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The Lingeer’s Jihad: Challenging a Male-Normative Reading of African History
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2022
Abstract
This article is a retelling of the Sharr Bubba Jihad as it unfolded in Kajoor (present-day Senegal) in which I attempt to set aright an instance of ontological violence in the existing secondary literature. I attempt to correct this first through an exposition of how the prevailing academic history is complicit in the continual colonization of African history. Secondly, I explain how Eurocentric discourses relegate African women to ancillary bearers of children, hewers of wood, and drawers of water. I further explain that the relationships between gender and authority in African histories do not align with the European “template” explaining the position and role of lingeer. Thirdly, I give the details of the Sharr Bubba Jihad in Kajoor through a rereading of the sources, making sure to name Lingeer Yacine Bubu, and contextualizing the role of the lingeer in Kajoor and the other Senegambian kingdoms.
Résumé
Cet article est un récit du djihad de Char Bouba tel qu’il s’est déroulé dans le Cayor (aujourd’hui au Sénégal) dans lequel j’essaie de rectifier un cas de violence ontologique présent dans l’historiographie. J’essaie de corriger cela d’abord en exposant comment l’histoire académique dominante est complice de la colonisation continuelle de l’histoire africaine. Deuxièmement, j’explique comment les discours eurocentriques relèguent les femmes africaines au statut d’auxiliaires porteuses d’enfants, de coupeuses de bois ou de puiseuses d’eau. J’explique en outre que les relations entre le genre et l’autorité dans les histoires africaines ne correspondent pas au « modèle » européen expliquant la position et le rôle des lingeer. Troisièmement, je détaille le djihad de Char Bouba dans le Cayor à travers une relecture des sources, en veillant à nommer Lingeer Yacine Bubu, et en contextualisant le rôle de la lingeer dans le Cayor et dans les autres royaumes sénégambiens.
- Type
- Rethinking Africa’s Archives and Oral Sources
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the African Studies Association
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