YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)
According to historical accounts of the First Franco-Dahomean War, in the 1890s it was the highly trained military women who were chopping off the heads of the French.
Sometimes while they slept.
French Street Artist YZ Yseult has begun her own campaign to pay tribute to the fierce female fighters of the 19th Century West African country of Dahomey, who are more commonly referred to as Amazons.
YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)
A startling narrative of female power not often heard today for some, but as YZ is researching her own history as a descendent from slaves, her portraits reflect a personal impetus to tell these stories with a new force.
She has named this series of strong warriors on the street “Amazone”.
YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)
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THE OLD GUV LEGENDS 
Senegal also has its own history of amazingly strong women. The Jolof Kingdom and modern Senegal was undoubtedly changed by their abilities and reactions. I study this. It’s wonderful to see these murals in Senegal.
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Great input thank you so much for your contribution.
Rod
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Dear thesignaregriotte,
I am intrigued by Jolof Kingdom and never realised it was so old.
Would you have an article regarding the history of Jolof and the role of women.
Rod
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Yes Jolof is not well known. Little research has been done on Jolof; a state of affairs that my (hopefully) future doctoral adviser Mamadou Diouf bemoaned when I met with him to discuss my application to graduate school. He, in fact, changed his focus from medieval European history to Senegal and Jolof when his friends pointed out how badly they need historians focused on the region.
So to answer your question. I have numerous journal articles I can recommend that have some level of research into Jolof. However, they are only accessible through data bases or me sending you the copies I have saved. Additionally, if you do not know much about the Jolof kingdom they aren’t very representative of it as a whole. They explore specific issues.
In fact, I wrote my undergraduate honors thesis on Senegambian women because there is little historiography at all on the history of Jolof and the role of women in that history. It was uniquely original research because it is not a topic with much discussion. Nearly all exploration of women and Jolof only looks at signares, female traders, or less so griottes, female bards of sorts. I had to piece together small bits of information from all over and my research still has tremendous holes because this is so ill explored (as my thesis adviser said) I would need nearly a decade of full funding to do better than I did.
However, if you’re really interested I am going to be writing more about it on my African history blog as well as my future graduate school research on Jolof caste and how studying women exposes our ideas of “caste rigidity” to be flawed.
I can also give you the link to my thesis.
Sorry for the long response.
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Thank You for such an articulate response. I await your article on your blog. I must admit that when I went looking for extra info. it was somewhat confusing, but what amazed me was it was such an old culture. Excellent work.
Regards, Rod
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It absolutely is a mess on the internet. I went back after writing my thesis and sifted through the General google results when you try to look this stuff up. It is so inadequate I don’t blame you for your confusion. I would actually be surprised if you weren’t a bit. It is absolutely a fascinating old culture and several chiefdoms of note also existed before, during, and after the Jolof Kingdom. Thank you for your interest! Best, Meghan.
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Oh! Well done Meghan.
Rod
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