Page "Jolof Empire" Paragraph 1

Traditional accounts among the Wolof agree that the founder of the state and later empire was the possibly mythical Ndiadiane Ndiaye ( also spelled Njaajaan Njaay ).

Traditional stories of the ancestry of this leader vary.

One suggests that he was " the first and only son of a noble and saintly Arab father Abdu Darday and a " Tukuler " woman, Fatamatu Sail.

" This gives him a Almoravid lineage, ie a Berber and Islamic background, on his father's side, and a link on his mother's side to Takrur.

James Fearing adds that " In all versions of the myth, Njaajaan Njaay speaks his first words in Pulaar rather than Wolof, emphasizing once again his character as a stranger of noble origins.