User:Tamsier/sandbox

To do

 * Godfrey Mwakikagile - needs serious work. See talk - partly done
 * Create Portal:Pan-Africanism - done
 * John Mwakangale help arrange inline citations - done
 * Jeremiah Kasambala help arrange inline citations - done
 * Dr. Amos N. Wilson - add sources
 * Add African perspective to Meaning of life - discussion here
 * Ndaté Yalla Mbodj - Re-write article. See talk page. done
 * Brak (title) - Add sources
 * Crocodile Society - verify claims from RS. Article needs work.

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 * the "...Socé of Djolof, Serer of Saloum, Cayor and Baol. The two last regions were actually formed from the classical Valaf [Wolof] country, which were exclusively administered during N'Diadian's time by Serer lords : the Lamans or landowners. It was [the son of] Detié Fu Ndiogu, the son of one of these Lamans, who routed the Djoloff army in the marshes of Danky, rejected the authority of the Bourba, thus reclaiming for Cayor the independence it had willingly given away. He defeated the Tegne of Baol, annexed that country and took the title of Damel-Tegne (1549). As a matter of fact, the then inhabitants of Cayor, that is the Serer, gave Detié Fu Ndiogu the nickname Damel. In their language at the time, this word stood for "the breaker." In current Valaf only the root "dam" : "to break ," has been kept and grammatical endings have since developed so that now "breaker" is "dam cat" or "damecat;" compare these with "damel." From then onwards, to be made Damel, one had to bear the Serer name Fall, after the first Damel, apart from being a prince; except, of course, if one decided to use force, like Lat Dior Diop did. I have shown earlier that Dedić Fu Ndiogu was Serer on his father's side and Sarakolle Ouagadou on his mother's side. This is how the name of the first dynasty of the Damel of Cayor came about. Thus, from origin, the history of Cayor - Baol was essentially Serer. It is, however, the same history that continues, without a break, through the last Damel, Lat Dior Diop, up to the present time, gradually metamorphosing into a history of the Valaf without a massive invasion of the Valaf race."

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"The Serer were known for their adherence to a traditional animist religion and, even today, only a few people among them have converted to either Islam or Christianity." (Willie F. Page. Encyclopedia of African history and culture: African kingdoms (500 to 1500), Volume 2, p 191. Publisher: Facts on File, 2001. ISBN: 0816044724. Also see Volume 1.

The Serer and Djola are "entirely or mostly Animists" and are "faithful to their ancestral Animism and resist Islam." E.J. Brill, "E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936." S - Ṭaiba, Volume 7, (contributors: M. Th Houtsma, E. van Donzel) BRILL (1993), pp. 224, 497, ISBN 9789004097933 and  __NOINDEX__