4.5.1. NEW FORCES MENACE

LONG-DISTANCE TRADERS AND SENOUFO PRODUCERS FOR THE EXPANDING MARKETS APPEAR

They are infinitely more disruptive than the petty Dyula, who on the whole integrate into Senufo society.  

Nigerian dignitaries,"Narrative of an Expedition to the River Niger" by William Allen, 1848 

The picture resembles the elders of Darhala.

Muslims from the Middle Niger and Northern Nigeria invade the animist south.

• 1820's: Fulani from Northern Nigeria wearing white clothing, carry banners, cry "Allahu Akhbar!" and await paradise should they die in combat. At Oyo's capital they incite Muslim slaves to kill their animist masters and join them. 

 Records of a Second Expedition to the Interior of Africa, 1825-27,
-- Clapperton, ed. Paul Lovejoy, pp 203-4.

• 1850's: Bornu Fulani and Kanuri move south, enslaving or killing populations or demanding tribute.  

-- Barth, II, 93.

• 1870's: Segou's Amadou Tall "seems to be less and less interested in his possessions in Kaarta, Fadugou and Bélédougou [in Senegal and Mali], which are in constant revolt... [he] is turning his efforts toward the south..."

-- Dakar archives, 1880.

• 1890's: Northerners reach the coast.

-- Dakar archives, 1894.

For Djimini, archival documents say that the Hausa merchant "Mori" settled in the textile center of Marabadiassa and "Karamoko Bassiri" in Bouake, farther west. The imam of Darhala said that his father arrived at the same time.

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They colonize and enserf:  

•  The indigenous language is disappearing:

"The spirits of the land," say the Senufo of Kénédougou, "have retreated to certain swamps. Woe to the careless person who should pronounce words in the Bambara language, that of the conqueror, next to those swamps. He will immediately be sucked in. The country is Senufo, and its spirits wish to hear Senufo alone."

-- Dakar archives, 1888.

• Populations are becoming tributary:

North of Djimini: "It is to them [the northerners] that they [the Senufo] give their work and their harvests. In fact they are captives, except that they are not sold."  

-- Dakar archives, 1888.

• Within Djimini:

"They tried to steal our harvests."

 -- Serisio Coulibali, animist farmer.

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They preach Islam,which in an animist context meant transforming society itself.

When with conscious innocence 

I asked the elders of Darhala about slavery 

they said there had been none, 

and that they had to return to their fields.

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Next,
4.5.2. 

Nambolossé, the Senufo hero