Babacar Sedikh Diouf

Senegambian stone circles

Diouf was one of the first (if not the first) to suggest a Serer religious significance for the Senegambian stone circles, based in part on their arrangement and religious symbolism which he saw as related to Serer numerology.

The Guelowar Dynasty in Seereer kingdoms

The mainstream view has been that, the Guelowar Maternal Dynasty (whom some writers such as Martin A. Klein, Donald R. Wright and Emmett Jefferson Murphy wrongly labelled as Mandinka or Malinke The Guelowars who were relatives and offshoots of the powerful Ñaanco (or Nyancho) Maternal Dynasty of Kaabu, underwent a dynastic war or struggle against their powerful Ñaanco relatives.

Diouf went on to posit that: Maysa Waly [the first Guelowar to reign in Serer country] was first appointed legal adviser to the Council of the Great Lamans after his famous judgment. Gradually, he strengthened his power and authority and ended up being recognized as king. subdivided into the "guelowar," or the nobles eligible for the kingship (only Malinke or the descendants of Malinke-Serer marriages were included); [...] The various Serer groups who saw the entire Senegambia region as their homeland were already in the Sine-Saloum area in the 11th century and should not be confused with the Serers of Takrur—who were affected by the jihadic wars of King War Jabi and his allies.

As common in the Senegambia region and in many African cultures, when a woman from another tribe marries a man from a different tribe, both she and her children takes on the tribe of the father. Throughout the six hundred years of Guelowar dynastic rule, none of the reigning kings of Sine or Saloum bore Mandinka surnames, but Serer surnames with the few exceptions of the Mbooj or Mboge patrilineage, who patrilineally trace descent to Mbarick Bo or Mbarik Bo (or Mbanyik Bo), originally from Waalo, whose surname Bo is "Wolofized" to Mbooj. According to Serer oral tradition, he was the step father of Ndiadiane Ndiaye (founder of the Jolof Empire) and a Bambara prince from the Massassi dynasty of Kaarta; and according to Wolof oral tradition, he was the step father of Ndiadiane Ndiaye but a non-Muslim and a slave of the Almoravid Arab Abu Bakr ibn Umar (also referred to as Abdu Darday). Sources do not agree with the Wolof account of him being a slave of Abu Bakr or that Abu Bakr was the father of Ndiadiane Ndiaye as per Wolof oral tradition, as Abu Bakr preceded Ndiadiane Ndiaye by at least three hundred years. Ndiadian reigned in Jolof around 1360. Abu Bakr was killed in 1087 possibly by the Serer bowman Amar Godomat.

Selection of works The following are a sample of Diouf's works:O maad a sinig : Kumba Ndoofeen fa Maak JUUF (Buka-Cilaas), 1853–1871 by Babacar Sedikh Diouf, PAPF (1987) L'esprit de l'ecole nouvelle by Babacar Sedikh Diouf, (1988) L'imaginaire sérère dans l'œuvre de Léopold Sédar Senghor by Babacar Sédikh Diouf. (1998) [in] "Le colloque senghorien ", pp. 241–245 Leopold Sédar Senghor et l'éducation, by Babacar Sedikh Diouf, Éthiopiques, (1979) Stratégie d'integration des valeurs traditionnelles dans nos systèmes d'éducation (enseignement conventionnel), by Alioune Ndoye and Babacar Sedikh Diouf, Éthiopiques (1982) Que faire de la pédagogie traditionnelle du Kasak au 21 siècle by Babacar Sedikh Diouf, Éthiopiques (1982) Le sérère, paganisme polythéiste ou religion monothéiste, by Babacar Sédikh Diouf [in] Camara, Fatou Kiné, Pouvoir et justice dans la tradition des peuples noirs: philosophie et pratique. Études africaines. L'Harmattan (2004), p. 205-217.

Pan Africanism

In 2004, Diouf was invited by the Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire to give a speech at the cultural and scientific institute's conference—held at the University of Mutants in Gorée. In that conference, Diouf spoke out against globalization, and called for a Pan-African approach and the need to increase solidarity among African countries.

Views on Wolofization Diouf is a fervent opponent of linguistic "Wolofization" which is prevalent throughout Senegal and almost engulfing the entire Senegambia region. He views Wolofization as destructive to the languages and cultures of other Senegambian ethnic groups such as Serer, Jola, Mandinka, Fula, etc. In essence, Marcel's proposal for dealing with Wolofization is to relegate the Wolof to a non-existent and irrelevant group.