Biffeche
| Biffeche | ||
|---|---|---|
| Waters | Senegal | |
| Geographical location | 16 ° 11 ′ N , 16 ° 23 ′ W | |
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| surface | 560 km² | |
| main place | Diama | |
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Biffeche or Bifeche is a large island in the lower reaches of Senegal and is located in northwest Senegal on the border with Mauritania , northeast of the coastal city of Saint-Louis .
At times since 1964, under the name of the island, a bizarre "kingdom" with its center in Savoigne, a partner community of the French La Ferté-Macé , made a name for itself. The corresponding website shows the status from 2004.
Geographical location
The island of Biffeche is very flat and lies a little above sea level in the so-called delta of the Senegal lower reaches, the main arm of which forms the west bank. The other banks are formed by two branches : the Lampsar in the southeast and the Gorom in the north, which separates the island from the Djoudj National Park . The upper end of the island in the northeast and the lower end just before Saint Louis in the southwest, known as Pointe de isle de Bifeche , are 56 kilometers apart, as seen in the direction of the current . Large parts of the island are around 10, sometimes up to 15 kilometers wide. The island area is about 560 km². The length is traversed Biffeche of a watercourse, the Dioss , which at the lower end with the Lampsar combined. Other natural and especially canalized watercourses crisscross the island; their runoff and water level are regulated by weirs; these prevent or limit the tidal current of the tides and thus the penetration of seawater into the watercourses and the salinisation of the groundwater.
There are a number of villages on Biffeche. The most famous are the historical town of Maka on the banks of the main Diama river and three and a half kilometers upstream of the Diama dam . Another larger town is Savoigne am Lampsar . The largest village in terms of area with over 30 hectares of settlement area at the tip of the island, the branching of Gorom and Lampsar regulated by weirs , is the traffic junction Boundoum .
On the map of 1728, the Isle de Bifeche begins just above Maka (which is not mentioned by name on the map), where the Petit Riviere de Gios branched off from the main stream of Senegal at that time . While the actual branching off from the main stream no longer exists in our day, the rest of the tributary can be easily identified with the Dioss of our day. The length of the historic island from the top to the bottom would have been around 20 kilometers with an area of around 114 km².
Demographics
Biffeche, like the rest of northern Senegal, is inhabited by the ethnic groups of the Fulbe , Serer -Ndut, Wolof and Moors , who practice dairy farming and irrigated agriculture. The population is predominantly Muslim , there are Christian and traditionally religious minorities.
Earlier European reports used the name for another place, the medium-sized island ( Isle de Bifeche ) in the Senegal River Delta in West Africa , about two miles upstream from the island of N'Dar, on which Saint-Louis was founded. The Penny Cyclopaedia describes the island in 1843 as "completely covered with forest and largely flooded in the rainy season."
history
In the 17th century, a chief known as the Petit Brak or Little King ruled over a region known as Biffeche or Gangueul, with the capital Maka. The Great Brak or Great King ruled over the Kingdom of Waalo , whose capital was originally Diourbel . This area was almost depopulated by the continued activity of Moorish slave-catchers from the north. At times the Petit Brak Waalo was tributary, at times allied with Bethio . In the 1720s, Béquio Malicouri, the Royaume d'Oral of Bethio, was a vassal under Erim M'Bagnick, the then Brak of Waalo.
literature
- Barry, Boubacar. Le royaume du Waalo - Le Senegal avant la conquete . Karthala, 1985.
- Becker, Charles and Martin, Victor. Journal Historique et Suitte du Journal Historique (1729-1731) 39.2 (1977): 223-289.
- Cultru, Pierre. Premier du voyage Sieur de la Courbe ... . Paris: Larose, 1913.
- Encyclopedie, dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, par une société de gens de lettres, mis en ordre et publié par Mr. * * *, tome quinzieme. Neufchastel, France: Samuel Faulche, 1765. Facsimile page
- Knight, Charles. The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge , Vol. XXI. London, 1843: 231. Public domain copy
- Labat, Jean-Baptiste. Nouvelle Relation de l'Afrique occidentale . Paris: Cavelier, 1727. t. 2, p. 174.
- Thésée, Françoise. Actes du colloque de Nantes , tome I. 1988. 223-245. online .
- Thilmans, Guy. Bull. Les planches sénégalaises et mauritaniennes des “Atlas Vingboons” , Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN), B. t. 37.1 (1975): 106-109.
Historical maps
- Cours de la rivière de Sanaga ou Sénégal depuis son embouchure jusqu'à l'île de Bilbas / Suite du cours de la rivière de Sénégal depuis l'isle de Bilbas jusqu'au sault du Rocherde Govina / levé par un ingénieur francois , 1718. Online at BNF
- Carte de la rivière du Sénégal depuis la Barre jusqu'au Panier Foule des petites rivières et marigots qui en dérivent avec les noms des villages qui sont au bord, fait au Sénégal , 1720. Online at BNF
- Anville, Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon, Carte manuscrite de la côte d'Afrique aux environs de Gorée et de la rivière du Sénégal depuis Cagneux jusqu'à son embouchure . 1724. Online at BNF
Web links
- Map of the area (PDF; 1 MB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste, JF Gieditsch, 1823, Bifeche: p. 145 in the Google book search
- ↑ Royaume de Biffeche. Kingdom of Biffeche. kingdomofbiffeche.net
- ↑ Schematic map of the bounding watercourses
- ↑ Measure areas with google maps
- ↑ Saliou Kamara, March 24, 2014: Figure 153 Nouveau schéma hydraulique du delta ; Page 415 of the PDF file 17.9 MB
- ↑ au-senegal.com: Map of the river delta and Saint Louis ( Memento from February 12, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Maka Diama on googlemaps
- ↑ Barrage de Boundoum at Geonames
- ^ The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Volume 21, C. Knight, 1841, Bifeche: p. 231 in the Google book search
- ↑ Bulletin de l'Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire Tome 39, avril 1977: Journal Historique et Suitte du Journal Historique (1729-1731). Documents inédits, présenté et publiés par Charles Becker et Victor Martin ( Memento from June 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Notes 29 : Petit Brak, Maka, Gangueul, Isle de Bifeche and Waalo va on page 43 of the PDF file 272 kB