Serer history

The medieval history of the Serer people of Senegambia is partly characterised by resisting Islamization from perhaps the 11th century during the Almoravid movement (which would later result in the Serers of Takrur migration to the south), to the 19th century Marabout movement of Senegambia and continuation of the old Serer paternal dynasties.

According to Galvan (2004), "The oral historical record, written accounts by early Arab and European explorers, and physical anthropological evidence suggest that the various Serer peoples migrated south from the Fuuta Tooro region (Senegal River valley) beginning around the eleventh century, when Islam first came across the Sahara." Over generations these people, possibly Pulaar speaking herders originally, migrated through Wolof areas and entered the Siin and Saluum river valleys. This lengthy period of Wolof-Serer contact has left us unsure of the origins of shared "terminology, institutions, political structures, and practices."

Professor Étienne Van de Walle gave a slightly later date, writing that "The formation of the Sereer ethnicity goes back to the thirteenth century, when a group came from the Senegal River valley in the north fleeing Islam, and near Niakhar met another group of Mandinka origin, called the Gelwar, who were coming from the southeast (Gravrand 1983). The actual Sereer ethnic group is a mixture of the two groups, and this may explain their complex bilinear kinship system".

After the Arab invasion of North Africa, the Berbers of the north advanced Islam via the Almoravid movement, penetrating parts of Africa, Europe and Asia. After the fall of the Ghana empire, the Serers resisted conversion and engaged in the battlefield to defend not only the Serer religion, but also their own power and wealth especially the Serer "Lamanic class" whose wealth and power was achieved through the Lamanic lineage.

The Serer earned their living from agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, boat building (an ancient Serer tradition) and transporting people over the river.

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