Editing History of Senegal (section)

==Early inhabitants==
[[File:Buur Sine Kumba Ndoffene Fa Ndeb Joof.jpg|thumb|right|[[Maad a Sinig Kumba Ndoffene Fa Ndeb Joof]]. King of [[Kingdom of Sine|Sine]]. [[The Royal House of Boureh Gnilane Joof]].]]

In the absence of written sources and monumental ruins in this region, the history of the early centuries of the modern era must be based primarily on archaeological excavations, the writing of early Arab geographers and travelers, and data derived from oral tradition. Combining these data suggests that Senegal was first populated from the north and east in several waves of migration, the last being that of the [[Wolof people|Wolof]], the [[Fulani]] and the [[Serer people|Serer]] who dominate the area today. Oral traditions relate that in much of northern Senegal [[Mande people]] were the earliest inhabitants, although archaeological evidence of this is slim.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fall |first1=Mamadou |editor1-last=Fall |editor1-first=Mamadou |editor2-last=Fall |editor2-first=Rokhaya |editor3-last=Mane |editor3-first=Mamadou |title=Bipolarisation du Senegal du XVIe - XVIIe siécle |date=2021 |publisher=HGS Editions |location=Dakar |page=28 |language=French |chapter=Les Terroirs Historiques et la Poussée Soninké}}</ref>  Africanist historian Donald R. Wright has suggested that place-names in the [[Gambia]] and [[Casamance]] regions indicate "that the earliest inhabitants might be identified most closely with one of several related groups—Bainunk, Kasanga, Beafada... To these were added Serer, who moved southward during the first millennium A.D. from the Senegal River valley, and Mande-speaking peoples, who arrived later still from the east."<ref>{{cite book|last=Wright|first=Donald|title=The World and a Very Small Place in Africa: A History of Globalization in Niumi, the Gambia|year=2010|edition=3rd|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0765624840|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mviA4coG24sC&pg=PA69|page=51}}</ref> He also cautions, however, that attempting to project modern-day ethnic definitions onto people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago is at best highly speculative and at worst counterproductive.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wright |first1=Donald |title=Beyond Migration and Conquest: Oral Traditions and Mandinka Ethnicity in Senegambia |journal=History in Africa |date=1985 |volume=12 |pages=335–348 |doi=10.2307/3171727 |jstor=3171727 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171727}}</ref>