Translated by Susan B. Hunt
Originally published in French as
Aspects de la civilisation africaine: personne, culture, religion
Paris: Présence africaine, 1972.
Traditional Relationships Between African Man and God
To treat "traditional relationships between African man and God," as has been proposed, by generalizing one particular form of religion to all of Africa, could lead one to commit profound errors. Indeed, there is no "African man" who represents a type applicable to the entire continent, from north to south and east to west. There are the African people of the north living in the Mediterranean basin or along the Atlantic coast. There are the people of the Sahara, and their neighbors, the people of the Savanna. Finally, there are the people of the forest. Just as there are many types of character, of behavior, of ethnicity, so there are many forms of traditional religion.
To remain within the bounds of truth and not risk hasty generalizations, one should treat the religion of any given ethnic group separately: Bambara, Dogon, Baoule, Mossi, etc.
I will therefore examine, within the framework of the present study, the traditions characteristic of the region I know best: Mali, the former French Sudan of the colonial period. This Savanna country is the home of the Bambara, Fulani, Dogon and Malinké traditions, some of which have, in the past, given birth to great empires. Their encounter, and sometimes their fusion, with Islam did not lead to the appearance of a new type of behavior vis-a-vis God. As we shall see later, rather than coming into conflict with what preceded it, Islam added something that originated elsewhere to what already existed in Africa, thereby extending it.
As we indicated at the beginning, traditional relationships between man and God in Africa, can take on many forms. Manifestations of the "sacred" and the rites they produce vary according to the gods. "The gods. . ." It is quite true that the majority of observable traditional religions are addressed to a multiplicity of gods of diverse rank and importance, sometimes very strange to an observer coming from the outside. Is there a place for "God" in this motley pantheon?
Supreme Being
The existence of a "Supreme Being", indefinable and living "in the heavens," is found among the majority of religious traditions in the region under consideration and in black Africa in general.
Transcendence and Immanence
He who is God -- "Maa Ngala" (Lord of All) or "Masa Dembali" (Uncreated and Infinite Lord) to the Bambara, or "Guéno" (the Eternal) and "Dundari" to the Fulani -- is regarded as the Supreme Being, the one creator of all that exists, beyond any contingency, beyond the grasp of human intelligence, and at the same time transcendent as to his being and immanent as to his manifestation. He is apart from everything and out of reach of any assault, and at the same time present everywhere. "Everywhere there is sky, there is 'Maa Ngala'," says the Bambara proverb.
Although this ambivalence may run counter to a logical spirit for whom opposites are forever separate and can never meet, I hasten to affirm that no ambivalence discomfits the African spirit, still less when it concerns "Sebaa Mansa Kolibali", the "Powerful Omnipotent King" (an expression, among so many others, that serves to designate God in the Bambara language), or the distant and near Kaïdara of the Fulani.
Tradition teaches that the distance which separates God from the man who is able to call upon him is no greater than that which separates the fingernail from the flesh of the finger which it covers, whereas the man who never sacrifices to God and never prays to Him finds himself separated from Him by a distance equal to the depth of the skies.
Intermediary Agents
In the majority of cases, however, the Supreme Being is considered too far away from men for them to worship him directly. They prefer to address themselves to intermediary agents. Yes indeed, the "God of heaven", sometimes picturesquely called "the skeleton of space" or "bone of the sky" (ngalakolo) is located at a distance so far out in space that the voice of "Maanin" -- little man, son of Adam -- cannot reach him directly. One needs suitable vehicles to convey to him the complaints and praises of men.
Thus in the Malian African tradition, the relationship between man and God was not established directly as it was for the Prophets favored by Revelation in the monotheistic religions.
Between the Sacred Supreme, inaccessible in a direct way, and man, stretches a Sacred medianwhich takes its source and support in the Supreme Sacred, and flows out as auspicious or harmful forces over the universe, mediated by certain agents. It is to these forces, which govern the happiness and misfortune of men, and not to the Supreme Being -- even though he remains the only creator of all things -- that they address ritual words, more incantations than prayers, and propitiatory offerings intended to appease them when they fly into a rage.
This manifestation of the sacred through the mediation of an agent other than himself, to whom powers have been delegated to some extent by the Supreme Being, is the remote origin of the various secret traditional religious brotherhoods presided over by the gods.
It is in this sense that the Malian animistic traditions understand the gods Ntomo, Nama, Komo, Nya, Nyawrole, Jarawera, etc. There are many sacred, or consecrated, agents who each administer a portion of the supreme Power. Their incarnation (in a being or supporting object) takes place according to methods which constitute the basis of the secret of the fraternity.
The agents of the Supreme Being are divided into two large complementary groups. One is public and ordinary; the other is secret and occult. In this there is an echo of the "exoteric" and "esoteric" dimensions of the revealed religions.
Nevertheless, some Malian animists attribute more freedom to the Supreme Being himself, who they call "Maa Ngala", and who can be incarnated in animal, vegetal, or mineral form, or in natural or supernatural phenomena. It is he who spurs on the winds, and raises the waves on the water. It is he who charges the thunder. It is he who sends the lightning to punish or frighten humans or animals who offend him.
This Supreme Being is terrible, but nevertheless compassionate. He deigns to be beseeched. It is he who inspired the sacramental words. They can touch him and make him yield. But on the other hand there are sacrilegious words that can trigger his wrath and draw down his punishment on those who utter them. The entire secret of the rite is there in "the Word". It is the word which constitutes the basis and the active agentof the rite, or "magic".
The act of always placing an intermediary between the Supreme Being and the one who solicits him finds its echo even in everyday life. Indeed, the Africans of the region we are examining always turn to an intermediary to express their wishes or desires to someone else. Many colonials who lived in A.O.F. observed that the cook would always go through the house boy to ask something of the owner, and vice versa. . . It is this situation which gave "the interpreter", the official mediator between the administered and their administrator, an important place in the colonial administration.
In Bambara, the interpreter is called "answering mouth." Every king has one; every god has one. (1)
The Ancestors
Among the intermediaries between the divine and man, the four fundamental elements of nature -- fire, air, earth and water -- play a dominant role. But the nearest and most efficacious of the intermediaries is still the ancestor -- the ancestor who founded the village, or the ancestor of the tribe -- because a secret tie of blood connects him to his progeny through the men, while a bond of umbilical cord and milk ties him to his lineage through the women.
The ancestor -- whose tomb must be located in the village or within the walls of the family compound, or not far from it -- is closer to his descendants than the Supreme Being who inhabits the Empyrean and whose voice, made of thunder and tempests, is dreaded. One can talk to the ancestor in the language the ancestor used and bequeathed to his lineage. One knows what kind of libations he appreciates and how to pour them so that they reach him. Being disincarnate, the ancestor is in a condition to be able to speak to the Supreme Being.
For any Bambara, Bobo, Minianka, Samu, etc. animist, to address himself to the spirits of the ancestors is preferable and more effective than to address the Supreme Being himself. Indeed, between the latter and himself stretch out obstacles such as planes, mountains and banks of clouds. The human voice risks being carried off and dispersed by the winds that populate the space where the Supreme Being resides.
One always serves a drink to the spirit of the ancestor before posing him a question or asking him for a service. This not just a religious custom. It is good manners in everyday life as well. If you enter a house where tradition is in force, you are immediately served water to drink, whether you are thirsty or not. Custom requires you to take a sip. It is a ritual. One does not address a word to a visitor until he has moistened his lips. "First serve a drink," says the law of 'Dialan' (the great animist God of the Ferlo-Sénégal), "because a thirsty man is a man without his spirits." He who refuses water refuses life. He refuses the dialogue which establishes relationships.
The elders, by dying, become "guardian spirits" provided that their descendants or their country have given their remains the traditional funerary honors due to the dead: ceremonies on the 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 40th day after their death.
Death makes it possible for the soul to recover its astral fluidity, having been stripped of the carnal weight that keeps it attached to the earth. It is this weight, this heaviness, that remains in the corpse and makes it impure. Once disembodied, the soul finds an appropriate base from which it can respond to any appeal to ward off dangers that menace an individual or the collectively of his line.
The Presence of the Sacred in All Things: Animism
The black African is a born believer. He did not have to wait for the revealed books to become convinced of the existence of a Force: the Powerful Source of existence and the motive force behind the actions and movements of beings. Only for him this Force is not separate from creatures. It is in every being. It gives it life, looks after its development and, eventually, its reproduction.
Surrounded by a universe of tangible and visible things -- human beings, animals, plants, the stars, etc. -- the black man, from time immemorial, perceived that in the deepest part of these beings and these things resided something powerful that he could not describe, and that animated them.
This perception of a sacred force within all things was the source of numerous beliefs, of various practices, several of which have come down to us, admittedly somewhat stripped, it is true, over time, of their original profound significance. The ensemble of these beliefs received the name 'animism' from the Western ethnologists because the black man indeed attributes a soul to everything, a soul-force that he seeks to appease by magic practices and sometimes by sacrifices.
Analogical Relationship Between the Sacred Supreme and Its Manifestations
In the spirit of the Bambara, Bozo, etc., the notion of the Sacred is essentially "ambiguous". One uses almost the same terms to designate the Sacred himself as his manifestations.
The words "nyama" or "do" designate the Sacred himself, but also all that which by "resemblance" to a divine quality or qualification becomes the receptacleor the privileged place of manifestationof this divine quality.
Therefore, advanced agegives "nyama" to a man or a woman. Indeed, the transcendent god, being at the origin of time, is very old par excellence. Therefore, he has chosen to abide in the body of every old being, and age becomes a sacred privilege. Among Bambaras, the oldest member of the tribe is the agent of the sacred powers, and he alone should officiate. Among other objects, he has as his insignia a ritual baton, a headpiece with the mouth of a caïman (2), a blessed turban, a ritual knife, a consecrated bowl, special sandals, etc.
"Koro-ta" -- fact of "being raised" or "being high" (a mountain, tree, or royal position) -- is also a sign of the presence of "Sé", the sacred force, and by extension, of the presence of divinity. "Ngala a Kii Korota!" ("May God raise you high!") is a propitiatory form of prayer used by Bambara animists as well as by those who have converted to one of the two great revealed religions, Christianity and Islam, which are more current in Black Africa than Judaism.
It is prohibited, in the name of the divinity, to touch anything that has been designated "nyama." He who violates this prohibition does so at his own peril, since he is liable to receive a punishment in proportion to the gravity of his offense.
This active force, which is hidden in the being or the object in which it dwells, is a manifestation which emanates from the Most High Holy. This is what will have an effect on anyone who imprudently comes in contact with it outside the established ritual conditions.
Good morals, respect, charity, giving aid to one's fellow men and even to animals, are considered suitable means of neutralizing "nyama" and preventing it from manifesting itself as punishment.
The Source of Power is also thought to inhabit certain minerals insofar as they are immutableover time and therefore participate in his immutability. This is why one finds that certain rocks or certain caverns are objects of special veneration.
If the sacred force -- "Sé", or "nyama", or "do" -- resides in creatures that exhibit an analogical correspondence with a quality of the Sacred-Most-High, as such he can also be "invoked" in such and such an object, or place, after it has been consecrated by man: for example, sacred places, "loaded" statuettes, ritual masks, or tools used by the "master of the knife" (the sacrificer of the gods). As for the latter, his ritual tools are not simple objects but symbols which, as such, are at the same timereceptacles of the infinite power of Mansa-Sé-Ba (Powerful King), the invisible and omnipresent Creator King of the universe.
Anyone other than the master of the knife who dares handle the ritual tools commits a forbidden act and exposes himself to receiving a punitive discharge of supernatural power (bizarre maladies, loss of property, and sometimes violent death. . .). Only the master of the knife knows the secret words to pronounce before touching the ritual objects which, energized by touch, put the one who handles them in contact with powerful supernatural forces.
This notion of an invisible and powerful presence, residing in places and various beings, is linked to the existence of "spirits" or "genies" (jinn). Although very powerful, the jinn obey men when they are invoked according to special formulas inherited from the ancestors, who concluded very precise pacts with them consisting of prohibitions and obligations, pacts which have been vouchsafed to their descendants.
The Ritual Regulation of Life
Plunged into a universe populated by forces which dwell in and animate all things, the Malian animist was motivated to be careful about his gestures and his words, and to respect the laws regarding prohibitions and obligations which govern his relations with the surrounding forces. He will not cut down a tree without first having asked the forces that live in it to leave that site. He will not satisfy his natural needs before excusing himself to the invisible inhabitants of the place, asking them to move away from the spot which he will soil.
His whole life will proceed according to a set of rules transmitted by the ancestors, and dictated once upon a time to one of them by a god. Religious life, craftsmanship, marriage, family, eating -- everything is governed by precise rules. Nothing is left to chance.
Therefore a husband will not solicit his wife solely with a view to obeying his instincts. He will do so in view of a precise objective mandated by tradition. Customs can vary in form from one ethnic group to another, but the fact remains that behavior is more ritual than sexual in this domain, the sexual act often being performed to please the tutelary gods of the clan. This explains why the majority of animist marriages do not come about solely in the name of love. Physical beauty, natural attraction and age are not unquestionable criteria in the matter. The wife is the object of certain temporary prohibitions: during menstrual periods, for a certain time after being widowed by a previous husband, and during the entire period she is nursing a baby.
One who takes his meal in the bush starts off by throwing a few morsels to the four cardinal points before putting anything in his mouth. All this is ritual good mannerswhich it is necessary to practice. One respects the environment of the meal, which is regarded as the place where the divine power descends which gives food its nutritive virtue. The center of each thing is like its heart, which belongs to the gods.
No Secular/Profane Life
As one can see, there remains very little space, if any at all, for a "secular life" in the modern sense of the word. There is not the sacred on one hand and the secular on the other. Everything is connected, everything puts into play the forces of life which are the multiple aspects of "Sé", the paramount sacred force, itself an aspect of God.
The Sacred Character of the Traditional Professions
Among traditional human activities, rare indeed were those that did not have a sacred aspect.
Indeed, the professions were not regarded as mere utilitarian domestic or economic occupations, but as holy work performed by initiates with a view to pleasing God, Maa Ngala.
The thirty-three parts of the weaving loomwere not hewn at random, but according to a sacred formula. It was necessary to be reconciled to the Force-Source to be allowed to transform his initial and divine workinto human work -- the tools. The use of each tool is also preceded by an incantory prayer.
The "language" of the weaving loom is a great lesson in philosophy. Everything speaks: the shuttle, the treadles, the thread of the weft, the reed, the roller, the warp beam, the heddle, etc. Each element represents one of the aspects of the play of cosmic life: creative word, dualism, the law of cycles, past, present, future, the rolling up of time, etc. While manipulating each part, the weaver chants or recites a precise litany because he knows that he touches one of the mysteries of life, in any case its symbol, which for him amounts to the same thing. (1)
The same applies for every traditional activity: blacksmith(he will be discussed later), leather worker, potter(pottery is traditionally reserved to women, by reason of the feminine symbolism of all that is hollow and, therefore, a receptacle).
The farmerwould never allow himself to imprudently open the entrails of the earth without reciting, in preparation, the appropriate and consecrated words. He never plants his seed before blessing it and commending it to the Force Source, who keeps watch everywhere and over all things simultaneously, so that the order of things is not disrupted and cucumbers do not sprout on the branches of the baobab tree.
The shepherddoes not release his flock into the bush with having beseeched him (the Force Source) "to open his good mouth and close his bad mouth."
The Ancestor Who Initiated a Knowledge Received from "On High"
The majority of the rites which the animists perform are regarded as the repetition of a primordial actinspired by "Masa Dembali" (Uncreated and Infinite Lord), and transmitted by a chain of ancestor-initiates.
It would be very difficult to reconstitute in its entirety the primitive religious thought of the black man, but one can affirm that it is always an old person, or the ancestor of each clan or tribe, who first entered into a relationship with the "forces" of nature, agents of God, generally through the intervention a fabulous being (a spirit, an animal, or an atmospheric or astronomical phenomenon), and who received a certain knowledge from this being which he transmitted to his descendants.
Thus the ancestor of the Samaké was put in contact with the invisible by a solitary old elephant, and the ancestor of the Diarra clan was initiated by a toothless old lion without any claws.
In Malian traditions, at the moment when this "meeting" takes place, one always finds the three elements of a triad:
For old traditional societies, the source of any real knowledge, no matter what kind, always comes from"on high". "We cannot do anything that does not come to us from Masa-Dembali and at the time chosen by him." Therefore, do not say that man "invents" something, but that he "discovers" or "rediscovers" it. The thing preexisted man, who only unveils it or brings it to light at the time chosen by Masa-Dembali.
The ancestors of the farmers, of the "two hunters" (the hunter and the fisher), and of the "three herders" (the herders of cows, herders of goats, and herders of sheep), were put into contact sometime in the past with forces hidden in the bowels of the earth, in the trees, and in the water. It is thanks to the transmission of this knowledge through initiation that one can carry on these traditional activities.
The Blacksmiths
It was the ancestor of the blacksmiths, Nunfari, who first established a relationship with the spirits of three fires: the fire of green wood, the fire in the bowels of the earth, and the fire of heaven. He learned from them how to extract iron and transform it into tools. The Fulani, who are his sacred allies, called him "baylo" of the infinite "waylude", which means transformer. The smith became a demi-god, a creator capable of entering into relationship with the invisible.
Contrary to anything that has been written or commonly accepted as true, the smith is not despised. He is feared. He is reserved for the gods. He is sometimes given the title "First Son of the World." Traditionally he is the only one entitled to manage, without getting into trouble, the eternal conflict between the herdsman and the farmer.
As with the weaving loom, every element of the forge is a sacred symbol for one of the aspects of the creative Force. The bellows which are introduced into the hearth represent the masculine principal transmitting life in the form of breath. The hearth brought to life by this breath is the feminine principle here. The anvil, in the past traditionally round or oval in shape, represents the womb, while its mass symbolizes the male organ.
In Africa, the forge was one of the oldest sanctuaries, a place where man worshipped God through the forge's fire. In Bambara, this hearth is named "fan", which means "egg" and by extension the "egg of the world."
In Mali to this day, the smith remains the "Komo-tigui", Master of the god Komo. He takes precedence over everyone. His tools and his person are sacred, and even untouchable.
The forge, like every other artisanal atelier, is a "divine abode". In the past, the construction of these workshop-sanctuaries fell to all the inhabitants of the village. They were the places of worship of such and such forces of Life, before the profound upheavals borne of the shock of colonization and of modern civilization came to "desacralized" them and turn them into everyday workplaces.
Sexual Symbolism
The sexual symbolism which we already mentioned in connection with the forge is in fact thought to be inherent in all things. Indeed, without making them into living beings like Adam and Eve, the animist traditions of the Sudan recognize the creation by the Supreme Being of two fundamental principles, "tyeeya" (masculinity) and "museya" (femininity) with which all beings are endowed. In West Africa, the principle of sexuality is applied to beings and things belonging to all three kingdoms: mineral, vegetable and animal.
Thus the sky is male because it covers the earth, the function which constitutes its masculinity, whereas the earth is receptive, therefore feminine and maternal. Among the Fulani, "to cover" still means "to marry", even today.
Depending on its shape, an object will be regarded as masculine or feminine. Everything that is hollow will be a symbol of femininity, while the projecting part of an object is comparable to masculinity.
Here again it is necessary to insist on the fact that, for the African, the symbol is not abstract or mental, but concrete in the sense that it is on earth like an echo or a concrete projection of one of the aspects of the paramount Force. Things below are the reflection of principles on high, but inhabited reflections, receptacles or sites of a Presence.
The Sky and the Earth, the Father and Mother
The remote and transcendent sacredness of the sky, the masculine principle and creator, was not established on the basis of love, but on that of power. Thunder, the tornado, the "anger of the heavens", are manifestations of the existence and the power of Masa-Dembali, the Supreme Being. On Earth, it is in the father that this force, this power, is incarnated.
Meanwhile, the nearby and imminent sacredness of God, the power of love and mercy, is not to be sought "in the sky" but in its manifestation here where it is at work, in the heart and the tenderness of the mother, in the bosom of the Earth, the nourishing Mother.
It is not just milk that the infant drinks at his mother's breast, but divine Mercy itself, and love. This is why the child weaned too soon (3) is considered to have been deprived of the nourishment of Mercy which should saturate the beginning of his life to assure that it unfold harmoniously.
The maternal womb (in analogical correspondence to the forge of the smith) is considered to be the atelier where the Supreme Being makes life germinate and grow. It is therefore the privileged site of transcendence, the divine workplace. This is why tradition assigns the woman-motherthe rank of demigod, whereas the woman-wife is but a partner in physical pleasure. A mother's curse, like her blessing, ascends directly to heaven and never falls back again. Thus a proverb states: "All that one has one owes only once to one's father, but twice to one's mother." The father is merely a "sower", occasionally inattentive, if not to say frivolous. In a pinch one can ignore an insult addressed to one's father, but no one will ever overlook an insult to his mother.
The Earth Mother
The Earth -- feminine and maternal power, as we have seen -- is the receptacle of all the power that comes from the skythrough the mediation of "ji" (water), of "yeelen" (light), and even of "dibi" (darkness).
Considered as the Mother of beings, the sky becomes her husband, the moon her star, the sun her pole. She is the lap, the back (4), and the maternal bosom of beings. When our feet leave the Earth, we no longer feel at peace.
The spirit or god "Lennaya" resides in her. "Lennaya" is the confidence which brings peace, the confidence of the child resting in the bosom of its mother.
The cult of the Earth is the very foundation of the animist religion. He who does not have his feet on the ground could not be "gonngon-duuru", i.e., "he who acts", or literally, he who "raises dust." One who does nothing stirs up no dust. The proverb, "Nii yaa me gonngon-duuru i ntron fla de be dugu man" ("If you hear 'gonngon-duuru', it is because your two heels are touching the earth") implies that to be, to realize oneself, one must exist on Earth. This coming to Earth is of primary importance, and one prepares with great care for the moment a child is born.
The Earth is called "dugu kolo". "Dugu" means city, and by extension habitat, and "kolo" means bone, and by extension skeleton or support. Thus the Earth is the support of the city. Without her, neither the abode of man nor the den of the beast would have a place to sit.
No singer would ever invoke any god whatsoever without rendering homage to the Earth. In her womb, or on her, or over her, are constructed all the realms of the cosmos.
Agriculture and herding are the two great professions of animists. These two occupations are land-based, and those who practice them are more inclined to animism than others.
The Earth, mother of beings, the matter from which we are made and into which we inevitably return, does not belongto anyone. Even the king, where there was one, could not be "master of the Earth". The Earth could neither be transferred to a private owner nor mortgaged.
One sacrifices to the Earth because the fruitfulness of the entire universe depends on her. Therefore each village had its own sacrificer, called "administrator of the Earth."
The farmer neither sows nor plants before asking the Earth, first of all, to accept everything he entrusts to her, and second, to watch over the transformation of the seed. He asks forgiveness before breaking ground with his hoe, so that the Earth will undergo this injury without anger.
Working the fields is considered a process of procreation. This is why, in some places, it is the men who break ground, while only women are authorized to bury seed in the bosom of the earth as in a womb by reason of their analogical relationship with her.
Indeed, the important secrets of life are hidden in the entrails of the Earth and in its natural hollows. According to myth, life began in a cave. It developed in a well and emerged by coming out through a crack.
The mother and the Earth -- manifestations of the same mystery, that of germination, of fruitfulness, and life -- are of fundamental importance in the animist tradition. Although the father is regarded as a cosmic agent of contact, on the plane of the sacred he yields precedence to the mother. He recognizes the child after having helped to procreate it, but it is the mother who perfects the being of the child. One cannot exist without a mother, while one can surely be of an unknown father.
The Earth is considered a living being. She grows, declines, and dies.
The Sun and the Moon
The sun, the moon, the stars, and all the great atmospheric phenomena are considered to be agents of celestial power. Each personifies one of the many powers of the Supreme Being.
The daystar is the emblem of this supreme power, located too high for earthly beings to have access to it despite the fact that their existence depends on this power.
The Bambara call this power "Sé", occasionally "Sé ba", and some add a third term, "massa" to form a triad, "Sé-ba-massa". Here the middle word, "ba", is a relative pronoun that means "unspeakable power" and also evokes grandeur. It is preceded by "Sé", power, and followed by "massa", king. "Sé-ba-massa" therefore means "king endowed with power."
The power of this celestial king, whose place of residence cannot be determined exactly, is represented mythically by the sun. Visible king of the sky, he pours over the earth his semen, the rain, and his breath, the heat, which can kill or vivify depending on its intensity.
The sun is not always visible to human eyes. Night, certain eclipses, and clouds can hide its presence. Its appearance depends on the will of "Sé-ba-massa". The sun symbolizes kingship in that traditional kings do not always appear, and their departures are regulated. But its shape does not change.
The same cannot be said of the moon, which is sometimes considered his spouse. Like her royal husband, she has moments of absence. But her shape changes, and all the secrets of maternity and the stages of life reside in her. First she appears thin and hollow, then she swells and becomes entirely round. Finally she wanes and slips away. This is the image itself of the cycles of life -- conception, growth and death -- and of the eternal renewal of things: she reappears after having disappeared for three inauspicious days.
The crescent moon announces a change. One sings in her honor:
The moon, which has a role more magical than that of the sun, occupies an important place in the life of the animist. It is regarded as the agent of a divinity governing femininity, sexuality, human procreation and vegetal fruitfulness. The "hidden being" of a woman resides in the moon during her menstrual periods. To indicate that she is having her period, a woman says: "I have entered into the moon. . ." Among the Dogon, this period is marked by the actual retirement of the woman into a house forbidden to men called "pna-pna". She remains there for her entire period, during which time her womb is thought to be occupied by the god of procreation, "Soro".
Land of the dead, the moon is also the mistress of water, which obeys her law, notably in the phenomenon of tides. When thunder heralds rain, one entreats the moon not to "suck the rain" and not to render the earth sterile. She governs the plants. She guides the emigration of beings on land and in water. One entreats her not to disrupt the weather.
But she is above all the great magic queen of Time. She is considered the "abacus" of Eternity. This is why she functions as a calendar for devotional activities. The days of the lunar month are determined with care and serve to mark the dates of the principle religious observances of the year.
She was endowed with twenty-eight residences and passes one day and one night in each of them. Her spouse pays her a visit each night. The four mother-elements -- fire, earth, air and water -- each govern seven of these houses. It is by means of the dwellings of the moon that the correspondences of all things were established by the initiates. These are what connect all beings to one another.
The cantors of the gods and the masters of the ritual knife know the secrets of the dwellings and what should be asked of the moon depending on whether she is found with her spouse or not. This amounts to saying that there is an incantation-key for each abode, and therefore for each day.
But make no mistake. Neither the sun nor the moon are worshipped for themselves. They are symbols that incarnate a transcendent power, signs of the operation of this power, but not this power itself.
As for the milky way, it is the great illuminated highway which Masa Dembali followed when he had to visit his creation. The ancestors of humans have their dwellings there.
Ethics Linked to a Sense of the Unity of All Things.
It cannot be denied that primitive animism has a core of teaching which applies to every individual in society to encourage him to do good and avoid evil. This teaching is based on the inner conviction that "everything is connected" in the universe. Nothing is isolated. Any violation of the sacred laws provokes an invisible perturbation in the equilibrium of the cosmos, expressed on our earth as great upheavals. This is why each violent manifestation of nature -- a volcanic eruption, an earthquake, a flood, etc. -- is considered a consequence of offenses committed against morality or tradition. In Mali, the animists are unaware of the notion of "the Flood", but they know the massive destruction wrought by the Supreme Being to punish the failings of men.
If the individual can commit faults whose consequences will have repercussions for him or for those around him, the community itself, considered as a person, is also responsible for its acts: its good deeds will prevent epidemics, wars, draughts, the playing out of mines and drying up of wells, etc. A Bambara proverb compares the universe to a large pond:
"Be careful what you throw into the 'pool of life' because of the ripples that inevitably result! If you throw a small stone, the waves will not go far; but if you throw a big chunk of wood, the waves will not stop until they have filled the entire pond and reached the shore. Not only are they likely to cause damage there, but they will turn back again toward their point of departure and their encounter with the waves going in the opposite direction can produce a shock with disastrous and unpredictable consequences."
Everywhere tradition is respected, the community takes precedence over the individual. First the family, then the tribe or village, are the units whose interests or destiny precedes or encompasses those of the individuals who comprise them. One must keep this in mind to understand certain actions of old societies, so shocking to our current ethics and sensibilities. When sacrifices were deemed necessary for the safety of the community, most of the time volunteers sought to make them because doing so would gave them a claim to fame.
This deep sense of unity also explains the family solidarity which continues, even in our day, to characterize African society, but unfortunately it is beginning to crumble under the growing influence of modern individualism and "every man for himself" in the race to wealth and power.
Encounter with Islam
The animist religions equipped Mali, as well as all the other African countries south of the Sahara, with the concept of the Sacred and of a mysterious creative force in the universe. The revealed religions, and in particular Christianity and Islam, found there a fertile ground for their propagation.
I will not speak here of the encounter with Christianity, not having the authority, as a Moslem, to deal with this topic, and express a wish that this interesting question be treated by a qualified Christian personality.
The empire of Islam in Africa was established -- I will not say on the ruins of animism because it still survives despite the blows inflicted on it by the Western religions and by the technological and philosophical civilization introduced by Western colonialism -- but on its foundations.
The great principles of animism (the sacred and nonsecular character of everyday life, the sense of belonging to a whole with which one is interconnected -- the human community or the universe -- the existence of a transcendent Supreme Being and the immanent presence of his power in all things and in all places . . .) find their continuation in Islam, although simplified and purified.
The great fear of mysterious forces lurking everywhere was one of the foundations of animism. These forces were not repudiated, but restored to their proper place: they became subordinate to a Force more powerful and more sublime, that of the One God (Allah), as defined by Sûrah II, verse 255. (5)
The Sacred, thus defined, saw his various aspects organized into a hierarchy and oriented towards a pole: God-the-Creator-of-All became the Cause-Source of all the powers.
All that hitherto was but a collection of powers and diffuse forces became the ensemble of "attributes" of God at work in the world.
Consequently, the divine mystery ceased to be the prerogative of sometimes anonymous forces and became the prerogative of the one God "beside whom there is no other God," immense and inaccessible as to his Essence like the animist's Supreme Being, but at the same time "nearer to man than his jugular vein . . . " (Qu'ran 50:16) and enveloping him in his gaze: "The gazes of men do not reach Him. He it is who reaches the gazes. . ." (Qu'ran) (6)
This supreme God will become, with Islam, no longer the object of a superstitious fear, but of a "reverential fear" having as its source a profound love. This love, in Islam, is stronger than that which a child feels for its parents. It is the intimately lived sensation of the sacred bond that links the creature with his Creator, the fear of displeasing Him going hand in hand with an unshakable faith in his "All-embracing Mercy."
The human soul, emanating from a divine place where, at the beginning of time, she made a "Pact" with God, is to make a transitory visit here below where she must linger for a time before returning to her eternal origin. But she is forgetful. Consequently, the rituals were taught to her on behalf of God by this Great Messengers, the Prophets, to allow her to remain in contact with her principal Source, located in the Power of God.
The essential rite of the Moslem is the celebration, five times a day at the designated times in the solar cycle, of the ritual prayer. This sacred office, in which each believer, male or female, is like his own priest on his consecrated rug, requires the participation of the spirit, the heart, and the body. It is composed of a collection of gestures accompanied by sacramental words, and must be preceded by a purification with pure water, as well as a firm intention.
Once this physical and spiritual purification is completed, the heart of the believer is in a state to enter into relation with the divine Power, for whom he becomes a center of attraction on his prayer rug, oriented toward the cubical temple of the Ka'aba in Mecca, considered as Center of the world.
Prepared by his ancestral tradition to detect everywhere around him a living Presence hidden behind the appearance of things, perhaps the Black African Moslem, while ritually orienting his body toward the symbol of the Center which is the Ka'aba, is especially able to realize the mystery contained in this verse from the Qu'ran (7):