Decolonizing Indigenous Histories: Exploring Prehistoric/Colonial Transitions in Archaeology

7. Lost in Tradition, Found in Transition: Scales of Indigenous History in Siin, Senegal

132 7 Lost in Tradition, Found in Transition Scales of Indigenous History in Siin, Senegal François G. Richard Historical writing in Senegambia has generally been structured around a series of temporal and geographic distinctions: between oral, written, and material sources; between prehistory, protohistory, and history; between local tradition and global transformation; and so forth. These demarcations are artifacts of colonial modernity that assign different valences to peoples and places, and their position in relation to world history—valences that in turn can be deployed in discourse to mark social difference, shape particular imaginaries of belonging and exclusion, and justify or contest structures of inequality. For example, scholarly narratives have often portrayed the Serer of Siin (in Senegal) as a population of conservative peasants impervious to the work of change and development—a perspective that took shape during the colonial period, but whose echoes still resonate in contemporary Senegal. In keeping with the objectives outlined by Hart et al. in their Introduction , this chapter seeks to pursue two broad lines of argument: (1) examine the kinds of elisions that have entered the writing of Senegambia’s Atlantic past; and (2) propose analytical strategies that can help to address these absences and craft a richer sense of Indigenous histories on the continent. More specifically , a combined look at oral, documentary, and archaeological archives would suggest that conventional portrayals of Siin’s history tend to overlook the long and dynamic record of engagement tying local rural communities to larger spheres of social, political, and economic interactions. Viewed from a perspective attentive to the play of scale and materiality, Siin’s archaeological landscapes reveal multiple planes of social experience that qualify our understanding of regional history and political diversity in Senegambia. Beyond revisiting some key tenets of Senegal’s historiography, Siin’s material past also holds important potential for the development of alternative, and more Indigenous History in Siin, Senegal 133 inclusive, histories of the nation. Lastly, seen against the broader corpus of studies of colonial engagements worldwide (including analyses compiled in this volume), material histories from the Siin and other regions in Africa seem to underscore the relevance of African experiences in comparative conversations about Indigenous entanglements with global political economy. In the same way that case studies from North America have greatly influenced archaeological research on Atlantic Africa, Africanist research might also be poised to contribute empirical inspiration, orientations, and perspectives to the archaeology of colonial encounters elsewhere. Lost in Tradition: Uneven Perspectives on the Senegambian Past The advent of Atlantic contacts in Senegambia is often regarded as a defining episode, which dramatically altered the course of local pasts and their subsequent futures. A powerful historical metaphor, the Atlantic moment has also organized regional historiography, forming an indelible dividing line across narratives of Senegambian history. Thus, the few centuries that preceded the landing of Portuguese caravels in 1444 are generally consigned to the realm of “protohistory,” a broad and blurry period marked by widespread state formation , massive migrations, the expansion of Islam, and emergence of modern ethnic identities. That this stretch of regional history is glimpsed primarily through the filter of oral memory (and Iron Age vestiges, to a lesser extent) endows it with particular temporal properties that demarcate it from later history , which enjoys sharper resolution thanks to a comparatively richer record of evidence. Buoyed by a rising volume of written documents, the “Atlantic era” seems to coincide with an acceleration of time, resolutely pushing the region into “event” and “structural” history. Although they created new commercial outlets for African populations (Curtin 1975; Searing 1993), “Atlantic encounters” have generally been equated with the subjection of Senegambia to an expanding capitalist economy, resulting in the rise of predatory states, explosion of social violence and oppression, and loss of political and economic autonomy (Barry 1998). Whether these changes are traced back to the Atlantic period per se or the onset of formal colonialism in the 1850s, few would disagree that the past four hundred years of Senegalese history have witnessed dramatic reconfigurations in local social, economic, and political conditions. While panoramic in scope, there is little doubt that these scenarios capture a certain historical reality. For one, they reflect, in broad brushstrokes, the core experiences of those larger and better-documented kingdoms (Kajoor, Fuuta François G. Richard 134 Toro, Saalum) that were centrally involved in Atlantic commerce (Klein 1992). By extension, these general patterns also hold some validity for...