Babacar Sedikh Diouf or Babacar Sédikh Diouf (Serer: Babakar Sidiix Juuf;Diouf, Babacar Sedikh, O maad a sinig : Kumba Ndoofeen fa Maak JUUF (Buka-Cilaas), 1853–1871, PAPF (1987), pp. 3–4 born 1928Babacar Sedikh Diouf's body of works: Diouf, Babacar Sedikh, O maad a sinig : Kumba Ndoofeen fa Maak JUUF (Buka-Cilaas), 1853–1871 (PAPF, 1987) [in] Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) [in] CARLI I-Share (retrieved 8 February 2020)) is a Senegalese historian, author, researcher, campaigner against "Wolofization", a Pan-Africanist, and former teacher. He has written extensively about the history and culture of Senegal, Africa, and that of the Serer ethnic group to which he belongs. He usually writes by the pen name Babacar Sedikh Diouf.
Academia In 1951, Diouf met Léopold Sédar Senghor – the future President of Senegal, when Senghor visited a village in Casamance were Diouf was working at the time as a teacher. Senghor, who was then a member of parliament was visiting the area as a surprise and had to sleep overnight in a hut—away from the comforts he was used to. According to Diouf, after that chance meeting, he became a supporter of Senghor "because his visit had proved his humility and interest in teaching." As a result, he started to read Senghor's literary works. Sometime later, Senghor awarded him a grant to study Serer history "along Cheikh Anta Diop's hypotheses."Diouf, Babacar Sédikh, L’imaginaire sérère dans l’oeuvre de Léopold Sédar Senghor, [in] Comité national pour la célébration du 90e anniversaire du Président Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senghor: Colloque de Dakar, Presses universitaires de Dakar (1998), pp. 241–46.« Merging ethnic histories in Senegal: whose moral community? », in Derek Peterson & Giacomo Macola (dir.), Recasting the Past: History Writing and Political Work in Modern Africa, Athens, Ohio University Press, 2009, (213–232.), p. 16 (PDF)) [in] Academia.edu (retrieved 8 February 2020)
Diouf, who is a retired teacher was appointed President of the Association of Retired Teachers of Senegal (French: l'association des instituteurs à la retraite).Smith, Étienne, « Merging ethnic histories in Senegal: whose moral community? », in Derek Peterson & Giacomo Macola (dir.), Recasting the Past: History Writing and Political Work in Modern Africa, Athens, Ohio University Press, 2009, (213–232.), p. 12 (PDF) [in] Academia.edu (retrieved 8 February 2020) As of 1980, he was the Director of the Thiers School (l'Ecole Thiers). He has been a long-standing member of the National Union of Languages.
Diouf sometimes write by the pen name Babacar Sedikh Diouf. Many of his works are unpublished but cited by African, Caribbean and Western scholars who've interacted with him over the years. Some of these include gender politics writers Louise Langevin, Fatou Kiné Camara and Jeremy I. Levitt;Diouf, Babacar Sedikh « La dimension genre dans le vivre ensemble africain » [in] Langevin, Louise, Rapports sociaux de sexe-genre et droit: repenser le droit, Archives contemporaines (2008), p. 96, (retrieved 8 February 2020)Camara, F. (2015). African Women and the Gender Equality Regime in Africa: From Patriarchy to Parity. In J. Levitt (Ed.), Black Women and International Law: Deliberate Interactions, Movements and Actions (pp. 61–87). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (retrieved 8 February 2020)Diouf, Babacar Sedikh, La dimension genre dans le 'vivre ensemble' africain [in] Levitt, Jeremy I., Black Women and International Law, Cambridge University Press (2015), p. 75, (retrieved 8 February 2020) historians Mamadou Diouf, Abdoulaye Keita of IFAN—UCAD, Cyr Descamps and Iba Der Thiam;Diouf, Mamadou, Tolerance, Democracy, and Sufis in Senegal, Columbia University Press (2013), p. 172 (retrieved 8 February 2020)Keita, Abdoulaye, Au carrefour des littératures Afrique-Europe, KARTHALA Editions (2013), p. 118, (retrieved 8 February 2020)Descamps, Cyr; Thiam, Iba Der; La préhistoire au Sénégal: recueil de documents, Association sénégalaise des professeurs d'histoire-géographie (1982), pp. 79–80 and anthropologist Henry Gravrand.Gravrand, Henry, La civilisation sereer: Pangool, Nouvelles Editions africaines du Sénégal (1990), p. 56,
Diouf usually writes in French but has also written in Serer. An eighty-page short biography of the 19th century Serer King of Sine — Maad a Sinig Kumba Ndoffene Famak Joof, titled: O maad a sinig : Kumba Ndoofeen fa Maak JUUF (Buka-Cilaas), 1853–1871, PAPF (1987) was written in Serer.
Senegambian stone circles
Diouf was one of the first (if not the first) to suggest a Serer religious significance for the Senegambian stone circles, based in part on their arrangement and religious symbolism which he saw as related to Serer numerology. His work published on 7 July 1980 on the Senegalese newspaper Le Soleil became headline news and was picked up by the prehistorian and archaeologist Professor Cyr Descamps and his colleague Professor Iba Der Thiam.Le Soleil, 7 July 1980
The builders of these megaliths are still unknown. Other possible candidates are the ancestors of the Jola people or the Wolof
The Guelowar Dynasty in Seereer kingdoms
The mainstream view has been that, the Guelowar Maternal Dynasty (whom some writers such as Martin A. Klein, Donald R. Wright and Emmett Jefferson Murphy wrongly labelledKaabu was ruled by the noble patriclans of "Sanneh" and "Manneh" (variations : "Sané" and "Mané" – both Bainuk and Jola surnames in origin, not Mandinka or Malinke), with the noble maternal clans of Ñaanco and Guelowar. However, almost all the kings of Kaabu came from the Ñaanco maternal clan. The Guelowars were extended maternal relatives of the Ñaanco and one of their greatest threat to the throne. See: Ngom, Biram: La question Gelwaar et l’histoire du Siin, Dakar, Université de Dakar, 1987 as Mandinka or MalinkeKlein, Martin A., Islam and Imperialism in Senegal: Sine-Saloum, 1847–1914. Edinburgh University Press (1968). pp. 7–8. Wright, Donald R., Oral Traditions from the Gambia: Mandinka griots, Ohio University Center for International Studies, Africa Program (1979), p. 21, ) conquered the Serer people and subjugated them. After years of researching and documenting the oral traditionas of the Serer and that of Kaabu, Diouf was one of the first historian and author to posit that the Guelowars of Sine and Saloum (the two Serer kingdoms) did not conquer and subjugate the Serer people but were granted asylum by the Serer Council of Great Lamans, who then went on marry into the Serer noble patriclans.Éthiopiques, Issues 55–56, Fondation Léopold Sédar Senghor (1991), p. 32 The Guelowars who were relatives and offshoots of the powerful Ñaanco (or Nyancho) Maternal Dynasty of Kaabu, underwent a dynastic war or struggle against their powerful Ñaanco relatives. The Senegalese historian Alioune Sarr, in his acclaimed paper Histoire du Sine-Saloum (1986–87) supports that view and placed that dynastic war around 1335. Sarr's Histoire du Sine-Saloum is one of the leading work on the history of Sine-Saloum and is generally regarded as the prevailing view especially in regards to the date of reign of the Kings of Sine and Saloum.Introduction by Charles Becker, pp 7–11 [in] Sarr (1986–87)
Diouf went on to posit that: Maysa Waly [the first Guelowar to reign in Serer country] was first appointed legal adviser to the Council of the Great Lamans after his famous judgment. Gradually, he strengthened his power and authority and ended up being recognized as king. Maysa Wali's direct descendants did not reign in any of the Serer kingdoms. Serer noble men from the ancient lamanic class married Guelowar women, and the offsprings of these marriages reigned as kings. These children saw themselves as Serer and assimilated into Serer culture and all ties with Kaabu were severed. The Serer—Guelowar alliance was an alliance based on marriage, not conquest. With the exception of the Serer being a conquered group—which has been the mainstream view, Emmett Jefferson Murphy's earlier work History of African Civilization (1972) reached a somewhat similar conclusion on the Serer—Guelowar (or "Malinke" as he put it) marriage alliance. He writes: The Serer people had earlier settled on the plains of the highland of Futa Toro in modern Senegal. They lived side by side with the Tukulor and were ruled by them until the eleventh century. At that time, perhaps because of growing Islamic influence among the Tukulor, the Serer—who refused to accept Islam–migrated to an area between the Sine and Saloum rivers in what is now southeastern Senegal. The Serer conquered the Mande-speaking tribes then inhabiting the Sine-Salum and settled the area. Within a century, however, powerful Malinke invaders also moved into the Sine-Salum, settling among the Serer as a ruling class. This caste, called the tiedo,A tiedo or ceddo is a Senegambian term to describe any of the Senegambian people who do not believe in any of the Abrahamic religions but adhere to the tenets of Traditional African religions such as the Serer religion. It is a Fula term in origin. Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène made a film about the Ceddo class in his 1977 film Ceddo. subdivided into the "guelowar," or the nobles eligible for the kingship (only Malinke or the descendants of Malinke-Serer marriages were included); [...]Murphy, E. Jefferson, History of African Civilization, Crowell (1972), p. 106, The various Serer groups who saw the entire Senegambia region as their homeland were already in the Sine-Saloum area in the 11th century and should not be confused with the Serers of Takrur—who were affected by the jihadic wars of King War Jabi and his allies.Mwakikagile, Godfrey, The Gambia and Its People: Ethnic Identities and Cultural Integration in Africa, p 136. (2010), Mwakikagile, Godfrey, Ethnic Diversity and Integration in The Gambia: The Land, The People and The Culture,"(2010), p 231,