Lebanese people in Senegal

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There is a significant community of Lebanese people in Senegal.^[1]

Migration history[edit]

The first trader from Ottoman Lebanon arrived in French Senegal in the 1860s. However, early migration was slow; by 1900, there were only about one hundred Lebanese living in the country, mostly Shiite Muslims from the vicinity of Tyre. They worked as street vendors in Dakar, Saint-Louis and Rufisque. After World War I, they began to move into the peanut trade. With the establishment of the French Mandate of Lebanon, Lebanese immigration expanded sharply.^[3] During the Great Depression and again after World War II, French traders lobbied the government to restrict Lebanese immigration; however, the government generally ignored such lobbying.^[4]

Interethnic relations[edit]

During the colonial period, the Lebanese tended to support independence movements.^[4] Their social position outside of the colonial relationship, as neither colonist nor colonised, enabled them to maintain good relations with both Senegalese consumers as well as the large French businessmen.^[5] After Senegal gained independence in 1960, most French small traders left the country; however, indigenous Senegalese people began to compete increasingly with the Lebanese in the peanut sector, and soon after, the whole peanut marketing sector was nationalised.^[4]

Lebanese migrants and their descendants have tended to maintain dual citizenship of both Lebanon and Senegal.^[6] Most speak Arabic, Wolof and French, and some have become involved in Senegalese politics. However, they are a fairly endogamous community.^[1]

In the early 2000s, the Lebanese began to be displaced from their position as a market-dominant minority by the influx of Chinese traders and the cheap goods they brought from China; as a result, the Lebanese began to shift to a pattern of buying goods from the Chinese and reselling them in remote areas of the country where no Chinese migrants lived.^[7]

See also[edit]

• Arab diaspora
• Lebanese diaspora
• Lebanese people in Ivory Coast
• Lebanese people in South Africa
• Lebanese people in Sierra Leone
• Shia Islam in Senegal
• Christianity in Senegal

Notes[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Boumedouha, Saïd (1990), "Adjustment to West African Realities: The Lebanese in Senegal", Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 60 (4): 538–549, doi:10.2307/1160207, JSTOR 1160207, S2CID 145300043
• Leichtman, Mara A. (2005), "The legacy of transnational lives: Beyond the first generation of Lebanese in Senegal", Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28 (4): 663–686, doi:10.1080/13569320500092794, S2CID 144395215
• Gaye, Adama (July 2008), "China in Africa: After the Gun and the Bible—a West African Perspective" (PDF), in Soares de Oliveira, Ricardo; Alden, Christopher; Large, Daniel (eds.), China Returns to Africa: A Rising Power and a Continent Embrace, Columbia University Press, pp. 129–142, ISBN 978-0-231-70098-6, retrieved 2009-04-01
• O'Brien, Rita Cruise (1975), "Lebanese Entrepreneurs in Senegal: Economic Integration and the Politics of Protection", Cahiers d'études africaines, 15 (57): 95–115, doi:10.3406/cea.1975.2612

Further reading[edit]

• Boumedouha, Saïd (1992), "Change and Continuity in the Relationship between the Lebanese in Senegal and their Hosts", in Hourani, Albert; Shehadi, Nadim (eds.), The Lebanese in the World: A Century of Emigration, I. B. Tauris, ISBN 978-1-85043-303-3
• El Bcheraoui, Charbel (2007), Etude du vieillissement de la population libanaise vivant en milieu urbain, rural et émigrée au Sénégal, Ph.D. dissertation, Aix-en-Provence: University of the Mediterranean, OCLC 493494634
• Leichtman, Mara A. (2006), A tale of two Shi'isms: Lebanese migrants and Senegalese converts in Dakar, Ph.D. dissertation, Rhode Island: Department of Anthropology, Brown University, OCLC 183678779
• Taraf, Souha (1994), L'espace en mouvement: dynamiques migratoires et territorialisation des familles libanaises au Sénégal, Ph.D. dissertation, Tours: Department of Geography, François Rabelais University, OCLC 490432951