A Story About Ndogol
N'Dogol: The Mystical Guardian Facing the Coal Power Plant
Just as Rufisque has Mame Coumba Lamb, Dakar has Mame N'Diaré, Kaolack has Garou M'Bossé, and Saint-Louis has Mame Coumba Bang, Bargny, since its foundation around the 13th century, is believed to have owed its protection against external aggressions — including European colonial threats — to N'Dogol, its ancestral guardian spirit.
Today, the people of Bargny seem to be increasingly reconnecting with their ancestral protector. With the establishment of the “industrial giant” that is the coal-fired power plant, some believe that the challenges surrounding its effective operation could be linked to the manifestation of N'Dogol’s mystical powers.
Without the neighborhood sports association (ASC) bearing his name and the remaining traces of his dwelling place near Banuxba, at the mouth of the Khouloupe waterway on the N’Gadié beach, the name of N'Dogol might have disappeared from collective memory long ago.
N'Dogol was traditionally associated with the donkey and its nighttime braying. Indeed, it was common to see herds of donkeys throughout Bargny. Their owners, particularly Baye Yabba Xanca (pronounced Hantia) from Bargny Guedj and Baye Aliou Diop from Santhioub M’Both, built their livelihoods around donkey transportation, especially for carrying millet after threshing during the abundant harvest seasons of the past.
Horses, however, were considered undesirable by N'Dogol. As a result, there were reportedly no permanently settled horses in Bargny. Horses and their owners only passed through during the day, avoiding being caught there after nightfall.
The only horse said to have enjoyed this privilege was that of Jaraaf Baye Tamba N'Diaye, which he would have made dance to the rhythm of traditional drums during certain cultural, political, and religious celebrations.
Today, the situation has completely reversed. Donkeys have almost entirely disappeared from the Bargny landscape, replaced by hundreds of horses that migrated toward the Dakar region following the long cycle of drought that affected the Sahel countries during the 1970s and 1980s.
While Rufisque saw a dramatic increase in its horse-drawn cart population, Bargny witnessed the growth of cart-based transport activities, particularly through the extraction and transportation of marine sand, driven by the rapid expansion of housing construction.
One can only imagine the enormous quantities of sand extracted year after year from Bargny’s coastline, especially from Ximbe (Himbé) beach, supplying not only Bargny but also the rapid expansion of Rufisque toward Gouye Mouride.
Reflection
With the arrival and settlement of the horse — once considered, rightly or wrongly, as the ultimate opposite of N'Dogol — could our ancestors have foreseen, more clearly than their descendants today, the dangers linked to the rapid advance of the sea?
Could this coastal vulnerability be attributed not only to the undeniable effects of climate change but also to decades of uncontrolled extraction of marine sand?
Gorguez