The Serer of the Sine and the Saloum valleys, the islands of the Saloum delta and the southern Petite Cote live in villages grouped in lamanic estates (Wikipedia, after Ngom and Gravrand, lists Njafaj, Ña-Ul, Joral, Ngohe-Pofin, Hirena and Singandum), each under a lamane who holds the land and its shrines.
Many are descended from Serer who left the Senegal valley rather than accept Islam under the kings of Takrur from the eleventh century onward (Galvan). The Guelowar dynasty from Kaabu, which made Sine and Saloum into kingdoms, arrived in the thirteenth or fourteenth century: later. Islanders fish, gather shellfish and make salt in the Saloum delta.
Who holds it
- Title
- Lamanes, the Serer land chiefs, holders of the lamanic estates
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
The lamanes named in the sources (Lam Sango at Palmarin, Lam Jame Faajaal at Fadial, Lam Wal Satim Ndok at Ndok, after N. Diouf 1972) are those 'just before the Guelowar's arrival', in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Modern Serer writers place an early lamane, Jegan Joof, at Tukar in the eleventh century; no independent source dates him.
How things stand that morning
Self-governing under the lamanes.
Customs
Serer religion (the supreme being Roog, ancestral shrines, the seers called saltigue); lamanic land right; matrilineal descent groups alongside patrilineal ones.
Assemblies
Each lamanic estate under its lamane; no assembly over all the Serer recorded.
Overlord claims
None known in 1200.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- Thirteenth or fourteenth century (later; the 1335 date of one tradition is disputed)The Guelowar arrive from Kaabu and found the kingdom of Sine with its capital at or near Mbissel.Depends on: Events in Kaabu, which does not exist yet. Stopped by: Not applicable to 1200.
Where the sources disagree
- The 1335 date for the Guelowar flight from Kaabu (Gravrand) is disputed by Becker, who argues the battle in question is the nineteenth-century battle of Kansala (Wikipedia: Kingdom of Sine).
Evidence: Oral tradition and modern Serer studies; no written source of the period.
On the map: Back-projected from the later kingdoms of Sine and Saloum.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.