The Ceddo's Ghost: History and Fiction in Senegal

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Periodical article

Title:	The Ceddo's Ghost: History and Fiction in Senegal
Author:	Glinga, Werner
Year:	1988
Periodical:	Ufahamu
Volume:	16
Issue:	2
Pages:	45-59
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Senegal
Subjects:	marabouts warriors literature history 1700-1799 1800-1899 Literature, Mass Media and the Press
Abstract:	The Ceddo warrior of the precolonial States of Senegal initially had the status of a crown slave. By the 18th century, the Ceddo army had become a military class in its own right. The antagonism between the Ceddo and his sworn enemy, the Marabout (Islamic priest), has dominated the power struggle in these States for centuries. Ceddo's were animists and had a different lifestyle from that of Moslems. Their wrestling for power ended in the late 19th century with the ultimate triumph of Islam. The contemporary polemics around Ceddo and Marabout are exacerbated by the fact that, historically, one is the loser and the other the winner. Various contemporary sources, however, especially fiction, create the impression that the Ceddo is having some sort of revenge today. There definitely is a rehabilitation of Ceddo society in today's Senegal. This article reviews contemporary fiction that tells something of the Ceddo and his ideals, as well as literature from the Ceddo society itself - the epic and the chronicle - paying special attention to the role of women as Ceddo heroines. A bibliography of epics, chronicles, historical writings and documents, and contemporary fiction is added.