| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 7,902,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Senegal | 7,192,000[1] |
 Gambia | 300,000[2] |
 Mauritania | 230,000[3] |
 France | 70,000 |
 Mali | 60,000 |
 Spain | 50,000 |
| Languages | |
| Wolof | |
| Religion | |
| Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Serer,Jola,Lebou | |
TheWolof people (UK:/ˈwoʊlɒf/)[4][5] are aNiger-Congoethnic group native to theSenegambia region ofWest Africa. Senegambia is today split between western Senegal, northwesternGambia and coastalMauritania; the Wolof form the largest ethnic group within Senegambia. In Senegal as a whole, the Wolof are the largest ethnic group (~39.7%), while elsewhere they are a minority.[6] Theyrefer to themselves asWolof and speak theWolof language, in theWest Atlantic branch of theNiger–Congo family of languages; English inheritedWolof as both the adjectival ethnonym and the name of the language.[7]
Their early history is unclear. The earliest documented mention of the Wolof is found in the records of 15th-century, Portuguese-financed Italian travellerAlvise Cadamosto, who mentioned well-established Islamic Wolof chiefs advised by Muslim counselors.[7][8] The Wolof belonged to the medieval-eraWolof Empire of theSenegambia region.[8]
Details of the pre-Islamic religious traditions of the Wolof are unknown, and their oral traditions state them to have been adherents of Islam since the foundingking of Jolof.[8] However, historical evidence left by Islamic scholars and European travelers suggest that Wolof warriors and rulers did not initially convert to Islam, although accepting and relying on Muslim clerics as counselors and administrators. In and after the 18th century, the Wolof were impacted by the violentjihads in West Africa, which triggered internal disagreements about Islam among the Wolof.[8] In the 19th century, as the colonial French forces launched a war against the Wolof kingdoms, the Wolof people resisted the French and converted to Islam.[8][9][10] Contemporary Wolofs are predominantlySunni Muslims belonging toMouride andTijaniyyah Islamic brotherhoods.[7]
The Wolof people, like other West African ethnic groups, historically maintained a rigid,endogamous social stratification that included nobility, clerics, castes, and slaves.[7][11][12] The Wolof were close to the French colonial rulers, became integrated into the colonial administration, and have dominated the culture and economy of Senegal since the country's independence from France on 4 April 1960.[13]
They are also referred to as theWollof,[14]Jolof,Iolof,Whalof,Ialof,Olof, andVolof, among other spellings.[15]
The termWolof also refers to theWolof language and to their states, cultures, and traditions. Older French publications frequently employ the spellingOuolof; up to the 19th century, the spellings Wolof,Wolluf,Volof, andOlof are also encountered, among rarer variants likeYolof,Dylof,Chelof,Galof,Lolof, and others.[7][16] In English,Wollof andWoloff[4] are found, particularly in reference to theGambian Wolof; for English-speakers, the spellingWollof is closer to the native pronunciation of the name.[16]) The spellingJolof is also often used, but in particular reference to theJolof Empire andJolof Kingdom that existed in central Senegal from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Similarly, a West African rice dish is known in English asJollof rice.[17]
The origins of the Wolof people are obscure, states David Gamble, a professor of anthropology and African studies specializing inSenegambia.[18] Archeological artifacts have been discovered in Senegal and the Gambia, such as pre-historic pottery, the 8th-century stones, and 14th-century burial mounds, but, states Gamble, these provide no evidence that links them exclusively to the Wolof ethnic group. Their name as the Wolof first appears in the records of 15th-century Portuguese travelers.[18]
With the Arab conquests of West Africa in last centuries of the 1st millennium CE, one theory states that the Wolof people were forced to move into north and east Senegal where over time villages and towns developed into autonomous states such as Baol, Kayor, Saloum, Dimar, Walo, and Sine the overall ruling state being that of Jolof who came together voluntarily to form the Jolof Empire.[citation needed][19] According to Gamble, this migration likely occurred at the end of 11th century when theGhana Empire fell to the Muslim armies from Sudan.[18]
Another oral tradition tells of a legend in Walo, which starts with two villages near a lake in a dispute. A mysterious person arose from the lake to settle the dispute. The villagers detained him; he settled among them and became the one who settled disputes and sovereign authority. He was calledNdyadyane Ndyaye, and his descendants were calledNdiayes orNjie, and these led to ruling families of Wolof, Mali according to this mythical legend.[18] The documented history, from 15th-century onwards, is a complex story of the rivalry between powerful families, wars, coups and conquests in Wolof society.[20]
TheJolof or Wolof Empire was a medieval West African state that ruled in modern day Senegal, portions in Southern Mauritania and the Gambia from approximately 1350 to 1890. While only ever consolidated into a single state structure for part of this time, the tradition of governance, caste, and culture of the Wolof dominate the history of north-central Senegal for much of the last 800 years. Its final demise at the hands of French colonial forces in the 1870s–1890s also marks the beginning of the formation of Senegal as a unified state.
By the end of the 15th century, the Wolof states of Jolof, Kayor, Baol, and Walo had become united in a federation with Jolof as the metropolitan power. The position of king was held by the Burba Wolof, and the rulers of the other component states owed loyalty and tribute payments to him. Before the Wolof people became involved in goods andslave trading with the Portuguese merchants on the coast, they had a long tradition of established trading of goods and slaves with the WesternSudanese empires and withImamate of Futa Toro and other ethnic groups in North Africa.[21]
Slavery had been a part of the Wolof culture since their earliest recorded history. Prior to thearrival of Europeans to regions inhabited by the Wolof, slaves there were either born into slavery or enslaved via purchase or capture in warfare.[22] Beginning in the 16th century, Portuguese slave traders started topurchase slaves fromSenegambian ports to transport to theirAmerican colonies; these slaves frequently passed through Wolof lands before arriving at the coast. As the European demand for slaves increased during the 17th and 18th centuries, the Wolof people became both victims and victimisers in the selling of slaves to Europeans.[23] This era saw a corresponding increase in Wolofslave raids to acquire captives to transport to the coast and trade for European firearms.[24] Wolof people, known to the Spanish asjelofes, were among the first African slaves to arrive in the Americas, when a group of enslaved Wolof landed inHispaniola, in 1522.[25] They were also the first African slaves to arrive toCosta Rica andPanama.[25] Albeit Islam was outlawed in the Spanish Empire among the Wolof people were some of the first Muslim populations to arrive the Americas.[25] By one estimate the Wolof,Mandinka andTukulor made up almost 30% of theAfrican population of Mexico in 1549. Enslaved Wolof were also present inPeru andCartagena de Indias in present-day Colombia.[25]
The transatlantic slave trade led to the Wolof acquiring Europeanfirearms, which were bartered for slaves on theWest African coast. With these firearms, the intensity and violence of Wolof slave raids (and conflicts with other ethnic groups in general) increased. An example is the war between the Wolof and Fulani in the 1790s and early 1800s, which led to the ensalvement ofAnta Madjiguène Ndiaye.[26] However, these slave raids eventually began to subside as European and American governments progressively outlawed their nations' involvement in the slave trade.[24] During theNew Imperialism era, theScramble for Africa saw the majority of African territory, including lands inhabited by the Wolof, fall under Europeancolonial rule. These new colonial regimes moved to outlaw slavery, and by the 1890s, theFrench authorities in West Africa had largely abolished the institution.[22] However, the social distinctions between free-born Wolof and slaves remained present during the period of colonial rule, continuing even after thedecolonisation of Africa in the mid-20th century, which saw the Wolof become independent from European colonial rule.[22]
The Wolof people are the largest ethnic group in Senegal, particularly concentrated in its northwestern region near theSenegal River and theGambia River.[6][7] In the Gambia, about 16% of the population are Wolof. In the Gambia, they are a minority. However, Wolof language and culture have a disproportionate influence because of their prevalence inBanjul, the Gambian capital, where a majority of the population is Wolof. In Mauritania, about 8% of the population are Wolof. Their total population exceeds 6 million in the three countries.
The vast majority of Wolof people areSunni Muslims. However, religious practice often contains local elements.[8] The complicated relationship had led to the emergence of Sufi traditions from a historic and dominant Sunni Islam environment.[27]
The pre-Islamic religious traditions of Wolof are unknown, and neither written nor oral traditions about their traditional religion are available. Theoral traditions of the Wolof have legends that state them to have been adherents of Islam since the founding of theirKingdom of Jolof.[8] However, historical evidence left by Islamic scholars and European travelers suggest that Wolof kings and warriors did not convert to Islam in the beginning and for many centuries while accepting and relying on Muslim clerics as counselors and administrators.[8]
According to David Gamble, the pre-Islamic beliefs of Wolof may be reflected and absorbed in the Sufi beliefs about good and bad spirits (jinn), amulets, dances, and other rituals.[28]
In and after the 18th century, the Wolofs were impacted by the violentjihads in West Africa, which triggered internal disagreements among the Wolof on Islam.[8]Ira Lapidus, a professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic History, states that the early-19th-century Senegambian fighters "swept through Senegambia burning villages, killing pagans and enslaving their enemies," and were responsible for the conversion of substantial numbers of Wolof to Islam.[29] The West African jihads that involved the Wolof and other ethnic groups started early and often inspired by militant reformers such as those of the 15th century.[30] The assaults of the 18th and 19th century jihads, states Lapidus, paved the way for massive conversions to Islam, yet not a nearly universal conversion.[8][29]
In the late 19th century, as the French colonial forces launched a war against the Wolof kingdoms, the Wolof people resisted the French and triggered the start of near-universal conversion of the Wolof people in Senegambia to Islam.[8][9][10] Wolofs joined the various competingSufi Muslim movements in the 20th century, particularly those belonging to theMouride andTijaniyyah Islamic brotherhoods.[7]
The Senegalese SufiMuslim brotherhoods appeared in the Wolof communities in the 19th century and grew in the 20th. The Sufi leaders andmarabouts exercise cultural and political influence amongst most Muslim communities, most notably the leader of theMuridiyya also called theMouride brotherhood.[31]
In the 20th century,Ahmadiyya missionaries opened offices in contemporary Senegambia, but very few Wolof have become members of these.[32]
The Wolof people's traditional culture and practices have survived the colonial era and are a strong element of theSenegalese culture.
Wolof (/ˈwɒlɒf/) is a language ofSenegal,the Gambia, andMauritania, and the native language of the Wolof people. Like the neighbouring languagesSerer andFula, it belongs to theSenegambian branch of theNiger–Congo language family. Unlike most other languages ofSub-Saharan Africa, Wolof is not atonal language.
Wolof originated as the language of theLebu people.[33][34] It is the most widely spoken language in Senegal, spoken natively by the Wolof people (40% of the population) but also by most other Senegalese as a second language.[citation needed]
Wolofdialects vary geographically and between rural and urban areas. "Dakar-Wolof," for instance, is an urban mixture of Wolof,French, andArabic.
The Wolof people have had a rigid, patriarchal,endogamous social stratified society at least since the 15th-century.[11][35][36]
The social strata have included a free category calledgeer, a castes category callednyeenyo orneeno, and a servile category of slaves calledjaam.[35][37] Caste status has been hereditary, and endogamy among the men and women of a particular caste status has been an enduring feature among the Wolof people, according to Leonardo Villalón, a professor of Political Science and African Studies.[38] The Wolof's caste status, states Villalón, is a greater barrier to inter-marriage than is either ethnicity or religion in Senegal.[38]
The castes have also been hierarchal, with lowest level being those ofgriots.[39][40] Their inherited inferiority has been culturally stated to be close to those of slaves (jaams orkaals).[39] The castes, states David Gamble, were associated with ideas of relative purity/impurity.[41] The leatherworkers, for example, were considered the lowest of thenyenyo because their occupation involving animal skins was considered dirty.[41]
Slaves have historically been a separate, endogamous group in the Wolof society.[35] Slaves were either inherited by birth in the Wolof society, or were kidnapped, purchased as children from desperate parents during difficult times such as famine, or slavery was imposed by the village elders as a punishment for offenses. By the early 18th-century, all sorts of charges and petty crimes resulted in the accused being punished for the slave strata. Slaves acquired by kidnapping, purchase or as captives of war were calledjaam say in the Wolof society.[42]
Thegeer or "freeborn" too had a hierarchical structure. At the top were the royal rulers, below them were the regionally or locally dominant noble lineages who controlled territories and collected tribute, and below them were commoner freeborn called thebaadoolo or "lacking power".[41]
The chronological origin of social stratification based on castes and slavery is unclear, likely linked. Tal Tamari, an anthropological researcher at theCentre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Paris, suggests that a corollary of the rising slavery system was the development and growth of a caste system among Wolofs by the 15th century, and other ethnic groups of Africa by about the 13th century.[43][44] However, according to Susan McIntosh, a professor of anthropology specializing in African societies, the emergence of caste systems in West African societies such as the Wolof, Mande, Malinke, Serer, andSoninke was likely older.[44] She places the development and spread of castes in these societies to about the 10th century, becauseslave capture, slave trade, and slave holding by elite families across theSahel, West Africa, and North Africa was an established institution by then, and slavery created a template for servile relationships and social stratification.[44] According to Victoria B. Coifman, a professor of Afro-American and African studies, historical evidence suggests that the Wolof people were a matrilineal society before the 14th-century. Later politico-religious changes, such as those brought during theWolof Empire era, introduced major changes in the social structure among the Wolofs and many other ethnic groups, including a shift to a patrilineal system.[35]
The divisions, the endogamy among Wolof castes, social and political groups have persisted into the post-colonial independent Senegal.[45][46]
The Wolof are primarily rural (~75%), living in small villages. According to David Gamble, the historical evidence suggests Wolofs used to live in large settlements priors to the jihad wars and slave raids.[47]
Wolof villages consist of a cluster ofcompounds. Some clusters are random with no central plaza, and many are clustered around a plaza with a mosque in the center. Each compound has either round or square huts made from adobe-like mud-millet stalk walls and thatched roofs with a conical shape. A compound is sometimes fenced with a hedge made from reeds or millet-stalk.[47][48]
A single compound may have multiple huts, with a patrilocal male as its head, with a different wife and her children in each hut in polygynous households. A compound traditionally operates a joint kitchen, but if there are internal disputes then each family unit cooks separately.[48]
A village is headed by a chief, called theborom dekk. This role belongs to a caste and has been hereditary. The chief has been the tribute (tax) collector and the interface between the kingdom officials and the villagers. Typically, the chief is also a Muslim religious leader, calledseriñ (marabout).[48] Larger villages have an imam, called theyélimaan, and a hunting or warriors leader called thesaltigé. Both have traditionally been hereditary castes. Social relationships within a village are based on hierarchy, while disputes are typically settled with intermediaries and Muslim tribunals headed by an Islamic judge called aqadi.[48][49]
Marriages are endogamous. The preferred and common form of marriage is the bilateral cross-cousin type, with most preferred marriages are those between a man and the daughter of his mother's brother. Multiple marriages have been common, with many Wolof households featuring two wives.[48][50]Dowery among the Wolof people is paid in the form of abrideprice.[51] The dower is the property of the woman upon the consummation of the marriage.
While slavery is illegal in contemporary African societies, it was common in the history of Wolof people and among the elite castes.[52] The slaves could not marry without the permission of their owner, and it was usually the responsibility of the slave owner to arrange the marriage of or among his slaves. The slave owner and his descendants also had a right to have sex with slave women owned by the household.[52][53]
The Wolof people are traditionally settled farmers and artisans. Millet has been the typical staple, while rice a secondary staple when rains are plenty. Cassava is also grown, but it has been a source of income for the Wolof farmers. Since the colonial era,peanuts have been the primary cash crop.[48]
Wolof society is patrilineal, and agricultural land is inherited by the landowning caste. The typical farmers in a village pay rent (waref) to the landowner for the right to crop his land.[48][54] Wolof farmers raise chickens and goats, and dried or smoked fish purchased, both a part of their diet. Cattle are also raised, not for food, but milk, tilling the land, and as a reserve of wealth. Rural Wolof people eat beef rarely, typically as a part of a ceremonial feast. Some villages in contemporary times share agricultural machinery and sell the peanut harvest as a cooperative.[48]
Those Wolof people who are of artisan castes work on metal, weave and dye textiles, produce leather goods, make pottery and baskets, tailor clothes, produce thatch and perform such economic activity. Wolof smiths produce tools for agriculture, while another group works on gold jewelry.[48][55]
Occupation is traditionally based on gender and inherited caste. Men of certain caste are smiths, leatherworkers,weavers (now the profession of former slave descendants). Religious and political functions have been the domain of men, while women typically keep the household, bring water from their sources such as wells or nearby rivers. Women also plant, weed, harvest crops and collect firewood. Women of the pottery caste group, also help in steps involved in making pottery.[48]
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Endogamous artisan and musician groups are characteristic of over fifteen West African peoples, including the Manding, Soninke, Wolof, Serer, Fulani, Tukulor, Songhay, Dogon, Senufo, Minianka, Moors, and Tuareg. Castes appeared among the Malinke no later than 1300, and were present among the Wolof and Soninke, as well as some Songhay and Fulani populations, no later than 1500.
ETHNONYMS: Chelofes, Galofes, Guiolof, Gyloffes, Ialofes, Iolof, Jalof, Jolof, Olof, Ouoloff, Valaf, Volof, Wollufs, Yaloffs, Yolof.
Jollof rice west africa.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
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