Senegal - Early History
There is a general absence of written sources and monumental ruins in this region. The history of the early centuries is based primarily on archaeological excavations, the Arabic writings of early geographers and travelers, and oral traditions. It goes without saying that Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most under-researched continental landmasses of the world. Archaeological prospection activities in term of trial excavations sunk into the past of the continent, are few, widely scattered, and restricted in their grasp of the past.
Saloum Delta, which is formed by the arms of three rivers, comprises brackish channels encompassing over 200 islands and islets, mangrove forest, an Atlantic marine environment, and dry forest. Fishing and shellfish gathering have sustained human life in the 5,000 km2 property. The shell mounds built up over a 2,000 year-long cultural process have formed a physical structure of stable islets and reclaimed land within the Saloum Delta. The region of the Saloum Delta is a remarkable testimony to the synergy between a natural environment with extensive biodiversity and a style of human development that is still present albeit fragile. Sustainable shellfish gathering and fishing practices in brackish water, and the processing of the harvest for its preservation and export was developed here. The shell mounds and the tumulus mounds form specific and exceptional cultural landscapes.
The numerous shell mounds in the Saloum Delta are generally well-preserved and they sometimes have imposing dimensions. They are direct testimony of sustainable and very ancient socio-economic practices. Over the centuries, they have led to the formation of numerous man-made islets contributing to the stabilisation of the delta's land and channels. With their characteristic vegetation within the delta's natural environment, the shell mounds form typical cultural landscapes. Some mounds include tumuli; they form, with their baobab vegetation and their undulating forms, funerary sites with specific landscape features.
The Bassari site, located in south-east Senegal, includes three geographical areas: the Bassari–Salémata area, the Bedik–Bandafassi area and the Fula–Dindéfello area, each with its specific morphological traits. The Bassari, Fula and Bedik peoples settled from the 11th to the 19th centuries and developed specific cultures and habitats symbiotic with their surrounding natural environment. The Bassari landscape is marked by terraces and rice paddies, interspersed with villages, hamlets and archaeological sites. The Bedik villages are formed by dense groups of huts with steep thatched roofs. Their inhabitants’ cultural expressions are characterized by original traits of agro-pastoral, social, ritual and spiritual practices, which represent an original response to environmental constraints and human pressures.
Archaeological evidences of early human occupation abound in the area. Until the last century, inhabited villages were grouped and located on rises, so as to control the plains, and consisted of round thatched huts congregated around a central space. An iron smelting tradition, dating from c. 800 to 550 BC, has been documented at Walalde, in the Middle Senegal valley. This was not preceded by any copper or bronze metallurgy tradition. There is a near simultaneity in the emergence of iron technology in at least four distinct areas: the In Gall Teggida-n-Tesemt in Niger, the Nsukka area in Nigeria, the Middle Senegal Valley, and Northern Mandara. From approximately 1000/900 BC to 100 BC, the practice of iron metallurgy spread to large stretches of the continent, from the Central Sahara to most of West Africa.
The Stone Circles of Senegambia site consists of four large groups of stone circles that represent an extraordinary concentration of over 1,000 monuments in a band 100 km wide along some 350 km of the River Gambia. The four groups, Sine Ngayène, Wanar, Wassu and Kerbatch, cover 93 stone circles and numerous tumuli, burial mounds, some of which have been excavated to reveal material that suggest dates between 3rd century BC and 16th century AD. Together the stone circles of laterite pillars and their associated burial mounds present a vast sacred landscape created over more than 1,500 years. It reflects a prosperous, highly organized and lasting society.
The Sine Ngayene complex (Senegal) is the largest site in the area. It consists of 52 circles of standing stones, including one double circle. In all, there are 1102 carved stones on the site. Around 1km to the east, (outside the inscribed property) is the quarry from which the monoliths were extracted and where the sources of around 150 stones can be traced. The site was excavated around 1970, and more recently by Bocoum and Holl. The work established that the single burials appeared to precede in time the multiple burials associated with the stone circles.
The Wanar complex (Senegal) consists of 21 circles including one double circle. The site contains 9 ‘lyre’ stones or bifed stones, sometimes with a cross piece strung between the two halves. The Wassu complex (Guinea) consists of 11 circles and their associated frontal stones. This site has the highest stones of the area. The most recent excavations conducted on these megalithic circles date to the Anglo-Gambian campaign led by Evans and Ozanne in 1964 and 1965. The finds of burials enabled the dating of the monuments between 927 and 1305 AD. The Kerbatch complex consists of 9 circles, including a double circle. The site possesses a ‘bifid’ stone, the only known one in the area.
The stones forming the circles were extracted from nearby laterite quarries using iron tools and skilfully shaped into almost identical pillars, either cylindrical or polygonal, on average around 2 m in height and weighing up to 7 tons. Each circle contains between eight to fourteen standing stones having a diameter of four to six meters. The four megalithic sites inscribed bear witness to a prosperous and highly organized society with traditions of stone circle constructions, associated with burials, and persisting in certain areas over more than a millennium.
The earth tumuli, commonly called mbanaar in Wolof, are funerary monuments made of sand. It is an operative mode that was described very early (11th century) by the geographer Andalus Al Beckri speaking of the burial of the king of Ghana. The deceased, accompanied by some members of his court, as well as important furniture and generous offerings, was placed under the roof of his hut, which was then covered with earth to form a tumulus. According to a first inventory published by Martin and Becker in 1984, there are over 10,316 tumuli in Senegal in 1,896 sites, making it one of the largest known concentrations in Africa. Of all the sites recognized in Senegal is that of Cekeen (Thiékène), village in the center of the country, is the most remarkable.
In Lower Casamance, an African region considered to be one of the "primary cradles" of rice cultivation, remarkable forms of habitat have developed, as sophisticated as the types of agricultural development in a large area of ??estuarine mangrove. Throughout this area, the large benches, with their solid and elaborate frameworks, with their varied plans, reflect a great mastery of sophisticated architectural techniques. The Kingdom of Bandial, a small "Kingdom" of ten villages, was known as Mof-Ávvi 'the king's land'. Here a totally original architectural form in Africa was created: the crown house with central impluvium. Prior to colonization, Senegal was politically organized into chiefdoms organized around a dominant ruling lineage with power over others, often through the use of force. Senegal had a very developed hierarchial system that involved different classes of royal and non-royal nobles, free men, occupational castes and slaves. Throughout the different classes, intermarraige was rarely allowed. Women could not marry upwards, and their children did not inherit the father's superior status.
A social contract between the rulers and the ruled existed to the extent that communities paid taxes and performed public or military service in exchange for relative autonomy. The Tekrur kingdom, located in the middle of the Senegal River Valley and established in the eleventh century, converted to Islam en masse as part of the Almoravid movement. In the thirteenth century, Tekrur became a vassal state of the Mandinka Mali Empire while the non-Muslim Djolof Empire rose to power. Other powers came to the fore in the forms of the Baol, Cayor, Walo, Sine, and Saloum kingdoms by the end of the sixteenth century.
The major modern-day ethnic groups that remain within Senegal’s borders include the Wolof, Serer, Lebu, Tukolor, Fulbe, Sarakolle, Mandika, and Diola. The history of the Wolof people can be traced back to the great kingdoms of pre-colonial Senegal, the empires of Kayor and Baol, which are often cited as examples of the Wolof resistance to French colonialism. Wolof was also originally spoken by the inhabitants of the coastal regions of Senegal, by the Lebou of Dakar and Rufisque and by Guet Ndar fishermen of Saint-Louis, which is along the Atlantic Ocean in northern Senegal.
Pre-colonial Senegal’s historic internal structure evolved as a highly stratified caste system dividing people into three main categories: freeman, slaves, and artisans. In general, society was based on maternally traced blood relationships. West Africa Historian Cheikh Anta Diop argues that by the sixteenth century the social system was stable and most individuals fell into one of three groups. Freeman were essentially nobles with no other manual profession than agriculture. Artisans served as blacksmiths and shoemakers, professions passed down through generations. Slaves, who occupied the lowest rung of society and made up the majority of the population, could be recruited into their respective ruler’s army or traded as a spoil of war.
A given ruler’s power and prestige was judged in terms of his relative numerical superiority of the warriors and clients available to impose his will on others. Warrior crown slaves, or creddo, existed as a special social class in that members could work their way up to the ranks of the nobility through demonstration of military prowess. In fact, certain warriors attained great wealth and even become slave-owners. Today, Senegalese people casually refer to one another in terms related to the caste system even although it is no longer functionally operational.
The island of Gorée lies off the coast of Senegal, opposite Dakar. From the 15th to the 19th century, it was the largest slave-trading centre on the African coast. Ruled in succession by the Portuguese, Dutch, English and French. The majority of the West Africans who were later shipped to the Americas as slaves were first gathered on the Island of Goree, just off the coast of Senegal. The “Slave Castle,” which served as a temporary prison for the captives, was declared a universal heritage site. Several thousand visitors, many of them African Americans, travel to the island each year.
In the year of 1659, France established a trading post in Saint Luis, Senegal. Throughout the colonial period, the French accumulated 17 different colonies, by one count. Senegal served as an important gateway to West Africa and Dakar, the capital, served as an important early French enclave. The French completely colonized Senegal in the year of 1890.
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