By Dembo Fatty
One cannot but notice the convergence of words in Jola with that of the Mandinka during Monday’s session of the TRRC.
What is in a name?
Of recent, especially with the departure of Jammeh from the shores of The Gambia, there appears to be what looks like rebranding of the ethnic group we all came to know as Jola. I have seen postings and even groups refusing the name Jola. Some have adopted the name Ajaamat as the real name of the ethnic group and not what we have all since time immemorial have known and been taught in school to be Jola.
The Jola, are an ethnic group long established in our region especially in present day Foni and Casamance and northern Guinea Bissau. Contrary to the belief that they are a non-hierarchical society, the Jola have an organised society and a set of belief system with a high priest.
According to oral accounts, the Jola and Serere ethnic groups share a common ancestry. The story goes that two sisters Jambooñ and Againe were sailing on a canoe with their parties and by accident, the canoe broke into two pieces at a place called Sangomar. Sangomar is a sand spit on the Saloum river delta not far from present day Kaolack in Senegal. It is a Serere word which means “the Village of Shadows” (Gravrand, Henry, Visage africain de l’Église, Orante, Paris, 1961, p. 285). It is a sacred Serere site.
So, when the canoe broke into two pieces, the group that travelled south became the ancestors of the Jola ethnic group. They descended from Agaire while those who headed north became the ancestors of the Serere from Jambooñ (Ndiaye, Fata, La saga du peuple sérère et l’Histoire du Sine, Ethiopiques n° 54 revue semestrielle de culture négro-africaine, Nouvelle série volume 7, 2e semestre 1991).
A more prominent segment of the Jola ethnic group is the Casa who by far, have been the most entrenched in the traditions of their forbearers and very close to the Manjack of northern Guinea Bissau. In fact, the Manjack of Guinea Bissau call the Jola “Bachuki” which means “first”. To the Manjack, the Jola, were the first settlers they know to have populated the southern part of Casamance or northern Guinea Bissau.
The Casa operate shrines called “Bakin” or “jalang” in Mandinka. Close to this is the belief in a one deity which they name “Ata Amit A Luuke” meaning a supreme being. The holiest of the Casa shrines are found in Samatit (called Kalemaku), and in Hasuka and in Mlomp (called Husana).
In my research on the ethnic group, I have come to realise that there are nine dialects spoken by the Jola ethnic group as follows:
1. MLOMP dialect is spoken mainly in the settlement of Mlomp.
2. KUWATAY is another dialect spoken south of the Casamance River.
3. KAARON dialect is spoken mainly in the areas around Dioloulou along the coastal areas of Casamanace.
4. KASSA (or Casa) dialect is spoken in and around the settlement of Oussouye.
5. BANJAAL is another dialect but which is limited in scope in terms of geographical area.
6. In our part of Foni (in The Gambia), a more prominent dialect is what is called KUJAMATE or by other accounts AJAAMAT and is also popular in the area around Bignona.
7. BAYOT dialect is spoken around Ziguinchor area.
8. GUSILAY dialect is widely spoken in the village of Thionck Essyl.
9. KUDIOLA is another dialect popular in the villages south of Oussouye. (Note the name word Diola a French version of the name Jola).
The word Jola is Mandinka which could mean two things:
1. It could mean someone who fights back.
2. It could also mean one who pays a debt without fail.
Either way, the Jola stand out to be upright people and just in their dealings to have earned a name so special and dignified. It’s a rare occurring for a people’s trait to be so honourable, that they are named after virtues instead of an ethnic identity. Who does not want to be a Jola? I do.
Of all the books I read, I have not come across any that collectively refers to the ethnic group by any other name other than the name Jola given to them by the Mandinka. That still intrigues me a lot because in comparison to the Fulani ethnic group, who also have over eight dialects (Jengel, Firdu, Massina, Laobeh, Tukulor, Habobeh, Torodo, Burureh, and so forth), actually have a common name called Fulbé.
Another myth that needs to be debunked with regard to the Jola ethnic group is the account that the Jola did not participate in the slave trade. According Charlotte A Quinn, 1972, pp26, “The Jola had participated exhaustively in the slave trade, both as victims and aggressors, and in the nineteenth century a trickle of slaves was still being smuggled out of Vintang Creek (Bintang Creek) in Fogny (Foni). These slaves together with the sale of rice, palm wine and bees-wax to Europeans and Mandingo traders formed the basis of the area’s economy”. (Also see Travels of Mungo Park pp4)
Secondly, the non-hierarchical doctrine may have been the case later in history but prior to 1800, “….the Jola evidently were once organised into larger territorial groupings under the political-religious authority of chiefs. By the 1800s they had suffered so many years of raiding by the Mandingo and so much warfare among themselves that their society in Fogny and other Gambian districts was virtually anarchic” ( Quinn pp26; Also see L. V. Thomas, Les Diola (Dakar, 1959, pp201); Francis Moore Travels into the inlands Parts of Africa 1738, pp35; Berenger-Feraud, L. J. B.; Les Peuplades de la Senegambia paris Leroux, 1789 pp289).
The region we now call Foni or Fogny, is actually a Bainunka word which means flower/flowering. So if we dissect the oral accounts of Jola migration from Egypt (according to some accounts, at least from my Jola neighbour), all the way to Saloum and the tale of Sangomar in the mix, it is therefore not out of place that Foni was actually a Bainunka land prior to Jola migration south with the splitting of the canoe of the two sisters Jambooñ and Againe.
A name is very important in discovering history.
The Ajaamat must have been related to the Mandinka or because of centuries of inter-marriages or living together, words are bound to be common. Perhaps, if we had a translator from one of the other eight dialects, these overlaps would not have occurred.
Then again, the other dialects are mainly found in Casamance and beyond and not Foni.
