Serer people

Seereer
Serer cultural vigil in Senegal.
Total population
Over 3 million (as of 2023)[1][2][3]
Regions with significant populations
 Senegal2,941,545.6 million (2023 estimates)[1]
 Gambia88,316.45 (2019-2020 estimates)[2][4]
 Mauritania5,700
Languages
Serer, Cangin languages, Wolof,
French (Senegal and Mauritania),
English (Gambia)
Religion
Senegal 2002: 90% Islam [dubious – discuss], 9% Christianity[5] and Serer religion (a ƭat Roog)
Related ethnic groups
Wolof people, Jola people, Toucouleur people, and Lebou people

The Serer people (Serer proper: Seereer or Sereer) are a West African ethnoreligious group.[6][7] They are the third-largest ethnic group in Senegal, making up 15% of the Senegalese population.[8] They are also found in northern Gambia and southern Mauritania.[9]

The Serer people originated in the Senegal River valley, at the border of present-day Senegal and Mauritania, and moved south in the 11th and 12th century. They migrated again in the 15th and 16th centuries as their villages were invaded and they were subjected to religious pressures from Islamic forces.[10][11][12] They have had a sedentary settled culture and have been known for their farming expertise and transhumant stock-raising.[11][13]

The Serer people have been historically noted as an ethnic group practicing elements of both matrilineality and patrilineality that long resisted the expansion of Islam.[14][15][16][17][18] They fought against jihads in the 19th century, and subsequently opposed the French colonial rule.[19][20][21]

In the 20th century, most of the Serer converted to Islam (Sufism[22]), but some are Christians or follow their traditional religion.[19] The Serer society, like other ethnic groups in Senegal, has had social stratification featuring endogamous castes and slaves.[23][24][25] Other historians, such as Thiaw, Richard and others, believe that the Serer did not maintain a slave culture, or at least not to the same extent as other ethnic groups in the region.[26][27][28]

  1. ^ a b CIA World Factbook, Senegal (2023 estimates) - archive [1]
  2. ^ a b CIA World Fackbook
  3. ^ Agence Nationale de Statistique et de la Démographie. Estimated figures for 2007 in Senegal alone
  4. ^ National Population Commission Secretariat (30 April 2005). "2013 Population and Housing Census: Spatial Distribution" (PDF). Gambia Bureau of Statistics. The Republic of The Gambia. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 January 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  5. ^ Claire L. Adida; David D. Laitin; Marie-Anne Valfort (2016). Why Muslim Integration Fails in Christian-Heritage Societies. Harvard University Press. pp. 33–34. ISBN 978-0-674-50492-9.
  6. ^ "Charisma and Ethnicity in Political Context: A Case Study in the Establishment of a Senegalese Religious Clientele", Leonardo A. Villalón, Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 63, No. 1 (1993), p. 95, Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute
  7. ^ Villalón, Leonardo A., Islamic Society and State Power in Senegal: Disciples and Citizens in Fatick, p. 62, Cambridge University Press (2006), ISBN 9780521032322
  8. ^ Senegal, CIA Factsheet
  9. ^ [2] Ethnologue.com
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Galvan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ a b Elizabeth Berg; Ruth Wan; Ruth Lau (2009). Senegal. Marshall Cavendish. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-7614-4481-7.
  12. ^ Leonardo A. Villalón (2006). Islamic Society and State Power in Senegal: Disciples and Citizens in Fatick. Cambridge University Press. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-0-521-03232-2., Quote: "Serer oral tradition recounts the group's origins in the Senegal River valley, where it was part of, or closely related to, the same group as the ancestors of today's Tukulor."
  13. ^ Natural Resources Research, UNESCO, Natural resources research, Volume 16, Unesco (1979), p. 265
  14. ^ Kalis, Simone, Médecine traditionnelle religion et divination chez les Seereer Sine du Senegal, La connaissance de la nuit, L'Harmattan (1997), p. 299, ISBN 2738451969
  15. ^ Lamoise, LE P., Grammaire de la langue Serer (1873)
  16. ^ Becker, Charles: Vestiges historiques, trémoins matériels du passé clans les pays sereer, Dakar (1993), CNRS-ORSTOM [3]
  17. ^ Gastellu, Jean-Marc, Petit traité de matrilinarité. L'accumulation dans deux sociétés rurales d'Afrique de l'Ouest, Cahiers ORSTOM, série Sciences Humaines 4 (1985) [in] Gastellu, Jean-Marc, Matrilineages, Economic Groups and Differentiation in West Africa: A Note, O.R.S.T.O.M. Fonds Documentaire (1988), pp 1, 2–4 (pp 272–4), 7 (p 277) [4]
  18. ^ Dupire, Marguerite, Sagesse sereer: Essais sur la pensée sereer ndut, KARTHALA Editions (1994). For tim and den yaay (see p. 116). The book also deals in depth about the Serer matriclans and means of succession through the matrilineal line. See pp. 38, 95–99, 104, 119–20, 123, 160, 172–74, ISBN 2865374874 [5]
  19. ^ a b James Stuart Olson (1996). The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood. p. 516. ISBN 978-0-313-27918-8.
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference Diop was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference Martin A. Klein 1968 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Leonardo A. Villalón (2006). Islamic Society and State Power in Senegal: Disciples and Citizens in Fatick. Cambridge University Press. pp. 71–74. ISBN 978-0-521-03232-2.
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference Resnick2013p165 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Martin A. Klein (1968). Islam and Imperialism in Senegal: Sine-Saloum, 1847–1914. Stanford University Press. pp. 7–11. ISBN 978-0-8047-0621-6.
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference tamari221 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference Iss La Thia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference SRC- was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  28. ^ Cite error: The named reference R.Fran was invoked but never defined (see the help page).