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Pour une Meilleure Compréhension de la Structure Sociale des Wolofs
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Ogawa, Ryo |
| Copyright Year | 2010 |
| Abstract | For a Better Comprehension of the Social Structure of the Wolofs of Senegal It is known that, among the Wolof people in Senegal of the West Africa, a kingdom called Jolof had already existed since around the 13th century and it originated other kingdoms as, for example, that of the Waalo, the Kayor or the Baol. It is true that these kingdoms had each a king who was called by a diff erent title in each kingdom, but all of them had almost the same social structure. Many Senegalese or foreign scholars have touched, directly or indirectly, the problem of the social structure of the Wolof people; almost all were in accord to say that the Wolof society was organized in a strict hierarchy and represented the social structure in a way of a stratifi cation composed mainly of three groups of people: the nobles and the common peoples/diff erent sorts of artisans who were organized in caste-like groups/the slaves (the position of the artisans and the slaves having been interchangeable). A problem of this kind of comprehension of the structure existed at the level of the slaves. In fact, among the people who had been defi ned as slaves, there were slaves of the common people who were mainly agriculturers. ese slaves executed naturally the work of agriculture. But, there were also slaves of the king and the nobles. ese slaves who served the king and the nobles of different degrees were not agriculturers but executed the different kinds of works of the king and the nobles. e king’s slaves, called ceddo in Wolof language, were warriors who depended directly of the king and had a strong power, politically and socially. It is known that the chief of the king’s slaves participated in the election of the king and he was an intimate advisor of the king. As warriors, they naturally acted as soldiers in battles which a king made to other kingdoms, but they also attacked and plundered the common peoples in the kingdom. ey were the people quite near to the king and they had in consequence a strong political and social power. By a comprehension of the society in a way of simple stratifi cation of the three groups of people, the Wolof social structure could not be apprehended correctly. In the book, La société wolof, published in 1981, Abdoulaye-Bara Diop insisted that it was essentially necessary to recognize two systems which |
| Starting Page | 113 |
| Ending Page | 130 |
| Page Count | 18 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/41883472.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
