The groundwork for these essays lies in research conducted in the Wolof zone of Senegal in 1966–7; some two hundred formal interviews, numerous other discussions and conversations which were supplemented by library and archival research in Dakar and Paris. Due reference is made below to written sources, which may be available for consultation (and verification) by others. Oral sources, on the other hand, are named only in a very few exceptional instances (Thierno Sow, Cheikh Kane, Momar Sakho, Sérigne Mbacké Nioro). This is not of course to deprecate the very great contribution of other Senegalese informants, but there seems little point here in referring the reader to individuals whom he may be most unlikely ever to meet (any concerned researcher need only request the necessary details).

Some of the results of this field research have already been published in book form (The Mourides of Senegal, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), these essays being a substantial development and extension of that presentation. The essays are intended both to be more systematically interpretive of research findings already published and to cover a much wider area of concern.

Apart from the great debt which I owe to many Senegalese friends and informants, I should here acknowledge the help of those scholars (concerned with themes related to these essays) who have helped both in discussions and often in allowing me to see pre-publication drafts of their work (Samin Amin, Jonathan Barker, Jean Copans, Martin Klein, among others).