“Greetings Koumen. Greeting to he who accompanies Koumen if he knows
how to keep to the discipline.”
“Listen to my imperious voice!” said Koumen. “The voice of a master. Look at my forehead. It is noble and wise. Grey hairs adorn my head. They frame my temples and embellish my jaw. Look at the upper half of my body. But don’t you dare cast your gaze down to the
hollow of my navel or you will be bowled over, your females made sterile and
your livestock ruined.[1]
Silé has just learnt how one must speak to malignant spirits.
The East gleams
brightest. The West is wracked with blood. The South is veiled by the dark
forest. The North is full of farmlands, good pastures and white men.[2]
Open and make way for Silé. Do not resist him. He is going to Foroforondou who imposes sentences from which there is no going back, her judgments binding. She subjugates the sorcerer, subdues the wicked and sees through the cunning.”
“Does Silé,”
asked the spirits, “know the four Fulɓe family groupings so difficult to
define, but all of whom equally and entirely agree to roll in the dust and ash to possess, feed and protect the bovine, the animal of Ilo Yaladi Jaaje?”
“Silé is Pullo,”
Koumen replied. “He does not groan except for cattle. He would undertake a thousand labors in order to acquire the bovine.
If he peels the
sacred baobab,[4] it would be to
make the rope with 28 magical knots, protecting the sacred space of his turf.
If he strips the leaves of the ngelooki,[5]
it would be to bathe the beasts in its beneficial energies by fumigation. He will
know how to point to the place where affliction has taken root in a being, and
how to charm the fingered leaf with the appropriate words. He will vanquish
bovine illnesses.”
 |
| The ngelooki or sabara plant (see footnote) |
Koumen said, “Silé
will be harmonised like this plant which around its single stem arranges leaves,
branches and flowers.”
The spirits
rejoiced, “Silé! anointed with butter and gorged on milk, Silé, you may
pass.”
[1] Koumen’s grey hair and beard symbolise his
manly wisdom and his understanding. The navel is the central, sacred point and
it should not be encroached upon. For a being without moral decency or modesty,
it is said, “I saw everything of him, including his navel” (mi yihi fu makko, fay wuddu). Koumen’s
navel also symbolises the essence of his teaching, so not looking at the navel
suggests this knowledge should be accessed gradually.
[4] Every part of the baobab plant can be
used, so it represents the maximum of utility among plants, just as the bovine represents
this among animals. In particular, the rope of 28 knots which Silé will have to
unriddle in the twelfth clearing is made from the bark of the baobab. The bark
fibre can also be used to make clothing, the seeds can be used to make cosmetic
oils, the leaves are edible and can store water and the fruit is
extraordinarily rich in nutrients as well as being the only fruit in the world
to dry naturally on the branch.
[5] The ngelooki
(Guiera senegalensis) also sometimes
known by its Hausa name sabara is
medicinal and even anti-cancerous. Its dried leaves are burned under the belly
of the animals whilst they are penned up. It is an incense and a protection. If
it rains, one puts a little branch of ngelooki
behind either ear when one is outside, or inside in one’s own home, as a
protection against lightning. The ngelooki
along with the ɗooki (Combretum ghasalense Engl. et Diels) are
two plants capable of struggling against death and sometimes even triumphing
over it. A legend tells how this power was revealed to man. A very young Pullo
child was momentarily put down under a tree by her mother who thought he was
ill and was looking around the area for plants to treat him, accompanied by an
old woman. Left alone, the child started speaking: “These are the remedies
against death: dooki and ngelooki.” Before the child had
finished, the old woman heard and interrupted him: “Here is a nursling who
speaks. This is the end of the world...” and the baby was silent. Thus man only
discovered the first two plants for the elixir of life and the recipe was
incomplete. The “fingered leaves” of certain plants capture energies depending
on the number of their veins: the words are carried by the “hand” that directs
them on the patient according to established correspondences between the
different elements of the universe. Each man is associated with a plant and
each plant with a day or a time of the year. The date and the lunar month are
all involved.
A. Hampâté Bâ & G. Dieterlen (1961)
Text in French: http://www.webpulaaku.net/defte/ahb/kumen/
Amadou Hampâté Bâ
Introduction
English Translation:
First Clearing
No comments:
Post a Comment