4.5.1. NEW FORCES MENACE

ADOPTING THE COWRIE CURRENCY IS PART OF GROWTH THAT IS TERRIBLE FOR MOST PEOPLE BUT EXTREMELY DYNAMIC

Long-distance traders and an emerging class of grain producers for market 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 group above resembles the elders of Darhala, the Muslim center on the route to Kong, who met with me at the sous-prefet's request in 1973. When with conscious innocence I asked whether there had been any slavery they said that there hadn't been, and that they had to go back to their fields. 

• Those traders were ensconced in Djimini by 1878, when they burned the Senufo chief Nambolossé alive in his hut (the next section tells that story). The archives 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.

Those traders' appearance is part of a general invasion:

• 1820's: Fulani from Northern Nigeria ride south, wearing white clothing, carrying banners, crying "Allahu Akhbar!" and awaiting 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 Amadu 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.

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.

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

*      *      *

Next,
4.5.2. 

Senufo fight back