From a Boy Not Seeking a Wife to a Man Discussing Prophetic Women

Abstract

In this article I reflect on thirty-years of conducting field research in the Diola communities of southwestern Senegal. Initially this work was a community religious and historical study, but it gradually shifted to a focus on the history of Diola prophetism, most notably women prophets in the twentieth century. During that time, I shifted from an unmarried youth of twenty-two to a middle-aged married man. This article examines the continual intersection of the shift from a community religious history, including women's fertility shrines, to a study of women prophets whose followers included men and women. Assumptions about my place within the communities gradually changed as people got to know me and as aging changed my social status. Complicating this picture is the dramatic erosion of Diola social norms since the 1970s, which have created far greater fluidity to gender relations in Diola townships and among Diola in urban areas.