Islam in Africa 
bibliographic database
| Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Conversion to Islam: Military Recruitment and Generational Conflict in a Sereer-Safèn Village (Bandia), 1920-38 |
| Author: | Searing, James F. |
| Year: | 2003 |
| Periodical: | The Journal of African History |
| Volume: | 44 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 73-94 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Senegal |
| Subjects: | Islam religious conversion Serer military recruitment Military, Defense and Arms History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft Islam |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/4100383 |
| Abstract: | The Sereer-Safèn are a minority population in a predominantly Wolof and Muslim region in Senegal. During the colonial period the Safèn were ruled by Wolof chiefs, who treated them as a conquered population. Until the First World War, Safèn resistance was based on preserving a separate religious and ethnic identity, symbolized by the village shrine and matrilineal descent. Conversion to Islam had its roots in the crisis created by military recruitment. When the Safèn were forced to give soldiers to the French, 'maternal uncles' used their authority over their 'nephews' to recruit soldiers. Today this act is remembered as a 'betrayal' that called into question the legitimacy of the matrilineal system of labour and inheritance. Oral testimony from converts emphasizes changes in behaviour, funeral rites, inheritance and patterns of labour and power in the village community.The article is based on interviews conducted by the author in 1995 in the important Safèn village cluster of Bandia. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |
