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" SIGNARES" |
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Signares (from Portuguese
"senhora") :
African or half-cast women that Europeans
would marry "according to the custom
of the country" (that is to say for
the time spent in the colony. ) .
They formed the "high society" of
Saint-Louis
and Goree
up to the middle of the XIXth century.
This "marriage" practice
came to an end with the modernization of living
conditions of the white community and the
discovery of preventive treatment of tropical
diseases which made possible for European
wives to follow their husbands in Africa.
"Je me rappelle les signares à l'ombre verte des vérandas,
les signares aux yeux surréels comme un clair de lune sur la
grève ..."
L.S. Senghor, Joal |
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