Kingdom of Saloum
Saluum
c. 1494–1969
Saloum ca. 1850
Saloum ca. 1850
StatusProtectorate of France (from 1864) and Senegal (from 1960)
CapitalKahone
Common languages
Religion
Serer religion - Islam introduced later (mainly practiced among the Wolof and Fula immigrants)[1][2]
GovernmentMonarchy
Maad Saloum 
• 1494 – c. 1520
Mbegan Ndour
• 1935–1969
Fode N'Gouye Joof
Historical eraMedieval
• Establishment of the Guelowar maternal dynasty
c. 1494
• Death of Maad Saloum Fode N'Gouye Joof, last king of Saloum.
1969

The Kingdom of Saloum (Serer language: Saluum or Saalum) was a Serer/Wolof[3] kingdom in present-day Senegal. Its kings may have been of Mandinka/Kaabu origin.[3] The capital of Saloum was the city of Kahone. It was a sister to the kingdom of Sine. Their history, geography and culture were intricately linked and it was common to refer to them as the Sine-Saloum.

Etymology

Serer oral traditions recount that the area was named Saloum by the Maad Saloum Mbegan Ndour in the later part of the 15th century (c. 1494).[4] It was named after Saalum Suwareh, a marabout of Maad Saloum Mbegan Ndour (variation: Mbegani Ndour). Saalum Suwareh agreed to give a juju fetish to Mbegan Ndour in order to defeat the Toucouleur conqueror Ali Elibana and his Muslim marabouts provided he promised to rename the country after him once he is victorious. Mbegan Ndour agreed.[citation needed]

History

Apartment of the Maad Saloum (king of Saloum) in 1821.
Carte des peuplades du Sénégal de l'abbé Boilat (1853): an ethnic map of Senegal at the time of French colonialism. The pre-colonial states of Baol, Sine and Saloum are arrayed along the southwest coast, with the inland areas marked "Peuple Sérère".

Further information: Serer ancient history, Serer history (medieval era to present), and Timeline of Serer history

Background

Saloum is known for its many ancient burial mounds or tumuli containing the graves of kings and others. The kingdom has numerous mysterious stone circles whose functions and history are controversial.[5]

Before Mbegan Ndour, Saloum existed in some form (as attested in European written sources), but it is unclear what form it took.[6] The area was ruled by Serer Lamanes, but was part of the Jolof Empire.[7] The capital was called Ngap.[8]

Ali Elibana, a Toucouleur marabout was driven out of Futa Toro by Koli Tenguella and established himself at Kahone and controlled the salt-producing part of Saloum known as 'Mbey' in the late 15th century.[6][9] Tenguella's wars also severely weakened the Jolof Empire.[7]

Founding

Historian Donald R. Wright states that "In the last decade of the fifteenth century, a group of nyancho lineages from Kaabu moved north of the Gambia River and took over an area on the southern edge of the weakening Jolof Empire. From a settlement near the mouth of the Saloum River, these lineages soon mixed with the existing Wolof and Serer population and established the state of Saloum."[10]

Mbegan Ndour may have already been Maad a Sinig (King of the Kingdom of Sine) before conquering Saloum. Around the turn of the 16th century, he launched a religious conflict against the Muslim Elibana, strenghthened by the purchase of horses and guns from European merchants on the coast. In the legend, after proving unable to overcome him on the battlefield, Ndour transformed into a snake and hid outside Elibana's mosque; when the marabout emerged from his prayers, the snake bit him, and he died. He then fought and defeated Diattara Tambedou, who was either Elibana's successor or a former ally of Ndour's. Tambedou, a Muslim Soninke, was likely a salt merchant. Control over this vital resource underpinned the conflict as much or more than religious differences.[11][12]

Ndour established a kingdom modeled on his homeland, Sine, with his capital at Kahone, from which he could control the economically vital salt pans.[13][14]

Height

At its height, Saloum extended south to the north banks of the Gambia River, where two districts bear the name today. Saloum also had control for a time the Kingdom of Baol.[citation needed] Control of Gambia river ports allowed the export of salt east towards the Mali Empire.[15]

Portuguese explorers in the 15th century referred to Saloum as the kingdom of Borçalo, after 'Bor-ba-Saloum' (Wolof corruption for "King of Saloum" - Maad Saloum).[16]

19th Century

In 1861, Maba Diakhou Bâ, a Muslim cleric, took control of Badibbu, also known as Rip, on Saloum's southern edge. The Saloum vassal states of Sabakh and Sandial were ruled by the Fara Sabakh and Fara Sandial respectively. Around 1862, Sambou Oumanneh Touray, a Maba disciple defeated and killed the Fara Sabakh and Fara Sandial, joined the two countries together (hence : Sabakh-Sandial) and ruled it.[4]: 18 [17] Maba soon controlled most of Saloum and part of Niumi.[18] His forces clashed with the French and, despite a defeat, continued to attract new recruits, with the army numbering up to 11,000 fighting men. In 1864 the French recognized him as Almamy of Baddibu and Saloum, but his growing power threatened to unify Senegambia against them.[19] An alarmed French governor Émile Pinet-Laprade marched on Saloum at the head of 1,600 regulars, 2,000 cavalry, and 4,000 volunteers and footsoldiers. At the Battle of Pathé Badiane outside of Nioro, however, the marabout forces led by Lat Dior drove the French back towards Kaolack.[20]

As well as converting traditional states and their populations to Islam, Maba Diakhou Bâ's forces sought to abolish the traditional caste system of the Serer aristocratic states.[19] In 1867, he invaded the Kingdom of Sine, but was defeated and killed at the Battle of Fandane-Thiouthioune.[20]

After Maba's defeat, Saloum was incorporated into the colony of Senegal. However, like the Kingdom of Sine, the royal dynasty survived up to 1969, when the last king of Saloum, Fode N'Gouye Joof died, the same year that Maad a Sinig Mahecor Joof of Sine died. After their deaths, both Kingdoms were incorporated into newly independent Senegal. Thus the Kingdom of Sine and the Kingdom of Saloum were the last pre-colonial kingdoms of Senegambia to survive.

People and language

Ethnically, Saloum was Serer,[5] but gradually the Wolof immigrants[2] have settled in along with the Fulas, Mandinkas, etc.[2][1] Unlike the Kingdom of Sine which is ethnically Serer and deeply rooted in "Serer-conservatism", such as the preservation of Serer religion, culture, traditions, etc.,[2][1] Saloum is more cosmopolitan and multi-religious. This explains why some Serer traditionalists who adhere to the tenets of Serer religion are reluctant to afford it the same religious status afforded to Sine as one of the sacred Serer holy sites, in spite of housing many of the Serer sites (see Serer ancient history).[2][5] Although very cosmopolitan, it is also ethnically Serer, the other ethnic groups are migrants.[2][1] The Serer language and Wolof are both widely spoken in Saloum. The Cangin languages are also spoken.

Economy

Saloum includes flat, swampy tideland areas inland from the Saloum River delta, which allowed for a flourishing industry of salt-manufacture. The kingdom exported this highly valuable resource regionally, with Kahone as a major trade center. The coubal was a tax in kind on salt levied by the Maad Saloum. He exercised a monopoly on salt sales, and production was restricted to women to prevent rival princes from using the saltpans as a revenue source with which they could challenge the king.[21]

The economic base in the 19th and 20th centuries shifted to groundnut cultivation and trade, exporting large quantities of nuts to Europe.[22]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Klein 1968, pp. 7.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Diange, Pathé. "Les Royaumes Sérères", Présence Africaines, No. 54 (1965). pp. 142–172.
  3. ^ a b Saine, Abdoulaye (2012). Culture and Customs of Gambia. Greenwood Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-313-35910-1.
  4. ^ a b Ba, Abdou Bouri, « Essai sur l’histoire du Saloum et du Rip  » (avant-propos par Charles Becker et Victor Martin), Bulletin de l'IFAN, tome 38, série B, numéro 4, octobre 1976
  5. ^ a b c Becker, Charles: "Vestiges historiques, trémoins matériels du passé clans les pays sereer". Dakar. 1993. CNRS - ORS TO M
  6. ^ a b Boulegue 2013, p. 161.
  7. ^ a b Boulegue 2013, p. 158.
  8. ^ Diouf, Niokhobaye, "Chronique du royaume du Sine", Suivie de notes sur les traditions orales et les sources écrites concernant le royaume du Sine par Charles Becker et Victor Martin. (1972). Bulletin de l'Ifan, Tome 34, Série B, n° 4, (1972), p 707 (p 5)
  9. ^ Sakho 2021, p. 112.
  10. ^ Wright, Donald (2010). The World and a Very Small Place in Africa: A History of Globalization in Niumi, the Gambia (3rd ed.). M.E. Sharpe. pp. 69–70. ISBN 978-0-7656-2484-0.
  11. ^ Boulegue 2013, p. 158-9.
  12. ^ Sakho 2021, p. 112-3.
  13. ^ Boulegue 2013, p. 159.
  14. ^ Sakho 2021, p. 113.
  15. ^ Sakho 2021, p. 116.
  16. ^ Teixeira da Mota (1946: Pt. 1, p.58). For detailed 16th-century Portuguese description of the Kingdom of Saloum, see Almada (1594: Ch.2)
  17. ^ Klein 1968, pp. 74–5.
  18. ^ Charles 1977, pp. 54.
  19. ^ a b Isichei, Elizabeth (1977). History of West Africa since 1800. New York: Africana Publishing Company. p. 51. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  20. ^ a b Barry 1998, pp. 199.
  21. ^ Sakho 2021, p. 115.
  22. ^ Clark, Andrew F. and Lucie Colvin Phillip (1994). Historical Dictionary of Senegal: Second Edition. Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press. p. 232.

References

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