Lat Dior Ngone Latyr Diop

Lat dior Ngone Latyr (by Awa Diop student in Martin Luther King school, Dakar, Senegal)

Lat Dior Ngone Latyr Diop was born ca 1842 in the ancient Cayor region (centre of Senegal) in a village called Keur Amadou Yalla, which means ‘At Amadou yalla’s’. He was a ‘ceddo’, that is a fighter who neither was a Christian nor a Muslim. He belonged to the noble Diop family. His mother was a Linguere Queen named Ngone Latyr Fall.

Lat Dior is well known by the oral tradition who sang and praised his heroic deeds. In Senegal the oral tradition is kept lively by the Griots who are called the ‘Bags of words’ because they keep our tradition alive in their vast memories. The function of a griot is transmitted from father to son, orally. These griots are still singing the courage , the pride and the patriotism and attachment of Lat Dior to his motherland and his sense of honor (Diom in Wolof, the national language) and his being gifted in war strategies. He knew how to maneuver his troops, lay get apens and then use the field to his advantage. He was very good at guerrilla warfare.

When his half brother Damel(king)Birima Ngone Latyr died in 1860, Lat Dior, still young, suffered from the realities of the French invasion led by Faidherbe. From that moment on his destiny was sealed. He was going to fight to drive away the invaders from his motherland.
At first Lat Dior dominated the French troops setting get apens where they got trapped and beaten, because of their ignorance of the land and the battlefield. In 1861 Lat Dior was victorious over the French in Koki. A second victory was going to take place in Ngolngol in December 30, 1863.

From that moment on he became the number one enemy of the French authorities. After Lat Dior’s defeat in Loro in 1864 Cayor, his native land was annexed by the French invaders. Lat Dior found refuge in Saloum, where he made an alliance with the local kings, Maba Diakhou Ba and Amadou Cheikhou, the son of Elhadji Oumar. With these allies he succeeded to defeat the French army again in Mekhe. This victory earned him respect from his enemies who recognised him as the king of Cayor from 1871 to 1882.
But a bone of contention was soon going to drive them apart again as Lat Dior did not want the railway line to cross his native land. He used to say that ‘Malaw, his horse, will never see the railway line’, because he sincerely believed that the land the railway line went over would finally belong to the French, which he could not bear to see.

According to the ‘Senegalese journals’ dated from October 28,1886, the fight that took place around noon in Dekhele between Lat Dior and the French troops was unique in the Senegalese war history due to its violence and fierceness. The adversaries fired at each other at so close range that their clothes were burnt by the powder. After overcoming a third of the French troops, Lat Dior finally fell to the ground with his sons and 78 ceddos of his best men.

The popular and oral tradition report that if Lat Dior has finally been defeated by the French invaders it is because he was betrayed by Demba Ware Sall, another Senegalese King who was the ally of the French colonisers.
Whatever the real facts, Lat Dior entered history as the only Senegalese hero who ever succeeded to defeat the French army. He became the symbol of the national resistance and is our national hero.
Today the griots, the ‘bags of words’ and keepers of the oral tradition are still celebrating Lat Dior Ngone Latyr Diop, the last king of Cayor. As he always predicted, Malaw, his horse and companion fighter, never saw the railway line. As a loyal companion the horse died at the same place as his master.