Kings, warriors and shifting towns

The struggle for power in the Upper Casamance (Senegal), 1830–1960

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6041870
AutoresSirio Canós-Donnay (0000-0003-0747-8640, Universitat de València, autor correspondente), Thierry Balde (0009-0001-3120-9697, Cheikh Anta Diop University)
Ano2025
Volume60
Fascículo3
Páginas443-459
Data de publicação2025-07-03
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAzania Archaeological Research in Africa (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0067-270X • E-ISSN: 1945-5534
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0067270x.2025.2510759
OpenAlexW4411568954
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas10

The history of colonialism in the Kolda (or Upper Casamance) Region of southern Senegal is a complex one that is still only partially understood. Like most places in Sub-Saharan Africa, its historiography has tended to rely overwhelmingly (with some notable exceptions) on European sources; thus, despite the best efforts of critical historians, European agencies have often been over-represented, while African ones were sidelined or blurred. Additionally, being located in the same colonial territorial division as Dakar (albeit 300 km away), global narratives often present the nature of colonialism as having been similar in both. This is deeply inaccurate. As the capital of French West Africa, Dakar was the flagship of the French colonial project, where its material, cultural and political imprint was deepest. The Kolda Region, on the other hand, was not even fully mapped or taxed by the colonial authorities until the 1920s and when the French finally succeeded in (partially) subjugating the local rulers this was only by achieved adapting, understanding and manipulating local logics. This paper explores what the first four seasons of archaeological work in the region tell us about colonialism and the complex and nuanced mosaic of cultural continuities and discontinuities, struggles for power and local agency that characterise this period

Ancient history · Archaeology · Ethnology · Geography · Power (physics) · African history and culture studies · African Studies and Ethnography · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History