Serer

The Serer are cited according to Wolof and Pulaars the third largest ethnic group in Senegal , with a share of about 15 percent and talk Serer - a Niger-Congo language . Most members now also speak Wolof , which is predominant in the cities.

Their society is structured matrilinearly and is characterized by strictly separated castes : nobles , warriors, citizens , slaves as well as craftsmen (e.g. blacksmiths ) and artists (e.g. griots ). Today there is usually only a distinction made between two classes: farmers and landowners.

history

According to their own legends, the Serer migrated from the north to central Senegal between the 10th and 13th centuries to escape the pressures of Islam . The Serer are excellent farmers ( rice , millet , sorghum ) and ranchers. Known as Lutte senegalaise , wrestling is a traditional male sport. The Kingdom of Saalum (Saloum) with the capital Kahone , which was supposedly founded by Saalum Suwareh, existed from 1494 to 1969 , which had been a French protectorate since 1864 and belonged to the Republic of Senegal since 1960.

The statesman and poet Léopold Senghor was a well-known Serer.

religion

The Serer formed a homogeneous ethno-religious group until their partial conversion to Islam and also to Catholicism in the 19th century . Since independence, Islamization and the linguistic and cultural adaptation to the Wolof have accelerated. Yet larger groups still cling to the traditional belief in the universal god Roog . The Serer worldview comprises a complete cosmology and cosmogony with differentiated assumptions about life and death, space and time (three worlds are distinguished: the invisible world, that of the day with the sun and that of the night with the moon) and the immortality of Soul. It explains why it is possible to communicate with the ancestors. The festivals are regulated by a calendar. The major clans worship various totem animals . The religious head is called Saltigue .

literature

Henry Gravrand, Henry: La civilization sereer. 2 volumes. Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines du Senegal. Dakar 1983 and 1990, ISBN 2-7236-0877-8 and ISBN 2-7236-1055-1 .

Web links

Commons : Serer - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Pathé Diange, Pathé: Les Royaumes Sérères in: Présence Africaines , No. 54. (1965). Pp. 142-172.

[1] Pathé Diange, Pathé: Les Royaumes Sérères in: Présence Africaines , No. 54. (1965). Pp. 142-172.