The Wolof people () are a Niger-Congo ethnic group native to the Senegambia region of West Africa. Senegambia is today split between western Senegal, northwestern Gambia and coastal Mauritania; the Wolof form the largest ethnic group within Senegambia. In Senegal as a whole, the Wolof are the largest ethnic group (~39.7%), while elsewhere they are a minority. They refer to themselves as Wolof and speak the Wolof language, in the West Atlantic branch of the Niger–Congo family of languages; English inherited Wolof as both the adjectival ethnonym and the name of the language.
Their early history is unclear. The earliest documented mention of the Wolof is found in the records of 15th-century, Portuguese-financed Italian traveller Alvise Cadamosto, who mentioned well-established Islamic Wolof chiefs advised by Muslim counselors. The Wolof belonged to the medieval-era Wolof Empire of the Senegambia region.
Details of the pre-Islamic religious traditions of the Wolof are unknown, and their oral traditions state them to have been adherents of Islam since the founding of the Kingdom of Jolof. However, historical evidence left by Islamic scholars and European travelers suggest that Wolof warriors and rulers did not initially convert to Islam, although accepting and relying on Muslim clerics as counselors and administrators. In and after the 18th century, the Wolof were impacted by the violent jihads in West Africa, which triggered internal disagreements about Islam among the Wolof. In the 19th century, as the colonial French forces launched a war against the Wolof kingdoms, the Wolof people resisted the French and converted to Islam. Contemporary Wolofs are predominantly Sunni Muslims belonging to Mouride and Tijaniyyah Islamic brotherhoods.
The Wolof people, like other West African ethnic groups, historically maintained a rigid, endogamous social stratification that included nobility, clerics, castes, and slaves. The Wolof were close to the French colonial rulers, became integrated into the colonial administration, and have dominated the culture and economy of Senegal since the country's independence from France on 4 April 1960.
They are also referred to as the Wollof, Jolof, Iolof, Whalof, Ialof, Olof, and Volof, among other spellings.
Name The term Wolof also refers to the Wolof language and to their states, cultures, and traditions. Older French publications frequently employ the spelling ; up to the 19th century, the spellings Wolof, Wolluf, Volof, and Olof are also encountered, among rarer variants like Yolof, Dylof, Chelof, Galof, Lolof, and others. In English, Wollof and Woloff are found, particularly in reference to the Gambian Wolof; for English-speakers, the spelling Wollof is closer to the native pronunciation of the name.) The spelling Jolof is also often used, but in particular reference to the Jolof Empire and Jolof Kingdom that existed in central Senegal from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Similarly, a West African rice dish is known in English as Jollof rice.
History The origins of the Wolof people are obscure, states David Gamble, a professor of anthropology and African studies specializing in Senegambia. Archeological artifacts have been discovered in Senegal and The Gambia, such as pre-historic pottery, the 8th-century stones, and 14th-century burial mounds, but, states Gamble, these provide no evidence that links them exclusively to the Wolof ethnic group. Their name as the Wolof first appears in the records of 15th-century Portuguese travelers.
With the Arab conquests of West Africa in last centuries of the 1st millennium CE, one theory states that the Wolof people were forced to move into north and east Senegal where over time villages and towns developed into autonomous states such as Baol, Kayor, Saloum, Dimar, Walo, and Sine the overall ruling state being that of Jolof who came together voluntarily to form the Jolof Empire. According to Gamble, this migration likely occurred at the end of 11th century when the Ghana Empire fell to the Muslim armies from Sudan.
Another oral tradition tells of a legend in Walo, which starts with two villages near a lake in a dispute. A mysterious person arose from the lake to settle the dispute. The villagers detained him; he settled among them and became the one who settled disputes and sovereign authority. He was called Ndyadyane Ndyaye, and his descendants were called Ndiayes or Njie, and these led to ruling families of Wolof, Mali according to this mythical legend. The documented history, from 15th-century onwards, is a complex story of the rivalry between powerful families, wars, coups and conquests in Wolof society.
Wolof Empire
The Jolof or Wolof Empire was a medieval West African state that ruled in modern day Senegal, portions in Southern Mauritania and the Gambia from approximately 1350 to 1890. While only ever consolidated into a single state structure for part of this time, the tradition of governance, caste, and culture of the Wolof dominate the history of north-central Senegal for much of the last 800 years. Its final demise at the hands of French colonial forces in the 1870s–1890s also marks the beginning of the formation of Senegal as a unified state.
By the end of the 15th century, the Wolof states of Jolof, Kayor, Baol, and Walo had become united in a federation with Jolof as the metropolitan power. The position of king was held by the Burba Wolof, and the rulers of the other component states owed loyalty and tribute payments to him. Before the Wolof people became involved in goods and slave trading with the Portuguese merchants on the coast, they had a long tradition of established trading of goods and slaves with the Western Sudanese empires and with Imamate of Futa Toro and other ethnic groups in North Africa.
Atlantic Slave Trade
Slavery had been a part of the Wolof culture since their earliest recorded history. Prior to the arrival of Europeans to regions inhabited by the Wolof, slaves there were either born into slavery, enslaved via purchase or captured in warfare. Beginning in the 16th century, Portuguese slave traders started to purchase slaves from Senegambian ports to transport to their American colonies as well as Cape Verde. These slaves frequently passed through Wolof lands before arriving at the coast. As the European demand for slaves increased during the 17th and 18th centuries, the Wolof people became both victims and victimisers in the selling of slaves to Europeans. This era saw a corresponding increase in Wolof slave raids to acquire captives to transport to the coast and trade for European firearms. Wolof people, known to the Spanish as jelofes, were among the first African slaves to arrive in the Americas, when a group of enslaved Wolof landed in Hispaniola, in 1522. They were also the first African slaves to arrive to Costa Rica and Panama. Albeit Islam was outlawed in the Spanish Empire among the Wolof people were some of the first Muslim populations to arrive the Americas. By one estimate the Wolof, Mandinka and Tukulor made up almost 30% of the African population of Mexico in 1549. Enslaved Wolof were also present in Peru and Cartagena de Indias in present-day Colombia.
The transatlantic slave trade led to the Wolof acquiring European firearms, which were bartered for slaves on the West African coast. With these firearms, the intensity and violence of slave raids perpetrated both by and against the Wolof increase. As a result, conflict with other ethnic groups also increased. An example is the war between the Wolof and Fulani in the 1790s and early 1800s, which led to the ensalvement of Anta Madjiguène Ndiaye. However, these slave raids eventually began to subside as European and American governments progressively outlawed their nations' involvement in the slave trade. During the New Imperialism era, the Scramble for Africa saw the majority of African territory, including lands inhabited by the Wolof, fall under European colonial rule. These new colonial regimes moved to outlaw slavery, and by the 1890s, the French authorities in West Africa had largely abolished the institution. However, the social distinctions between free-born Wolof and slaves remained present during the period of colonial rule, continuing even after the decolonisation of Africa in the mid-20th century, which saw the Wolof become independent from European colonial rule.
Demographics The Wolof people are the largest ethnic group in Senegal, particularly concentrated in its northwestern region near the Senegal River and the Gambia River. In the Gambia, about 16% of the population are Wolof. In the Gambia, they are a minority. However, Wolof language and culture have a disproportionate influence because of their prevalence in Banjul, the Gambian capital, where a majority of the population is Wolof. In Mauritania, about 8% of the population are Wolof. Their total population exceeds 6 million in the three countries.
Religion The vast majority of Wolof people are Sunni Muslims. However, religious practice often contains local elements. The complicated relationship had led to the emergence of Sufi traditions from a historic and dominant Sunni Islam environment.
The pre-Islamic religious traditions of Wolof are unknown, and neither written nor oral traditions about their traditional religion are available. The oral traditions of the Wolof have legends that state them to have been adherents of Islam since the founding of their Kingdom of Jolof. However, historical evidence left by Islamic scholars and European travelers suggest that Wolof kings and warriors did not convert to Islam in the beginning and for many centuries while accepting and relying on Muslim clerics as counselors and administrators.
According to David Gamble, the pre-Islamic beliefs of Wolof may be reflected and absorbed in the Sufi beliefs about good and bad spirits (jinn), amulets, dances, and other rituals.
In and after the 18th century, the Wolofs were impacted by the violent jihads in West Africa, which triggered internal disagreements among the Wolof on Islam. Ira Lapidus, a professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic History, states that the early-19th-century Senegambian fighters "swept through Senegambia burning villages, killing pagans and enslaving their enemies," and were responsible for the conversion of substantial numbers of Wolof to Islam. The West African jihads that involved the Wolof and other ethnic groups started early and often inspired by militant reformers such as those of the 15th century. The assaults of the 18th and 19th century jihads, states Lapidus, paved the way for massive conversions to Islam, yet not a nearly universal conversion.
In the late 19th century, as the French colonial forces launched a war against the Wolof kingdoms, the Wolof people resisted the French and triggered the start of near-universal conversion of the Wolof people in Senegambia to Islam. Wolofs joined the various competing Sufi Muslim movements in the 20th century, particularly those belonging to the Mouride and Tijaniyyah Islamic brotherhoods.
The Senegalese Sufi Muslim brotherhoods appeared in the Wolof communities in the 19th century and grew in the 20th. The Sufi leaders and marabouts exercise cultural and political influence amongst most Muslim communities, most notably the leader of the Muridiyya also called the Mouride brotherhood.
In the 20th century, Ahmadiyya missionaries opened offices in contemporary Senegambia, but very few Wolof have become members of these.
Culture
The Wolof people's traditional culture and practices have survived the colonial era and are a strong element of the Senegalese culture.
Language