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‘NO KINGS, NO LORDS, NO SLAVES’: ETHNICITY AND RELIGION AMONG THE SEREER-SAFÈN OF WESTERN BAWOL, 1700–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2003

JAMES F. SEARING
JAMES F. SEARING
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Chicago
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Abstract

The Sereer-Safèn occupied a defensible refuge zone in Western Bawol, where forests and sandstone ridges provided protection against Wolof monarchy. The Safèn were part of a larger ‘Sereer’ world that defined itself by opposition to Islam in the period from 1700 to 1914. This religious divide made the Sereer targets for enslavement by the Wolof, but Sereer religion was also linked to Safèn resistance to Islam, slavery and monarchy. Religion was interwoven with an ethnic boundary, which emphasized the incompatibility of Wolof and Sereer society. Safèn religion was centered on the village ‘shrine’ or xérém, which served as the focal point of ritual, justice, communication with the other world and defense.

Keywords

EthnicitySenegalreligionslave tradedecentralized societies
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , November 2002 , pp. 407 - 429
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I would like to thank the Fulbright Program and the Social Science Research Council for supporting my research. I began this research as a Fulbright Lecturer in 1989. In 1995 I received a grant from the Social Science Research Council, which allowed me to continue research. I thank Babacar Faye, who introduced me to the Safèn; M. Seck, who was village chief of Bandia in 1989 and 1995; Babacar Ndione, the Imam of the village; Farba Cisse, an expert on oral traditions; and all the elders and families in Bandia who cooperated with my research. I would also like to thank Mariella Villasante de-Beauvais, Institut de Recherches et d’Etudes sur le Monde Arabe et Musulman, for her comments on an earlier draft of this article. Her suggestions were useful in sharpening the focus of the arguments about ethnic identity. I also thank the anonymous readers for the Journal of African History.