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Islam in the Oral Traditions of Mali: Bilali and Surakata1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

David C. Conrad
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Extract

As a study of some Islamic factors involved in the construction of oral narrative by Manding bards, this article is chiefly concerned with two distinct cases in which griots have borrowed important legendary figures from the literature of Arabia. It is found that Bilali, described by traditional genealogists as progenitor of the ancient ruling branch of the Keita lineage, originated as Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ, a companion of Muhammad and the first mu'adhdhin. Genealogies or descent lists of early Malian rulers still contain names that have apparently survived from pre-Islamic times, but in most instances these early forebears of chiefly rank have been moved forward into the Islamic era and displaced as founding ancestors by figures like Bilali, who originated in Muslim Arab literature. Similarly, at the lower levels of the social hierarchy, major artisan classes like the blacksmiths and leatherworkers have adopted their own collective ancestors from Islamic tradition.

In the case of Surakata, collective ancestor of Bambara and Mandinka griots, it is recalled that he began as Surāqa ibn Mālik, in Arab tradition an enemy of Muhammad who became an early convert to Islam, a conversion that seems to have had a special resonance in a West African setting where many people have made the same shift. Pre-Islamic themes in Manding oral tradition have in many cases been obliterated by the bards' preoccupation with Islamic subjects, particularly events from the life and times of the Prophet. However, despite the pervasiveness of Islamic themes, the blood motif found in some accounts of griot ancestry indicates that at least the essence of certain elements of pre-Islamic West African culture survives in Manding oral tradition.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , January 1985 , pp. 33 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

2 Fanyama Diabate, Bamako, Mali, 18 October 1975, in Conrad, David C., ‘The Role of Oral Artists in the History of Mali’, (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1981), II, 806.Google Scholar All texts cited below that originated with my informants in Mali are available in the same source, references to which will hereafter be limited to the informant's name, location and date of recording.

3 The predominant groups described by the ethno-linguistic term ‘Manding’ are the Mandinka (Maninka, Malinke), Bambara (Bamana) and the Jule (Dyula); the Soninke (Maraka), with whom we are also concerned, occupy neighbouring territories and are culturally, linguistically and historically related to the Manding.

4 For some lengthy versions that have been translated into a form closely adhering to the original oral narrative style see Innes, Gordon, Sunjata: Three Mandinka Versions (London, 1974)Google Scholar; for a popularized rendering see Niane, D. T., Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (London, 1965).Google Scholar

5 Levtzion, N. and Hopkins, J. F. P. (ed. and trans.), Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History (Cambridge, 1981), 317, 333Google Scholar; Cuoq, J.M. (ed. and trans.), Recueil des sources arabes concernant l'Afrique occidentale du VIIIe au XVIe siècle (Bilād al-Sūdān) (Paris, 1975), 344.Google Scholar In the Arabic text Sunjata is referred to as ‘Mārī Jāta’, one of several names by which he is known to the Manding.

6 See, for example, Levtzion, Nehemia, Ancient Ghana and Mali (London, 1973), 58–60.Google Scholar

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8 Although these are sometimes referred to as ‘genealogies’, it is more accurate to call them ‘descent lists’ because they usually contain names from other lineages, including those of Muslim clerics and distinguished members of other noble families.

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20 Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Leiden and London, 1954, in progress), s.v. Bilāl.Google Scholar

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22 Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 236.

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24 According to Monteil, Charles, ‘Les empires du Mali’, Bull. C.E.H.S.A.O.F., XII (1929), 315–316,Google Scholar at one time a distinction was made between mansarin (masare), members of lineages of former rulers called mansaw, and boulaw (bulaw), whose ancestors had at some point been slaves. This is why an alternative name for the Keitas is ‘Massare’. See Humblot, P., ‘Du nom propre et des appellations chez les Malinké des vallées du Niandan et du Milo (Guinée française)’. Bull. C.E.H.S.A.O.F., I (1918), 528.Google Scholar

25 An instance of public acknowledgement of Bilāl's former servitude demonstrates how one tradition can sprout from another. One Muslim informant described a custom whereby if a sharīf (one who claims descent from the Prophet's lineage) in quest of alms encountered a descendant of Sunjata's lineage, instead of asking for a gift the sharīf would offer one, saying ‘Je suis le maître et je favorise d'un don mon captif’; see Robert Arnaud, ‘L'Islam et la politique musulmane française en Afrique occidentale française, suivi de la singulière légende des Soninké’, tirage à part du Bulletin du comité de l'Afrique française (Paris, 1911), p. 168. This informant identified Sunjata as a Konate, which is said actually to have been his original family name (see Innes, Sunjata, p. 105, note on line 149).

26 Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 515.

27 Ibid., 517.

28 Ibid., xv. Badr or Badr Ḥunayn (March 624) was the first great battle of Muhammad's career (Enc. of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. Badr).

29 Norris, H. T., Saharan Myth and Saga (London, 1972), 52–53.Google Scholar

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31 Niane, , Sundiata, 68.Google Scholar One version collected by Innes refers to Sumanguru's town as ‘fortified’ or ‘walled’ (Sunjata, p. 73, line 702 and note on line 702, p. 124), and another version mentions ‘four wondrous gates’ (Sunjata, p. 233, line 1987).

32 Humblot, , ‘Du nom propre’, 540.Google Scholar

33 Jeli Manga Sissoko, Kolokani, 13 August 1975, 805; Zemp, Hugo, ‘La légende des griots malinké”, Cahiers d'études africaines, VI, xxiv (1965), 623.Google Scholar

34 Zemp, , ‘La légende’, 623.Google ScholarElsewhere, , ‘Sorakhata Bunjafara’ delivers a message from the Prophet to Sunjata's father, requesting soldiers for the battle of ‘Haibara’ (Innes, Sunjata, p. 149Google Scholar, lines 93–94).

35 Zemp, , ‘La légende’, 620, 627–628.Google Scholar

36 The Bambara pronunciation is regional: in Bamako the word for ‘blood’ is pronounced jeli, but in Segou it is jóli.

37 Arcin, André, La Guinée française (Paris, 1907), 265Google Scholar; Zemp, , ‘La légende’, 630.Google Scholar

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39 This cannibalism motif is a primary feature of the ubiquitous Western Sudanic legend of two brothers who are lost and starving in the wilderness. The elder brother secretly carves a piece of flesh from his own leg and gives it to the youth who eats it, thinking it is from a forest animal. See Diagne, A. M. and Télémaque, H. S., ‘Origine des griots’, Bulletin de l'enseignement de l'Afrique occidental française, Gorée (1916), 277Google Scholar; Bathily, I., ‘Les Diawandos ou Diogorames: traditions orales recueillies à Djenne, Corientze, Ségou et Nioro’, Éducation africaine, XXV (1936), 192–193Google Scholar; Colin, R., Les contes noirs de l'ouest africain (Paris, 1957), 65Google Scholar; Sidibé, M., ‘Les gens de caste ou nyamakala au Soudan française’, Notes africaines, LXXXI (1959), 14–15.Google Scholar

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41 Zemp, , ‘La légende’, 624.Google Scholar

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43 For an interesting deviation from the usual narrative line see Arcin, , La Guinée, 265–266,Google Scholar in which Surakata does not convert to Islam, and his drinking of Muhammad's blood is portrayed as an act of hostility, for which the Prophet curses him.

44 Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 86.

45 Cordell, , ‘Blood Partnership’, 388–393Google Scholar; the area in question reached as far west as southern Chad.

46 Frobenius, Leo, Atlantis VI: Spielmannsgeschichten der Sahel (Jena, 1921), 53–60.Google Scholar

47 This refers to boliw owned collectively by a society, in contrast to those that are individually owned and privately used.

48 For more details see Henry, Joseph, L'âme d'un peuple africain: les Bambara (Münster, 1910), 26–28,Google Scholar and Monteil, Charles, Les Bambara du Segou et du Kaarta (Paris, 1923), 252.Google Scholar

49 Dieterlen, Germain, Essai sur la religion Bambara (Paris, 1951), 92–93.Google Scholar

50 Zemp, , ‘La légende’, 624.Google Scholar

51 Ibid., 626–627.

52 Dieterlen, Germaine, ‘Myth et organisation sociale au Soudan française’, Journal dela société des africanistes, XXV (1955), 45Google Scholar; this article has been translated as ‘The Mande Creation Myth’, Africa, XXVII (1957), 124–137.Google Scholar

53 Dieterlen, , ‘Myth et organisation’, 54–56.Google Scholar

54 Arcin, , La Guinée, 266.Google Scholar

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57 Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 225–226. That Surakata was originally the Arab Surāqa has been previously noted by Zemp, , ‘La légende’, 621.Google Scholar

58 Watt, W. Montgomery, Muhammad at Mecca (London, 1953), 150–151Google Scholar, warns that ‘the whole story of the Hijrah has been much embellished and even the earliest sources are probably not free from additions’.

59 Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 255–256; Ibn Hishām, Sīrat al-Nabī, vol. II, ed. Al-Hamid (Cairo, n.d.), 102–104.

60 Arcin, , La Guinée, 266.Google Scholar

61 Humblot, , ‘Du nom propre’, 540.Google Scholar

62 See Guillaume's introduction in Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, xiii–xix.

63 Hunwick, J. O., ‘A new source of the biography of Aḥmad Bābā Al-Tinbuktī (1556–1627)’, Bull. S.O.A.S., XXVII (1964), 584.Google Scholar

64 Fakama Kaloga, Bamako, 17 September 1975, 775; Mamary Kouyate, Kolokani, 9 August 1975, 790. That reports about the cave given by the Quraysh were contradictory is noted by al-Tabāḥabā'ī, Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qur'ān (2nd ed. Beirut, 1971), IX, 291–292.

65 It is the Bambara who refer to the archangel as ‘Cheikh’.

66 Mamary Kouyate, Kolokani, 9 August 1975, 787.

67 Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 221–223.

68 During recording sessions at Mamary Kouyate's house in Kolokani, his relative Lassana Kouyate sometimes sat off to one side wearing earplugs and listening to a transistor radio.

69 Fanyama Diabate, Bamako, 18 October 1975, 779–780; Mamary Kouyate, Kolokani, 9 August 1975, 791–792; Fadian Soumanou, Bamako, 5 November 1975, 800–801.

70 Compare punishment ordered by Muhammad in Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 612, where the man is denied access to his wife.

71 Fadian Soumanou, Bamako, 5 November 1975, 802; Mamary Kouyate, Kolokani, 9 August 1975, 793.

72 See for example ‘Uthmān ibn Fūdī, Bayān wujūb al-hijra 'ala ’l¯'ibād, ed. and trans. Masri, F. H. El (Khartoum, 1978).Google Scholar

73 Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 592–595.

74 Mamary Kouyate, Kolokani, 9 August 1975, 793.

75 A nasi (lit. ‘well-being’) is a medicine made from holy scripture written in ink, dissolved in water, and drunk or used to bathe ailing parts of the body.

76 Satigi Soumarouo, Kabaya, 2 September 1975, 811–812; Fadian Soumanou, Bamako, 5 November 1975, 802–804. Compare the blind man Abai Boulazairou (Mali Balansari) to the monk Baḥīra in Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 79–80.

77 Fanyama Diabate, Bamako, 18 October 1975, 780.

78 Tradition names several figures as blacksmith ancestors. In other texts, Ndamangiri is said to be the progenitor of the Jawara lineage.

79 The bearer of such news would subsequently become identified with the deaths because it was customary for the mourners to wander through the village crying that ‘so-and-so’ told them about it.

80 Jeli Manga Sissoko, Kolokani, 13 August 1975, 807–809.

81 Humblot, , ‘Du nom propre’, 540.Google Scholar