BEYONDMIGRATIONAND CONQUEST:
ORAL TRADITIONS AND MANDINKAETHNICITY IN SENEGAMBIA*
Donald R. Wright
SUNY-Cortland
I
One of the most prevalent
and widely-accepted
themes in
the history
of the Mandinka of Senegambia
concerns
the great
Mandinka migrations--the
westward movement of large groups of
that included
the distant
of today's
ancestors
people
Senegambian Mandinka population.1
to have
The migrants
are supposed
come from traditional
east and southeast
of
Manding homelands
of Mandinka peoples
locations
in Senegambia;
present
conquest
and longterm
of these migrasettlement
were the ususal
results
tions.
For over a century
works
(and not so scholarly)
scholarly
with the western
Mandinka have shown acceptance
as fact
dealing
and included
discussions
at varying
of the early westward
length
At a 1980 conference
in Dakar, which historians,
migrations.2
and others
from four
linguists,
anthropologists,
traditionists,
continents
considerable
time actually
went toward disattended,
and disputing
the specific
routes
the major migrant
cussing
took and toward attempting
leaders
to work out paradigms
of the
various
"waves" of Mandinka migration.3
I appear too
And lest
of studies
of these migrations,
I
criticism
smug in my implied
should admit that I, too, have written
of the phenomena in ways
that could be interpreted
as scholarly
discussion
of their
and (gulp)
even their
"flow."4
causes,
timing,
The major reason for the widespread
of early
acceptance
Mandinka westward migrations
and subsequent
and settleconquest
from the present
ment--aside
ethnic
and linguistic
arrangement
of the western
of course,
the frequency
with which
Mandinka--is,
one hears tales
of such in Senegambian
of origin.
traditions
It is a rare Gambian Mandinka oral narrative--whether
focusing
on the history
of a state,
a village,
or a separate
lineage-that does not begin with where the ancestors
Directoriginated.
the place of origin
is always tiZebo,
the land
ly or indirectly,
where the sun rises,
which is the local
word for the eastern
heartlands
of the Mandinka.
Most Senegambian
oral traditionists
note something
about the route of migration
and the individual
leaders.
Some include
of conquest
stories
as well.5
migrant
HISTORY IN AFRICA, 12 (1985),
335-348
336
DONALDR. WRIGHT
of traditions
of origin
from Senegambian
A few examples
Mandinka,
condensed
from the originals,
can provide
a sense of the large
body of oral data that make up those traditions.
traditions
of origin
One of the most widely-recited
among
Mandinka is that involving
of large numthe western
leadership
bers of migrants
Many Mandinka of Seneby Tiramakan Traore.6
ancestors
came west with
say their
gambia and Guine-Bissau
to this tradition,
Tiramakan was one of
Tiramakan.
According
most trusted
Sundiata
Keita's
lieutenants
during the years of
of the Mali empire.
In reward for Tiramakan's
the consolidation
of rebellion
of the Jolof
Empire in central
Senegal,
suppression
Sundiata
to
Tiramakan migrated
gave him the lands of the west.
his new lands with thousands
of Mandinka, settling
in
families
of migrants
with TiraDescendants
villages
along the route.
makan are said to populate
from the upper
much of the region
Gambia through the upper Casamance and on into the old Kaabu
of Guine-Bissau.
regions
in Mandinka traditions
of western
Another prominent
figure
is Sora Musa.7
Once a ruler of Mali and a famous
migration
Muslim pilgrim,
Sora Musa, like Tiramakan,
of
was a lieutenant
Sundiata.
After Sundiata
his major rivals
defeated
he gave
Sora Musa access
to his magic and Sora Musa set off with forces
to him to the west.
His roundabout
took him and
travels
loyal
his followers
but he ended up in the
through northern
Senegal,
lower Gambia, where he married the woman ruling
of
the state
Baddibu and so assumed the right
to rule that state.
Descendants
of Sora Musa moved on to the west where, through a similar
proof the state
cess of intermarriage,
of Niumi
they became rulers
at the Gambia's mouth.
into the same mold as Tiramakan and Sora Musa is
Fitting
Amori Sonko.8
of Malian forces
Some say Sonko was the leader
that subdued Djolof
Sundiata
(or Bondou) and for his efforts
him certain
westward lands.
Sonko took his followers
to
gave
the middle Casamance,
of Sankola;
the Mandinka state
establishing
to the middle and lower Gambia, establishing
of Jarra
the states
and Niumi; and to the Bafing-Bondou
area of Senegal.
Most significantly,
Mandinka clans have their
non-royal
own traditions
of origin
that include
of family
the migration
from the Mandinka homelands.
ancestors
of a great numTypical
ber of these
traditions
is that of the Gambian clan named Darbo.
As Darbo elders
tell
their
ancestor
came from a village
in
it,
the Mandinka homelands
twelve generations
He brought with
ago*9
him a cutlass,
a copy of the Qur'an,
and a gold bracelet,
each
of which symbolizes
one of the three primary branches
of the
Darbo family
in the west:
Muslim clerics,
and merwarriors,
This ancestor
chants.
in a village
settled
on the middle Casamance and from there his sons left
to found their
own villages.
The warrior
branch came from a son who settled
in one of the
of Kaabu.
states
The clerical
branch moved northward
toward
the Gambia, separate
three villages
near the
lineages
founding
river
that remain noted for being centers
of clericalism.
The
merchant branch of the clan moved to the upper limits
of Gambian
there and at several
locations
founding
villages
navigation,
ORAL TRADITIONS AND MANDINKAETHNICITY
337
between there and the Atlantic
where for years they parcoast,
in the iron,
and slave
trade of the Gambia
ticipated
cloth,
River and its hinterland.
These traditions,
and dozens more like
them, constitute
the body of oral data relating
to western
Mandinka origins.
The large number of traditions
and their
structural
similarity
have prompted most students
of precolonial
Senegambian
history
to accept
the role of mass movements of populations
from the
of the Western Sudan in the peopling
of the
Manding regions
Mandinka areas of Senegambia.
III
In recent
several
years I have come to consider
factors
that lead me to doubt that Mandinka migrations
in waves
(whether
or phases)
are widespread
of replacing
(with the effect
conquest
one population
with another)
I harbor these
ever took place.
doubts in spite
of the overwhelming
of the migration/
acceptance
theme and the existence
of such a vast amount
conquest/settlement
of Mandinka (and non-Mandinka)
oral data supporting
the existence of these historical
events.10
If these doubts are borne
out by investigation
in the years to come, there will
be important implications
for the study of early Senegambian
Mandinka
of course,
but just as importantly,
there will
history,
be
reason to think again about our perhaps out-of-date
of
concept
and non-African
If my
Mandinka, and other African
ethnicity.
taken singly,
than convincing,
reasons,
appear simple and less
when added together
me as forming a compelling
arthey strike
gument.
a growing number of studies
from other parts of
First,
Africa
has shown that cultural
transferral
rather
than mass miand settlement
best explains
gration,
links
conquest,
between
two populations.l1
This turns out to be the case even in societies
that have full
of migration
stories
in their
traditions
of origin.
Miller
believes
traditions
of migrations
are best
understood
as "cliches
a variety
of different
historidenoting
cal circumstances
by means of personalized
images of movement
of real people."12
oral history,
it seems,
Thus, much African
is full
of migration
tales
that explain
what cannot
symbolically
otherwise
be explained--the
of a present
ethnic
emergence
identity.
African
traditionists
cannot explain
this phenomenon because
they
do not relate
as a dynamic process.
history
to them
Instead,
can only be explained
as a series
history
of cataclysmic
events.13
The long process
of what might have been cultural
transferral,
Miller
is related
to the cliche
of migration
explains,
and conIf this
is the case in a number of African
quest.
societies,
one has to ask if western
Mandinka traditions
of origin
are similar.
Do they accord to migration
and conquest
the longer
process of cultural
transferral
from the Manding civilization
of the
upper Niger to the acephalous
of the lower Senegambia
in
peoples
the distant
past?
even the most general
Second,
with Senegambian
acquaintance
338
DONALDR. WRIGHT
of cultural
that a process
one to recognize
today enables
society
assimilation
and inter-ethnic
transferral
is occurring.
On a
I can provide
In 1982 I came
level,
examples.
simple,
personal
to know a woman, Jarra Sanneh, who was the cook of a friend
in
in Serekunda,
whose house my son and I were staying
outside
for this
She was married to a Mandinka man and largely
Banjul.
reason she considered
Mandinka.
She spoke Mandinka and
herself
had a child
thought of as Mandinka.
However, both her
people
She had passed through the permeable memwere Jola.
parents
brane of ethnicity
and
by the relatively
simple act of marriage
she had brought her child along for the transition.
Adopting
of origin
Mandinka traditions
would be only a further
step in
a new ethnic
identity.
acquiring
Another person I know, B.K. Sidibe,
who directs
the Gambia's
is one of the country's
Oral History
and Antiquities
Division,
most devout Mandinkaphiles.
No one has worked harder to collect
that exists
in
the enormous body of Mandinka oral traditions
But Sidibe's
ancestors
were Fulbe,
Senegambia.
people
say, and
his name, Sidibe,
is traditionally
a Fulbe name.
And Sidibe's
third wife,
Binta Jammeh, is Mandinka, owning the reputation
around Banjul as the first
Mandinka woman to have studied
in
America,
though she admits that people back in her father's
upwho "really
river
hometown--people
know," she says--recognize
she has roots among the Serer.
the "Mandinkized"
Sidibe,
Fulbe,
had to obtain
from a marabout to
magical
dispensation
special,
themmarry Jammeh, the "Mandinkized"
though both consider
Serer,
selves
Mandinka today.
are
Thus, people of different
ethnicity
and adopting
new concepts
of their
It
today marrying
ethnicity.
would be naive to think that this sort of ethnic
or
transferral
has been going on only in recent
ethnic
In
adoption
years.
this sort of process
fact,
may be at the heart of much cultural
transferral
that has long been going on in much of the Upper
Guinea Coast and probably
far beyond.14
and related
to the above,
is the fact that there are
Third,
few patronyms
that are conamong today's
Senegambian
population
traditional
sidered
Mandinka surnames.
This is true even among
of the Mandinka states,
the old ruling
families
who maintain
the
traditions
of being descendants
of the Mandinka mistrongest
grant leaders.
Sanneh, Manneh, Wali, Jammeh, Sonko, Bojang,
are patronyms of traditional
Mandinka
Jadama, Marong. . .all
in Senegambia,
families
assoruling
yet all are names normally
ciated
with one of the ethnic
to be indigenous
groups thought
to the western
of Senegambia
coastal
or Guine-Bissau.
If
region
Mandinka migrants
came westward in waves or even merely in significant
then descendants
of the migrants
would almost
numbers,
have the migrants'
surely
patronyms--unless
something
particuunusual
Several
authorities
have attempted
to
larly
happened.
As early as 1849 Bertrandunusual."
explain
that"something
Bocande suggested
that the Manneh surname was originally
a Balant
As the Balant were brought together
with Mandinka to
patronym.
a degree that saw them adopt the Mandinka language
and customs,
ancestors
they made sure they kept the Manneh surname of their
of what Bertrand-Bocande
because
to as "lingering
referred
family
ORAL TRADITIONS AND MANDINKAETHNICITY
339
More recently
Sidibe
notes how many of the
obligations."15
who retained
Mandinka immigrants,
most aspects
of their
culture
as they came west,
their
imincluding
"oddly adopted
language,
of the indigenous
such as the use of
features
portant
cultures,
than paternal
maternal
rather
surnames for their
children
and
the inheritance
of rulership
Neither
through the female line"'16
is satisfactory
nor grounded in solid
explanation
for
evidence,
it remains difficult
to explain
if one
the change of patronyms
assumes there were indeed massive
of people who conmigrations
and brought with them a strong
quered indigenous
populations
cultural
identity.
from several
written
sources
centuries
Fourth,
ago provide
clues
that ethnic
in certain
identity
may have been different
areas and at certain
times than it is now.
Of course,
one has
to be wary of details
on ethnicity
found in early written
sources.
and Portuguese
travelers
had only
Many British,
French,
the haziest
of the variety
of local
and they
cultures
knowledge
ideas of ethnic
and national
brought with them stereotypic
maketo Europe of that time, but probably
up that may have applied
did not apply at all to Africa.
such accounts
Still,
might
shed light
on the evolution
of ethnicity
in Senegambia.
Comparison of the fifteenth-century
of Alvise
texts
Cadamosto and
Diogo Gomes on the one hand with those of Duarte Pacheco Pereira
and Valentim
of the sixteenth
Fernandes
on the other,
century
for example,
that the areas along the lower bank of
suggests
the Gambia River in the 1450s had a population
that the Eurowas
peans considered
later
Wolof, but the same area a century
who at least
populated
Mandinka poby individuals
acknowledged
17
litical
authority.
In 1976 I used this
to support
evidence
conclusions
about
the timing of migrations
to the lower Gambia.18
Now I wonder
if the sources
do not suggest
more clearly
a century
of waxing
Mandinka influence
and cultural
rather
than migration
adaptation
and conquest.
The timing would have been right
for such a process:
the period
after
1450 was when merchants
of the Western
Sudan began reorienting
their
trade routes
to the western
rivers;
was when Mandinka traders
would have been venturing
to the lower
Gambia in significant
numbers,
perhaps setting
up commercial
for the growing African/Eurafrican/European
communities
trade
that became cultural
as well as commercial
for hintercenters
lands of reasonable
It would require
size.
minimal imagination
to construct
a process,
of certain
involving
waxing prominence
and broad intermarriage
with careful
lineages
selection
of marfor political
and economic reasons
riage
partners
(as is done
that would lead fairly
to linguistic
today),
and cultural
rapidly
and the altering
of ethnic
adaptation
identities.19
In addition,
as late
as the beginning
of the nineteenth
J.B.L.
century,
Durand, who came to know the lower Gambia region
differentiated
between "the natives
fairly
of the country,"
well,
who were "few in number," and the much larger
Mandinka population that ruled and seemed to dominate
and society
of
politics
the Gambian states.20
What Durand was observing
may have been
of individuals
who had yet to adopt the Mandinka culture,
pockets
340
DONALDR. WRIGHT
of intercultural
contact
and influence.21
even after
generations
to this day through much of the Mandinka area of SeneIndeed,
of sub-ethnic
gambia there are pockets
identity.
People who are
of their
identified
as Mandinka because
and
primary language
social
customs maintain
identiweak, but still
general
evident,
ties
with ethnicities
of long ago.
of the upperSome regions
most Casamance and east and south of there may be places
where
is most noticeable.
the sub-ethnic
The Pajadinka
of
identity
or the Mansuwanka of west-central
southern
Guine-Bissau
Senegal
of Mandinka who maintain
are examples
a sense of their
preMandinka heritage.22
and perhaps most importantly
in terms of
Fifth,
finally,
of western
this argument,
levels
Mandinka oral tradiseparate
tions
in contrast,
exist
and sometimes
to one
contradiction,
another.
On one level
are the so-called
official
narratives,
a traditionist
the stories
recites
most frequently
when speakor the genesis
of ruling
families.
These
ing of ethnic
origins
are the tales
that contain
of migration
elaborate
narratives
and conquest,
travels
individuals
to the Manding homeby local
lands to seek permission
to rule states
in the west,
and other
for providing
class
the ruling
seeming forms of justification
of the society.
But on another
level
are traditions
that contain mention of the pre-Mandinka
of the present
heritage
population
that identifies
as Mandinka.
itself
These include
genof intermarriage
eral stories
that imply cultural
and ethnic
transferral
over an extended
It is within
this
period of time.
body of oral data among the Senegambian Mandinka that information
on ethnic
that comes closest
to reflecting
a historical
origin
is likely
to be found.
process
The best example I have encountered
of these two levels
of
Mandinka traditions
is that body of data that pertains
to the
of the Jammeh lineage
of the lower Gambia.23
Branches
origin
of this lineage
for two western
rulers
Mandinka states.
provided
In part to justify
their
as a dominant family
in states
position
on the Mandinka model,
the Jammeh have "official"
traditions
that see them as descendants
of the Mandinka warrior
and migrant,
Sora Musa, who is without
a doubt (at least
in my mind) a mythithe Jammeh alcomposite
cal,
figure.
(Within these traditions
most seem to try too hard to show their
Mandinka connections.
One prominent
is of Samake Jammeh, who went to the Manding
tale
to obtain
homelands
to rule" in the west and, while
"permission
and then married the daughter
of the ruler
there,
impregnated
of all Manding territories!)
forHowever, a large body of less
mal Jammeh oral data suggests
the Jammeh were originally
Serer
sort of hybrid,
folk
(or Niuminka--a
fishing
coastal-oriented,
of the Iles
de Saloum) who intermarried
with Mandinka (or "Manfamilies
dinkized")
along the Gambia's lower north bank, and
over time assumed a share of political
in two budding
authority
in the region.
states
Even these traditions
seem to shorten
the
of cultural
assimilation
and transferral
that must have
process
taken place,
but they leave little
doubt that they are making
to such a process
reference
being at the root of the Jammeh
Mandinka identity.
lineage's
present
ORAL TRADITIONS AND MANDINKAETHNICITY
341
III
In the face of these doubts about the specific,
factual
of the stories
of western
Mandinka migration,
veracity
conquest,
and settlement,
obvious
arise
about Mandinka ethniquestions
in Senegambia.
who are the Mandinka of today?
city
First,
of today's
And second,
what are the geographic
Senegamorigins
bian Mandinka population?
Of course,
the Senegambian
Mandinka
are Mandinka because
That they have likely
they say they are.
of origin
or to rationalize
to explain
their
adopted traditions
ethnic
makes them no less Mandinka.
present
identity
But thinking
much of today's
Senegambian
historically,
Mandinka population
with ancesmay well be groups of lineages
roots
tral
in a variety
of ethnic
a number of which
groups,
were autochthonous
in or near their
Over
locations.24
present
of what may have been substantial
centuries
commercial
contact
with Mandinka people
from the Western Sudan (some or even most
of whom may have themselves
ethnic
and
adopted their
identity)
of political
from the strong
influence
Mandinka polities
on the
the Senegambian
Mandinka adopted as their
own the
upper Niger,
Mandinka language,
Mandinka political
and many aspects
system,
of Mandinka culture.
It is possible
that the cultural
transferral
was not altogether
since
the Senegambian
dramatic,
traits
to those of the
similar
peoples
may have had cultural
To explain
this gradual
large body of Manding-speakers.
process of cultural
"official"
traditions
of migration,
adoption,
and settlement
have been adopted as well.
conquest,
They exin acceptable
terms the process
that could not otherwise
plain
be explained
to individuals
who do not regard history
as a matter of long,
slow evolutionary
change.
Answers to questions
about Senegambian
Mandinka geographic
Those ancestors
who were not indigenous
origins
probably
vary.
to the Senegambian
in a gradual,
region may have been participants
uncoordinated
movement of individuals
or small groups to final
of settlement
near their
locations.25
Some may
places
present
have been long-distance
who set up commercial
and cultraders,
tural nodes on the trade routes
far from their
homes.26
original
But conjecture
becomes a strong
that few
eventually
suggestion
to today's
western
Mandinka population
had ancestors
who came
west in one or another wave of migration
from the upper Niger-or from anywhere else some distance
I believe,
away.
Process,
more about early Senegambian
Mandinka history
explains
than do
the more cataclysmic
of migration
tales
and conquest.
IV
Two points
are important
to add in conclusion.
One is
about oral traditions,
the other about ethnicity.
If one agrees
with even part of the arguments
one might be
presented
here,
that the traditions
of origin
of the Senegambian
apt to conclude
Mandinka are without
useful
historical
content.
This is hardly
so.
In one sense the traditions
have value in showing how the
342
DONALDR. WRIGHT
Mandinka view themselves.
Whether or not Sora Musa led
western
so relevant
in
of migrants
westward is not nearly
multitudes
as is the fact that an important
Mandinka
the Mandinka context
in that parthe Jammeh, views itself
and its history
lineage,
truth
historical
The Sora Musa legend represents
ticular
way.
to the Jammeh; to them it explains
how they came to be what they
That in
are and what they have been in the fairly
recent
past.
is important
as historical
truth.27
itself
in the
But there is probably
historical
content
more useful
for the Western-trained
traditions
too.
The accepted
historian,
of origin
as
of various
Senegambian Mandinka lineages,
points
in their
oral traditions,
recited
seem to suggest
important
poof the westernmost
at the
litical
and cultural
savannas
centers
first
times when people
to Senegambia
accepgeneral
indigenous
of the Mandinka idented their
"Mandinkaness"--their
adoption
of
families
that the leading
Thus, one might conclude
tity.
of the upper Gambia, who trace
Mandinka states
the traditional
from the Mali
to migrant leaders
their
origins
coming directly
and commercame under significant
cultural,
empire,
political,
from the Mandinka at times when Mali was at the
cial
influence
of its power and prestige--perhaps
between the middle
height
of the thirteenth
and the middle of the fourteenth
centuries.28
of the lower Gamthe ruling
families
Using similar
reasoning,
to mibian Mandinka states,
most of whom trace their
origins
from the Mandinka (or "Mandinkized")
Kaabu Empire of the
grants
Mandinka
River region,
their
likely
upper Casamance-Geba
accepted
than their
more recently
during
upriver
counterparts,
identity
1600 when Kaabu seems to have been the most powerful
years after
Mandinka region.29
and cultural
unit in the western
political
of Siin and Saloum to have
One could even judge the Wolof-Serer
of Kaabu at the same time,
come under the political
influence
of Manfor the elaborate
in Siin and Saloum traditions
tales
dinka migrants
from Kaabu to the Saloum River region,
leading
of those states,
to the formation
of the ruling
dynasty
guelowar
than they
and cultural
influence
more clearly
suggest
political
do actual,
large-scale
migration.30
if the conclusion
about oral traditions
suggests
Finally,
that historians
of what they once hoped to know
may know less
from a body of African
to be
oral data,
there is a conclusion
that may have valuable
made about Mandinka ethnicity
implications
on a broader
for the study of history
and anthropology
of Mandinka, and seemingly
scale.
The ethnic
identity
others,
in Senegambia
Most inmay always have been extremely
plastic.
dividuals
as so many do
probably
spoke more than one language,
if it involved
as a
Their personal
today.
identity
identity,
was liable
to change
member of an ethnic
group as it does today,
over the course of several--or
even a few--generations,
dependof the process
of cultural
that
transferral
ing on the strength
If this is true of populations
was going on at any given time.
it is unlikely
that the same
in Senegambia
over the centuries,
to other groups in other
ideas do not apply to the same extent
and to groups in other parts of the world.31
areas of Africa
This being the case,
of historical
in Seneassessment
ethnicity
ORAL TRADITIONS AND MANDINKAETHNICITY
343
gambia may lead to our thinking
again about ethnic
origins
and
histories
of select
groups of people whose ethnic
identities
have been bases for the building
of scholarship
relating
to
their
history.
NOTES
1.
2.
*I presented
an earlier
of this paper at the 98th
version
annual meeting
of the American Historical
Association,
December 27, 1983 in San Francisco.
I am grateful
to the
chair of the panel,
David Gamble, and to my co-panelists,
Peter Mark and Robert Baum, for helpful
comments.
Discussions with Mark for a year and more prior to the meeting
to write down my seemingly
played a role in my deciding
random thoughts
in the first
and both Mark and Baum
place,
presented
papers on changing
ethnicity
among the Jola of
southwest
that supported
Senegal
remy general
arguments
to the Mandinka.
See Robert Baum, "Incomplete
lating
Assimilation:
Koonjaen and Diola in Pre-Colonial
Senegambia;"
and Peter Mark, "Conquest,
and Change in
Assimilation,
Northern Basse Casamance."
Of course,
the normal disclaimer
I alone am responsible
for ideas put forth
applies:
in
this paper.
The Mandinka constitute
one of Senegambia's
major ethnic
Persons
who identify
themselves
as Mandinka occupy
groups.
a contiguous
band of territory
that cuts a swath across
southern
in Senegal's
broader
inSenegambia,
considerably
terior
and narrowing
almost to a point at the north bank
of the Gambia River.
In the east the Mandinka belt melds
with the much larger
realm of the Western
Manding-speaking
Sudan.
discussion
of the historiography
Although
thorough
of the
western
of the Mandinka is beyond the scope of
migrations
this paper, brief
examination
of some of the relevant
works from the past century
or more can show how widely
is the idea of eastern
accepted
for the present
origins
Mandinka population
in Senegambia.
books
Nineteenth-century
that contain
mention of Mandinka migrations
into Senegambia
a traveler's
include
S.M.X. Golberry,
account,
Fragmens
d'un voyage en Afrique
fait
pendant les anees 1785, 1786,
et 1787 (2 vols.:
and two, more formal
Paris,
1802);
M. Bertrand-Bocande,
studies,
"Notes sur la Guinee portuou Senegambie
gaise
Bulletin
de la Societe
meridionale,"
de Geographie,
3/11 (1849),
3/12 (1849),
265-350,
57-93;
and L.J.B.
Les peuplades
de la denegambie:
Berenger-Feraud,
histoire,
moeurs et coutumes,
etc.
ethnographie,
(Paris,
Maurice Delafosse's
1879).
important
study,
Haut-SenegalNiger (3 vols.:
contains
Paris,
information
on two
1912),
western
migrants,
Amary Sonko and Sane Nianga Taraore,
the
of whom led migrants
latter
to Niani-Wuli
in the valley
of the Gambia.
Through the middle years of colonial
rule various
344
3.
DONALDR. WRIGHT
data from Mandinka informants
collected
European officials
and wrote of the migrations.
George LorSee, for example,
and Previous
Native Administraimer, "Report on the History
tion of Niumiside,"
Gambia Public
Record Office,
Banjul,
of such reports
of colonial
The importance
1942.
2/2390,
for the true "native
for schemes of
rulers"
looking
agents,
is often underestimated
indirect
when considering
rule,
of information
dissemination
on ethnic
origins.
works in Portuguese
Several
from the middle of this
deal with the migrations.
See Antonio Carreira,
century
1947);
Mandingas da Guine Portuguesa
(Bissau,
Jorge V.
and
Caroco, Monjur--O Gabu e a sua historia
1948);
(Bissau,
A. Teixeira
da Mota, Guine Portuguesa
(2 vols.:
Lisbon,
Les paysans
Paul Pelissier,
du Senegal:
Les civili1954).
sations
du Cayor a la Casamance (Paris,
agraires
1966)
more information
on specific
contains
probably
populations
and their
than any other book dealing
with
migrant origins
Other recent
studies
as
the migrations
Senegambia.
noting
the source of today's
Mandinka are Walter RodSenegambian
1545-1800
ney, History
of the Upper Guinea Coast,
(London,
A. Quinn, Mandingo Kingdoms of the SeneCharlotte
1970);
and European Expansion
Islam,
gambia: Traditionalism,
(Evansand Philip
Economic Change in PreD. Curtin,
ton, 1972);
colonial
in the Era of the Slave Trade
Senegambia
Africa:
(Madison,
1975).
of The Gambia by J.M. Gray, A History
Histories
of the
Gambia (Cambridge,
The Gambia: The
1940);
Lady Southorn,
and Harry
Story of the Groundnut Colony (London, 1952);
A History
Gailey,
of the Gambia (London, 1964) all contain
information
on the migrations,
with different
stated
degrees
of authority.
for instance,
"The Gambia
(Southorn,
writes,
was subject
to many invasions
of tribes
from the East. Each
invader
staked out a petty kingdom for himself.
Of these
invaders
the Mandingos obtained
the chief
hold" [38]).
several
in English
textbooks
and French have
Finally,
to students
on various
levels
spread ideas of the migrations
at different
times.
See W.T. Hamlyn, A Short History
of
the Gambia (Bathurst,
a book used through many re1931),
in Gambian schools;
Florence
0. Mahoney and H.O.
printings
of Senegambia"
in A Thousand Years of
Idowu, "The Peoples
West African
revised
edited
History,
edition,
by J.F.A.
and Sekene-Mody
Ajayi and Ian Espie (Ibadan,
132-48;
1969),
de l'afrique
Histoire
occidentale:
et
Cissoko,
moyen-age
siecle-1850
Cissoko de1966).
temps moderne,
(Paris,
viie
tails
just which areas different
migrants
conquered:
Gambia,
for Tiramakan
and perhaps even Djolof
upper Casamance,
for Amari Sonko.
Traore;
Bafing-Bondou
In no way do I wish to demean the value of the International
on the Oral Traditions
of Kaabu.
Conference
In fact,
it
was one of the best conferences
I have attended
and I am
to the Leopold Senghor Foundation
for making possigrateful
ble my attendance.
Many of the ideas for this paper germinI had with Joye B. Hawkins, Winifred
ated in discussions
ORAL TRADITIONS AND MANDINKAETHNICITY
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
345
Samba Ka, Bakary Sidibe,
and others
there.
ConGalloway,
ference
information
on Mandinka westward
papers containing
Phillott
"An Outline
include
migrations
Ralphina
Almeida,
of Pachesi"
Camara and Sanoussi
Nantenin
History
Zainoul,
et migrations
des peoples
du Gabu"; Sekene-Mody
"Origine
a l'histoire
"Introduction
des Mandingues de
Cissoko,
l'ouest:
de Kabou (xvi-xix
Winifred
1'empire
siecles)";
of Some Kaabu States
F. Galloway,
"A Listing
and Associated Areas"; Henri Gravand, "Le Gabou dans les traditions
orales
and B.K. Sidibe,
Serrer";
"Tiraamakang:
Background
to the Migrations
from Manding to Kaabu."
Donald R. Wright,
The Early History
of Niumwni:Settlement
and Foundation
on the Gambia River
of a Mandinka State
1 and 2.
(Athens,
Ohio, 1977),
chapters
"A Listing
of Some Kaabu States,"
brief
Galloway,
provides
summaries of major traditions
of origin
of all the Senegambian Mandinka states.
The Tiramakan story
is the most popular
tradition
of oriin the western
Mandinka region.
gin of peoples
living
of Tiramakan "going west" are told also in Mali and
Stories
eastern
Guinea.
For a translated
of a nartranscription
ration
of the story of Tiramakan's
westward
see
migration
Sidibe,
"Tiraamakang."
A more complete
of the Sora Musa legend is found
discussion
in my Early History
of Niumi, 41ff.
of the Amori Sonko story are found in Golberry,
Versions
Thomas Brown to the AdministraFragmens,
II, 118-20,
159ff;
Record
tor, Bathurst,
September
27, 1871, Gambia Public
Office
and Hamlyn, Short History,
49.
1/29;
For this Darbo tradition
of origin
see Donald R. Wright,
Oral Traditions
from The Gambia (2 vols.:
Athens,
Ohio,
2: 25-31.
1979-80),
Individuals
other than Mandinka recite
Mandinka traditions
of origin.
The guelowar,
a former socio-political
elite
claim Mandinka
among the Serer of west-central
Senegal,
Their traditions
of origin
contain
elabororigins.
fairly
ate tales
of Mandinka migrations
from Mali to Kaabu and
to the Serer regions.
thence
See Gravand, "Le Gabou"'
S. Diop, "L'impact
de la civilisation
Abdoulaye
mandingue
au Senegal:
la genese de la royaute
Guelowar au Siin et au
at the Conference
on Manding
Saloum," Paper presented
Studies,
London, 1972; and M'Baye Gueye, "Les Mandingues
et le Sine,"
at the Conference
on Manding
Paper presented
Studies.
The African
Past Speaks:
ed.,
Joseph C. Miller,
Essays on
Oral Tradition
and History
(Hamden, CT, 1980) contains
several
of such studies.
examples
See, for example,
chapters by Richard Sigwalt,
John Yoder, and David Cohen.
Other relevant
discussions
are to be found in T.O. BeidelA Kaguru Traditional
man, "Myth, Legend, and Oral History:
65 (1970),
Jan Vansina,
"TradiText," Anthropos,
74-97;
tions
of Genesis,"
JAH, 15 (1974),
318-20;
Wyatt MacGaffey,
"African
and the Rationality
of
History,
Anthropology,
346
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
DONALDR. WRIGHT
Robert Harms, "Oral Tradi101-19;
Natives,"
HA, 5 (1978),
tion and Ethnicity,"
Journal
of Interdisciplinary
History,
and David Henige,
Oral Historiography
10 (1979),
61-85;
90-96.
(London, 1982),
for the African
Past" in The African
Miller,
"Listening
Past Speaks,
32.
16.
Ibid.,
she can identify
the "birth and
Kathryn Green believes
of certain
ethnic
'death'"
groups in northern
Ivory Coast.
See also
19 August 1984.
Green, personal
communication,
and Dyula in Kong (Ivory
Green, "Sonangui
paper
Coast),"
at the annual meeting
of the African
Studies
presented
Martin
October 1981.
Association,
Bloomington,
Indiana,
in anthropology
candidate
at SUNY-BinghamFord, a doctoral
in early October 1984 for fieldwork
in northton, left
eastern
Liberia.
Intent
cultural
assimilaupon examining
tion among a small Mandingo group, Ford believes
he has
"an ethnic
identified
group in the making."
Ford, personal
30 July 1984.
communication,
324-25.
Bertrand-Bocande,
"Notes,"
B.K. Sidibe,
"The Nyanchos of Kaabu," unpublished
paper,
8.
n.d.,
The Voyages of Cadamosto and Other Documents,
ed. G.R.
Crone (London, 1937),
67, 92, 95; Duarte Pacheco Pereira,
Esmeraldo
de Situ Orbis (London, 1937),
de
88; Description
la cote occidentale
. .par Valentim Fernandes
d'Afrique.
ed. Theodore Monod et aZ (Bissau,
(1506-1510),
37.
1951),
Donald R. Wright,
"Niumi: The History
of a Western Mandinka
State
Indiana
Through the Eighteenth
Century,"
(Ph.D.,
87 and n26.
University,
1976),
Robert Harms identifies
a process
very much like the simple
one I construct
here in River of Wealth, River of Sorrow:
The Central
Zaire Basin in the Era of the Slave and Ivory
Harms
125ff.
Trade, 1500-1891
(New Haven, 1981),
8-12,
includes
information
related
in his "Oral Tradition
and
and in "Bobangi Oral Traditions:
of
Indicators
Ethnicity,"
in The African
Past Speaks,
178-200.
Changing Perceptions"
J.B.L.
38-39.
Durand, A Voyage to Senegal
(London, 1806),
One is easily
reminded here of the pockets
of unassimilated
Sotho in hilly
San, living
among the culturally-dominant
of Basutoland
in the nineteenth
Because
regions
century.
of their
mode of subsistence,
the San in
hunting-gathering
Basutoland
were no doubt more easily
identified
than were
the culturally-similar
of horticulture
practitioners
living
among the Gambian Mandinka.
See Galloway,
37-41 et passim;
Almeida,
"Listing,"
29-30,
of Pachesi."
"History
The more thoroughly
one gets to know the oral traditions
of a specific
the more one is apt to become famlineage,
iliar
with the less
formal--and
less
and stylized-organized
traditions
that hint at historical
It is not coinprocess.
I believe,
that I knew Jammeh oral history
better
cidence,
than I did that of any other lineage
and that I also came
ORAL TRADITIONS AND MANDINKAETHNICITY
24.
25.
26.
347
to know the body of less-formal
Jammeh traditions.
A more
of what I consider
thorough
to have been the
explanation
process
of the Gamby which the Jammeh came to be rulers
bian states
of Baddibu and Niumi is found in my EarZy History of Niumi, 41ff.
At this point it seems necessary
to make a disclaimer.
is a concept
I am uncomfortable
to resEthnicity
applying
of Senegambia
idents
of a century
of more ago.
As we know
of it,
in terms of the Mandinka, Wolof,
Fulbe
ethnicity,
and Serer of Senegambia,
(or Fula),
Jola,
may be a concept
residents
imposed on local
officials
by European colonial
as they sought to count people
and to put them into various
of colonial
rule.
categories
during the early stages
I
that the sense of identity
of most Senegambians
suspect
of
the mid-nineteenth
was tied much more to local
century
levels
than it is today.
A Senegambian
may have thought
of himself
as a member of an extended
a lineage,
family,
a village,
or even at the extreme a widely-dispersed
clan,
but his concept
of identity,
based more on kinship
structures that probably
crossed
lines
than on a
linguistic
sense of being part of an ethnic
group, may not have extended in practical
terms far beyond the village
level.
It is difficult
to reconstruct
a Senegambian
sense of ethor identity
of more than a century
nicity
ago, but if even
part of the comments in this note are valid,
then it may
be inappropriate
to try to reconstruct
such a sense for
of the past.
Senegambians
Small movements of people
such as these have been going on
in Senegambia
the ages.
There is still
a conthroughout
siderable
amount of population
movement with permanent or
settlement.
the nineteenthsemi-permanent
and
Certainly
twentieth-century
the
phenomenon of "strange
farming,"
movement of individuals
from their
homes to good farming
areas to make one or more cash crops,
is an example of such
movement.
even individual
Making possible
small-scale,
migration
and beyond is the so-called
through Senegambia
the institutionalized
landlord-stranger
hosrelationship,
that enables
to reside
pitality
in communities
strangers
for varying
of time with the possibility
lengths
of ultimate assimilation
and permanent settlement.
An excellent
article
on this
in Sierra
type of relationship
Leone, which
is similar
to the practice
in Senegambia,
is V.R. Dorjahn
and Christopher
"Landlord and Stranger:
Fyfe,
Change in
in Sierra
Tenancy Relations
Leone," JAH, 3 (1962),
391-97.
There is reason to suspect
that long-distance
or
traders,
a combination
of traders
and artisans,
had a particularly
role in the process
important
of cultural
transferral.
In
there may have been a drawn-out
brief,
that involvea
process
the movement of small groups of merchants,
or merchants
and artisans
to new areas where they lived
among local
populations
as welcomed "strangers."
Once settled
they may
have prospered
beyond the norm and become the sorts
of individuals
to whom local
residents
wanted to gain connection
348
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
DONALDR. WRIGHT
or relationships
of clientage.
Over
ties
through marriage
merchant families,
the years these prosperous
growing in
into their
own
size as they assimilated
indigenous
people
could have served as
cultural
and linguistic
practices,
of Senegambia.
in regions
of cultural
the focii
transferral
Jan Vansina wonders if such a process
would be at the heart
of much of the Bantu "expansion"
in his "Bantu in the
312ff.
Crystal
Ball,
II," HA, 7 (1980),
Thomas Spear makes this point in "Oral Traditions:
Whose
165-81.
HA, 8 (1981),
History?"
of the ruling
of the traditional
Descendants
families
of the upper Gambia--Wuli,
Mandinka states
Jimara,
Kantora,
and Nyani--claim
came
their
migrant ancestors
original
from Mali.
"A Listing."
See Galloway,
directly
In spite
of claims
to the contrary,
I believe
it is difficult to determine
when the Kaabu Empire grew to a position
of strength
in the Gambia-Casamance-Gega
The
River areas.
most recent
and most thorough
study of Kaabu is Mamadou
au
a l'histoire
du Kaabu des origines
Mane, "Contribution
Fondamental
XIX siecle,"
Bulletin
de Z'Institut
d'Afrique
threeB.K. Sidibe's
Series
88-159.
Noire,
B, 40 (1978),
at the 1972 Manding Conferpart study of Kaabu, presented
on oral data.
The
ence in London, is based almost solely
"The Story of Kaabu: Its Exthree papers bear the titles,
"The Story of Kaabu: The Fall of Kaabu;" and "The
tent;"
with the Gambian
Story of Kaabu: Kaabu's Relationship
States."
See note 10 above.
who have applied
In addition
some
to the other historians,
of several
of these
ideas to the study of origins
different
tradiAfrican
studied
David Henige has recently
groups,
of origin
of several
isotions
groups of American racial
of Guineas,
Lumlates.
Examining traditions
Melungeons,
and Ramapo Mountain people,
bees,
Henige has found little
and
between their
agreement
mostly borrowed,
traditions,
what can be determined
of their
actual
See his
origins.
of American Racial
Isolates:
A Case of
Traditions
"Origin
11 (1983/84),
JournaZ,
Something
Borrowed,"
Appalachian
200-213.