Kingdom of Sine: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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[[File:EthniesSénégal.jpg|thumb|left|''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 [[Kingdom of Baol|Baol]], Sine and [[Kingdom of Saloum|Saloum]] are arrayed along the southwest coast, with the inland areas marked "''Peuple Sérère''".]]

[[File:Serer Royal War Drum (Jung-Jung). 19th Century. Jung-Jung From The Kingdom of Sine (in modern day Senegal).jpg|thumb|right|19th century war drum called ''[[junjung]]'' in [[Serer language]]. Played when [[Serer people|Serer]] kings and warriors went to war. From the Kingdom of Sine.]]According to the historian David Galvan, "The oral historical record, written accounts by early Arab and European explorers, and physical anthropological evidence suggest that the various Serer peoples migrated south from the Fuuta Tooro region (Senegal River valley) beginning around the eleventh century, when Islam first came across the Sahara."<ref name="Galvan">Galvan, Dennis Charles, ''The State Must Be Our Master of Fire: How Peasants Craft Culturally Sustainable Development in Senegal'' Berkeley, University of California Press, 2004 p.51</ref>{{rp|p.51}} Over generations these people, possibly [[Pulaar]] speaking herders originally, migrated through Wolof areas and entered the Siin and Saluum river valleys. This lengthy period of Wolof-Serer contact has left us unsure of the origins of shared "terminology, institutions, political structures, and practices."<ref name="Galvan"/>{{rp|p.52}}

Professor Étienne Van de Walle gave a slightly later date, writing that "The formation of the Sereer ethnicity goes back to the thirteenth century, when a group came from the Senegal River valley in the north fleeing Islam, and near Niakhar met another group of Mandinka origin, called the Gelwar, who were coming from the southeast (Gravrand 1983). The actual Sereer ethnic group is a mixture of the two groups, and this may explain their complex bilinear kinship system".<ref>{{cite book|last=Van de Walle|first=Étienne|title=African Households: Censuses And Surveys|year=2006|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0765616197|page=80}}</ref>

The actual foundation of the Kingdom of Sine is unclear, but in the late 14th century [[Mandinka people|Mandinka]] migrants entered the area. They were led by a matrilineal clan known as the Gelwaar. Here they encountered the Serer, who had already established a system of lamanic authorities, and established a Gelwaar led state with its capital in or near a Serer lamanic estate centred at [[Mbissel]].<ref name="Galvan"/>{{rp|p.54}}<ref>Klein, Martin A. ''Islam and Imperialism in Senegal. Sine-Saloum, 1847-1914'', Stanford: Stanford University Press.[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JPSrAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=Guelowars,+++Mandinkas&source=bl&ots=2noA-mSUk_&sig=_J1hfyFQ1ieZaI0aT7mgyyPjZ0o&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Kk9TUIi5MKLB0QXbwICYDw&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Guelowars%2C%20%20%20Mandinkas&f=false] ISBN:978-0804706216 p.8</ref>