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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Generational Conflict in the Umarian Movement after the Jihad: Perspectives from the Futanke Grain Trade at Medine |
Author: | Hanson, John H. |
Year: | 1990 |
Periodical: | The Journal of African History |
Volume: | 31 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 199-215 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Mali |
Subjects: | jihads Toucouleur grain trade cereals Religion and Witchcraft Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Economics and Trade History and Exploration |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/182765 |
Abstract: | This article attempts to correct the stereotype which portrays the Futanke (or Toucouleur, residents of Futa Toro in the middle Senegal River valley) who joined in the jih¯ad of al-.h¯ajj Umar Tal in western Mali as militant Muslim warriors who were not responsive to opportunities in production and trade. It shows that Futanke officials and settlers in the area of Jomboxo (southwestern Karta) responded quickly to the possibility of producing grain, on the land and with the slaves acquired during the jih¯ad, and marketing it at the nearby river factory of Medine, where French officials and merchants, resident African traders and nomadic gum caravan leaders converged in a brisk commerce for three decades in the late 19th century. The grain sales were a response to strong demand from the desert-side economy and gum trade as well as to French needs for provisions. These emerging economic interests brought the settlers into conflict with Umarian officials and a younger generation of Futanke, recruited in the 1870s and 1880s and eager to wage war to accumulate wealth and establish their position. This social and generational cleavage hindered the effort to mobilize resistance against French encroachment and conquest. Notes, ref. |