Religion
The Saafi mainly adhere to the tenets of Serer religion. [3]
The Serer religion, or a ƭat Roog, is the original religious beliefs, practices, and teachings of the Serer people of Senegal in West Africa. The Serer religion believes in a universal supreme deity called Roog. In the Cangin languages, Roog is referred to as Koox, Kopé Tiatie Cac, and Kokh Kox.
Shrines are of the utmost importance to the Saafi people. The characteristics of each shrine are different. There is a general discourse about the protecting power of the shrines and the spirits that inhabit them echoing the main themes of the ethnic boundary described earlier. Each Saafi village had at least one shrine; and the shrines, each of which had a name and specific characteristics, defined a public sphere of religious ritual that was common to the village. Bandia had the Koffki, Guinabour had Graam and a sacred well, Tchiki had Carit and Enge (an ancestral shrine), Kirène had Jayña, Ndiass (or Diass) had Sahee, Dobour had a spring with healing waters. Each shrine was controlled or administered by a particular matrilineal clan, and one clan, the Leemu, controlled most of the shrines. All the shrines served as focal points for the divination ceremonies held before the beginning of the rainy season. Most were sites of periodic sacrifice to the indwelling spirits, [4] but the shrines had their own unique characteristics. In addition to possessing the one judging shrine that could kill, Bandia played a key role in the prayers to Koox (the atmospheric supreme God), that occurred only in serious times of drought that threatened the entire district. The shrines at Guinabour (Graam) and Diass (Sahee) could be described as wind spirits. They protected the villages by raising a wind that made them invisible to their enemies, particularly the Wolof. In more general terms, past migrations into the region and the founding of village shrines are essential features of Saafi identity and the system of defense that protected the independence of the region. [5]
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated. A shrine at which votive offerings are made is called an altar.
Kirène is a small town in western Senegal about 70 km from the capital, Dakar.
Ndiass is a village and rural community in the M'bour Department in the Thies Region of Senegal. It is located 40 kilometres (25 mi) southeast of Dakar. According to PEPAM, Diass has a population of 4794. Blaise Diagne International Airport, Senegal's primary airport, is located nearby.
Culture
Unlike the Serer-Sine, and most ethnic groups of the Sene-Gambian region, the Saafi people do not have a caste system of griots, slaves, nobility, leather workers, etc. They were ruled over by the heads of the ten matriclans. They rejected Islam, monarchy (centralized government of any kind) and the social distinctions that went along with it, specifically caste and slavery. The Saafi society is purely egalitarian. [6]
The Senegambia is, in the narrow sense, a historical name for a geographical region in West Africa, which lies between the Senegal River in the north and the Gambia River in the south. However, there are also text sources which state that Senegambia is understood in a broader sense and equated with the term the Western region. This refers to the coastal areas between Senegal and Sierra Leone, where the inland border in the east were not further defined.
The Saafi people inhabit a fertile, well-watered region on the downward slope and valleys of an escarpment with underground streams feeding into the Somone River. Fertility permits relatively intense farming combined with herding cattle and goats, a combination crucial to the Saafi identity and social institutions. [7]
Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Pigs, sheep and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people still depended on subsistence agriculture into the twenty-first.
Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group (herd), maintaining the group, and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. Herding can refer either to the process of animals forming herds in the wild, or to human intervention forming herds for some purpose. While the layperson uses the term "herding" to describe this human intervention, most individuals involved in the process term it mustering, "working stock", or droving.
The male life cycle is particular tied to the combination of farming and herding. Boys herd from approximately eight or ten years old until the age of initiation, which occurs between fifteen and twenty years of age. After being called by the father (in consultation with the maternal uncle) to circumcision, the boys enter an age class of initiates made up of forty to sixty young men. After a celebration, the boys are circumcised in a special enclosure where they spend three months studying cosaan (a term corresponding to history, culture, etc.) by learning songs and their meaning. By the end of the period, sustained by meat feasts supplied by fathers and uncles, the initiates emerge as an age class of bachelors with their own secret song. These bachelors receive the weapons and tools of men as gifts from the father, but from this point on they farm for themselves and their uncles. The age class is bound together for the rest of their lives, helping each other to farm, fight, raid (in particular, European colonizers - see Timeline of Serer history), and marry. Married men continue farming but leave the bachelor class. The age classes gathered together males from all clans, and they were the main potential counterweight to the power of the clan leaders. Although the bachelor class formed the military class, people placed greater stress on the protecting power of the village shrines. [5] [7]
In biology, a biological life cycle is a series of changes in form that an organism undergoes, returning to the starting state. "The concept is closely related to those of the life history, development and ontogeny, but differs from them in stressing renewal." Transitions of form may involve growth, asexual reproduction, or sexual reproduction.
The Ndut is a rite of passage as well as a religious education commanded by Serer religion that every Serer must go through once in their lifetime. The Serer people being an ethnoreligious group, the Ndut initiation rite is also linked to Serer culture. From the moment a Serer child is born, education plays a pivotal role throughout their life cycle. The ndut is one of these phases of their life cycle. In Serer society, education lasts a lifetime, from infancy to old age.
This is a timeline of the history and development of Serer religion and the Serer people of Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania. This timeline merely gives an overview of their history, consisting of calibrated archaeological discoveries in Serer countries, Serer religion, politics, royalty, etc. Dates are given according to the Common Era. For a background to these events, see Roog, Serer religion, Serer creation myth, Serer prehistory, Lamane, States headed by Serer Lamanes, Serer history and Serer people.
The Kingdom of Saloum was a Serer/Wolof kingdom in present-day Senegal. Its kings may have been of Mandinka/Kaabu origin. The capital of Saloum was the city of Kahone. It was a sister kingdom of Sine. Their history, geography and culture were intricately linked and it was common to refer to them as the Sine-Saloum.
The Serer-Ndut or Ndut also spelt are an ethnic group in Senegal numbering 38600 They are part of the Serer people who collectively make up the third largest ethnic group in Senegal. The Serer-Ndut live mostly in central Senegal in the district of Mont-Roland, northwest of the city of ancient Thiès.
The Diourbel Region is a region of Senegal. The regional capital is the city of Diourbel. The region corresponds roughly to the precolonial Kingdom of Bawol and is still called by that name. Bawol is an ancient kingdom formerly ruled by the Joof family, one of the members of the Serer ethnic group found in Senegambia. Inhabitants of the area are called Bawol-Bawol which takes its name from the Serer mode of pluralisation, other examples being : Sine-Sine or Siin-Siin, Saloum-Saloum, etc. The population is primarily comprised by the Serer people especially those from the Cangin group, the Safene in particular. The Serers are believed to be the original inhabitants of this area. The Wolof and other ethnic groups are also present. The Diourbel Region is rich in history and it is where the Cekeen Tumulus are located. Some scholars such as Charles Becker, Henry Gravrand, Victor Martin among others, suggests that, these monuments were built by the Serer people and form part of the Serer tumulus of Baol. They are some of the most sacred sites in Serer religion. The Département of Mbacke also includes Murid Islamic Sufi order's holy city of Touba. The installation of this order in Serer country is a controversial one, especially among those Serers who adhere to the tenets of Serer religion (see Serer history. However, some Serers are also Muslims and have headed this religious order.
Mamadou Diouf is the Leitner Family Professor of African Studies, the Director of Institute for African Studies, and a professor of Western African history at Columbia University. He also serves as director of the Institute of African Studies at SIPA and has been instrumental in its recent reorganization. Diouf holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. Prior to teaching at Columbia, he taught at the University of Michigan and before that at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal. Diouf also serves on the editorial board of several academic journals, including the Journal of African History, Psychopathologie Africaine, and Public Culture. His research interests include the urban, political, social, and intellectual history of colonial and postcolonial Africa. His most recent books are La Construction de l’Etat au Sénégal, written with M. C. Diop & D. Cruise O’Brien and published in 2002 and Histoire du Sénégal: Le modèle islamo-wolof et ses périphéries, published in 2001. He is currently editing Rhythms of the Atlantic World with Ifeoma Nwanko and New Perspectives on Islam in Senegal: Conversion, Migration, Wealth, Power and Femininity with Mara Leichtman.
There are various ethnic groups in Senegal, none of which forms the ethnic majority in the country. Many subgroups of those can be further distinguished, based on religion, location and language. According to one 2005 estimate, there are at least twenty distinguishable groups of largely varying size.
The French conquest of Senegal started from 1659 with the establishment of Saint-Louis, Senegal, followed by the French capture of the island of Gorée from the Dutch in 1677, but would only become a full-scale campaign in the 19th century.
The Serer-Laalaa or Laalaa are part of the Serer ethnic group of Senegambia. They live in Laa, the Léhar Region, which comprises eighteen villages north of Thies and whose inhabitants are Serer-Laalaa. Although the people are ethnically Serer, their language Laalaa is not a dialect of the Serer-Sine language, but—like Saafi, Noon, Ndut and Palor, one of the Cangin languages.
The Serer-Noon also called Noon are an ethnic people who occupy western Senegal. They are part of the Serer people though they do not speak the Serer-Sine language natively.
The Gelowar also spelled Gelwar, was the maternal dynasty in the Serer pre-colonial kingdoms of Sine and Saloum. They were from the Mandinka ethnic group. The offspring of Mandinka women and Serer men became the kings of Sine and Saloum. The dynasty lasted from the mid-14th century to 1969, in which year both kings died.
The medieval history of the Serer people of Senegambia is partly characterised by resisting Islamization from perhaps the 11th century during the Almoravid movement, to the 19th century Marabout movement of Senegambia and continuation of the old Serer paternal dynasties.
Joof or Diouf is a surname typically Serer. This surname is also spelt Juuf or Juf. They are the same people. The differences in spelling is because Senegal was colonized by France, while the Gambia was colonized by the United Kingdom. Although spelt differently, they are pronounced the same way. The totem and symbol of the Joof family is the antelope, the symbol of grace, royalty, wisdom, hard work and protection in Serer mythology. The name of their clan is "Njoofene" variations: "Njuufeen" or "Njufeen". Members of this family had ruled over many of the pre-colonial kingdoms of Senegambia, including the Kingdom of Sine, the Kingdom of Saloum and the Kingdom of Baol. The royal princesses (Lingeers) from the Joof family were also given in marriage to the pre-colonial kings and princes of Senegambia. Some of these included the kings of Jolof, kings of Waalo, kings of Cayor and Baol. From these marriages, they provided many heirs to the thrones of these kingdoms. Although usually associated with Serer royalty, the Joof family also figure prominently in Serer religious affairs.
Maad Semou Njekeh Joof was a member of the Joof Dynasty of the Kingdom of Sine now part of independent Senegal. Maad means king and Maad a Sinig means king of Sine in Serer. He was the founder of the Royal House of Semou Njekeh Joof, founded in the early eighteenth century. His royal house was the third and last royal house founded by the Joof family of Sine and Saloum. Since its foundation, at least seven kings of Sine from his royal house had succeeded to the throne including his son Maad a Sinig Boukar Tjilas Sanghaie Joof.
Maad a Sinig Kumba Ndoffene Fa Ndeb Joof, also known as Kumba Ndoffene Joof II or Bour Sine Coumba Ndoffène Fandepp Diouf, was a King of Sine. Maad a Sinig translates as "King of Sine", Maad meaning king in the Serer language. The surname Joof is the English spelling in the Gambia. Diouf is the French spelling in Senegal.
Lamane Jegan Joof, was a Serer lamane who according to Serer tradition founded the Serer village of Tukar now part of present-day Senegal. The Raan Festival takes place each year at Tukar, two weeks after the appearance of the new moon in April.
The Palors also known as Serer-Palor, among other names, are an ethnic group found in Senegal around the west central, west southwest of Thiès. They are a sub-group of the Serer ethnic group found in Senegal, the Gambia and Mauritania. Although ethnically Serers, they do not speak the Serer language but one of the Cangin languages. Their language is Palor.
Pangool singular: Fangool, are the ancient saints and ancestral spirits of the Serer people of Senegal, the Gambia and Mauritania. The Pangool play a crucial role in Serer religion and history. In a religious sense, they act as interceders between the living world and the supreme being Roog or Koox. In a historical sense, the ancient Serer village and town founders called Lamanes were believed to be accompanied by a group of Pangool as they travelled in search of land to exploit. These Lamanes became guardians of Serer religion and created shrines in honour of the Pangool, thus becoming the custodians of the Pangool cult.
Religion and beliefs occupy an important place in the daily life of the nation of Senegal. A large majority (94%) of the Senegalese population is Muslim, mainly Sunni of Maliki school of jurisprudence with Sufi influences. Christians represent 4%. Traditional beliefs are officially practiced by 1% of the population, but members of other religions also often partake in traditional practices.
