour was selected by a college of electors which also included the rulers of the five kingdoms. There was the Bour of Waalo, the Damel of Kayor, the Teny (or Teigne) of Baol, as well as the two Lamanes of the Serer states of Sine and Saloum. Each ruler had practical autonomy but was expected to cooperate with the Bour on matters of defense, trade and provision of imperial revenue. Once appointed, office holders went through elaborate rituals to both familiarize themselves with their new duties and elevate them to a divine status. From then on, they were expected to lead their states to greatness or risk being declared unfavored by the gods and deposed. The stresses of this political structure resulted in a very autocratic government where personal armies and wealth often superseded constitutional values.
The Wolof Empire was a major participant in the slave trade, exporting as much as one-third of all African slaves prior to 1600. This trade declined in the 17th century as Senegambia became a thoroughfare of slaves from the interior of central Africa rather than a source of them. Thanks to the mighty Senegal River, which extends hundreds of kilometres into Africa’s interior, the Wolof were in a position to trade all manner of goods besides slaves, and these included hides, cotton textiles, gum, ivory, kola nuts, salt, horses, indigo, and beeswax. The Wolof also had their own manufacturers to transform raw materials into even more valuable goods. Wolof goldsmiths and filigree workers enjoyed an especially high reputation across West Africa.
Although the Wolof Empire was a major participant in the slave trade, major commodity traded through Wolof territory was not slaves, it was gold. The precious metal was highly sought after by Europeans who were taking interest in Africa south of the Sahara. Gold was mined from the inland Bambuk goldfields and shipped to the coast. The Portuguese began trading up and down the coast of West Africa in the mid-15th century. The adventurer Diogo Gomes established trade relations with the Wolof in 1455, and trade blossomed between the two powers. Gifts were exchanged between the king of Portugal, John II (r. 1481-1495) and the Wolof. Christian missionaries were also received.
After an initially hostile start, peaceful trade relations were established between the Jolof Empire and the kingdom of Portugal. At this time Jolof was at the height of its power and the Bur had extended his authority over the Malinke states on the northern bank of the Gambia including Nyumi, Badibu, Nyani and Wuli. In the 1480s, Prince Bemoi was ruling the empire in the name of his brother Bur Birao. Tempted by Portuguese trade, he moved the seat of government to the coast to take advantage of the new economic opportunities. Other princes, opposed to this policy, deposed and murdered the bur in 1489.
The trade with the Portuguese become so lucrative through the 1480s that the Wolof king, Burba Birao, even shifted his capital nearer to the coast. However, not everyone was happy with the welcoming of missionaries, and traditionalist princes led a revolt which toppled Burba Birao in 1489. Birao’s brother, Prince Bemoi, was forced to flee the country, but he was given a splendid welcome in Lisbon where he was even baptised. By 1490 CE, the Portuguese were ambitious to control directly trade goods, and particularly gold, from their source in Africa’s interior. They sent a military expedition against the Wolof king and backed Prince Bemoi to take the throne. The expedition, despite involving 20 caravel ships, proved a failure because of disease and a serious disagreement between the pretender and his European backers, which led to the former's death. Thereafter, the Portuguese remained within their fortified trading posts along the coast as trade continued through the 16th century.
Despite internal feuds, the Wolof Empire remained a force to be reckoned with in the region. In the early 16th century, it was capable of fielding 100,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry. But the seeds of the empire's destruction had already been sown by the prospects of Atlantic slave trade. Virtually everything that had given rise to the great Wolof Empire was now tearing it apart. Coastal trade, for instance, had brought extra wealth to the empire. But the rulers of the vassal states on the coast got the lion's share of the benefits, which eventually allowed them to eclipse and undermine what little power the emperor had. There was also the matter of external forces such as the breakup of the Mali Empire. Mali's slipping grip on its far-flung empire, thanks to the growth of the Songhai Empire, had allowed Jolof to become an empire itself. But now conflicts in the north were spreading to Jolof's northern territories. In 1513, Dengella Koli led a strong force of Fulani and Mandinka into Futa Toro, seizing it from the Jolof and setting up his own dynasty. Koli was the son of an unsuccessful rebel against the Songhai Empire and may have decided to act against the Jolof as an alternative to fighting the Songhai or Mandinka.
In 1549, Kayor successfully broke from the Wolof Empire under the leadership of the crown prince Amari Ngoone Sobel Fall. The breakaway state of Cayor used its direct access to European trade (Wolof was landlocked and had no port) to grow in wealth and power. Kayor invaded its southern neighbor, Bawol, and began forming a personal union of its own. It defeated its overlord at the Battle of Danki in 1549. The battle caused a ripple effect resulting in other states leaving the empire. By 1600, the Wolof Empire was effectively over. Jolof was reduced to a kingdom; nevertheless the title of burba remained associated with imperial prestige, and commanded nominal respect from its ancient vassals.
In the last quarter of the 16th century CE another major power arrived in the region: France. The French traders brought with them such highly desirable items as textiles from northern France, spirits, metal goods, pepper, palm oil, and firearms. The Portuguese soon lost their trade advantage, especially as the export of the much-in-demand firearms to Africa was prohibited by the Portuguese crown. Consequently, the French gained control of such towns as Gorée, Portudal, Joal, and Rufisiique, all in Wolof territory. The European’s presence was such that populations in the urban areas along the Atlantic coast eventually became mixed African and French, as seen for example at the port of Saint Louis. Much of this area later became dominated by the French and became part of the French West Africa colony.
Today in France there are an estimated 50,000 people of Wolof descent. As Senagal is a popular tourist destination for French citizens, there are extensive cultural contact between France and it’s former colony. Because of the this contact as well as the extensive records the Portuguese made at contact, the Wolof are some of the most studied and well documented ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Last Wednesday, the Wall of Moms Facebook group descended into chaos. One woman said a group of Black moms was left unprotected at a rally in downtown Portland, Oregon. Another claimed that group leader Bev Barnum had co-opted Black Lives Matter for her own gain. There were endless threads of comments from women disappointed that the protest group — made up of mothers and grandmothers who had gained international recognition for standing on the front line of the city’s protests — seemed to have lost its way.
The Wall of Moms, at least the original version, was collapsing. It had lasted for all of 10 days.
When the group assembled on July 18 through a call to action from Barnum on Facebook, the mission was simple: Be physically present for Black lives. Last month, federal agents descended on the city to protect federal buildings, which only intensified the protests that have been ongoing since the police killing of George Floyd. Portland mothers, most of them non-Black, were called on to act as a shield against the tear gas and excessive force that police officers used to terrorize protesters.
But by the middle of last week, many of the mothers in the private Wall of Moms Facebook group, which had garnered nearly 20,000 members, were questioning the direction of the organization, disappointed that it no longer seemed to center Black lives. A number of the moms accused Barnum, who is Mexican American, of only being interested in pressuring federal troops to leave Portland, not in the greater issue of justice for Black lives; Barnum had tried to register Wall of Moms as a business without the approval of fellow Black leaders. (Barnum has not responded to Vox’s request for comment.)
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Qualified immunity, civil forfeitures, police licensing, restricting the acquisition of military gear, and the fact police can use deadly force if they merely perceive a threat, are serious reforms that need to be passed, no matter if police are defunded or if their budget are increased to cover more training.
U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves often weaves the nation’s history of discrimination into his analysis. Reeves, a Black man who writes with trenchant candor about racism in America, was appointed to the Southern District of Mississippi by President Barack Obama in 2010. His Tuesday decision in Jamison v. McClendon, however, is much more than a legal history lesson. It is a fiery protest against the injustices of racist law enforcement wrapped in a scholarly critique of the appalling doctrine that lets lawless cops off the hook. He denounced a legal system that favors unconstitutional policing over Black lives. And then he let the officer off the hook.
The doctrine of qualified immunity, which protects police officers from lawsuits over their behavior on the job, has suddenly received massive scrutiny in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests. Judges have begun to grapple with the courts’ role in expanding the doctrine and its dehumanizing consequences. Some judges are now even listening to the protests in the streets. A federal appeals court cited Floyd’s killing in a June opinion denying qualified immunity, explaining that the doctrine risks letting cops disrespect “the dignity and worth of black lives.” Reeves has now joined the chorus of judges urging the Supreme Court to acknowledge the “worth of black lives” and its complicity in using “legal jargon” to cover up systemic racism in law enforcement.
The facts in Jamison are depressingly familiar. A white Mississippi officer named Nick McClendon pulled over Clarence Jamison, a Black man driving his new Mercedes convertible. McClendon claimed that Jamison’s temporary tag was “folded up.” (Later, Jamison provided evidence that the tag was never folded.) McClendon ran a background check but found no criminal history. He then asked Jamison if he could search the Mercedes, allegedly (and falsely) accusing Jamison of carrying 10 kilograms of cocaine. Jamison initially refused the search. But after McClendon asked five times, Jamison acquiesced. The officer proceeded to dismantle Jamison’s car for nearly two hours, searching every inch and finding no contraband. In the process, he destroyed portions of the car, inflicting thousands of dollars’ worth of damage. McClendon also deployed a drug-sniffing dog, who found nothing.
U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves issue a decision he had to based on law but his opinion is something to behold
“Clarence Jamison wasn’t jaywalking,” Reeves wrote. “That was Michael Brown.”
“He wasn’t outside playing with a toy gun. That was 12-year-old Tamir Rice.”
“He didn’t look like a ‘suspicious person.’ That was Elijah McClain.”
“He wasn’t suspected of ‘selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.’ That was Eric Garner.”
“He wasn’t suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. That was George Floyd.”
“He didn’t look like anyone suspected of a crime. That was Philando Castile and Tony McDade.”
“Thankfully, Jamison left the stop with his life,
“Too many others have not. … Tragically, thousands have died at the hands of law enforcement over the years, and the death toll continues to rise. Countless more have suffered from other forms of abuse and misconduct by police.”
The harm in this case to one man, sheds light on the harm done to the nation by this manufactured doctrine.”
Our courts have shielded a police officer who shot a child while the officer was attempting to shoot the family dog; prison guards who forced a prisoner to sleep in cells “covered in feces” for days; police officers who stole over $225,000 worth of property; a deputy who bodyslammed a woman after she simply “ignored [the deputy’s] command and walked away”; an officer who seriously burned a woman after detonating a “flashbang” device in the bedroom where she was sleeping; an officer who deployed a dog against a suspect who “claim[ed] that he surrendered by raising his hands in the air”; and an officer who shot an unarmed woman eight times after she threw a knife and glass at a police dog that was attacking her brother.
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One thing Trump Presidency has done is expose that more than just a “few bad apples out there” are racist, and that American need to be anti-racist and not just non-racist.
On the South Lawn, Trump now faced reporters and cameras. Over the drone of the helicopter rotors, one reporter asked Trump if he was bothered that “more and more people” were calling him racist.
“I am the least racist person there is anywhere in the world,” Trump replied, hands up, palms facing out for emphasis.
His hands came down. He singled out a vocal critic, the Reverend Al Sharpton. “Now, he’s a racist,” Trump said. “What I’ve done for African Americans, no president, I would say, has done … And the African American community is so thankful.”
It was an absurd statement. But in a twisted way, Trump was right. As his administration’s first term comes to an end, Black Americans—indeed, all Americans—should in one respect be thankful to him. He has held up a mirror to American society, and it has reflected back a grotesque image that many people had until now refused to see: an image not just of the racism still coursing through the country, but also of the reflex to deny that reality. Though it was hardly his intention, no president has caused more Americans to stop denying the existence of racism than Donald Trump.
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This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. When my guest Isabel Wilkerson was writing her book "The Warmth Of Other Suns" about the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North looking to escape the lynchings, the cross burnings, the terrorism and the lack of opportunity in the South, she says she realized she wasn't writing about geography and relocation; she was writing about the American caste system.
Now she's written a new book called "Caste" that explains why she thinks America can be described as having a caste system and how if we use that expression, it deepens our understanding of what Black people have been up against in America. She compares America with the caste system in India and writes about how the Nazi leadership borrowed from American racist laws and the American eugenics movement. Wilkerson won a National Book Critics Circle Award for her book about the Great Migration called "The Warmth Of Other Suns," and she won a Pulitzer Prize when she was a reporter at The New York Times.
Isabel Wilkerson, welcome back to FRESH AIR. It is really a pleasure to have you on again, and congratulations on the book. Ten years ago, when you wrote "The Warmth Of Other Suns," you used the word caste system to refer to the segregated South. And you wrote, (reading) in the decades between Reconstruction and the enforcement of civil rights laws, nearly every Black family in the American South had a decision to make. The decision was to stay in the South's segregated caste system or make the pilgrimage North or West in the hope of escaping racism and having more access to jobs, housing and other opportunities.
What made you think of using the word caste system to describe America as a whole? In that paragraph, you used it to describe the American South.
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Musicians have often been at the forefront of political protest, change, and revolutions.
Bobi Wine, a popular reggae star and prominent opposition MP in Uganda, will release a new album next month that addresses what he calls “the real issues people are facing – the injustices, corruption, high taxation, misrule, abuse of human rights, dictatorship.”
“Rise up, African musicians, and we can accomplish the task,” Wine said in an interview. “We can’t be defeated. The more they oppress us, the stronger we become. No dictator in history has ever defeated the artists and no one will ever.”
The 38-year-old, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, hopes to end Yoweri Museveni’s 35-year rule in a presidential election scheduled for early next year. He is the most prominent but far from the only artist in Africa who aspires to swap the musical stage for a political one.
From Senegal to Kenya to Algeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a new generation of artists is giving voice to the grievances and aspirations of hundreds of millions of people.
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Gorée island, a former slave-trading hub, is so close to Dakar, Senegal’s capital, that hundreds of amateurs swim out to it every year. Yet some days it disappears from sight, lost in a haze of pollution and dust. In the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, part of its oil-producing region, black soot settles on everything. Tiny particles clog lungs and invade the bloodstream.
Some 4.2m people die prematurely every year from dirty outdoor air, says the World Health Organisation (who). The World Bank reckons the worldwide costs of deaths from air pollution run to $5trn a year. Africa is plainly affected, but it is hard to know how badly. Outdoor pollution in the continent is rarely measured.
Fetid rubbish, old cars and filthy factories fill Africa’s air with smoke, rarely hindered by environmental standards or enforcement. Take Nigeria, where international commodity traders exploit weak regulations by importing fuel that is vastly more toxic than the stuff found in Europe, and even dirtier than fuel produced by bush refineries in the Niger Delta, says a study by the Stakeholder Democracy Network, a pressure group. Rana Roy of the oecd, a club of mainly rich countries, reckons air pollution of all types causes more premature deaths in Africa than dirty water, poor sanitation or the malnutrition of children. The who says the Nigerian city of Onitsha is the most polluted in the world.
Yet the who reckons that only 0.5% of African towns and cities have accessible air-quality data (Dakar is one of them). That would be unthinkable in the West (see map). Children are particularly at risk. In Europe and North America 72% of children live within 50km of an air-monitoring station versus only 6% of African children. Even in African cities that do track air quality, the data are patchy. “Most of the equipment in use is obsolete,” says Kofi Amegah of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana.
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