1 - Métissage in Nineteenth Century Senegal:Hybrid Identity and French Colonialism in a West African Town
Corresponding Author(s) : Hilary Jones
Afrika Zamani,
No. 18-19 (2011): Afrika Zamani: An Annual Journal of African History
Abstract
This paper argues that Saint Louis’ peculiarity did not match neither the identity of African societies of the interior nor that of metropolitan France. neither was it identical to notions of sychretism or creolisation. At the contrary, this city gave birth to a cosmopolite society with different national, ethnic linguistic and religious identities comparatively influenced as they were by their relationships with States and societies of the Senegal Valley region, the transatlantic trade. This paper offers a re-reading of accounts by European travellers and officials combined with study of archival records, publications such as the Moniteur du Senegal, private papers and portrait photographs. Based on extensive field work, this paper sheds light on an overlooked aspect of African history and casts new light on modern Atlantic and French colonial history by suggesting that these locations were not solely formed by elite European actors but by local inhabitants of the colonies and remote outposts..
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- selle, J-L.,1990, 1998, Mestizo Logics, translated by Claudia Royal, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- Becker, C., Martin V. and Schmitz-Chastanet, J. 1983, ‘Les premiers recensements au Sénégal et l’évolution démographique, Dakar: ORSTOM, 3.
- Benoist, J.R., 2007,Histoire de l’église catholique au Sénégal, Paris : Karthala, pp. 88-94, 100-102, 109.
- Berlin, I., 1996, ‘From Creole to African: Atlantic Creoles and the Origins of African- American Society in Mainland North America,’ The William and Mary Quarterly 53, 2Apr, pp. 351-288.
- Bhabha, H., 1994,The Location of Culture, London: Routledge.
- Boilat, Abbé D., 1984, Esquisses Sénégalaises, Paris: Karthala, reprint 1853), pp. 12-14, 209, 221.
- Boubacar, B., 1998, Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade, trans., Ayi Kwei Armah, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Boubacar, B., 1985, Le Royaume du Walo, Paris: Karthala.
- Bouche, D., 1975, ‘L’enseignement dans les territoires français de l’Afrique Occidentale de 1817-1920 : Mission civilisatrice où formation d’une élite ?, Paris, PhD thesis.
- Brigaud, F., Interview with author Saint Louis, Senegal, 4 December 2000.
- Brooks, G., 2003, EurAfricans in Western Africa, Athens: Ohio University Press, pp. 17,122-161.
- Carrère,F. and Holle P., 1855,De la Sénégambie française, Paris, pp. 194-196.
- Coquery-Vidrovitch, C., 1993, ‘La ville coloniale `lieu de colonisation’ et métissage culturel,’ Afrique contemporaine 4, pp. 11-22.
- Descemet, L., 1864, Recueil d’environ 1,200 phrases françaises usuelles avec leur traduction en regard en ouolof de Saint –Louis,Saint Louis : Imprimerie du Gouvernement.
- Devès, P.G. and Magdeline Fatma Daba Daguisery dite Magdeleine Tamba, » Civil Registry of marriage, Commune of Saint Louis, ANS 9 Mai 1889.
- Diouf, M., 2000, ‘Assimilation coloniale et identités religieuses de la civilité des originaires des Quatre Communes (Sénégal)’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 34, 2, pp. 565-587.
- Faidherbe, L.L.C., 1864, Vocabulaire d’environ 1500 mots français avec leurs correspondants en Ouolof de Saint Louis, en Poular, Toucouleur du Fouta, en Soninké, Sarakollé de Bakel, Saint Louis.
- Gilroy, P., 1993, The Black Atlantic, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
- Gomez, M., 1998, Exchanging Our Country Marks, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
- Guillabert, G, ‘Arbre généalogique des familles Descemet-Guillabert’, unpublished genealogy (courtesy Sylvain Sankale, Dakar). Annales Religieuses, Archive Nationale du Sénégal (ANS) 2Z.
- Guillabert, G., ‘La famille d’Erneville’ (unpublished genealogy).
- Guillabert, G., ‘Liste de descendance de Benjamin Crespin’ (unpublished genealogy). Hargreaves, J. ed., 1969, France and West Africa: an Anthology of Historical Documents, London: Macmillan.
- Hargreaves, J., 1965, ‘Assimilation in Eighteenth Century Sénégal’, Journal of African History 6, 2, pp. 177-184.
- Heywood,L.M. and Thornton, J.K., 2007, Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585-1660, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 236-242.
- Idowu, H.O., 1968, ‘Assimilation in Nineteenth Century Sénégal,’ Bulletin de l’I.F.A.N. 30,B4,pp. 1421-1447.
- Lamiral, M., 1789, L’Afrique et Le Peuple Affriquain, Paris: Karthala, pp. 40, 49-53. Law, R. and Mann, K., 1999, ‘West Africa in the Atlantic Community: The Case of the Slave Coast’, The William and Mary Quarterly 56, p. 310.
- Law, R., 2004, Ouidah: A Social History of a West African Slaving Port 1727-1892, Athens: Ohio University Press.
- Lecuir-Nemo, G., 2001, Anne Marie Javouhey, Paris: Karthala.
- Lindsay, Reverend J., 1867, A Voyage to the Coast of Africa in 1758, London, pp. 75-76, 78.
- Lorand Matory, J., 2005, Black Atlantic Religion, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Manchuelle, F., 1997, Willing Migrants: Soninke Labor Diasporas, 1848-1960, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
- Mann, K., 2007, Slavery and the Birth of an African City: Lagos, 1760-1900, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- Marcson, M., 1976, ‘European-African Interaction in the Pre-Colonial Period: Saint Louis, Sénégal, 1758-1854’, PhD thesis Princeton University.
- Mark, P., 2002,‘Portuguese’ Style and Luso-African Identity: Precolonial Senegambia, Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 1-13.
- McLaughlin, F., 2008, ‘On the Origins of Urban Wolof: Evidence from Louis Descemet’s 1864 Phrase Book’, Language in Society 37, pp. 713–735.
- Mintz and Price, 1976, The Birth of African American Culture, Boston: Beacon Press. O’Brien, R.C., 1972, White Society in Black Africa: The French of Senegal, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, pp. 264-265.
- Pasquier, R., 1987, ‘Le Sénégal au milieu du XIXe siècle: la crise économique et sociale’, PhD thesis, Paris IV.
- Pehaut, Y., 1883, ‘A l’époque de la `traite’ de l’arachide: les `Bordelais’ au Sénégal, ‘Revue historique de Bordeaux et du Département de la Gironde, pp. 48-69.
- Pommegorge, P. de, 1789, Description de la Nigritie, Paris, Maradan.
- Reyss, N.,1983, ‘Saint Louis du Sénégal à l’époque précoloniale: l’émergence d’une société métisse originale, 1658-1854’,Thèse de 3eme Cycle, Université Paris I.
- Robinson, D., 1985, The Holy War of Umar Tal: The Western Sudan in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp.124, 162-163.
- Robinson, D., 2000, Paths of Accommodation: Muslim Societies and French Colonial Authorities in Senegal and Mauritania, 1880-1920, Athens: Ohio University Press.
- Sackur, A., 1999, ‘The development of Creole Society and Culture in Saint Louis and Gorée 1719-1817’, PhDthesis, University of London.
- Saint-Martin, Y.J., n.d., Le Sénégal sous le second empire: naissance d’un empire colonial, 1850-1871, Paris: Kathala, p. 57.
- Samb, D. ed., 1997, Gorée et l’esclavage, Dakar: IFAN. Samb, D. ed., 2000, Saint Louis et l’esclavage, Dakar: IFAN.
- Searing, J., 1993, West African Slavery and Atlantic Commerce, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 103-104.
- Siga, F.N., Reflets de modes et traditions saint-Louisianes, Dakar: Editions Khoudia. Sparks, R., 2004, The Two Princes of Calabar, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
- Sweet, J.H., 2003, Recreating Africa: Culture, Kinship and Religion in the African-Portuguese World, 1441-1770,Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
- Verges, F., 1999, Of Monsters and Revolutionaries: Colonial Family Romance and Métissage, Durham: Duke University Press.
- Webb, J., 1994, Desert Frontier: Ecological and Economic Change along the Western Sahel, 1600-1850, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 97-131.
- Young, R.J.C., 1995, Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race,London: Routledge.
References
selle, J-L.,1990, 1998, Mestizo Logics, translated by Claudia Royal, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Becker, C., Martin V. and Schmitz-Chastanet, J. 1983, ‘Les premiers recensements au Sénégal et l’évolution démographique, Dakar: ORSTOM, 3.
Benoist, J.R., 2007,Histoire de l’église catholique au Sénégal, Paris : Karthala, pp. 88-94, 100-102, 109.
Berlin, I., 1996, ‘From Creole to African: Atlantic Creoles and the Origins of African- American Society in Mainland North America,’ The William and Mary Quarterly 53, 2Apr, pp. 351-288.
Bhabha, H., 1994,The Location of Culture, London: Routledge.
Boilat, Abbé D., 1984, Esquisses Sénégalaises, Paris: Karthala, reprint 1853), pp. 12-14, 209, 221.
Boubacar, B., 1998, Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade, trans., Ayi Kwei Armah, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Boubacar, B., 1985, Le Royaume du Walo, Paris: Karthala.
Bouche, D., 1975, ‘L’enseignement dans les territoires français de l’Afrique Occidentale de 1817-1920 : Mission civilisatrice où formation d’une élite ?, Paris, PhD thesis.
Brigaud, F., Interview with author Saint Louis, Senegal, 4 December 2000.
Brooks, G., 2003, EurAfricans in Western Africa, Athens: Ohio University Press, pp. 17,122-161.
Carrère,F. and Holle P., 1855,De la Sénégambie française, Paris, pp. 194-196.
Coquery-Vidrovitch, C., 1993, ‘La ville coloniale `lieu de colonisation’ et métissage culturel,’ Afrique contemporaine 4, pp. 11-22.
Descemet, L., 1864, Recueil d’environ 1,200 phrases françaises usuelles avec leur traduction en regard en ouolof de Saint –Louis,Saint Louis : Imprimerie du Gouvernement.
Devès, P.G. and Magdeline Fatma Daba Daguisery dite Magdeleine Tamba, » Civil Registry of marriage, Commune of Saint Louis, ANS 9 Mai 1889.
Diouf, M., 2000, ‘Assimilation coloniale et identités religieuses de la civilité des originaires des Quatre Communes (Sénégal)’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 34, 2, pp. 565-587.
Faidherbe, L.L.C., 1864, Vocabulaire d’environ 1500 mots français avec leurs correspondants en Ouolof de Saint Louis, en Poular, Toucouleur du Fouta, en Soninké, Sarakollé de Bakel, Saint Louis.
Gilroy, P., 1993, The Black Atlantic, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Gomez, M., 1998, Exchanging Our Country Marks, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Guillabert, G, ‘Arbre généalogique des familles Descemet-Guillabert’, unpublished genealogy (courtesy Sylvain Sankale, Dakar). Annales Religieuses, Archive Nationale du Sénégal (ANS) 2Z.
Guillabert, G., ‘La famille d’Erneville’ (unpublished genealogy).
Guillabert, G., ‘Liste de descendance de Benjamin Crespin’ (unpublished genealogy). Hargreaves, J. ed., 1969, France and West Africa: an Anthology of Historical Documents, London: Macmillan.
Hargreaves, J., 1965, ‘Assimilation in Eighteenth Century Sénégal’, Journal of African History 6, 2, pp. 177-184.
Heywood,L.M. and Thornton, J.K., 2007, Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585-1660, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 236-242.
Idowu, H.O., 1968, ‘Assimilation in Nineteenth Century Sénégal,’ Bulletin de l’I.F.A.N. 30,B4,pp. 1421-1447.
Lamiral, M., 1789, L’Afrique et Le Peuple Affriquain, Paris: Karthala, pp. 40, 49-53. Law, R. and Mann, K., 1999, ‘West Africa in the Atlantic Community: The Case of the Slave Coast’, The William and Mary Quarterly 56, p. 310.
Law, R., 2004, Ouidah: A Social History of a West African Slaving Port 1727-1892, Athens: Ohio University Press.
Lecuir-Nemo, G., 2001, Anne Marie Javouhey, Paris: Karthala.
Lindsay, Reverend J., 1867, A Voyage to the Coast of Africa in 1758, London, pp. 75-76, 78.
Lorand Matory, J., 2005, Black Atlantic Religion, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Manchuelle, F., 1997, Willing Migrants: Soninke Labor Diasporas, 1848-1960, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
Mann, K., 2007, Slavery and the Birth of an African City: Lagos, 1760-1900, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Marcson, M., 1976, ‘European-African Interaction in the Pre-Colonial Period: Saint Louis, Sénégal, 1758-1854’, PhD thesis Princeton University.
Mark, P., 2002,‘Portuguese’ Style and Luso-African Identity: Precolonial Senegambia, Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 1-13.
McLaughlin, F., 2008, ‘On the Origins of Urban Wolof: Evidence from Louis Descemet’s 1864 Phrase Book’, Language in Society 37, pp. 713–735.
Mintz and Price, 1976, The Birth of African American Culture, Boston: Beacon Press. O’Brien, R.C., 1972, White Society in Black Africa: The French of Senegal, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, pp. 264-265.
Pasquier, R., 1987, ‘Le Sénégal au milieu du XIXe siècle: la crise économique et sociale’, PhD thesis, Paris IV.
Pehaut, Y., 1883, ‘A l’époque de la `traite’ de l’arachide: les `Bordelais’ au Sénégal, ‘Revue historique de Bordeaux et du Département de la Gironde, pp. 48-69.
Pommegorge, P. de, 1789, Description de la Nigritie, Paris, Maradan.
Reyss, N.,1983, ‘Saint Louis du Sénégal à l’époque précoloniale: l’émergence d’une société métisse originale, 1658-1854’,Thèse de 3eme Cycle, Université Paris I.
Robinson, D., 1985, The Holy War of Umar Tal: The Western Sudan in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp.124, 162-163.
Robinson, D., 2000, Paths of Accommodation: Muslim Societies and French Colonial Authorities in Senegal and Mauritania, 1880-1920, Athens: Ohio University Press.
Sackur, A., 1999, ‘The development of Creole Society and Culture in Saint Louis and Gorée 1719-1817’, PhDthesis, University of London.
Saint-Martin, Y.J., n.d., Le Sénégal sous le second empire: naissance d’un empire colonial, 1850-1871, Paris: Kathala, p. 57.
Samb, D. ed., 1997, Gorée et l’esclavage, Dakar: IFAN. Samb, D. ed., 2000, Saint Louis et l’esclavage, Dakar: IFAN.
Searing, J., 1993, West African Slavery and Atlantic Commerce, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 103-104.
Siga, F.N., Reflets de modes et traditions saint-Louisianes, Dakar: Editions Khoudia. Sparks, R., 2004, The Two Princes of Calabar, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Sweet, J.H., 2003, Recreating Africa: Culture, Kinship and Religion in the African-Portuguese World, 1441-1770,Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Verges, F., 1999, Of Monsters and Revolutionaries: Colonial Family Romance and Métissage, Durham: Duke University Press.
Webb, J., 1994, Desert Frontier: Ecological and Economic Change along the Western Sahel, 1600-1850, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 97-131.
Young, R.J.C., 1995, Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race,London: Routledge.