Collaboration With Lebou Historian Oumar N'Galla Gueye 5

Almamy and I met with Lebou historian, Oumar N’Galla Gueye, again yesterday in Yoff. The two-hour interview was conducted at the home of Omar N’Galla Diene the Grand Diarraf of the Republic of Yoff, an exceptionally important and respected role in Lebou society. Oumar highly respects Mr. Diene, and wishes that we, in the future, include meetings/conversations with notables of the Yoff community.

Oumar possesses one of the most remarkable minds and memory I’ve ever seen. It’s stunning what he can recall, without notes. The specificity and depth is amazing.

This day the interview followed two lines. I initially invited Oumar to speak about the relationship between the Portuguese and the Lebou during the slavery period on Goree. Interestingly, Mr. Diene moved the theme of slavery to the felt sense of slavery under French colonization. He went on to speak about the protection of Lebou cultural values in the present an future.

Oumar then went on to respond to my question about slavery, and two other questions , the first about the roots of Lebou spiritual/religious beliefs (the origin of the jinn, rab, and tuur), and the second about the relationship between the Lebou and the Portuguese.

All clips are to uploaded to http://lebouhistory.ning.com/. Look for the clips of 5.22.

The following video was filmed on 5.13 from Oumar's home during an interview break.