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F I V E Senegambia from the Mid-Eighteenth Century to the Mid-Nineteenth Century Through the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries, the French imposed increasingly rigid identity categories on Senegambians. This served both to deny the Luso-Africans their identity as “Portuguese” and to contest the widespread Senegambian usage of the concept of “white” as a socioeconomic label rather than as an a priori category based on skin color. As the French extended their influence south into the Casamance in the nineteenth century, political factors played an increasing role in their identity discourse. At the same time, in this discourse, local domestic architecture became a powerful index reflecting the presumed level of civilization of different Senegambian societies. During the first half of the nineteenth century, commerce from The Gambia south through the Casamance region became increasingly competitive as French and English traders competed with the Luso-Africans for control of the coastal export trade. Manding merchants continued to dominate the trade from the interior to the coast. In 1836, the commandant at Gorée, Dagorne, who was leading a French mission to Casamance, observed that “the Manding . . . are outstanding merchants and . . . they are the exclusive agents of commerce; it is through their intermediary role that all the products from the interior arrive at the coast and that European goods, on the other hand, circulate in the interior.”1 The commercial role of the Manding was particularly important in the Gambia-Soungrougrou region, near the former commercial center of Vintang. Further south, a few Wolof traders were beginning to establish themselves on the island of Carabane on the south bank of the Casamance River and in Jola villages in the Lower Casamance.2 The establishment of a French fort at Sedhiu in 1837, along with the development of a trading post at Carabane beginning in 1836, significantly increased commercial competition with the Luso-Africans throughout the region. Nevertheless, at mid-century, “Portuguese” traders, some based in Ziguinchor on the south bank of the Casamance River and others based in Bissau, still played a significant role in commerce throughout the Lower and Middle Casamance.3 The Portuguese commercial and administrative post at Ziguinchor was the only significant Luso-African community north of Cacheu. From this settlement,“Portuguese” merchants carried out a limited trade with Manding traders along the left bank of the river and, on the right bank, in the Middle Casamance. On the occasion of his exploratory visit to the Casamance , Dagorne wrote of the “Portuguese,”“They send pirogues upriver to trade a small quantity of . . . products in villages along the river.”4 In return for salt, the Luso-Africans obtained cotton; they also purchased rice, beeswax, and ivory. The “Portuguese” acquired trading goods of European manufacture from the English in The Gambia. However, high import and export duties in the Portuguese territory prevented this commerce from remaining competitive once other European nations had established trade in the region.5 In 1836, Ziguinchor itself was an unimpressive village of sun-dried earthen houses, surrounded by a barbican and four earthen bastions that housed a few old cannon: The walls of the houses consist of dried mud. The town, if one dares use the term for such a pitiable grouping of miserable huts, is defended by a tata in the form of interlaced branches with, at each of the four corners, a sort of bastion, walled in dried clay with embrasures through which pass the volleys of a few old cannons without gun carriages. . . . It is a miracle that these walls don’t simply tumble down.6 Dagorne’s view of the “Portuguese” inhabitants of Ziguinchor was that they were as decadent as the town in which they lived. He attributed their willingness to live in precarious and decrepit conditions to a natural apathy that derived from their African heritage: “They are resigned to this by habit and by the natural apathy that derives from their origin, for they are all black, even the Povedor [local governor].”7 In a sense, architecture reflected the absence of motivation or initiative; indeed, it embodied the character of the townspeople. Since in Dagorne’s estimation these qualities were inborn, he viewed the buildings as a reflection of the natural apathy of the black “Portuguese.” The earliest illustration of Ziguinchor is a watercolor sketch of the town made thirteen years after Dagorne’s visit by Hyacinthe Hecquard (Figure 18). Hecquard, an officer in the spahis sénégalais, precursor to the military force...

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