African Myths of Origin (Penguin Classics)

by Stephen Belcher

  One day, the king of Egypt’s stallion whinnied, as it was accustomed to do. But the silence that followed was broken by an answering call: Bayajida’s young horse was answering the challenge. There was consternation in the palace; the king was outraged and demanded that they find the horse which dared disobey his commands. The groom who had assisted Bayajida went to him and warned him that he should flee; they would undoubtedly find his horse in their search of the town. Bayajida immediately gathered his belongings, mounted the horse and departed. At the city gates he told the guards that he was on an errand for the cadi of the town, and as he had previously performed such services they let him pass without question. From Egypt he rode west.

  The pursuers turned back when they encountered a sign which Bayajida had left for them. Coming from Baghdad, he brought with him a marvellous sword on which were engraved verses of the Koran, and if the wielder of the sword recited the verses while swinging the blade he might cut even through stone. Bayajida had cut through the trunk of a tree with one blow, and then carved a saying on the standing trunk: the rash should beware, for the consequences would be on their heads. The king of Egypt’s riders, racing after the fugitive, came upon the tree-trunk, read the signs and decided to turn back.

  Bayajida came to the town of Daura, which at that time was ruled by a queen. The city obeyed a great serpent called Dodo which lived in the well and controlled their water supply. Bayajida stopped at the edge of the town and found a lodging with an old woman in a hut. But when he asked her for water to refresh the horse which had carried him so far and so well, she had none to give him: her supply was out, and she was not allowed to draw more.

  ‘Give me the bucket and a basin for the horse,’ said Bayajida, and he led his horse to the well. There, he shouted down into the darkness, ‘Oh, dweller in the well, let me draw water for my horse. And then if you wish we can introduce ourselves.’ He lowered the bucket until he heard it splash in the water, and then he twisted the rope quickly to make the bucket dip into the water; when he felt it was full he hauled it up and poured it out into the basin. The horse drank thirstily; their path had led them through the desert. Bayajida poured out more water, and then called down into the well, ‘My horse has drunk; now is the time for us to meet.’ And he drew his sword and recited the verses.

  The serpent emerged from the well, and with one stroke Bayajida parted the head from the great sinuous body. The head fell to the ground; the body continued to emerge until it was wrapped around the well’s retaining wall. Bayajida cut off the tip of the tail, placed it in his shoulder bag, and returned to the old woman’s house.

  ‘Are you well?’ asked the old woman.

  ‘I was able to water my horse,’ said Bayajida. ‘The guardian of the well and I reached an agreement.’

  The next morning, the people were amazed and frightened at the mass of the serpent’s body lying around the well. The women approached cautiously, carrying their basins and pots, and then fled when they saw the serpent’s mouth. But after a time they approached again, closer, and soon everyone in town knew that the serpent had been killed. Queen Magira made enquiries to learn who had killed the serpent, and several men claimed credit for the deed. But they were quickly exposed as frauds and punished. Finally, someone told the queen that the old woman who lived at the edge of town had a lodger who might know something of the affair. She summoned Bayajida, and he admitted he had killed the serpent, and produced the piece of tail as proof.

  ‘This is a great deed, and worthy to make you my consort,’ said Queen Magira. ‘But I feel I am now too old for marriage.’

  ‘Do you still have the monthly flow?’ asked Bayajida, and she answered yes. ‘Then it is permissible for you to marry, and as I find you beautiful I would be honoured.’

  The queen agreed to the marriage, but nevertheless she hesitated to share her bed with the stranger. She sent a concubine to him, and then, after the concubine had become pregnant, she herself went to Bayajida’s bed. They had a son, known as Bawo; Bawo in turn had six sons who became kings of the other cities of the Hausa.

  BAGAUDA AND THE FOUNDING OF ΚΑΝΟ

  Before Bagauda came from Daura, the land of Kano was occupied by a people of hunters whose leader was named Barbushe. Barbushe was descended from Dala, a great man who was the first inhabitant of the country. Dala was an elephant hunter; he would club the animals and then carry them back to the village on his head. Dala had children, and Barbushe was his great-grandson. They worshipped at a shrine dedicated to a deity named Chunburburai, who was believed to be housed in a tree, and the tree was surrounded by an enclosure which none might enter save Barbushe. Barbushe presided over the sacrifices. He foretold that a man would come who would take power from the descendants of Dala, and that the tree would be uprooted, the shrine destroyed, and a mosque built at that spot.

  Bagauda came a generation later. The men of the time went to Janbere, the heir to Barbushe and officiant at the shrine, to ask if this was the stranger whom Barbushe had foreseen, and Janbere confirmed that he was, and that he would take their lands and rule over them. But they did not believe him. They were wrong. Bagauda settled in the land, having brought men from Daura, and then other people came from Bornu and such places, having heard of the land, and soon they were very numerous. The newcomers looked to Bagauda as their leader, and so he and his people displaced the old descendants of Dala.

  THE KINGDOMS OF THE WESTERN SUDAN

  The Niger river rises in the highlands of Guinea, flows east and then north into the desert, before turning south again to the Atlantic. The lands around its middle course were the home to a series of states, beginning in the ninth century or earlier, which succeeded each other with some recognition of continuity. The states were based to some extent on control of the trans-Saharan flow of gold from minefields near the headwaters of the Senegal river (Bambuk and Bure), and later from Ghana. The first state of record was the Soninke empire of Ghana, the capital of which lay somewhat north of the modern city of Nioro du Sahel (the legendary Wagadu, identified with Kumbi Saleh). This was followed by the empire of Mali (c. 1250–1600). As Mali declined, Songhay grew in power further down the river, centred on the cities of Timbuktu and Gao. After Songhay fell to the Moroccans in 1591, the Bamana states of Segou and Kaarta arose in the eighteenth century on either side of the Niger.

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  THE SONGHAY PEOPLES OF THE MIDDLE NIGER

  The Songhay peoples look back to a period of unity under the Songhay empire, which flourished from the mid-fifteenth century to the end of the sixteenth. It was a successor state to the empire of Mali, and counts as one of the great Islamic states of medieval sub-Saharan Africa. Under the Askias, who took power from the Sonni dynasty around 1500, Islam was promoted across the area, and learned men were attracted to Timbuktu from the other parts of the Muslim world. The empire fell after 1590–91, when an expeditionary force from Morocco, equipped with firearms, defeated their army at the battle of Tondibi. Although the Moroccans attempted to maintain the empire, they failed; it fragmented into separate states and communities, and many of the Songhay fled south and east along the Niger as far as Busa in Borgu (see Chapter 50). A new, smaller Songhay kingdom was established in Dendi.

  The Songhay were principally a river people (see the Sorko stories in Chapter 3), and the principal activity of the empire was trade between Timbuktu, lying where the Niger bends furthest north into the Sahara, and Djenne, lying on the Bani (a confluent of the Niger); Timbuktu was the terminus of a trans-Saharan trade route, and Djenne the northern endpoint of a trade network reaching south into the lands of gold (Ghana), ivory, kola nuts, cloth and slaves. Millet was grown on the floodplains, fishermen worked the river, and cattle-herders such as the Fulani exploited the drier pasture lands.

  ES-SADI’S ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGINS OF THE SONGHAY KINGDOM

  The historian Abdurrahman es-Sadi wrote the Tarikh es-Sudan, a history of the Sudan, in the early seventeenth century, and gives an account of Songhay
origins current at the time.

  Two brothers from Yemen were forced to flee their land. They travelled west through Africa, until they came to the land of the Songhay, exhausted and parched. When they reached the river, they found a people who welcomed them; the people asked who they were, and the younger brother answered, for the older, ‘Ja min al-Yemen’ (Arabic: He has come from Yemen). The people understood this to be their name, and so henceforth the elder brother was known as Za Alyaman.

  The people at the time worshipped a great fish that would come to the surface of the water to receive its offerings. Za Alyaman determined that he would kill this fish, and so he obtained a great harpoon. On the day of the offerings, he made his way close to the banks of the river, and then hurled his weapon at the fish. The harpoon struck home, and the fish expired. The people, seeing that Za Alyaman was mightier than their previous protector, made him their king. This is the origin of the Za dynasty, which ruled Songhay for many generations.

  The Sonni dynasty took power after Songhay had been subject to the power of Mali for some time. Za Yasiboi, the prince of the Songhay, had married a woman named Fati, but they were childless. Fati suggested that he marry her sister Omma, and he did so. Both women became pregnant at the same time, and both gave birth on the same day. The two babies were placed in a dark room and left there overnight; only the next morning were they washed and given to their mothers. The first to be washed was named Ali Kolon, and he was declared the elder; the second was Selman Nar. When they grew old enough, the emperor of Mali took them to his court to serve him and to ensure their father’s continued obedience.

  While living in the court of Mali, Ali Kolon often went on riding expeditions, and during these expeditions he carefully explored the territory lying between the court and his homeland. He prepared stocks of food and weapons and left them in secret places along the paths. When he felt his preparations were finished, he gave the signal to his brother and the two of them fled the court of Mali. They were pursued, but whenever the pursuers got too close they would turn and fight them off. Sustained and speeded by the stores of food which Ali Kolon had placed along their way, they reached Songhay in safety. There Ali Kolon declared Songhay to be independent of Mali, and named himself king.

  MALI BERO AND THE ESCAPE FROM MALI

  The modern oral accounts of the origins of the Zarma, a Songhay-speaking group living south-east of Gao who moved there after the fall of the empire in 1590, reflect more recent conditions (nineteenth-century oppression by Fulani and Tuareg raiders) and offer somewhat more symbolic elements, recalling regional creation myths. The story is retold from several versions collected by a Nigerien scholar before 1980.

  Zabarkane was a warrior who came to Mecca to serve the Prophet Muhammad in his wars, for a leader without men cannot make war and the Prophet had put out a call for men to come to him. Zabarkane fought on behalf of the Prophet for many years. He had a daughter; the daughter was taken captive by the enemies of the Prophet and carried off. Zabarkane went to the Prophet Muhammad and demanded his assistance in the return of his daughter; the Prophet summoned his Companions and told them they must rescue the daughter of Zabarkane. They did so, and she was restored to her father.

  The daughter was young and beautiful, but after her captivity no man asked to marry her. Zabarkane went to the Prophet Muhammad and complained that his daughter remained unwed. The Prophet told him to wait, that the young woman must be considered as a widow and that the stipulated period of mourning should pass. Zabarkane exercised his patience and waited for a time, but still no man asked to marry his daughter. He went again to the Prophet and requested his assistance but the Prophet had no more advice. So Zabarkane left the land of Mecca and travelled until he came to Mali. There he settled. A son was born to him there, and they named him Sombo. He was the first Zarma-Koy, or leader of the Zarmas.

  At that time, the Fulani and the Tuareg ruled the land. They tormented Zabarkane’s people in many ways. The one which Sombo found most offensive involved clothing. The young men would go down to the river to bathe and leave their clothes on the banks; the Fulani and Tuareg youths would come and steal the clothes, forcing the Zarma men to walk naked through the village. Often the Tuareg and Fulani would use the clothes of the Zarma youths to clean themselves of filth. Sombo determined to end these outrages and insults, and he took counsel with other young men of his age. One night, they hid their spears in the reeds by the riverbank. The next day they went to bathe as usual; the young Tuareg and Fulani came as usual and seized the clothes. Then Sombo and his companions dashed from the water, seized the weapons they had concealed, and slew the Tuareg and Fulani youths. They spared none; they killed them all and left the bodies lying by the riverbank. Among the slain were the sons of the prince of the Tuareg and the prince of the Fulani.

  At that time the Zarma had seven drums of different sizes which they used to send signals. Sombo and his companions returned to their village and sounded the largest of the seven drums, known as Sombonkana. At the sound of Sombonkana, the most urgent of the drum calls, everyone would drop what they were doing and come running. Men would seize their weapons and their horses and come ready for war; women would seize food.

  The Zarma assembled, and Sombo informed them that he and his companions had killed the bully-boys of the Fulani and the Tuareg, and that among them were the sons of the princes. The Zarma decided to leave the country. One of them was a slave named Almine, a wise man; he alone in the country possessed a bull. He told them what to do. They gathered reeds and grasses and wove them into a great mat, such as are used at the bottom of granaries to keep the grain dry. Then they assembled all the Zarma on top of the mat. They placed all the people and the sheep and the goats and the horses on the mat; they did not have cattle. They used Almine’s bull as their guide: they left the bull on the ground to indicate their course.

  In the meantime, a blacksmith, a garassa, went to an old Fulani woman and asked her for tobacco. She refused him: why should she give him tobacco? For news, he answered, and he told her how the Fulani boys had been killed on the riverbank. Then he came back to the Zarma village, to find all the people on the mat and the mat rising into the air. He cried for help, calling on Sombo; he said he was like a blind hyena that could not survive in the wild and could not live in the town. Sombo took pity and stretched down his whip; the garassa seized it and so was carried into the air.

  Following the bull, the flying granary travelled along the river, landing at night for the people to sleep. They made many stops.

  Along the way, Sombo’s brother Tilomboti planned treachery, envying his brother’s new authority. He went to the Tuareg and told them how Sombo had killed their young men, and how he and the Zarma were travelling on a granary down the river. The Tuareg came and attacked the Zarma, but Sombo had foreknowledge of the attack; he prepared his warriors and they defeated the Tuareg. They were driven off, and Tilomboti went with them. He became the ancestor of the Daussahane.

  The Zarma finally settled near Sargane, and that is where Sombo, who took the name Mali Bero, is buried.

  KOUKAMONZON AND THE KINGDOM OF DENDI

  Dendi was founded beside the Niger river, well downstream from Gao, by Songhay peoples displaced by the turmoil following the Moroccan conquest. This account is based on a retelling of the legend by a Malian scholar around 1970.

  Koukamonzon and his younger brother, Farimonzon, came from Zanfara in Nigeria. They wandered through the lands, for Koukamonzon had seen visions in his mind, although they had yet to be fulfilled. Farimonzon would grumble as they travelled, but he was a devoted brother and he followed his elder when Koukamonzon settled on a direction and began to stride towards the unknown. They came to the Niger river and travelled along its banks; at that time it was a much smaller stream than it is now. When they came to the area in which they were to settle, they heard a great groaning coming from the earth, and then they saw a long thing, very much like a log but much lighter – soft to the touch and
mottled – lying straight across the flow of the river. Farimonzon hid his head at the sounds that came from the earth; Koukamonzon looked about and saw the log. He called his brother, for he saw the log as a miraculous bridge intended to lead them across the river. Farimonzon was more sceptical, but let his brother lead him. As they crossed the river, they heard the call of a dove.

  ‘We must follow the call,’ said Koukamonzon, and as soon as he set foot on the ground he hastened in the direction of the call. They found the dove in the branches of a tamarind tree, whose thick foliage gave them a cool shade and whose boughs were bent with the weight of their fruit. As they approached, the dove called again.

  ‘This is a very propitious sign,’ said Koukamonzon. ‘I feel that this land will be good to us. But we must consult the earth oracle, to be sure of accomplishing her will.’

  The first day, the earth oracle gave them no sign. The second day, the sign was mildly unfavourable. The third day, Almahaw the wind spirit came down in the form of a whirlwind. He came to earth near them in a tumult of dead leaves, dried grasses and husks raised from the ground by his passage, and then proceeded on his way towards the hills that lay some distance from the river. Koukamonzon and Farimonzon hastened after him, Koukamonzon delighted with the explicit signs sent by the earth oracle and confident that no harm would come to them.

  At the mouth of a cave, the signs of the whirlwind – the heaps of dust, the trail of dead leaves – ceased. Instead, they found a white ram and a white cock. These were the shapes that Almahaw and his steed had taken. As the two men arrived, the cock crowed loudly and woke the earth spirit, the owner of the Dendi hills. The spirit spoke from the cave to the two men, greeting them and asking them how they had come.

  Koukamonzon explained that they had come from the tamarind tree, following the signs of Almahaw who had been sent in response to their question to the earth oracle.

  ‘And how did you cross the river to the tree?’ asked the spirit.