For a more detailed introduction, see here.
Re-told in French by Amadou Hampâté Bâ (see also our earlier post here) and Germaine Dieterlen in 1961, Koumen is the initiatory text of the Fulɓe pastors, perhaps still preserved today in Senegal, but its traditional form altered in most regions of West Africa following the advent of fundamentalist Islam. According to Fulɓe tradition, the Fulɓe divide themselves into four ancestral groupings, or tribes in the broadest sense of the term: Jal, Ba, So and Bari although these have changed over time following external domination or other historical upheavals.[1] Each grouping is associated with one of the four basic elements (fire, air, water, and earth respectively), one of the cardinal directions (East, West, South, North), and one of the four basic colours of cattle hides (yellow, red, black, white). Each is also renowned for one or more of the eleven sacred crafts. These are sacred because in all African spiritual traditions, the master of a craft is not just a skilled worker but also a priest and conductor of ceremonies affecting the lives of men and nature at important times. These eleven are the blacksmith, gold-panner, potter, weaver, shoemaker, woodcutter, mason, hunter, shepherd, farmer and tailor. The shepherd and the blacksmith were especially important to the Fulɓe and owed each other absolute mutual assistance. There was a time when the pastor would not sell milk to a blacksmith but provide it free. Conversely, anyone bringing milk to a blacksmith was given priority service. Another example of this alliance is that the shepherd’s ritual stringed instrument was entirely self-made except for its metal strings.
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| Samuel Palmer, The Golden Valley |
The Koumen
tale is the story of the initiation of Silé Saajo who will go on to become a silatigi. Guided by Koumen and eventually
by Koumen’s wife Foroforondou, Silé Saajo must overcome a series of tests to penetrate
through the twelve clearings of initiation which symbolise both the twelve
months of the year but also knowledge of different aspects of the self and the
structure of the universe (its elements, space and time). For the Fulɓe, the
world created by God (Guéno) has come from “a drop of milk” (toɓɓere ɓira)
containing the “four elements”, which then formed the “hermaphrodite bovine”,
symbol of the universe. There are cosmic correspondences at the heart of all
things depending on the elements which make it up. The initiate must therefore
come to know the interplay and harmonisation of these correspondences between
stars, animals, plants, minerals, time, location, and for human beings: their
family status, social function, skills, character and ultimately their destiny.
The process of initiation brings the initiate into contact with mythical
characters from whom he must learn as well as wild animals, symbolic of the
forces which he must fight against, and plants and incantations which he will
use as a pastor.
It would be worthwhile to say a few words about some
of the Fulɓe pastor’s highest concerns to which we have so far alluded: (1) their
herd, (2) milk, (3) plants and (4) sacramental objects.
(1) There are three kinds of herd and so
three kinds of shepherd: for goats, for sheep and most importantly for cattle. Cattle
are not considered as property or riches, but kin. The colour of their hides
marks the ancestral grouping to which they belong and thus links them to the
ancestors. In addition, they are branded by their owners, originally using a
combination of sixteen different ritual symbols to each of which was associated
a prayer for the protection and fertility of the herd. Once adopted, an owner’s
brand never changed though its location on the body was supposed to depend on
the “fortune” specific to each animal. Only fourteen of these original sixteen “magical
letters” survive (see figure left). Cattle could also be identified by the
combination of colours on their hide, and on the position and shape of any spots
or stripes. In particular, the black cow with a white stripe on its back is
considered the prime beast of the herd and called the fadaletodde.
(2) We have seen already the importance of
milk from the Fulɓe creation myth. When the Fulɓe make an oath, they swear “by
milk and butter”. As well as its ritual functions and prohibitions, milk was
traditionally the Fulɓe’s main currency of exchange and the fundamental element
of their diet. There was a time indeed when the Fulɓe never ate beef and hardly
ever ate the meat of other animals.
(3) Knowledge of vegetation is crucial not
only to feed the herd, but also to make technological, medicinal and ritual use
of the different plants the shepherd might come across. The most important of
these are the kelli or white
cross-berry tree (Grewia tenax Fiori /
Grewia betulifolia Jussieu) and the nelɓi
or African jackal-berry / West African ebony tree (Diospyros mespiliformis Hochst) out of which the staffs of
shepherds are made. These two trees have mythical status on the pastoral path,
associated with the female and male respectively. Many of the female objects in
the home are made with kelli including
the framework of the roof which is made by women and then covered with thatch. The nelɓi by contrast is said to “enforce pastoral virtues” and the shaft
of the spear, the hilt of the knife or ax, and the bowl of the head of the
family as well as most wooden utensils are made from this wood. All the work of
men and especially of initiates derive “their strength and support” from it.
Since one is associated with female and the other with male activities, their
combination has a sexual symbolism. Meanwhile, the baobab is to vegetables what
the bovine is to animals: every part of this plant can be used, so it
symbolises the maximisation of utility. The kodyoli
(Anogeissus Schimperi Hochst) is used
to dye clothes yellow (wolo). The Fulɓe
are usually dressed in white, or in fabrics dyed yellow. Other useful plants
mentioned in the tale are the delɓi or mburri (which is Gardenia erubescens Stapf. or Hochst or
some other variety of gardenia bush), the kooli or koyli (Mitragyna
inermis O. Kuntze), the kombi, the ngelooki (Guiera
senegalensis), the caski (Acacia albida), the kahi
(Khaya senegalensis), the kohi (Prosopis africana Tomb.),
the mbarkewi (Bauhinia Thonningi Schum), the ɗooki (Combretum
ghasalense Engl. et Diels), the foogi (Saba / Landolphia senegalensis), the ndaaɓi (jujubier, Ziziphus
jujuba Lam.), and the ɗammi (tamarind tree). The medicinal use of
certain plants is still a subject for investigation today, so it would be
interesting if the benefits of the plants mentioned in this tale continue to be
recognised and re-discovered.
(4)
(5) More sacred
still are the shepherd’s sacramental objects, collectively known as ngaynirki, which are kept in a wineskin
above the altar and promote the fecundatory power of the herd. The altar itself
(kaggu) is made from a lattice of
interlacing kelli and nelɓi branches, supported on wooden
poles made of the same plants. Kept in the residence of the silatigi, it is through these sacramental
objects that the master shepherd invokes the guardian spirits of the herd, the lareeji.
Crossing the entrance into the first clearing marks
the threshold from the disordered world of men to the knowledge of the bush
which is Koumen’s domain leading to the “organised world of the pastorate”. The
first four clearings correspond to the “four elements”, the fifth to spiritual struggle and the
passage to becoming a complete person (neɗɗo kiɓɓo), a real human being, and
the remaining seven correspond to the “lights of initiation” of the seven
“suns”. The number seven may also symbolise the union of male and female which
correspond to three and four respectively in certain African numerological
systems. Having passed through all twelve clearings, the initiate will receive
from Koumen’s wife the rope with twenty-eight knots symbolising the days of the
lunar month. Thus the initiate is instructed in the mysticism of time that
combines the solar and the lunar calendars. The unknotting of the knots
symbolises the entry into knowledge and allows the initiate to receive the
emblems of the pastorate. He must then prove himself in one final test and if
successful he will thank the All-Powerful Doundari, God of creation. Once
initiated, he can now initiate others.
The only published version of this tale was written in
French by Amadou Hampâté Bâ who heard it recited by master Ardo Dembo in a gathering
of the Fulɓe in the Linguère circle in Moguer, between Senegal and Gambia, near Tambacounda.
Published in Paris in 1961, it has remained untranslated into English until
now. Make sure you’ve drunk your milk and imagine yourself following in the
footsteps of this magical journey of the Fulɓe initiate.A. Hampâté Bâ & G. Dieterlen (1961)
[1] Jal has given rise to Jallo, Ka, Kan, Dikko and also Mayga; Ba has given Bal, Balde, Nuba, Jakite, Jagayete; So has become Sidibe; Bari has become Sangare.
Amadou Hampâté Bâ
Introduction
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