Conversion to Islam: Military recruitment and generational conflict in a Sereer-Safen village (Bandia), 1920-38

The Sereer-Safen are a minority population in a predominantly Wolof and Muslim region. During the colonial period the Safen were ruled by Wolof chiefs, who treated them as a conquered population. Until the First World War, Safen resistance was based on preserving a separate religious and ethnic identity, symbolized by the village shrine and matrilineal descent. Conversion to Islam had its roots in the crisis created by military recruitment. When the Safen were forced to give soldiers to the French, 'maternal uncles' used their authority over their,nephews' to recruit soldiers. Today this act is remembered as a 'betrayal' that called into question the legitimacy of the matrilineal system of labor and inheritance. Conversion to Islam has been studied by focusing on long-term Islamization rather than the moment of conversion. Oral testimony from converts emphasizes changes in behavior, funeral rites, inheritance and patterns of labor and power in the village community.