Jola people


The Jola or Diola are an ethnic group found in Senegal, the Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau. Most Jola live in small villages scattered throughout southern Senegal, especially in the Lower Casamance region. The main dialect of the Jola language, Fogni, is one of the six national languages of Senegal.
Their economy has been based on wet rice cultivation for at least one thousand years. This system has been characterised "one of the most significant examples of 'agrarian civilizations' in West Africa". However, the Jola probably reached the Lower Casamance region in the 14th century, assimilating the previous Bainuk people and their rice tradition. In colonial times, the Jola began to cultivate peanuts as a cash crop in the drier forests. Other activities include palm wine tapping, honey collecting, livestock rearing and the production of other crops such as sweet potatoes, yams and watermelon.
The traditional religion of the Jola is animism, which is practised through fetishistic rituals and ceremonies. However, the Jola populations living in well-connected areas have become Islamized due to the influence of the nearby Mandinka people. As a result, many Jola no longer speak their own language and more than half are now Muslims. Unlike the dominant cultures of West Africa, most Jola communities lack any social or political stratification, being organised into families or neighbourhoods. However, some communities have a central authority, a king, whose role resembles more that of a priest than of a traditional secular leader. The most prominent Jola kingdom is in Oussouye. Among the Muslim Jola, there is also the marabout, a religious leader and teacher. Traditional animist rituals are overseen by elders, who have an important role in Jola society. For Jola boys to attain manhood, they must take part in the initiation ceremony known as bukut, which takes place every 20 to 25 years in every Jola village.

Name

The word Jola is the Mandinka name for this ethnic group and means 'people who pay back', since Jolas are renowned for doing back what has been done to them, be it a good or a bad deed. This name was first popularized in the nineteenth century. The name of the Jola tribe in their own language is Ajamat or Ajamataw. Diola is the traditional transliteration in French, which is also very common in English sources.

Language and subgroups

The Jola speak the Jola language, which is divided into a variety of dialects which may not, at times, be mutually intelligible. These dialects correspond to the different Jola tribes:
Overall, the mostly of Jolas are Muslims. In Gambia, 90% of Jolas are Muslims. Some Jolas continue to follow their traditional religion and rituals in spite of the influence of Islam and Christianity in recent times. Even though some accepted Islam after the Soninke-Marabout war, they honour the traditional use of palm wine in their rituals. They have one God that they associate with the natural phenomena like sky, rain, and the year, Emit or Ata Emit, literally, "To Whom Belongs The Universe" or "The Master-Owner Of The Universe". They have charms and sacred precincts that they honour and with which they communicate. The Jola people believe that spirits called Bakin or Eneerti can protect their families, their villages, and their rice fields; and can even protect them from conversion to Islam and Christianity.
Before the influence of Islam and Christianity in their ways of beliefs, all Jolas placed great respect in the proper observation of funeral ceremony, and still today some do, for they are of the belief that it enables the dead person's soul to go to its final destination to join his or her ancestors. It was and still is strongly accepted by those Jolas who still practice their ancestral religion that without performing these funeral sacred rites, the soul is prevented from entering the presence of the creator, and the ancestors. Jolas believed strongly in living a good humanistic life in this world. They believe that if one lives a bad life in this world, when the person dies the soul of the dead person is punished to become an exile spirit with no bed to lie on. In the Jola Cassa subgroup this exile spirit is called a Holowa. This exile spirit becomes a roaming spirit with no respect from the other spirits.
Some Jola religious festivals include the Samay, Kumpo and Niasse.

Culture

Unlike most ethnic groups of the Senegambian region, the Jola do not have a caste system of Jewelers griots, slaves, nobility, leather workers, etc. Their communities are based on extended clan settlements normally large enough to be given independent names, including the Jola Karon, Jola Mlomp, Jola Elinnkin, Jola Caginol, Jola Huluf, Jola Jamat, Jola Joheyt, Jola Bayot, Jola Brin, Jola Seleky, Jola Kabrouse, Jola Jiwat, and Jola Foni. Jolas are also able herbal medicine practitioners. Their high adaptation to nature and the environment allowed them to be able to create a civilisation centred on music, natural medicine, and most important of all, rice cultivation, which they do effectively by using a locally made farming tool called the kajando.
Like some of the other indigenous ethnic groups of the Senegambian region—the Baga, the Balanta, the Konyagi, etc.—the Jola ethnic group did not develop a political scale that expanded beyond village level compared to ethnic groups that migrated to the region like the Soninke and the Mandinka. But this does not mean they did not develop a sophisticated political system. The egalitarian nature of their societies, structured around the limited village environment gave them the possibilities to develop a political system based on collective consciousness, which they worked through their initiation rites. In a sense, the Jolas' political achievement in the village was socialism. It was totally tied to their religious belief in the Bakin. This political achievement is not easy to reach if the society that runs it does not have well-defined rules of administration and penalties. Jolas have many traditional economic activities like fishing, farming groundnuts, tapping palm wine, and processing palm oil: their most intensive economic activity is rice cultivation, which is tied closely to their religion and social organization. Jolas are also palm oil manufacturers and palm wine tappers in the Senegambian region. They farm cows, pigs, goats, chickens, sheep and ducks. Jola crafts include basket weaving, pottery, and building.
Elders are considered very important in Jola society and are believed to possess occult powers and guard societal traditions. In villages, a council of elders make many of the daily decisions for the community and exert much influence. Despite the patriarchal nature of Jola society, many women played major roles in the community and were often members in village councils, religious leaders, and landowners. Women are also important as cultivators of wet rice fields in which they predominated. Polygamy and genital mutilation are not practiced by the Jola although outside influence has made these more common in certain villages.

Ritualistic Practices

Male Initiation Ceremony
The male initiation tradition or Bukut, happens every twenty to twenty-five years. Every male in the village aged 12 to 35 goes out into the sacred woods for upwards of three weeks to be initiated. This includes circumcision as well as sacrificing animals and libations. Now, the ceremony is more symbolic as society changes, but traditionally the ceremony was used to show the village that boys were now ready for marriage. Bukut is regarded as one of the most important ceremonies of the Jola people. Preparations are made months in advance. After the official announcement of the ceremony, the boys who partake will learn a song organized by their mothers that they will sing at Buyeet, a ritual where the mother of the boy presents him with cloth or pagnes. Each song is individual to the person. Bukut begins with three days of celebration called Garuur. Men who have previously went through initiation will dance at this celebration to show courage and strength. After entering the sacred forest, all contact with the village is halted. After their stay in the woods, the boys will be reintegrated into society as men.
Wrestling
Wrestling practices are very common among many Jola societies. They are for boys and girls coming of age in society, shaping their identity, preparing them for possible war, and enhancing their fertility before marriage. This practice could be considered training for becoming a warrior, as hand to hand combat is important in Jola culture. Wrestling is regarded as spiritual combat, which means most matches are dedicated to certain deities. Wrestlers must have a strong sense of spirituality to ward off malevolent spirits trying to mess up their match. There are a variety of ritualistic practices that take place before a wrestling match. The rituals are also important for the socialization of young people into ritual society, the shrines also calling on the rain and fertility of the crops, women, and the community as a whole. They link to one of the creation stories, where the first man and woman wrestle each other. Day of the performance, wrestlers wear short cloths and arm and ankle cuffs made out of fan palm fibers. Wrestlers also often wore amulets, called gris-gris, or medicine to protect themselves.
Though, different religious associations often had different protections to wear during the wrestle. Jola muslims would wear special verses of the Qur'an given to them by an Islamic teacher or marabout. These verses are tied up in a leather pouch, a goat's horn, or other special container and worn on the arms or legs hidden under their attire. The Qur'an verses could also be written in a non-permanent ink and then bathed in or drank by a wrestler who was seeking extra fighting assistance. Catholic Jola individuals might wear certain medals or crucifixes from saints to offer them protection. Jola people who follow the traditional religion, might wear shells with soil from an altar from the region of a spirit shrine or special roots can be worn around the arms or legs. All protective elements that can be adorned before a fight. Many ritualistic practices happen the night before a fight, specifically males go through a ritual asking for strength, hoping to gain success. For girls in Ediamat society in southern Jola, being at the ritual before a ceremony is supposed to increase fertility before getting married the next rainy season. Some wrestling practices also take place for the fertility of the Oyei or priest-king of the village as well.
Warriors
War was very common for the Jola in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, often fighting with the Bainouk society, the Mandinka, Luso-African radiers, or even with Jola sub-groups trying to claim territory. The common weaponry used bow and arrow, machete, and spears. Muskets were used sparingly as they were slow at reloading and weren't always accurate. Close handed combat was most common. A subsection of Jola civilization call the Esulalu, take spiritual protection very seriously. Often the night before going into battle, warriors gathered at a spirit shrine associated with the warrior party. At these shrines, they would gather to talk about strategy plans, decide if they go into battle, and request the protection of the shrine. People could not gather at the shrine if they were not a part of the land protected by the shrine, which could be at a minimum the size of a neighborhood. This can indicate alliances and community relations in the area that the shrine was created. The strength of the shrine comes from people in the nearby area that can see the water spirits called, Ammahl. The individuals who could see the spirits would commune with them about community concerns, including war. When the Ammahl see the war as justified they aid the warriors in battle. Other protection rituals include Katapf, the shrine where individuals request protection from metal objects. These objects include knives, axes, and other weapons. These rituals can be done at anytime, not just in war, even though that is most common. When muskets were introduced into battle there was a new ritual created called, Houpoombene, which aided in hunting and protected against bullets or explosion. Both of these were utilized by warriors.