Toucouleurs

The Toucouleurs or Haalpulaaren are a Ethnie of West Africa living mainly in the north of the Senegal where they represent 10  % of the population, in the valley of the river Senegal, in Mauritania and with the Mali.

History

Toucouleurs would be originating in the old kingdom of Tekrour. Their French name is a deformation of the name of this kingdom. Toucouleurs result from interbreedings between Peuls and Sérères and perhaps Wolofs in old Tékrour. The toucouleurs have to create the state of the fouta-toro with the peuls, as well as the kingdom of the boundou in Senegal. one also finds some toucouleurs family with the fouta-djallon.

El Hadj Oumar Tall based a Empire toucoulor at the 19th century on part of current Mali.

Population

Close relations of the Peuls, they are different from it primarily by their sedentariness. The toucouleurs are exclusively Moslem. They are at the origin of the Islamization of Senegal, with the mandingues. The spoken language is the Peul Fouta-Toro. They name themselves “Haalpulaaren”, which means “ which speaks the pulaar ”, the language peul. Their language presents any time of light differences with the true language peul.

The company toucouleure is of type patriarchal and is very strongly treated on a hierarchical basis into twelve Caste S divided into three classes. The higher caste, called Toorobbê , is consisted the religious leaders and the marabout S.

Patronyms

Among the Patronyme S the most current toucouleurs one finds: Aw, Baro, Ba, Dème, Dia, Tillered, Sy, Ly, Tall, Guisée, Kane, Baal, Dioum, Thiam, Ka, Wane, Watt.

At Toucouleurs, one can find people who carry family names wolof (Ndiaye, Gueye, Mbaye), mandingue (Camara, Touré, Cissé), or sérères (Diouf, Sarr, Sene). That is explained in particular by the fact why the caste toucoulor of Toorobbé is very métissée. It is most recent of the castes toucouleurs, it was formed with Souleyman Baal. This one wanting a company not obeying more the mode of the castes, but only the laws of Islam, it absorbed in its party all the Moslems wanting to adhere to his ideology, that they are wolof, peul, Moor, sarakhollé, or sérères. Thus created for themselves Toorobbé. One also finds this absorption of individuals belonging to other ethnos groups in other castes toucouleurs, but also in other ethnos groups of Senegal as at Wolofs for example. This is why one finds a so great number of patronyms at Toucouleurs.

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