Alioune Sarr (September 1, 1908 – July 12, 2001 ) was a Senegalese historian, author and politician whose family gained prominence in the Serer precolonial

Kingdom of Sine The Kingdom of Sine (also: ''Sin, Siine'' or Siin in the Serer-Sine language) was a post-classical Serer kingdom along the north bank of the Saloum River delta in modern Senegal. The inhabitants are called ''Siin-Siin'' or ''Sine-Sine'' (a Se ...

and Saloum around the 14th century. They also made up the ''"sulbalƃe"'' class of

Futa Toro Futa Toro ( Wolof and ff, Fuuta Tooro ''𞤆𞤵𞥄𞤼𞤢 𞤚𞤮𞥄𞤪𞤮''; ar, فوتا تورو), often simply the Futa, is a semidesert region around the middle run of the Senegal River. This region is along the border of Senegal and ...

(all in present-day Senegal). Sarr was born at

Foundiougne Foundiougne Department is one of the departments of Senegal, located in the Fatick Region. Economy Foundiougne is a main hub on the Sine-Saloum Sine-Saloum is a region in Senegal located north of the Gambia and south of the Petite Côte. It ...

. His father (Koly Samba Sarr) was a former Chief of

, Gandoune, former head of the

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

of Ndiaye-Ndiaye and former

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

of Diognick in Senegal. Although Sarr was a prominent politician like his father during the colonial era, he is best known as a

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and author especially after his famous work ''Histoire du Sine-Saloum'' which was officially published in 1949 and

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer revie ...

ed by historians.Klein, 277

Politics

In 1963, Sarr was President of the Regional Assembly of

Sine-Saloum Sine-Saloum is a region in Senegal located north of the Gambia and south of the Petite Côte. It encompasses an area of 24,000 square kilometers, about 12% of Senegal, with a population in the 1990s of 1,060,000. The western portion contains the ...

, (

Kaolack Kaolack ( ar, كاولاك; wo, Kawlax) is a town of 172,305 people (2002 census) on the north bank of the Saloum River and the N1 road in Senegal. It is the capital of the Kaolack Region, which borders The Gambia to the south. Kaolack is an i ...

, Senegal) (French: Président de l’Assemblée Régionale du Sine-Saloum), a position he occupied when the

Martin A. Klein Martin A. Klein (born 1934 in suburban New York City) is an Africanist and an emeritus professor in the History Department at the University of Toronto specialising in the Atlantic slave trade, and francophone West Africa: Senegal, Guinea, ...

was carrying out a primary research in 1964 for his book ''"Islam and Imperialism Senegal, Sine-Saloum, 1847-1914"'' During his presidency, Sarr received prominent African leaders such as président Sékou Touré when he visited Kaolack.Sarr (introduction: Becker), p 4

Academia

Sarr authored and contributed to several books and

manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced i ...

about the history of the

Serer people The Serer people are a West African ethnoreligious group.

and the Serer Kingdoms of

Sine In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle. The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side that is opp ...

and Saloum. Some of Sarr's work include: *Alioune Sarr. "Histoire du Sine-Saloum", Présence Africaine, No. 5, 1949 *Alioune Sarr. "Histoire du Sine-Saloum (Senegal), 1985 * Les Guélvars. Origines. Legendaires. Essai sur l'histoire du Sine-Saloum. Paris-Dakar. (23 June 1937, 15 September 1937, 19 May 1938)

Histoire du Sine-Saloum

Alioune Sarr's ''"Histoire du Sine-Saloum"'' was originally a manuscript which was developed around 1930. A document which took him several years of research. It detailed the ancient history of the Serer kingdoms of Sine and Saloum, their constituent villages, provinces and founders (including lower Saloum - modern day

Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...

, a former colony of the

Kingdom of Saloum The Kingdom of Saloum (Serer language: ''Saluum'' or ''Saalum'') was a Serer/ Wolof kingdom in present-day Senegal. Its kings may have been of Mandinka/Kaabu origin. The capital of Saloum was the city of Kahone. It was a sister kingdom of S ...

); the Serer kings; Serer culture; the coronation process of the kings; the

Guelowar Guelowar, also spelled Gelwar, Guelwar, Guelware, Gueleware or Gueloware, was a maternal dynasty in the pre-colonial Serer kingdoms of Sine and Saloum (in the Senegambia, but mainly in the western area of present-day Senegal). They were from th ...

maternal dynasty; the Serer paternal dynasties and the royal house; the wars (religious and economic) that affected the Kingdoms of Sine and Saloum; etc. An extract was published in 1948 in order to assess the value of the document. The future president of Senegal Léopold Sédar Senghor persuaded Sarr in 1948 to get the document published. Senghor liaised with the assistant professor of history at the Sorbonne (Professor Michel Devèze) to review the manuscript. Professor Devèze was very interested in it but concluded that the paper was "a good start" and needed some work. Alioune Sarr reworked the document and in 1949 it was published by

Présence Africaine ''Présence Africaine'' is a pan-African quarterly cultural, political, and literary magazine, published in Paris, France, and founded by Alioune Diop in 1947. In 1949, ''Présence Africaine'' expanded to include a publishing house and a bookstore ...

. Although the document was previously unpublished, some were familiar with it and were using it illegally without giving credit to the

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. The original document itself did not cover all the periods and some sections were somewhat brief. The Serer paternal Lamanic period was not covered in detail neither was the maternal

Wagadou The Ghana Empire, also known as Wagadou ( ar, غانا) or Awkar, was a West African empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali that existed from c. 300 until 1100. The Empire was founded by the Soninke people, and ...

period (princesses from the

Ghana Empire The Ghana Empire, also known as Wagadou ( ar, غانا) or Awkar, was a West African empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali that existed from c. 300 until 1100. The Empire was founded by the Soninke people, a ...

who married into the Serer paternal

aristocracy Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...

- predecessors of the Guelowar). Nonetheless, historians such as Becker, Martin, etc., agree that, the original data were very numerous, and their contribution to a global history of these ancient kingdoms are indisputable. During investigations in Kaolack about the history of its neighborhoods, the historian Charles Becker came upon the document with the assistance of Mamour Mbodj (who was then Chief of Tiofak). Becker contacted Sarr and an agreement was reached to type it up; add an introduction, bibliography and notes sections; publish it and attribute credit to the author. Numerous editions have been made to it including the 1963, 1986 and the 1983 edition by Becker. Alioune Sarr's "Histoire du Sine-Saloum" is one of the leading work on the history of

a copy of the work was filed with the

National Archives of Senegal The Archives Nationales du Sénégal (in English: ''National Archives of Senegal'') is headquartered in Dakar, in the "Central Park" building on Avenue Malick Sy. It was first called "Archives Nationales" in 1962, but the collection existed sinc ...

(Archives Nationales du Sénégal). The unpublished work of his relative, the

Gorée (; "Gorée Island"; Wolof: Beer Dun) is one of the 19 (i.e. districts) of the city of Dakar, Senegal. It is an island located at sea from the main harbour of Dakar (), famous as a destination for people interested in the Atlantic slave trad ...

n - Jean-Pierre Sarr was lost and has never been found.Sarr (introduction: Becker), pp 1-11

Notes

Bibliography

*Diouf, Niokhobaye. "Chronique du royaume du Sine." Suivie de notes sur les traditions orales et les sources écrites concernant le royaume du Sine par Charles Becker et Victor Martin. (1972). Bulletin de l'Ifan, Tome 34, Série B, n° 4, (1972) *Oumar Kane. La première hégémonie peule: le Fuuta Tooro de Koli Ten̳ella à Almaami Abdul. KARTHALA Editions, 2004. . *Institut fondamental d'Afrique noire. Bulletin de l'Institut fondamental d'Afrique noire: Sciences humaines, Volume 46. IFAN, 1985 *Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink. Schrift, Buch und Lektüre in der französischsprachigen Literatur Afrikas. Niemeyer, 1990. . *Sarr, Alioune. Histoire du Sine-Saloum. Introduction, bibliographie et Notes par Charles Becker, BIFAN, Tome 46, Serie B, n° 3-4, 1986–1987 *DeCorse, Christopher R. West Africa during the Atlantic slave trade: archaeological perspectives. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001. . *Klein, Martin A. Islam and Imperialism in Senegal Sine-Saloum, 1847–1914, Edinburgh University Press (1968) *Senghor, Léopold Sédar; Lambert, Fernando; Université Paris-Nord. Centre d'études francophonesLéopold Sédar Senghor. P. Seghers, 1988. *Becker C. & Martin V. (1972) - Notes sur les traditions orales et les sources écrites concernant le royaume du Sine. Bull. IFAN, 34, B, 4

973 Year 973 ( CMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring – The Byzantine army, led by General Melias (Domestic of the S ...

pp 732–777. *Martin V., Becker C. & Mbodj M. — Trois documents d’Ernest Noirot sur l’histoire des royaumes du Siin et du Saalum (Sénégal). Bull. IFAN, 42, B, 1. (1980) pp. 37–85. *Kalidou Diallo, Le syndicalisme dans l'enseignement public en Afrique occidentale française, 1903–1960, L'Harmattan, 2011 .

External links