“The Wolf in the Sheepfold”: Narrations and Identities of the Bijaa, Conquering Subjects of the Ancient Kingdom of Kasa in Senegambia. Tribute to Stephan Bühnen (1950-2015)

Abstract

This article presents bijaa (balanta mané) narratives on settlement, identities and territorial divisions of the ajaa country on the southern shore of the Cacheu river (Guinea-Bissau) and in Balantakunda (Senegal). Both oral sources and primary written documents can be integrated to show continuity in traditions since the 17th century, beginning with Lemos Coelho (1669), a merchant and direct observer, as was Bertrand-Bocandé who travelled and studied the area 200 years later (1837-1848), the data collected by the military commander of Farim and cartographer Graça-Falcão (1894-1897), the colonial taxation books from the 1920ies on, and finally the bijaa narratives on the constitution of Jaa. These different outsider and insider perspectives give a picture of enduring territorial stability on the one hand, and on the other show a remarkable fluidity of the identities of dominant actors, such as bañun/kasanga, mandinka, ajaa. The configurations of territories, sacred sites, clans/lineages persist, while the ethnical identities of succeeding settlers and conquerors are superimposed or merge. The article is meant as an invitation to further studies - considering new socio-linguistic approaches (Lüpke, 2018) - on cultural unity and shared memories of different settlers in the same space who do not necessarily speak the same language.

Keywords
Bijaa narratives; conquest of Kasa; juxtaposition of identities