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Casamance River’s Native Rice Bonds Sacred Traditions
African red rice (Oryza glabberima) is adapted to the region of the Casamance River in Senegal and other river deltas. Imported corporate agribusiness Asian rice could be introducing GE/GMO strains into the region's people and ecosystem, also driving the local farmers out of the market. This report deals with the problems of assimilation into both religious and WTO corporate monoculture, and encourages the survival of animist traditions that view native African rice as sacred..
following info for public domain, please distribute freely with intent to save native African rice from GE/GMO monoculture..
Sacramento River valley rice fields are mostly controlled by corporate agribusiness, what are the chances of local rice farmers networking to keep out GE/GMO rice?
BTW, The timing of this report may seem to be anti-Islam especially when the US/Israeli military is being extremely brutal to Muslim peoples in Iraq and Palestine. Media publicity on the war waged by right-wing leaders in both Judeo-Christianity and Islam seems to forget that other peoples have even older Earth-centered beliefs that encourage living in harmony with nature. Though pagan (animist) cultures have been and still are treated badly by both Islam and Christianity, neither religion respects the traditional beliefs of people labeled "heathens", the main goal is conversion and assimilation. Maybe its time the "pagans" have their voices heard..
Mark Miller
Casamance River’s Native Rice Bonds Sacred Traditions
Senegal has many diverse ethnic groups who are still attempting to maintain their animist (pagan) and rice with palm agroforestry farming traditions in the face of an Islamic government and WTO controlled global food corporation monoculture. The term “pagan” was originally used by the Roman Empire when referring to the “barbarians” of northern Europe, from the Roman word “pagus”. Animist or pagan beliefs are considered Earth-centered, with plants, animals, nature and trees having spirit that can communicate with humans. The animist traditions of Senegal are unique to every tribe living in the Casamance River valley and date back thousands of years with the tribe’s history of their land and the domestication of native African rice. The rice fields are central to the spiritual and social fabric of life along the Casamance. Women owned land and often played a separate but equal role in farming in pre-Islam pagan traditions. Since conversion from animism to Islam, many ethnic groups along the Casamance do not maintain the matrilineal land ownership tradition since women are discouraged from owning land under Islamic law. Another factor resulting from corporate globalization is the imported Asian rice becoming more popular than the native African rice that is the traditional food of the Casamance people. Many farmers in the Northern Casamance have abandoned their rice fields and are forgetting the spiritual and social value of native rice. Since rice fields are central to the Casamance people’s spirituality, the lack of native rice farming could cause the unique ethnic traditions to become extinct after they are assimilated into Islamic and/or corporate monoculture of urban living.
The Casamance River flows between Gambia and Guinea Bissau, the Ehing lands are slightly north of the Guinea Bissau border. Casamance Valley is where African red rice (Oryza glaberrima) was initially domesticated long before Europeans arrived in Africa. People living along the Niger River floodplains were thought to have begun domestication from wild ancestor (Oryza barthii) between 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. (Linares) Over the centuries the wild rice and the people bonded together spiritually as the rice gradually developed the characteristics it has today. The stories and traditions are connected to the history of the rice fields, the people’s spiritual roots are interwoven with the flooded rice roots.
Of the tribes inhabiting the Casamance, there are two main regions with different cultures. Northern Casamance is north of the river and mostly Muslim, while Lower Casamance is south of the river and mostly animist, though sparsely populated. Often the same ethnic people live on both sides, though the northern people eat imported Asian rice while southern inhabitants prefer native African rice. People living here identify mostly as Diola (or Jola), Ehing, and Sereer. Other ethnicities of Senegal include Wolof (1.5 million). Serer (700,000), Tukulur (500,000), Fulani (300,000), Mandinko (250,000), Diola (200,000) and Leboa (40,000). These numbers are from a UNESCO publication of 1974 and are not up to date. Current conditions estimate that the number of Diola still living their traditional lifestyle with rice as a spiritual center is far lower than 200,000. Currently the Wolof majority live urbanized lifestyles disconnected with native rice and other groups like the Sereer are becoming assimilated into Wolof culture, or “Wolofized”. The Sereer live around Sire-Saloum/Thies and are rural traditionalists, the Mandingo live in the Southeast Senegal where many are Muslim marabouts. The Tukulor live in the northern Sahel and the Diola live in the southwest around the Casamance.
The Ehing are a small ethnic group of traditionalist animists who live on the Ehing Plateau of the Casamance. Similar to the Diola, African rice cultivation is a central part of the lives of the Ehing people, rice is the source of their souls. (Schloss, 47) The strong spiritual connection between the Ehing people and their rice is often lacking in people living in cities. Usually urban populations are dependant on imported Asian rice. Urban people follow Islamic beliefs stating the food is available by the will of Allah, and the spiritual ceremonies involving rice growing are forgotten. Along with spirituality loss the memories of social traditions are forgotten also.
Matrilineal land inheritence among the Ehing is a long time animist social tradition. The same rice paddy field remains in the ownership of the family, though loans are often given with the expectancy of return, sometimes up to ten years. Often women are the owners of the rice fields, and transition is made from mother to daughter. A young girl receives some small plots early then receives the main plots after marriage. These ritual land transfers all involve complex negotiations with the spirits.
Bushieli describes the Ehing process for splitting up land into equal parts between the family. Echin is the spirit that governs the splitting of fields, with two rituals taking place. Second ritual occurs few weeks after initial splitting to confirm allocation, son speaks with elder and asks Echin for protection from witchcraft. The Echin also can cause health problems if the family overly disputes ownership (Schloss, 135).
Casamance River valley provides the Ehing a home with food for thousands of years past and future. The gradual slopes and depressions along the river cause salt water to enter the valley almost 60 miles inland during high tide, causing most of the region to be brackish wetlands. Rice cultivation by the Ehing is a network of terracing that stretches along the Casamance, and the native palms are tapped for sap that is fermented into palm wine. Using a technique westerners term “agroforestry”, large trees like baobabs and palms are left standing to retain moisture and shade the fields from the heat (ole) of the intense equatorial sun. This also prevents water from evaporating as quickly from the rice fields and becoming overly saline. The story of rice includes the beginnings of the people living along the river’s delta.
Iri (God) brought man and woman together in his modality of rain (karui). The rainy season is when men and women combine their labor to grow rice. This season is short and intense, the entire community revolves around the rice during these few weeks. Separate roles divide the labor throughout the remaining year. Men use fulcrum hoes called kapes and women use small knives to harvest rice, later using mortar and pestle to grind the rice into flour. After men clear out and burn the brush along the river, women scatter ash for fertilizer. Sustainable rice growing methods could become forgotten as women now buy industrial fertilizer from the government. In the northern Casamance and urban areas, spiritual bonds with African rice are severed as Asian rice is imported with WTO “free trade” provisions.
Currently the imported Asian rice (Oryza sativa) is consumed more than native African rice. This rice was brought to Africa by Portuguese in the 16th century and has gradually replaced the native rice except in places like the lower Casamance where indigenous people like the Ehing and Jola (or Diola) still involve spiritual ceremonies with their native African rice cultivation. The ceremonies add spiritual value to the rice beyond the financial that seems to dominate in “civilized” societies. There is also the concern that the imported Asian rice is genetically engineered (GE/GMO) and could cause health and/or ecological problems. Asian GE/GMO monoculture rice would compete with the biodiversity of African rice that is naturally adapted to the pre-existing conditions of the Casamance River. There are suggestions to hybridize the Asian and African strains, for a larger rice grain that still is adaptable to the local bioregion. It is equally as important to maintain the reproduction of native African rice without any alteration or hybridization. The spiritual traditions bond the people of Casamance with the native African rice. If the Jola and Ehing are pulled away from their animist traditions by continued conversion to Islam, they may also lose their spiritual connection with the native African red rice.
Islam is similar to Christianity as a religion that seeks to convert people, regardless of their own beliefs, to Islam. When animist people declined the invitation to join Islam, they were often forced to change anyway under military domination. Holy wars of conversion began in 1860 when groups of Muslim Manding and Fula marched into Casamance to make war and eradicate animist peoples; (non-Muslim Fula, Jola, Banun, Soninke). The Muslim leaders began a Jihad against the animists and pillaged Jola villages, though after a few years time the Casamance Manding got tired of fighting French, animists and Fulani. (Linares, 93)
The invasion of the Casamance was multi-faceted, not only were Muslim invaders threatening the animist lifestyle, the French also thought they could control the Casamance for their own benefit. During the time around WW2, French colonists attempted to pacify the Jola of lower Casamance by encouraging them to grow groundnuts as an export cash crop. Monoculture groundnut crops encouraged clear cutting and contributes to deforestation and desertification. Forced labor for roads to export groundnuts accompanied this conversion and prevented the Jola from growing native African rice. (Linares, 100)
Northern Kujamaat Jola have become Islamized and now practice commercial agriculture for export. Their social fabric is torn, production channeled into two conflicting task specific agricultural systems that compete for labor and land. The more groundnuts grown, the less time and space left for growing native rice. Southern Esudadu Jola remain animist and refuse to practice female circumcision, while Manding Muslims do. Esudadu Jola also grow rice and collect sap for palm wine, two symbiotic non-conflicting agricultural systems. (Linares, 103)
Esudadu Jola live in 5 Jola villages on raised plateaus, with animal pasture and palms for wine. Nearby at lower elevation are depressed alluvial fans and tidal creeks (marigots) with Jola rice fields and fishing ponds. (Linares, 17) The rice fields of the low coastline are saline, the rains of June - Oct flush out salt from rice field, with dikes on banks of marigot to keep salt water out, and dikes surrounding each paddy to keep rainwater in. Conduits of the dikes are made from Borassus palm trunks. Palm wine (bunuk) made from the native Borassus palm’s (Elaeis guineensis) fermented sap. Since rice work is needed in rainy season, the palm wine harvest occurs in the dry season. Bujals are collective palm tree groves, not individually owned like rice paddies. (Linares 71-73) Community ownership of the palms is a positive animist tradition that often conflicts with the notions of corporate “private property” ownership. The palms have brought the Muslim Jola and animist Jola together through their different preferences of palm oil and wine.
Jola Muslims are not allowed to drink palm wine (though they drink millet beer), so they no longer climb palm trees to tap the sap. Other non-Muslim animist Jola climb palms and tap sap for wine. While up there they also collect palm fruit for Muslim Jola, later made into oil (miit) by the Muslim Jola. The palm wine tapping trip is called kawaw, a month long event that is part of the Jola animist tradition. Palm wine is the mediating symbol in Jola kawasen religion, and groundnuts are linked with Islam and marabouts. (Linares, 75) The conflicts between the Muslims and the animists have calmed down in the modern era, though so many people converted to Islam the animist culture is nearly extinct. The story of the Ceddo describes the struggles and transitions in the Senegalese people from animist to Islam.
“Ceddo” is a Wolof term for non-Muslims, meaning “pagan animist” or drinker of alcohol. Some also implied the Ceddo were pagan royalty, usually due to their elaborate clothing and necklaces made from animals or plants. The spirits of these animals and plants were seen as idol worshipping and discouraged by Islamic law. Between 1790-1880 most of the conflicts between Islam and the Ceddo occurred. Ceddo were distinctive in maintaining their ancestral customs and matrilineal inheritence. Ceddo vs. serina si describes the battles between the Muslims and animists of Senegal (Searing, 6) The movie “Ceddo” by Sengalese director describes a story of one of the last animist resistances to Islam lead by a Ceddo queen. Once conversion happened across a generation, many traditional farming methods were forgotten.
Differences in farming methods can be noticed in other ethnic groups that have become Muslim. After the Wolof accepted Islam, when they cleared an area for cultivation, they cut down almost all the trees. These actions against nature symbolically stated the Wolof’s separation from animist spirit powers symbolized by snakes, birds and other animals inhabiting forest groves. The Sereer people were not Muslims, they lived in dispersed settlements in forest refuges with sacred tree groves. “Pangol” spirits lived in the sacred groves and formed pacts with the village community for protection. Sereer regions were protected sanctuaries, barriers of forests cultivated to keep out Muslim Wolof converts calvary forces. During French colonialism of the 1890’s, they found thick forests 10-20 km wide surrounding Sereer villages. Sereer would not pay tribute to kings and overlords of any kind. Spirit powers were source of opposition to Wolof rule. Wolof monarchy became allied with Islam in attempting to conquer the animist Sereer (Searing, 20). The French colonialists also used economic manipulations of export groundnut crops after colonialism to sever the ties between the animist ethnic groups and their forests and rice fields.
The palms and the rice are companions in the wet and sunny river delta, the Jola and Ehing are dependent on their continued health and survival. The last few Jola/Ehing people who still have knowledge of the palm and rice ceremonies are more valuable than corporate profits from imported rice. Palms support biodiversity in the tropics, adding leaf litter for topsoil and providing shelter for wildlife. The Jola and Ehing knew this before the coming of Islam and corporate colonialism. These two outside forces could cause the people to forget the importance of the rice and palm symbiosis.
Native African rice has suffered most recently under WTO globalization and import of Asian monoculture rice that discourages sustainable bioregionalism and subsistence farming along the Casamance river valley. Diola and Ehing rice farmers cannot trade their native rice for other food if the price of the subsidized imported corporate monoculture rice is inexpensive compared to theirs. The effect of Islam and corporate globalization on the Diola’s conception of the Universe and rice ceremonies could be permanent. After mass conversion to Islam in the 1930’s, the remaining animist traditionalists with knowledge of rice ceremonies aged and died, before that time most of northern Casamance was animist (Mark, 116). The rice existed with the people for thousands of years, now the bonds are being severed as imported rice floods the market.
Throughout Senegal other ethnic peoples struggle to maintain their animist traditions that rely on native plants adapted to their bioregion. In the low rainfall Ferlo region of Senegal, Acacia senegal is a leguminous tree that releases the natural resin gum arabic. (Sahel, 28, 38) This drought tolerant tree is also a nitrogen fixer that produces natural nitrogen fertilizer in permaculture agroforestry gardens. The traditions and ceremonies around the Acacia Senegal tree also show the importance of animism. There are many other examples of ethnic groups losing their animist ceremonies and traditions in the assimilation process of Islam and corporate globalization. Direct action is needed to prevent the unique knowledge and wisdom of animist peoples vanishing from the Casamance River’s native rice fields and other regions of the Earth.
Many non-profit groups like GRAIN are attempting to stop the flow of GE/GMO corporate agribusiness imports into places like the Casamance. Though the population increase in places like Senegal may seem like rice imports are needed to alleviate famine, depending on imports under WTO globalization guidelines and possible GE/GMO contamination may be only a quick-fix solution that causes more problems after time. Decreasing land used for monoculture export crops like groundnuts could also free space for subsistence farming with native rice. African native rice continues the spiritual traditions of animist peoples living along the Casamance River.
Sources;
"Agroforestry in the West African Sahel" (Advisory Committee on the Sahel)
National Academy Press, Washington DC, 1984
“A Cultural, Economic and Religious History of the Basse Casamance since 1500” by Peter Mark Studien zur Kulturkunde vol. 78 Franz Steiner Verlag, Weisbaden 1985 GmBH
“The Hatchet’s Blood; Separation, Power and Gender in Ehing Social Life” by Marc R. Schloss
1988 University of Arizona Press
“God Alone is King: Islam and Emancipation in Senegal” James F Searing 2002 (Social history of Africa series)
"Power, Prayer and Production, the Jola of Casamance, Senegal" by Olga Linares
“Two Studies on ethnic Group Relations in Africa: Senegal and Tanzania” UNESCO 1974
Internet sources;
African rice ( Oryza glaberrima): History and future potential
Olga F. Linares*
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Box 2072, Balboa-Ancon, Republic of Panama
Contributed by Olga F. Linares, October 4, 2002
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/99/25/16360.pdf
http://www.youssoumane.com/english/casamance.htm
http://www.ausenegal.com/decouvrir/geo_casa.htm
http://www.revolutionresearch.org/casamance/direct.htm
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/dyo.htm
GRAIN website;
http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=1
Sacramento River valley rice fields are mostly controlled by corporate agribusiness, what are the chances of local rice farmers networking to keep out GE/GMO rice?
BTW, The timing of this report may seem to be anti-Islam especially when the US/Israeli military is being extremely brutal to Muslim peoples in Iraq and Palestine. Media publicity on the war waged by right-wing leaders in both Judeo-Christianity and Islam seems to forget that other peoples have even older Earth-centered beliefs that encourage living in harmony with nature. Though pagan (animist) cultures have been and still are treated badly by both Islam and Christianity, neither religion respects the traditional beliefs of people labeled "heathens", the main goal is conversion and assimilation. Maybe its time the "pagans" have their voices heard..
Mark Miller
Casamance River’s Native Rice Bonds Sacred Traditions
Senegal has many diverse ethnic groups who are still attempting to maintain their animist (pagan) and rice with palm agroforestry farming traditions in the face of an Islamic government and WTO controlled global food corporation monoculture. The term “pagan” was originally used by the Roman Empire when referring to the “barbarians” of northern Europe, from the Roman word “pagus”. Animist or pagan beliefs are considered Earth-centered, with plants, animals, nature and trees having spirit that can communicate with humans. The animist traditions of Senegal are unique to every tribe living in the Casamance River valley and date back thousands of years with the tribe’s history of their land and the domestication of native African rice. The rice fields are central to the spiritual and social fabric of life along the Casamance. Women owned land and often played a separate but equal role in farming in pre-Islam pagan traditions. Since conversion from animism to Islam, many ethnic groups along the Casamance do not maintain the matrilineal land ownership tradition since women are discouraged from owning land under Islamic law. Another factor resulting from corporate globalization is the imported Asian rice becoming more popular than the native African rice that is the traditional food of the Casamance people. Many farmers in the Northern Casamance have abandoned their rice fields and are forgetting the spiritual and social value of native rice. Since rice fields are central to the Casamance people’s spirituality, the lack of native rice farming could cause the unique ethnic traditions to become extinct after they are assimilated into Islamic and/or corporate monoculture of urban living.
The Casamance River flows between Gambia and Guinea Bissau, the Ehing lands are slightly north of the Guinea Bissau border. Casamance Valley is where African red rice (Oryza glaberrima) was initially domesticated long before Europeans arrived in Africa. People living along the Niger River floodplains were thought to have begun domestication from wild ancestor (Oryza barthii) between 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. (Linares) Over the centuries the wild rice and the people bonded together spiritually as the rice gradually developed the characteristics it has today. The stories and traditions are connected to the history of the rice fields, the people’s spiritual roots are interwoven with the flooded rice roots.
Of the tribes inhabiting the Casamance, there are two main regions with different cultures. Northern Casamance is north of the river and mostly Muslim, while Lower Casamance is south of the river and mostly animist, though sparsely populated. Often the same ethnic people live on both sides, though the northern people eat imported Asian rice while southern inhabitants prefer native African rice. People living here identify mostly as Diola (or Jola), Ehing, and Sereer. Other ethnicities of Senegal include Wolof (1.5 million). Serer (700,000), Tukulur (500,000), Fulani (300,000), Mandinko (250,000), Diola (200,000) and Leboa (40,000). These numbers are from a UNESCO publication of 1974 and are not up to date. Current conditions estimate that the number of Diola still living their traditional lifestyle with rice as a spiritual center is far lower than 200,000. Currently the Wolof majority live urbanized lifestyles disconnected with native rice and other groups like the Sereer are becoming assimilated into Wolof culture, or “Wolofized”. The Sereer live around Sire-Saloum/Thies and are rural traditionalists, the Mandingo live in the Southeast Senegal where many are Muslim marabouts. The Tukulor live in the northern Sahel and the Diola live in the southwest around the Casamance.
The Ehing are a small ethnic group of traditionalist animists who live on the Ehing Plateau of the Casamance. Similar to the Diola, African rice cultivation is a central part of the lives of the Ehing people, rice is the source of their souls. (Schloss, 47) The strong spiritual connection between the Ehing people and their rice is often lacking in people living in cities. Usually urban populations are dependant on imported Asian rice. Urban people follow Islamic beliefs stating the food is available by the will of Allah, and the spiritual ceremonies involving rice growing are forgotten. Along with spirituality loss the memories of social traditions are forgotten also.
Matrilineal land inheritence among the Ehing is a long time animist social tradition. The same rice paddy field remains in the ownership of the family, though loans are often given with the expectancy of return, sometimes up to ten years. Often women are the owners of the rice fields, and transition is made from mother to daughter. A young girl receives some small plots early then receives the main plots after marriage. These ritual land transfers all involve complex negotiations with the spirits.
Bushieli describes the Ehing process for splitting up land into equal parts between the family. Echin is the spirit that governs the splitting of fields, with two rituals taking place. Second ritual occurs few weeks after initial splitting to confirm allocation, son speaks with elder and asks Echin for protection from witchcraft. The Echin also can cause health problems if the family overly disputes ownership (Schloss, 135).
Casamance River valley provides the Ehing a home with food for thousands of years past and future. The gradual slopes and depressions along the river cause salt water to enter the valley almost 60 miles inland during high tide, causing most of the region to be brackish wetlands. Rice cultivation by the Ehing is a network of terracing that stretches along the Casamance, and the native palms are tapped for sap that is fermented into palm wine. Using a technique westerners term “agroforestry”, large trees like baobabs and palms are left standing to retain moisture and shade the fields from the heat (ole) of the intense equatorial sun. This also prevents water from evaporating as quickly from the rice fields and becoming overly saline. The story of rice includes the beginnings of the people living along the river’s delta.
Iri (God) brought man and woman together in his modality of rain (karui). The rainy season is when men and women combine their labor to grow rice. This season is short and intense, the entire community revolves around the rice during these few weeks. Separate roles divide the labor throughout the remaining year. Men use fulcrum hoes called kapes and women use small knives to harvest rice, later using mortar and pestle to grind the rice into flour. After men clear out and burn the brush along the river, women scatter ash for fertilizer. Sustainable rice growing methods could become forgotten as women now buy industrial fertilizer from the government. In the northern Casamance and urban areas, spiritual bonds with African rice are severed as Asian rice is imported with WTO “free trade” provisions.
Currently the imported Asian rice (Oryza sativa) is consumed more than native African rice. This rice was brought to Africa by Portuguese in the 16th century and has gradually replaced the native rice except in places like the lower Casamance where indigenous people like the Ehing and Jola (or Diola) still involve spiritual ceremonies with their native African rice cultivation. The ceremonies add spiritual value to the rice beyond the financial that seems to dominate in “civilized” societies. There is also the concern that the imported Asian rice is genetically engineered (GE/GMO) and could cause health and/or ecological problems. Asian GE/GMO monoculture rice would compete with the biodiversity of African rice that is naturally adapted to the pre-existing conditions of the Casamance River. There are suggestions to hybridize the Asian and African strains, for a larger rice grain that still is adaptable to the local bioregion. It is equally as important to maintain the reproduction of native African rice without any alteration or hybridization. The spiritual traditions bond the people of Casamance with the native African rice. If the Jola and Ehing are pulled away from their animist traditions by continued conversion to Islam, they may also lose their spiritual connection with the native African red rice.
Islam is similar to Christianity as a religion that seeks to convert people, regardless of their own beliefs, to Islam. When animist people declined the invitation to join Islam, they were often forced to change anyway under military domination. Holy wars of conversion began in 1860 when groups of Muslim Manding and Fula marched into Casamance to make war and eradicate animist peoples; (non-Muslim Fula, Jola, Banun, Soninke). The Muslim leaders began a Jihad against the animists and pillaged Jola villages, though after a few years time the Casamance Manding got tired of fighting French, animists and Fulani. (Linares, 93)
The invasion of the Casamance was multi-faceted, not only were Muslim invaders threatening the animist lifestyle, the French also thought they could control the Casamance for their own benefit. During the time around WW2, French colonists attempted to pacify the Jola of lower Casamance by encouraging them to grow groundnuts as an export cash crop. Monoculture groundnut crops encouraged clear cutting and contributes to deforestation and desertification. Forced labor for roads to export groundnuts accompanied this conversion and prevented the Jola from growing native African rice. (Linares, 100)
Northern Kujamaat Jola have become Islamized and now practice commercial agriculture for export. Their social fabric is torn, production channeled into two conflicting task specific agricultural systems that compete for labor and land. The more groundnuts grown, the less time and space left for growing native rice. Southern Esudadu Jola remain animist and refuse to practice female circumcision, while Manding Muslims do. Esudadu Jola also grow rice and collect sap for palm wine, two symbiotic non-conflicting agricultural systems. (Linares, 103)
Esudadu Jola live in 5 Jola villages on raised plateaus, with animal pasture and palms for wine. Nearby at lower elevation are depressed alluvial fans and tidal creeks (marigots) with Jola rice fields and fishing ponds. (Linares, 17) The rice fields of the low coastline are saline, the rains of June - Oct flush out salt from rice field, with dikes on banks of marigot to keep salt water out, and dikes surrounding each paddy to keep rainwater in. Conduits of the dikes are made from Borassus palm trunks. Palm wine (bunuk) made from the native Borassus palm’s (Elaeis guineensis) fermented sap. Since rice work is needed in rainy season, the palm wine harvest occurs in the dry season. Bujals are collective palm tree groves, not individually owned like rice paddies. (Linares 71-73) Community ownership of the palms is a positive animist tradition that often conflicts with the notions of corporate “private property” ownership. The palms have brought the Muslim Jola and animist Jola together through their different preferences of palm oil and wine.
Jola Muslims are not allowed to drink palm wine (though they drink millet beer), so they no longer climb palm trees to tap the sap. Other non-Muslim animist Jola climb palms and tap sap for wine. While up there they also collect palm fruit for Muslim Jola, later made into oil (miit) by the Muslim Jola. The palm wine tapping trip is called kawaw, a month long event that is part of the Jola animist tradition. Palm wine is the mediating symbol in Jola kawasen religion, and groundnuts are linked with Islam and marabouts. (Linares, 75) The conflicts between the Muslims and the animists have calmed down in the modern era, though so many people converted to Islam the animist culture is nearly extinct. The story of the Ceddo describes the struggles and transitions in the Senegalese people from animist to Islam.
“Ceddo” is a Wolof term for non-Muslims, meaning “pagan animist” or drinker of alcohol. Some also implied the Ceddo were pagan royalty, usually due to their elaborate clothing and necklaces made from animals or plants. The spirits of these animals and plants were seen as idol worshipping and discouraged by Islamic law. Between 1790-1880 most of the conflicts between Islam and the Ceddo occurred. Ceddo were distinctive in maintaining their ancestral customs and matrilineal inheritence. Ceddo vs. serina si describes the battles between the Muslims and animists of Senegal (Searing, 6) The movie “Ceddo” by Sengalese director describes a story of one of the last animist resistances to Islam lead by a Ceddo queen. Once conversion happened across a generation, many traditional farming methods were forgotten.
Differences in farming methods can be noticed in other ethnic groups that have become Muslim. After the Wolof accepted Islam, when they cleared an area for cultivation, they cut down almost all the trees. These actions against nature symbolically stated the Wolof’s separation from animist spirit powers symbolized by snakes, birds and other animals inhabiting forest groves. The Sereer people were not Muslims, they lived in dispersed settlements in forest refuges with sacred tree groves. “Pangol” spirits lived in the sacred groves and formed pacts with the village community for protection. Sereer regions were protected sanctuaries, barriers of forests cultivated to keep out Muslim Wolof converts calvary forces. During French colonialism of the 1890’s, they found thick forests 10-20 km wide surrounding Sereer villages. Sereer would not pay tribute to kings and overlords of any kind. Spirit powers were source of opposition to Wolof rule. Wolof monarchy became allied with Islam in attempting to conquer the animist Sereer (Searing, 20). The French colonialists also used economic manipulations of export groundnut crops after colonialism to sever the ties between the animist ethnic groups and their forests and rice fields.
The palms and the rice are companions in the wet and sunny river delta, the Jola and Ehing are dependent on their continued health and survival. The last few Jola/Ehing people who still have knowledge of the palm and rice ceremonies are more valuable than corporate profits from imported rice. Palms support biodiversity in the tropics, adding leaf litter for topsoil and providing shelter for wildlife. The Jola and Ehing knew this before the coming of Islam and corporate colonialism. These two outside forces could cause the people to forget the importance of the rice and palm symbiosis.
Native African rice has suffered most recently under WTO globalization and import of Asian monoculture rice that discourages sustainable bioregionalism and subsistence farming along the Casamance river valley. Diola and Ehing rice farmers cannot trade their native rice for other food if the price of the subsidized imported corporate monoculture rice is inexpensive compared to theirs. The effect of Islam and corporate globalization on the Diola’s conception of the Universe and rice ceremonies could be permanent. After mass conversion to Islam in the 1930’s, the remaining animist traditionalists with knowledge of rice ceremonies aged and died, before that time most of northern Casamance was animist (Mark, 116). The rice existed with the people for thousands of years, now the bonds are being severed as imported rice floods the market.
Throughout Senegal other ethnic peoples struggle to maintain their animist traditions that rely on native plants adapted to their bioregion. In the low rainfall Ferlo region of Senegal, Acacia senegal is a leguminous tree that releases the natural resin gum arabic. (Sahel, 28, 38) This drought tolerant tree is also a nitrogen fixer that produces natural nitrogen fertilizer in permaculture agroforestry gardens. The traditions and ceremonies around the Acacia Senegal tree also show the importance of animism. There are many other examples of ethnic groups losing their animist ceremonies and traditions in the assimilation process of Islam and corporate globalization. Direct action is needed to prevent the unique knowledge and wisdom of animist peoples vanishing from the Casamance River’s native rice fields and other regions of the Earth.
Many non-profit groups like GRAIN are attempting to stop the flow of GE/GMO corporate agribusiness imports into places like the Casamance. Though the population increase in places like Senegal may seem like rice imports are needed to alleviate famine, depending on imports under WTO globalization guidelines and possible GE/GMO contamination may be only a quick-fix solution that causes more problems after time. Decreasing land used for monoculture export crops like groundnuts could also free space for subsistence farming with native rice. African native rice continues the spiritual traditions of animist peoples living along the Casamance River.
Sources;
"Agroforestry in the West African Sahel" (Advisory Committee on the Sahel)
National Academy Press, Washington DC, 1984
“A Cultural, Economic and Religious History of the Basse Casamance since 1500” by Peter Mark Studien zur Kulturkunde vol. 78 Franz Steiner Verlag, Weisbaden 1985 GmBH
“The Hatchet’s Blood; Separation, Power and Gender in Ehing Social Life” by Marc R. Schloss
1988 University of Arizona Press
“God Alone is King: Islam and Emancipation in Senegal” James F Searing 2002 (Social history of Africa series)
"Power, Prayer and Production, the Jola of Casamance, Senegal" by Olga Linares
“Two Studies on ethnic Group Relations in Africa: Senegal and Tanzania” UNESCO 1974
Internet sources;
African rice ( Oryza glaberrima): History and future potential
Olga F. Linares*
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Box 2072, Balboa-Ancon, Republic of Panama
Contributed by Olga F. Linares, October 4, 2002
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/99/25/16360.pdf
http://www.youssoumane.com/english/casamance.htm
http://www.ausenegal.com/decouvrir/geo_casa.htm
http://www.revolutionresearch.org/casamance/direct.htm
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/dyo.htm
GRAIN website;
http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=1
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