11 - Conclusion

Summary

Malik Sy, as portrayed by the Bundunke traditions, is not presented as a scholar, but rather as a fashioner of amulets, a practitioner of the bāṭin sciences. Consequently, while not necessarily erudite, he nevertheless performed the services of a cleric, and was considered to be a member of the Torodbe. In view of this, the critical issue for the establishment of Bundu in the late seventeenth century was the transformation of Malik Sy from an advisor to the court to actually constituting the court. That is, the real question facing Malik Sy was whether or not his leadership could be extended from the domain of spirituality to that of political governance. That the answer to this question was affirmative, notwithstanding Bundu's inauspicious beginnings, is all the more remarkable in light of the available paradigms. To be quite specific, there were no existing examples of successful, clerically led polities anywhere in West Africa. The tubenan experience had been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster; stability had been re-introduced into the region via traditional forms of government. The followers of Nasir al-Din had failed to sustain his reform movement, thus casting considerable doubt upon any such subsequent attempts within Senegambia.