According to the legend, when his mother remarried following her husband's death, Ndiadiane left his home and travelled, via the Senegal River, to Waalo, where his ability to make good judgements led to the people appointing him their leader.
The legend highlights Ndiaye's role as the unifier of previously divided people and the creator of relatively democratic governance institutions.
[2] Fearing writes that " most versions of the myth explain how the new dynasty superimposed itself upon a preexisting social structure dominated by the Laman, Wolof elders who claimed 'ownership' of the land as the descendants of the founders of village communities."
There is evidence that the laman retained many of their functions under the new monarchical order, becoming in effect a lesser nobility within the new state, and serving as electors when the time came to choose a new king from the Njaay dynasty.
Dates in the early thirteenth century are often ascribed to him, but John Donnelly Fage claimed that a more likely scenario is that the rise of the empire was associated with the growth of Wolof power at the expense of the ancient Sudanese state of Takrur, which was essentially a development that took place in the fourteenth-century.
[6] The Rao archaeological site, near the ancient village of Mboyu-Gar where Ndiaye first appeared in Waalo, dates to the period between 1300 and 1350, and could be linked to the foundation of Jolof.
[7] The epic of Ndiadiane Ndiaye begins with the story of his father, Bubakar Omar, and his Mandinka slave, Mbarik Bo, and their adventure as they travel from the Levant to the Senegal River.
[8][9][10] At this time, Waalo was divided into villages ruled by separate kings using the Serer title Lamane,[11] some of whom were engaged in a dispute over a wood near a prominent lake.
[16] Ndiaye ruled wisely for 16 years over Waalo when his half brother, Barka Bo or Mbodj, who had heard of his success, came to join him.
[24][9][25][26][27] Alternatively, Ndiaye may be a descendant of Abu Bakr, and his father was the 6th Almoravid emir to rule the Berbers on the southern edge of the Sahara.
[32] An important part of the coronation ceremonies in Waalo and Jolof was the royal bath, known as xulixuli taken as Ndaseew, where Ndiaye first emerged from the river.
[25][35][36] According to James Searing, "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.