First published in 1967 by the International African Institute.
This edition first published in 2017
by Routledge
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1967 International African Institute
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-138-23217-4 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-315-30463-2 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-24080-3 (Volume 44) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-24081-0 (Volume 44) (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-28233-6 (Volume 44) (ebk)
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The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.
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T HE International African Institute has, since 1945, been engaged on the preparation and publication of an Ethnographic Survey of Africa, the purpose of which is to present in a brief and readily comprehensible form a summary of available information concerning the different peoples of Africa with respect to location, natural environment, economy and crafts, social structure, political organization, religious beliefs and cults. While available published material has provided the basis for the Survey, a mass of unpublished documents, reports and records in government files and in the archives of missionary societies, as well as field notes and special communications by anthropologists and others, have been generously made available and these have been supplemented by personal correspondence and consultation. The Survey is being published in a number of separate volumes, each of which is concerned with one people or a group of related peoples, and contains a comprehensive bibliography and specially drawn map.
A committee of the Institute was set up under the Chairmanship of the late Professor Radcliffe-Brown, and the Director of the Institute has undertaken the organization and editing of the Survey. The generous collaboration of a number of research institutions and administrative officers in Europe and the African territories was secured, as well as the services of senior anthropologists who have been good enough to supervise and amplify the drafts.
The work of the Survey was initiated with the aid of a grant from the British Colonial Development and Welfare Funds, on the recommendation of the Social Science Research Council, to be applied mainly though not exclusively to work relating to British territories. A further grant from the Sudan Government has assisted in the preparation and publication of sections dealing with that territoiy.
The Ministre de la France dOutre-Mer and the Institut Franais dAfrique Noire were good enough to express their interest in the project and through their good offices grants have been received from the Governments of French West Africa and the French Cameroons for the preparation and publication of sections relating to those areas. These sections have been prepared by French ethnologists with the support and advice of the late Professor M. Griaule of the Sorbonne, Mme. Calame-Griaule and Professor Th. Monod, Director of I.F.A.N.
The collaboration of the Belgian authorities in this project was first secured by the good offices of the late Professor de Jonghe, who enlisted the interest of the Commission dEthnologie of the Institut Royal Colonial Beige. The collaboration of the Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique Centrale has also been readily accorded. Work relating to Belgian territories is being carried out under the direction of Professor Olbrechts at the Centre de Documentation of the Muse du Congo Belge, Tervuren, where Mlle. Boone and members of her staff are engaged on the assembly and classification of the vast mass of material relating to African peoples in the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi. They work in close collaboration with ethnologists in the field to whom draft manuscripts are submitted for checking.
The International African Institute desires to express its grateful thanks to those official bodies whose generous financial assistance has made the carrying out of this project possible and to the many scholars, directors of research organizations, administrative officers, missionaries, and others who have collaborated in the work and, by granting facilities to our research workers and by correcting and supervising their manuscripts, have contributed so largely to whatever merit the various sections may possess.
Since the unequal value and unsystematic nature of existing material was one of the reasons for undertaking the Survey, it is obvious that these studies cannot claim to be complete or definitive; it is hoped, however, that they will present a clear account of our existing knowledge and indicate where information is lacking and further research is needed.
In connection with the preparation of this volume we are grateful to the Government of French West Africa for providing a financial contribution towards the publication of sections dealing with territories within that area.
This Survey of the Wolof is based both on the literature and on field work carried out by the author among the Wolof of the Gambia, as the holder of a Colonial Research Fellowship and later with assistance from Colonial Development and Welfare Funds and the Gambia Government, to whom our thanks are due. The author is particularly indebted to Dr. David Ames, whose field notes of work among the Wolof of British and French Salum he has had the benefit of studying. He is also grateful to the Institut Franais dAfrique Noire and its staff for providing facilities during a visit to Senegal, and to Professor Th. Monod, M. A. Hauser, M. Mass, M. P. Mercier, and M. and Mme. S. Sauvageot of I.F.A.N., and to M. Pelissier of the Institut des Hautes tudes, Dakar, for their help, and to all who read the manuscript at various stages, made corrections and supplied additional material. For access to Wolof material the author would also like to thank the librarians and staff of the International African Institute, the Institut Franais dAfrique Noire at Dakar, the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Royal Empire Society, the School of Oriental and African Studies, the Society of Friends, and the Keeper of the Archives of the Methodist Missionary Society in London.
