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Babacar Sedikh Diouf or Babacar Sédikh Diouf (Serer: Babakar Sidiix Juuf, b. 1928) is a Senegalese historian, author, researcher, campaigner against"Wolofization", a Pan-Africanist, and former teacher. He has written extensively about the history and culture of Senegal, Africa, and that of the Serer ethnic group to which he belong.

Academia and other works

Diouf, who is a retired teacher was appointed President of the Association of Retired Teachers of Senegal (French: l'association des instituteurs à la retraite).

Diouf sometimes write by the pen name Babacar Sedikh Diouf. Many of his works are unpublished but cited by African, Caribbean and Western scholars who've interacted with him over the years. Some of these include gender politics writers Louise Langevin, Fatou Kiné Camara and Jeremy I. Levitt; historians/scholars Mamadou Diouf and Professor Abdoulaye Keita of IFAN—UCAD; and anthropologist Henry Gravrand.

Diouf usually writes in French but has also written in Serer. An eighty page short biography of the of 19th century Serer King of Sine — Maad a Sinig Kumba Ndoffene Famak Joof, titled: O maad a sinig : Kumba Ndoofeen fa Maak JUUF (Buka-Cilaas), 1853-1871, PAPF (1987) was written in Serer.

The Guelowar Dynasty in Seereer kingdoms

Main articles: Guelowar, Maad a Sinig Maysa Wali Jaxateh Manneh, Kingdom of Sine, and Kingdom of Saloum

The mainstream view has been that, the Guelowar Maternal Dynasty (whom some writers such as Martin A. Klein, Donald R. Wright and Emmett Jefferson Murphy wrongly labelled as Mandinka or Malinke) conquered the Serer people and subjugated them. After years of researching and documenting the oral traditionas of the Serer and that of Kaabu, Diouf was one of the first historian and author to posit that the Guelowars of Sine and Saloum (the two Serer kingdoms) did not conquer and subjugate the Serer people but were granted asylum by the Serer Council of Great Lamans, who then went on marry into the Serer noble patriclans. The Guelowars who were relatives and offshot of the powerful Ñaanco (or Nyancho) Maternal Dynasty of Kaabu, underwent a dynastic war or struggle against their powerful Ñaanco relatives. The Senegalese historian Alioune Sarr, in his acclaimed paper Histoire du Sine-Saloum (1986-87) supports that view and placed that dynastic war around 1335. Sarr's Histoire du Sine-Saloum is one of the leading work on the history of Sine-Saloum and is generally regarded as the prevailing view especially in regards to the date of reign of the Kings of Sine and Saloum. In his paper _______ Diouf went on to posit that: "Maysa Waly [the first Guelowar to reign in Serer country] was first appointed legal adviser to the Council of the Great Lamans after his famous judgment. Gradually, he strengthened his power and authority and ended up being recognized as king." Maysa Wali's direct paternal descendants did not reign in any of the Serer kingdoms. Serer noble men from the ancient lamanic class married Gulowar women, and the offsprings of these marriages reigned as kings. These children saw themselves as Serer and assimilated into Serer culture and all ties with Kaabu were severed. The Serer—Guelowar alliance was an alliance based on marriage, not conquest. With the exception of the Serer being a conquered group—which has been the mainstream view, Emmett Jefferson Murphy's earlier work History of African Civilization (1972) reached a somewhat similar conclusion as regards to the Serer—Guelowar (or "Malinke" as he put it) marriage alliance. He writes:

The Serer people had earlier settled on the plains of the highland of Futa Toro in modern Senegal. They lived side by side with the Tukulor and were ruled by them until the eleventh century. At that time, perhaps because of growing Islamic influence among the Tukulor, the Serer—who refused to accept Islam–migrated to an area between the Sine and Saloum rivers in what is now southeastern Senegal. The Serer conquered the Mande-speaking tribes then inhabiting the Sine-Salum and settled the area. Within a century, however, powerful Malinke invaders also moved into the Sine-Salum, settling among the Serer as a ruling class. This caste, called the tiedo, subdivided into the "guelowar," or the nobles eligible for the kingship (only Malinke or the descendants of Malinke-Serer marriages were included); [...]

As common in the Senegambia region and many African cultures, when a woman from another tribe marries a man from a different tribe, both she and her children takes on the tribe of the father. Throughout the six hundred years of Guelowar dynastic history, none of the reigning kings of Sine or Saloum bore Mandinka surnames, but Serer surnames with the few exceptions of the Mbooj or Mboge patrilineage, who patrilineally traced descent to Mbarick Bo or Mbarik Bo (or Mbanyik Bo), originally from Waalo, whose surname Bo is "Wolofized" to Mbooj. According to Serer oral tradition, he was the step father of Ndiadian Ndiaye (founder of the Jolof Empire) and a Bambara prince from the Massassi dynasty of Kaarta; and according to Wolof oral tradition, he was a step father of Ndiadian Ndiaye but a non-Muslim and a slave of the Almoravid Arab Abu Bakr ibn Umar (also referred to as Abdu Darday). Sources do not agree with the Wolof account of him being a slave of Abu Bakr or that Abu Bakr was the father of Ndiadian Ndiaye as per Wolof oral tradition, as Abu Bakr preceeded Ndiadian Ndiaye by at least three hundred years. Ndiadian reigned in Jolof around 1360. Abu Bakr was killed in 1087 possibly by the Serer bowman Amar Godomat.

Pan Africanism

In 2004, Diouf was invited by the Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire to give a speech at the cultural and scientific institute's conference—held at the University of Mutants in Gorée. In that conference, Diouf spoke out against globalization, and called for a Pan-African approach and the need to increase solidarity among African countries.

Selection of works

The following are a selection of Diouf's works:

• O maad a sinig : Kumba Ndoofeen fa Maak JUUF (Buka-Cilaas), 1853-1871 by Babacar Sedikh Diouf, PAPF (1987)
• L'esprit de l'ecole nouvelle by Babacar Sedikh Diouf, (1988)
• Gradation modification effects on engineering performance of reclaimed asphalt pavement for use as roadway base by Babacar Sedikh Diouf, M.S. Florida Institute of Technology (2011) - (thesis)
• Les mégalithes, monuments funéraires ou sanctuaires d'initiation?, by Babacar Sedikh Diouf, Age d'or du Sénégal. Pages 53-64. (article)
• La présence sérère dans les fondements historiques et culturels de la nation, by Babacar Sédikh Diouf

View on Wolofization

Diouf is a fervent opponent of linguistic "Wolofization" which is prevalent throughout Senegal and almost engulfing the entire Senegambia region. He views Wolofization as destructive to the languages and cultures of other Senegambian ethnic groups such as Serer, Jola, Mandinka, Fula, etc. Diouf describes Wolofization as a form of "controlled osmosis" (French: "osmose contrôlée")—that is, the Wolof language used as a tool to control other ethnic groups—which could possibly lead to the death or extinction of othe ethnic languages. Haalpulaar intellectuals such as Yoro Doro Diallo and Cheikh Hamidou Kane share Diouf's view on Wolofization.

Diouf does not dislike the Wolof people or the Wolof language, but takes issue with the concept of Wolofization which is prevalent in Senegal and the Gambia. For many years, Diouf has advocated for a duty of brotherhood and cousinage among all Senegambian peoples. He argues that, "national unity existed long before the name [Wolofization], without fratricidal wars and unnecessary heartbreaks, around a central nucleus whose virtues can still be used."

Stuff

• "Babacar Sédikh Diouf, Serer elder, president of the Union of Retired Teachers, and long-standing member of the National Union of Languages, is a staunch critic of Wolofization and calls for a “controlled osmosis” between Wolof and other ethnicities.48 When the past is described by patriotic historians as a paradise of interconnected but different, autonomous, equal, and selfrespecting patriae, a statement is obviously made about the present, viewed as the “uncontrolled” homogenization of the nation by the Wolof. An alternative past is sought with a view to proposing an alternative present." (Source : « Merging ethnic histories in Senegal: whose moral community? », in Derek Peterson & Giacomo Macola (dir.), Recasting the Past: History Writing and Political Work in Modern Africa, Athens, Ohio University Press, 2009, (213-232.), p. 12 (PDF) [in] Academia.edu [15] (retrieved February, 8 2020)

• "Former teacher Babacar Sédikh Diouf recalls that he first met Senghor in 1951, in a Casamance village. Senghor, then a member of Parliament (MP), was visiting the locality as a surprise and had slept overnight in a simple hut. Diouf argues that after that day, he became a supporter of Senghor because his visit had proved his humility and interest in teaching. From then on, Diouf started to read Senghor. Later on, Senghor awarded him a grant to study Serer history “along Cheikh Anta Diop’s hypotheses.” See Babacar Sédikh Diouf, “L’imaginaire sérère dans l’oeuvre de Léopold Sédar Senghor,” in Senghor: Colloque de Dakar (Dakar: PUD, 1998), 241–46." (Source : « Merging ethnic histories in Senegal: whose moral community? », in Derek Peterson & Giacomo Macola (dir.), Recasting the Past: History Writing and Political Work in Modern Africa, Athens, Ohio University Press, 2009, (213-232.), p. 16 (PDF)) [in] Academia.edu [16] (retrieved February, 8 2020)