Английская Википедия:Gajaaga

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Gajaaga, also known as Galam, was a Soninke kingdom in on the upper Senegal river that existed from before 1000CE to 1858. The area today is split between Senegal and Mali. It was sometimes referred to as the Land of Gold, which it exported in large quantities, and 'Galam' in fact means 'gold' in Wolof.[1] In the middle of the 17th century, Gajaaga was perhaps the most powerful state in the upper Senegal river region.Шаблон:Sfn It controlled both banks of the river from the area of Kayes downstream to Bakel.Шаблон:Sfn

History

The Bacili dynasty established a successor state to the Ghana Empire, preserving the traditional snake cult of Wagadu.Шаблон:Sfn They came to the region from the Inner Niger Delta sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries CE and conquered the native 'Gaja' Soninke people,Шаблон:Sfn but their control was only truly cemented in the 13th century.Шаблон:Sfn

With the rise of the Deniankes in Futa Toro, Gajaaga became a nominal tributary state in the late 16th century.[2]

In 1690, Fula Torodbe cleric Malick Sy[3] came to Gajaaga seeking a place to practice his interpretation of sharia. The tunka gave him control over a town and eventually the entire sparsely-populated area of Bundu.Шаблон:Sfn[4]Шаблон:Rp In the 18th century, however, Bundu's power increased as they captured land from their former overlords, and Gajaaga declined.Шаблон:Sfn Gajaaga also lost land to the kingdoms of Khasso and Guidimaka. At the beginning of the 18th century they suffered raids by the Trarza Moors and Kaarta.Шаблон:Sfn

The French built a fort in Gajaaga in 1700, from which came most of the slaves traded out of Saint-Louis in the decades following.Шаблон:Sfn The penetration of the slave trade and the rising influence of Moroccan Orman forces in the Senegal river valley created widespread social upheaval that affected Gajaaga as much as its neighbors. Beginning in 1700 the kingdom saw frequent succession disputes and civil wars, destroying the confederation's itnernal unity. They culminated in a 1750 invasion by Kaarta and Khasso which, though defeated, signaled Gajaaga's weakness.[5]Шаблон:Rp

After a long absence during the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, the French re-established a fort at Bakel in 1820 and gave a monopoly on river trade to the 'Companie de Galam' in 1824, all to try and divert trade away from the British posts along the Gambia river.Шаблон:Sfn While remaining nominally neutral in local conflicts, the French pressured rulers by increasing or decreasing custom payments and gifts, creating rivalries between factions and villages. The two tunka of Gooy and Kamera competed for the Gajaaga throne from 1833 to 1841 with the French playing a prominent role as they tried to weaken the powerful state of Kaarta.Шаблон:Sfn In 1844 the French signed separate treaties with the leaders of the two provinces Gooy and Kamera, recognizing their de facto separation.Шаблон:Sfn

The 1848 abolishing of the Companie's monopoly led to an explosion of new trading posts and even more conflicts between local leaders for control of the trade and resulting customs revenue, which the French "cannonade politics" did little to assuage. Merchants in Saint-Louis increasingly demanded conquest as a way to establish order.Шаблон:Sfn The threat of El Hadj Omar Saidou Tall gave French governor Louis Faidherbe the excuse he needed to do as they requested. In 1855 he annexed Bakel and Medine, where he built another fort. Tall's 1857 failure to capture this fort confirmed French power in the region. In 1858 they annexed half of Gooy and made the rest a protectorate, bringing an end to a millennium of Bacilli rule in Gajaaga.Шаблон:Sfn

Government and Society

The core of the state was two provinces, Gooy and Kamera, with their capitals at Tiyaabu and Makhaana respectively.Шаблон:Sfn Each was led by a tunka, the oldest of whom ruled the entire kingdom. The tunka was commander-in-chief of the army and administrator of justice and had the right to tax the population, although villages retained considerable autonomy at least until the arrival of Europeans.Шаблон:Sfn The ruling class or dambe were supported by sakko griots who memorized and recited their illustrious lineage.Шаблон:Sfn

Gajaaga society was marked by a complex series of hierarchies. One involved nobles, freemen, and slaves; another cleavages distinguished between natives and strangers, Muslims and animists, job groups, or degree of servitude and status of the master or patron in question. Some slaves were allowed to maintain their names and inheritance over generations; others were chattel tasked with domestic work; others were destined for the slave trade.Шаблон:Sfn Different social groups lived in designated villages. The most prominent were the animist warrior aristocracy and the marabouts, with each family among the latter linked in a patronage relationship to one among the former.Шаблон:Sfn

Over time the economic and social disruptions created by European penetration and the slave trade led to near-constant warfare, much of it civil. The aristocracy's monopoly on guns led to increased oppression for the lower classes and a winner-take-all attitude in succession disputes. The decline of the slave trade in the early 19th century took away Gajaaga's most important export, further weakening the state and paving the way for formal colonization.Шаблон:Sfn

Economy

Gajaaga was a riverine state, and much of the economy rested on a dual agricultural system where one crop was planted in the uplands during the rainy season, while another was grown in the floodplain as the Senegal river's annual flood tapered off during the dry season. This gave the inhabitants insurance against inconsistent rains.Шаблон:Sfn The ruling class, marabouts, and well-off free men had slaves to work their fields.Шаблон:Sfn

By the 17th century Gajaaga was the center of an extensive Soninke trading diaspora linking it with Diarra and Timbuktu to the east, southeast to Segou, and south to Tanda and Wuli on the upper Gambia river.[6] Marabout jula families traded ivory, slaves, gold, and cloth woven by slaves that also functioned as currency.Шаблон:Sfn

Gajaaga in the 18th century was one of the states most connected to European commerce.Шаблон:Sfn Every year when the water rose trading ships would leave Saint-Louis at the mouth of the river, arriving in Gajaaga around September. The trading season lasted a few months, at which point the merchants would return downriver and the local jula would begin stocking and preparing for the next year.Шаблон:Sfn Slaves, captives from the wars of the Bamana Empire and the Imamate of Fula Djallon or locals captured by raiders from the Sahara, were the most important trade item.Шаблон:Sfn Gajaaga provided most of the slaves shipped out of Saint-Louis, as well as many of the slaves sold to the British along the Gambia river.Шаблон:Sfn

During the 17th and early 18th centuries European competition and the insecurity created by constant slave-raiding and warfare gradually strangled the domestic cloth manufacturing and ironworking industries, but a domestic gunpowder industry arose in its place.Шаблон:Sfn

References

Шаблон:Reflist

Sources

  1. Klein, Martin A. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne Des Études Africaines, vol. 24, no. 2, 1990, pp. 266–67. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/485261. Accessed 1 July 2023.
  2. Шаблон:Cite book
  3. Not to be confused with Malick Sy, founder of the Tijanniyah Sufi order.
  4. Шаблон:Cite book
  5. Шаблон:Cite book
  6. Шаблон:Cite thesis