Mythical Genealogy

This is part of a series: Njeddo Dewal, Mother of Calamity

Mythical Genealogy of Njeddo Dewal according to Mandé Cosmogony

Before the creation of the world, before the beginning of everything, there was nothing except Being. This Being was Emptiness, without name and without limit, but it was a living Emptiness, incubating the potential within it for all possible existences.

Infinite Time without time was the abode of this One-Being.

It gave itself two eyes. It closed them: night was created. It reopened them: the day was born.

Night was incarnated in Lewrou, the Moon.

Day was incarnated in Nâ’ngué, the Sun.

The Sun married the Moon. They gave birth to Doumounna, divine Time.

Doumounna asked Infinite Time by what name he should invoke it. He answered: “Call me Eternal Guéno.”4

4 Eternal Guéno is for the Fulɓe the supreme Creator God (equivalent to Mà- n’gala among the Bambara).

Guéno wanted to be known. He wanted someone to talk to. So he created a marvellous Egg, with nine divisions, and introduced the nine fundamental states of existence.

Then he entrusted the Egg to divine Time Doumounna. “Incubate it patiently,” he instructed. “And whatever comes out comes out.”

Doumounna brooded over the wonderful Egg and named it Botchio’ndé.

When this cosmic Egg hatched, it gave birth to twenty fabulous beings that constituted the totality of the visible and invisible universe, the totality of existing forces and possible knowledges.

But, alas! none of these first twenty fabulous creatures proved capable of becoming the interlocutor that Guéno had desired for Himself.

So He took a particle from each of the twenty existing creatures. He mixed them together, and then, blowing a spark into this mixture of his own fiery breath, he created a new Being: Neɗɗo, Human.

Synthesis of all the elements of the universe, superior and inferior, a perfect receptacle of the Supreme Force, combining all existing forces, good and bad, Neɗɗo, the primordial Human, inherited a particle of the divine creative Power, the gift of Spirit and the Word.

Guéno taught Neɗɗo, his Interlocutor, the laws according to which all the elements of the cosmos were formed and would continue to exist. He installed him as Guardian and Manager of his universe and charged him with the task to make sure universal harmony was maintained. This is why it is a heavy burden to be Neɗɗo.

Initiated by his creator, Neɗɗo later passed on the sum total of his knowledge to his descendants. This was the beginning of the great chain of oral initiatory transmission.

Neɗɗo, the Primordial Human, gave birth to Kîkala, the first worldly man,5 whose wife was Nâgara.

5 There are parallels between Kîkala and the Biblical Adam; but according to Fulɓe tradition, there would have been several successive Adams. Kîkala is a symbol of the ancients, and by extension of age and wisdom.

Kîkala gave birth to Habana-koel (lit. "every man for himself".)

"Every man for himself" gave birth to Tcheli (lit. “Fork in the Road”).

“Fork in the Road” had two children: one, “Old Man” (Gorko-mawdo), represented the Way of Good; the other, “Little Old Hag” (Dewel- Nayewel), represented the Way of Evil. Two kinds of offspring with opposite tendencies emerged from these two:

“Old Man” gave birth to "Man Worthy of Consideration” (Neɗɗo-mawdo) who himself gave birth to four children: “Great Hearing”, “Great Vision”, “Great Speaking” and “Great Actions”. His sister, “Little Old Hag” had four children: "Misery", "Bad Luck", “Hostility” and “Hate”. As we can see, it is from “Fork of the Road”, who had succeeded from “Every man for himself”, that the divergent paths of Good and Evil became clearer.

The “Old Man” became the incarnation of Good. The “Little Old Hag” became the incarnation of Evil.

Njeddo Dewal is a legendary Fulɓe incarnation of Dewel-Nayewel, the “Little Old Hag”, called Moussokoronin koundjé by the Bambara people. (endnote 1)6

6 Endnotes will be referenced with bold numbers in brackets e.g. (34).

Endnotes:

1. Creation Myth & Mythical Genealogy: This creation myth is common to almost all the ethnic groups in the West African savanna (among people formerly known as the Bafour), with variations according to ethnicity, region, or storyteller, depending on which aspect of the creation they wish to emphasise. Briefly, it is as follows:

English	Fulfulde	Bambara
Eternal God	Guéno	Mâ-n’gala
Moon	Lewrou	Kalo
Sun	Nâ’ngué	Tlé
Divine Worldly Time	Doumounna	Tourna
Egg	Botchio’ndé	Fan
Primordial Human	Neɗɗo	Mil
First Worldly Man	Kîkala	Mâfolo / Mâkoro
His wife	Nâgara	Moussofolo (Moussokoro)
“Each for himself”	Habana-koel	Habana-koel Bébiyéréyé
“Fork in the Road”	Tcheli	Sirafala
“Old Man”	Gorko-mawdo	Tché koroba
“Little Old Hag”	Dewel-Nayewel	Moussokoronin koundjé

The Fulɓe also possess a myth of creation that is specific to them, based on the symbolism of milk, butter and cattle. But when they were defeated by Soundiata Keïta (founder of the Mandé empire, or Mali) and deported from North to South, they became so ingrained in the Mandé cultural system that they adopted part of its cosmogony, apart from a few variations, to the point that it is no longer possible to distinguish between Fulɓe and Bambara cosmogonies. The key characters of the myth now belong to both cultures.

To better integrate into Mandé society, the Fulani also adopted four clan names (diamu in Bambara, yettore in Fulfulde) to conform to the quaternary system of the Mandé. The four Fulɓe clans are therefore borrowed. Originally, the Fulɓe had only tribal names: the Bâ, for example, are in fact Wouroubé. The further east one moves away from the cultural zone of the Mandé and the Niger Delta, the fewer Fulani will be found bearing a yettore; they will bear the name of their tribe.

The notion of “living emptiness” or “emptiness without beginning” which appears in the myth (and which evokes metaphysical concepts existing elsewhere, notably in the Far East) is very common in Fulɓe tradition. Guéno is not a created Being, lacking corporality or materiality of any kind (hence the idea of emptiness), but is at the same time the source and principle of all life. Tradition distinguishes between two kinds of life: Eternal principle of life, unique to Guéno alone, and contingent life of all created beings (even superior beings of the subtle worlds). Even the life emerging from the primordial Egg is contingent life. As such, it follows the law of cause and effect.

Note that in Bambara the word fan (egg) also means "forge". The blacksmith, considered as the First Son of the Earth, transforms matter to create objects. He is therefore the first imitator of original Creation. His workshop is the reflection of the great cosmic forge. All the objects are symbolic there and everything he does is according to ritual.

Tradition considers that there are several kinds of time: first, “Infinite Timeless Time”, Eternity without beginning or end, the abode of Guéno; second, “divine Time” (Doumounnâ) which incubated the primordial Egg; thirdly, “human worldly time” (hours, days, weeks, etc.) which comes out of the Egg. We have not given the succession of the elements that came out of the Egg so as not to over-burden the text.

As can be seen in the genealogy that descends from the primordial Man (Neɗɗo), at a certain point the unity is broken. Two paths appear: that of Good with the “Old Man”, and that of Evil, disorder and anarchy with the “Little Old Hag”. The struggle between good and evil is commonplace in the stories of African tradition, and for moral reasons good is always triumphant; in fact, the two principles are inseparable and considered so united that they constitute the front and back of the same bale of straw.

Since humanity is the sum of all influences and forces (as a synthesis of the first twenty beings and receptacle of the divine spark), good and evil are in him. It is human behaviour which will make one or the other appear. The initiation will consist, precisely, in regression within oneself back up each generation of this mythical genealogy in order to reintegrate the state of the Primordial Neɗɗo, interlocutor of Guéno and Manager of Creation, who remains latent in each of us.

Neɗɗo is the pure, ideal human. Perfect behaviour is called neɗɗakou, that is to say what makes a human in every sense of the word: nobility, courage, magnanimity, helpfulness, selflessness. It is worth clarifying that the concept of Neɗɗo engenders both man and woman, for it is said that Neɗɗo contains both the masculine (baaba: father) and feminine (inna: mother), respectively associated with Heaven and Earth. The state of neɗɗakou is the state of perfect humanity, both male and female. Initiation, which is often referred to in this work, can be understood in two ways which, in fact, complement each other: there is the initiation received from outside and the one that is accomplished within oneself.

External initiation is the “opening of the eyes”, that is to say all the teaching that is given during traditional ceremonies or the periods of retreat which follow them. But this teaching must then be lived, assimilated, and made to bear fruit by adding one’s personal observations, one’s understanding, and one’s experience. In fact, this initiation continues to be practiced throughout life. A Fulɓe adage says: “Initiation begins on entering the park and ends in the grave”.

Translation from Amadou Hampâté Bâ, Contes initiatiques peuls

Painting: The Ancient of Days (1794) by William Blake