Babacar Sedikh Diouf


Babacar Sedikh Diouf or Babacar Sédikh Diouf is a Senegalese historian, author, researcher, campaigner against "Wolofization", a Pan-Africanist, and former teacher. He has written extensively about the history and culture of Senegal, Africa, and that of the Serer ethnic group to which he belong. He usually writes by the pen name Babacar Sedikh Diouf.

Academia

In 1951, Diouf met Léopold Sédar Senghor - the future President of Senegal, when Senghor visited a village in Casamance were Diouf was working at the time as a teacher. Senghor, who was then a Member of Parliament was visiting the area as a surprise and had to sleep overnight in a hut—away from the comforts he was used to. According to Diouf, after that chance meeting, he became a supporter of Senghor "because his visit had proved his humility and interest in teaching." As a result, he started to read Senghor's literary works. Sometime later, Senghor awarded him a grant to study Serer history "along Cheikh Anta Diop's hypotheses."
Diouf, who is a retired teacher was appointed President of the Association of Retired Teachers of Senegal. As of 1980, he was the Director of the Thiers School. He has been a long-standing member of the National Union of Languages.
Diouf sometimes write by the pen name Babacar Sedikh Diouf. Many of his works are unpublished but cited by African, Caribbean and Western scholars who've interacted with him over the years. Some of these include gender politics writers Louise Langevin, Fatou Kiné Camara and Jeremy I. Levitt; historians Mamadou Diouf, Abdoulaye Keita of IFAN—UCAD, Cyr Descamps and Iba Der Thiam; and anthropologist Henry Gravrand.
Diouf usually writes in French but has also written in Serer. An eighty-page short biography of the 19th century Serer King of Sine — Maad a Sinig Kumba Ndoffene Famak Joof, titled: O maad a sinig : Kumba Ndoofeen fa Maak JUUF , 1853–1871, PAPF was written in Serer.

Senegambian stone circles

Diouf was one of the first to suggest a Serer religious significance for the Senegambian stone circles, based in part on their arrangement and religious symbolism which he saw as related to Serer numerology. His work published on July 7, 1980 on the Senegalese newspaper Le Soleil became headline news and was picked up by the prehistorian and archaeologist Professor Cyr Descamps and his colleague Professor Iba Der Thiam.
The builders of these megaliths are still unknown. Other possible candidates are the ancestors of the Jola people or the Wolof

The Guelowar Dynasty in Seereer kingdoms

The mainstream view has been that, the Guelowar Maternal Dynasty conquered the Serer people and subjugated them. After years of researching and documenting the oral traditionas of the Serer and that of Kaabu, Diouf was one of the first historian and author to posit that the Guelowars of Sine and Saloum did not conquer and subjugate the Serer people but were granted asylum by the Serer Council of Great Lamans, who then went on marry into the Serer noble patriclans. The Guelowars who were relatives and offshoots of the powerful Ñaanco Maternal Dynasty of Kaabu, underwent a dynastic war or struggle against their powerful Ñaanco relatives. The Senegalese historian Alioune Sarr, in his acclaimed paper Histoire du Sine-Saloum supports that view and placed that dynastic war around 1335. Sarr's Histoire du Sine-Saloum is one of the leading work on the history of Sine-Saloum and is generally regarded as the prevailing view especially in regards to the date of reign of the Kings of Sine and Saloum.
Diouf went on to posit that:
Maysa Wali's direct descendants did not reign in any of the Serer kingdoms. Serer noble men from the ancient lamanic class married Guelowar women, and the offsprings of these marriages reigned as kings. These children saw themselves as Serer and assimilated into Serer culture and all ties with Kaabu were severed. The Serer—Guelowar alliance was an alliance based on marriage, not conquest. With the exception of the Serer being a conquered group—which has been the mainstream view, Emmett Jefferson Murphy's earlier work History of African Civilization reached a somewhat similar conclusion as regards to the Serer—Guelowar marriage alliance. He writes:
The various Serer groups who saw the entire Senegambia region as their homeland were already in the Sine-Saloum area in the 11th century and should not be confused with the Serers of Takrur—who were affected by the jihadic wars of King War Jabi and his allies.
As common in the Senegambia region and in many African cultures, when a woman from another tribe marries a man from a different tribe, both she and her children takes on the tribe of the father. Throughout the six hundred years of Guelowar dynastic rule, none of the reigning kings of Sine or Saloum bore Mandinka surnames, but Serer surnames with the few exceptions of the Mbooj or Mboge patrilineage, who patrilineally trace descent to Mbarick Bo or Mbarik Bo, originally from Waalo, whose surname Bo is "Wolofized" to Mbooj. According to Serer oral tradition, he was the step father of Ndiadiane Ndiaye and a Bambara prince from the Massassi dynasty of Kaarta; and according to Wolof oral tradition, he was the step father of Ndiadiane Ndiaye but a non-Muslim and a slave of the Almoravid Arab Abu Bakr ibn Umar. Sources do not agree with the Wolof account of him being a slave of Abu Bakr or that Abu Bakr was the father of Ndiadiane Ndiaye as per Wolof oral tradition, as Abu Bakr preceded Ndiadiane Ndiaye by at least three hundred years. Ndiadian reigned in Jolof around 1360. Abu Bakr was killed in 1087 possibly by the Serer bowman Amar Godomat.

Selection of works

The following are a sample of Diouf's works:
In 2004, Diouf was invited by the Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire to give a speech at the cultural and scientific institute's conference—held at the University of Mutants in Gorée. In that conference, Diouf spoke out against globalization, and called for a Pan-African approach and the need to increase solidarity among African countries.

Views on Wolofization

Diouf is a fervent opponent of linguistic "Wolofization" which is prevalent throughout Senegal and almost engulfing the entire Senegambia region. He views Wolofization as destructive to the languages and cultures of other :Category:Senegambian ethnic groups|Senegambian ethnic groups such as Serer, Jola, Mandinka, Fula, etc. Diouf calls for a "controlled osmosis" between Wolof and other ethnicities, and regard Wolofization as a form of “uncontrolled” homogenization of the nation by the Wolof. That is, the Wolof language used as a tool to control other ethnic groups—which could possibly lead to the death or extinction of other ethnic languages and their cultures. Serer intellectuals like Marcel Mahawa Diouf, Mandinaka intellectuals like Doudou Kamara, and Haalpulaar intellectuals like Yoro Doro Diallo and Cheikh Hamidou Kane share Diouf's view on Wolofization. The historian and author Marcel Mahawa Diouf offers a drastic solution to the "Wolofization problem". Since the Wolof language itself is the original language of the Lebou people, and not the Wolof; and the Wolof people are a mixture of the other Senegambian ethnic group—and became a distinct ethnic group only few centuries ago, Marcel Mahawa Diouf proposes an alliance between all non-Wolofs who have had historic alliances such as Serers, Toucouleurs, Sarakolés, Sossés, Jola, Lebou, etc. The purpose of this is to disconnect the Wolof, and in effect, disinherit them from the Senegambia region and its history. In the oral tradition of the Wolof, they claim descent from Ndiadiane Ndiaye-founder of the Jolof Empire. However, Ndiadian had a Haalpulaar mother and a Serer father, and his name came from the Serer language. In essence, Marcel's proposal for dealing with Wolofization is to relegate the Wolof to a non-existent and irrelevnt group.
According to Étienne Smith:
Diouf does not dislike the Wolof people or the Wolof language, but takes issue with the concept of Wolofization which is prevalent in Senegal and encroaching on Gambian soil. For many years, Diouf have advocated for brotherhood and cousinage among all Senegambian peoples. He argues that, "national unity existed long before the name, without fratricidal wars and unnecessary heartbreaks, around a central nucleus whose virtues can still be used."