Kaydara (1964), like Koumen (1961) published already on this blog, is an initiation tale collected by Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1900-1991) and rendered by him in verse translation in French. Without further introduction, what follows is the opening scene of this epic tale:
_________
A tale once told, a tale I tell again.
—
But is it true this tale?”
“For the little ones who play at night by the light of the moon, my
tale is but a fantasy.
When the winter
nights draw in and lengthen, at the late hour when the spinners grow weary, my
account is a pleasant tale to hear.
For the bearded philosophers and rough-heeled travellers, it is a
truthful story that has much to teach.
Thus I am futile, useful, instructive.”
—
Go on and tell it to us then!
✵
It was in the mysterious far-off land of
Kaydara which no man can situate exactly to tell us when and where our story
happened.
O dear son of my
own father! Manna[1]
who was the first to tell this tale located it a few years after the mountains
had hardened[2]
and the genies were finishing carving out the river gorges.[3]
A little later,
Demburu came down to the edge of the crossroads. He stared at the two who had come
before, arriving at the same place without glimpsing each other, still lost as
they were in their fascination with the clouds.
“Oh son of my
own mother!” cried Hamtudo, “Bow low because the great servant of the One-Eyed
King will soon lift the veils of fog that were preventing your eyes from seeing
his rising with thousands of luminescent arms.”
The enchantment was
broken and the two men came out of their rapture. They both turned to see who had
spoken to them and all three found themselves arranged in a triangle like the three
stones in a fireplace.[9]
Then a thundering
voice was heard:[10]
“Oh you there, fascinated by the light![11]
Go penetrate the sacred ancestral-forest of the first hamlet you reach. Hunt
for game. Run, pursue and catch it.[12]
The first animal you find, slit its throat and make of it a burnt offering.”[13]
Hammadi, joined
by Hamtudo and Demburu, raced through the undergrowth. They beat the ground
with sticks and flushed out an anteater,[14] killed
it, skinned it and took it to the middle of the crossroads. They lit a great
fire, and threw in their catch. They stayed and waited for it to be burnt up. When
the flame had consumed the flesh, they heard a voice which cried out loudly:
“Oh Hammadi! Oh Hamtudo!
Oh Demburu! The sacrifice you have just made is accepted. Your journey to the land
of dwarf-spirits[15]
will be an adventure with a favourable outcome. Go and clean the place[16]
where the fire swallowed your anteater before the air has swallowed it up, the
same air which has already swallowed your burnt offering in a single breath.”[17]
The three
friends went to clear the site. As soon as they did so, they discovered a flat
stone[18]
which they measured on all sides. It was a triangular stone whose perimeter was
nine cubits, three on each side.[19] One
face of the stone was painted black, the other white.
A voice from the
air said: “Dear friends! Put on your sandals,[20] pick
up your travelling bags and swing them over your shoulders. May each of you
take up a staff to lean on from time to time when you have the need to urge on your
carrying animal.”[21]
At the same
moment, instantaneously, a force like an invisible hand turned over the
triangular stone. It hid the surface painted black and revealed the side coated
white.[22] A
stairway with nine steps leading underground appeared before them and they took
it without hesitating at all.[23] The
stairway guided them to where they found three carrier-oxen awaiting them, laden
with water and food for their journey.
“Greetings to
you who are going to the land of dwarfs! Here are three carrier-oxen to serve
you. Further on, you will be given others by one who is the source of scientific
knowledge and a termite-hill of wisdom.”
“What is he called
and where can he be found?” asked Hamtudo. “And you yourself who speak to us,”
he added, “Where are you?”[24]
Painting: Emile Claus, Sunset over Waterloo Bridge
[1] This address and reference to Manna is a traditional
preamble to storytelling. In former times, Manna was a title of kings who had
been initiated and it became the name of the legendary initiate King whom one
encounters in many initiatory stories.
[2] According to the origin
myth, the mountains were soft at the outset, like vegetable butter. But Guéno (the
Eternal God of creation) gave the power to the One-eyed King (the sun) to
harden the mountains under the intensity of his gaze.
[3] This indicates
that the world is still in formation. According to the origin myth, having had
the waterways carved out by the genies, Guéno had them filled by water-carriers
who revolted and were turned into clouds, condemned to wander. It is the
water-carriers who give us rain, as they perpetually break their water jugs;
and it is they who are pitilessly whipped by their jailers, the winds, whenever
thunder is heard.
[4] Among the Fulɓe
there is a double system of naming children. The first is secular, by which
parents give the new-born the name they wish, preferably that of an ancestor.
The second is religious, and its code is the following: Hammadi is the
name of the first son consecrated in honour of the god Ham; Samba,
the name of the second, consecrated to Sam; Demmba, the name of
the third, consecrated to Dem; Yero, the name of the fourth
consecrated to Yer; Paate, the name of the fifth consecrated to Pat;
Njobbo, the name of the sixth consecrated to Njob and Deloo
the seventh consecrated to Del. If it happens that a man has an eighth
son, the series is started over and he is named: Hammadi-ɗimmo or the
second Hammadi. These religious names are used in ritual ceremonies and
initiations, as here. In fact, it is of some use to know, for the sake of
understanding the text, that legendary heroes are divided into three categories:
Hammadi, the hero prototype, the
“stallion,” is known throughout his village; and any village he stops in is
immediately aware of his having come; Hammadi-Hammadi,
the “stallion of stallions,” more worthy even than the first, is known
throughout the village and country; if he travels neighbouring countries soon
learn of this: Haman-ndof is the mediocre one, the botched; even his
family takes little note of his absences and his host barely notices his
arrival. To these three types of men correspond three types of women: Santaldé,
the good wife who sees to what her husband says; Mantaldé has more
initiative and intelligence and as “proprietess of the war drum,” waits for no
one in finding her way through things; finally there is Mantakapous,
who, when food is brought to her for preparation, lets it rot, and who
complains and lets insults fly when nothing is brought to her.
[5] At the beginning
of time, the sun was Guéno’s own eye. Then, when the creation was finished,
Guéno removed it from its socket to produce the “one-eyed king,” since his
single eye was sufficient to see everything that occurs on earth and to heat
and light it as well.
[6] Fulɓe shepherds go
by various paths. Whenever they come upon one another in a clearing, they name
it “meeting place of the crossroads” or residence (hoɗorde) and the site
becomes sacred after a certain rite; the silatigi, who is an initiate of
sacred things, enters in relations with the spirits of the site, whether in a
dream, or by using specific plants; depending upon the density of the occult
aspect of the site, it will become an encampment or crossroads meeting for two,
three, four or more days. The rite will be performed on command of the spirit
of the site: a spotted goat will be sacrificed, or a sheep or steer; the silatigi
will have seen the animal in a dream or vision or else some event will have
brought it to his attention; the revelation can also be performed on another
member of the group; or the silatigi may interpret the cries or movement
of the turtle-dove, for “she is the messenger of the gods and her heart is
without aggressiveness.”
[7] Hamtudo and
Demburu are names of captives; respectively, captives of Demba and of Hammadi.
Even from the beginning of the adventure, therefore, there is a difference
between the characters, and their whole behaviour will be affected by this
indication of their origin; only Hammadi will conduct himself as a nobleman.
[8] Reference to the
Fulɓe triad. In fact, there are three sorts of shepherds: those who lead
caprines (goats) to pasture, those who lead ovines (sheep), and those who lead
bovines (cows); three is also a highly esoteric number, as are two, seven,
eleven, twelve in Fulɓe initiation; in this tale there are three travellers,
three stones for the sacrifice, three loads of gold, three words of advice. It
is said that three is the product of incest by “oneself and one's flesh,” for
unity is hermaphroditic and copulates with itself to reproduce.
[9] This is also an
illusion to the family hearth of the traditional African kitchen. Here it is the
“kitchen of knowledge.” The family kitchen, in addition, is a sacred site; and
the mother's womb is called “the hearth where the infant cooks.” The three
stones “are united by the great pot, like the father, the mother, and the child
in the family,” the three irons between the stones of the hearth are like “the
bank, the fruit, and the seed of truth.” Likewise here, the three men are
united in adventure, in the common voyage, predestined fate dictated by the
gods.
[10] This voice of the
voice-guide will henceforth not leave them; it is an emanation of Kadar who
draws them on and will send them back once he has given them gold. This voice
will be distributed in the four elements.
[11] Here the light was
only a mirage, a backdrop. This is not where the interest lay.
[12] For the adept must
make the effort.
[13] The victim must
not only have its throat slit, but must be burnt over a slow fire.
[14] A mysterious
animal in that it lives on ants and termites; the termite hill is seen as a
world (cf. Die d'eau of Marcel Griaule). Hunters therefore consider the
termite-hill to be charged with occult power, with dangerous effluvia. In the
same way, the head of the rabbit and that of the hyena are charged, as is the
entire body of the owl.
[15] For the Fula,
there are three countries:
• the country of light where all visible
beings live - men, animals, plants;
• the country of shadows where the “hidden
ones” (suuɗiiɓe) live, invisible beings, but subject to incantations;
among those are the dwarfs, pygmy-spirits, which surround Kaydara; these are
his servants, who often appear as little old men with long beards; they are
only two cubits tall, but have enormous power; they are polymorphous and bear
the name yaamana-juuju, as well as Baagumaawel;
•
the third country is the land of the dead, and is plunged into a deep night;
all souls live there, those of men as well as those of animals and plants; for
everything that lives has a soul, and this is why an initiate will never cut
down a tree needlessly, nor will he pick green fruit, for by doing so he risks
“aborting woman.”
[16] Purification
ritual; the ashes are those parts Guéno has not accepted; they must then be
returned to the earth, for “if it isn't useful to yourself, it is useful for
something, and the earth will find a way of using it”; everything that is taken
from a body and thrown away is returned to the earth, and any ashes are sacred
and must be scattered over the earth.
[17] In nature, beings
and forces mutually swallow up, annihilating each other. This idea will come up
again later.
[18] The flat stone
represents the two sciences: the exoteric (the white side) and the esoteric
(the black side); the nine cubits around correspond to the nine openings in the
body of man and relate to more of exoteric science (while the wife-mother has
11 openings that relate to esoteric knowledge). The stone is triangular, for it
is a reminder of the basic Fulɓe triad; finally, the stone also represents the
three countries: the two sides are the countries of light-and darkness, the
thickness of the stone is the country of shadows; in initiation, the disciple
asks, “How can I pass from the dark to the light without turning over the stone?”
and the master answers, “You must turn yourself into toad oil,” for toad oil
can penetrate stone; likewise, man does not need to move things in order to
penetrate into their deepest points, he needs only his acuity of perception.
This stone is therefore the symbol of the world, symbol of the two sciences,
and bears the path since it is the limit between the country of the living and
the country of the dwarfs of Kaydara. Finally, it is the primary force of Fulɓe
cosmogony, from which the ten others will arise, which constitute the
earth-force.
[19] A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle
finger to the elbow.
[20] For the
disciple-travellers will no longer be under absolute respect; they will have
permission to ask questions, to “tread on the secrets.”
[21] The staff is the
tutor, the master indispensable to initiation; the motif of “urging on the
carrier-animals” only serves to mask the true meaning of the staff; in fact,
only Hammadi seems to have understood it, for he will accept, following the
advice of his masters.
[22] Because the
symbols the travellers see will not be unveiled to them, even though they are
already in the esoteric zone.
[23] Stairs are always
the symbol of progression towards knowledge; if they rise up to the sky, it
will be a symbol of the apparent world; if they go underground, this will, of
course, symbolize occult knowledge. There are times when white represents
higher knowledge, and black represents black magic. In Islamic esoteric
science, going down nine steps means mastering the nine senses. In Fulɓe
esoteric knowledge, there is no other meaning besides one more allusion to the
nine openings of the body.
[24] It will be seen
throughout the tale that the traveller’s questions will be eluded, despite
their right to pose them. A Fulɓe proverb says, “He who is curious has bitter
blood, but he does not lose his head,” which means he is importunate but knows
how to proceed.
[25] An essential maxim
for the neophyte initiate. Also, when he is no longer impatient to know, then
he will know. In initiation, one listens a lot more than one asks questions;
one waits until the master has finished his tale; for at his convenience he
will one day provide the explanation for what is obscure; he intentionally
tests the patience of his disciples; this is not to bully them with his
intellectual prowess; for after the master has given his presentation, questions
do arise or even a discussion. But the disciple must get used to not
interrupting, to “feel” which question he may pose, and which he must not. This
patience in knowledge is imposed as an indispensable condition; it is a true
mental education and for the master its acquisition will be proof of the
maturity of his student. From this he will know that he can confide secrets to his
initiate, for the latter will have the necessary discretion not to go about
divulging them.
Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1964)
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