Reluctant landscapes : historical anthropologies of political experience in Siin, Senegal

West African history is inseparable from the history of the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism. According to historical archaeologist François Richard, however, the dominance of this narrative not only colors the range of political discourse about Africa but also occludes many lesser-known—but equally important—experiences of those living in the region. __Reluctant Landscapes__ is an exploration of the making and remaking of political experience and physical landscapes among rural communities in the Siin province of Senegal between the late 1500s and the onset of World War II. By recovering the histories of farmers and commoners who made up African states’ demographic core in this period, Richard shows their crucial—but often overlooked—role in the making of Siin history. The book also delves into the fraught relation between the Seereer, a minority ethnic and religious group, and the Senegalese nation-state, with Siin’s perceived “primitive” conservatism standing at odds with the country’s Islamic modernity. Through a deep engagement with oral, documentary, archaeological, and ethnographic archives, Richard’s groundbreaking study revisits the four-hundred-year history of a rural community shunted to the margins of Senegal’s national imagination.

West African history is inseparable from the history of the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism. According to historical archaeologist François Richard, however, the dominance of this narrative not only colors the range of political discourse about Africa but also occludes many lesser-known—but equally important—experiences of those living in the region. Reluctant Landscapes is an exploration of the making and remaking of political experience and physical landscapes among rural communities in the Siin province of Senegal between the late 1500s and the onset of World War II. By recovering the histories of farmers and commoners who made up African states' demographic core in this period, Richard shows their crucial—but often overlooked—role in the making of Siin history. The book also delves into the fraught relation between the Seereer, a minority ethnic and religious group, and the Senegalese nation-state, with Siin's perceived "primitive" conservatism standing at odds with the country's Islamic modernity. Through a deep engagement with oral, documentary, archaeological, and ethnographic archives, Richard's groundbreaking study revisits the four-hundred-year history of a rural community shunted to the margins of Senegal's national imagination.

West African history is inseparable from the history of the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism. According to historical archaeologist François Richard, however, the dominance of this narrative not only colors the range of political discourse about Africa but also occludes many lesser-known - but equally important - experiences of those living in the region. Reluctant Landscapes is an exploration of the making and remaking of political experience and physical landscapes among rural communities in the Siin province of Senegal between the late 1500s and the onset of World War II. By recovering the histories of farmers and commoners who made up African states? demographic core in this period, Richard shows their crucial - but often overlooked - role in the making of Siin history. The book also delves into the fraught relation between the Seereer, a minority ethnic and religious group, and the Senegalese nation-state, with Siin's perceived 'primitive' conservatism standing at odds with the country's Islamic modernity. Through a deep engagement with oral, documentary, archaeological, and ethnographic archives, Richard's groundbreaking study revisits the four-hundred-year history of a rural community shunted to the margins of Senegal's national imagination Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Note on Orthography 12 Prologue: Opening Frames, Orientations 14 Part One. Framing Perspectives 32 1. Reluctant Landscapes 40 2. Writing Senegambian Political Pasts 55 Part Two. Visions of Colonial Subjects: Imagining and Constructing the Seereer Landscape 78 3. What’s in a Name? Notes on the Making of Seereer Identity 82 4. “The Very Model of Egalitarian and Anarchic Peasantry”: Seereer Cultural Landscapes and the Ethnographic Imagination 114 Part Three. Atlantic Passages: World History and the Ambiguity of Materiality 146 5. Ambiguous Kingdoms: States, Subjects, and Spatialities of Power 158 6. Object Trajectories: Atlantic Commerce and Genealogies of Material Practice 201 Part Four. Colonial Indeterminacies: Entangled Landscapes, Overlapping Sovereignties 242 7. Hesitant Sovereignties: Logics, Logistics, and Aesthetics of French Rule 246 8. The Politics of Absence: Peasant Lifeworlds and Colonial Government 276 Conclusion: Archaeological Pasts, Postcolonial Presents, Traditional Futures 310 List of Abbreviations 324 Notes 326 Index 414