The activities of the ancestors and Faro’s journey imply a common origin for many of the peoples of the region. On the one hand, the fact that the religious and social models that they established are still effective among these groups may confirm this. On the other hand, it may reflect political control later won by the Mande over their neighbors. In either case, the myth validates many of their practices and reveals a system of correspondences between the natural, social, and personal planes that render all aspects of life sacred.
GOD, Mangala, first created the balaza (Acacia albida) seed, which was, however, a failure. So he abandoned it in order to create twin varieties of eleusine seed, fani berere and fani ba; thus, as the Keita say, he “made the egg of the world in two twin parts which were to procreate.” God then created six more seeds and associated with this group of eight seeds the four elements and the “cardinal points” in order to mark out the organization of the world and its expansion. Thus there was: in the west (klebi): fani berere and fani ba; in the east (koro): sano and keninge; in the north (Kanaga): so and kende; in the south (worodugu): kabaro and malo. Finally the whole was enfolded in a hibiscus seed.
The seeds are thus conceived as twins of opposite sex in the “egg of God,” which is also called “egg of the world” or “placenta of the world.” They are often represented in drawings as an open flower with four petals which are also sometimes called the four “clavicles” of God.
In the same egg, according to the myth, there were in addition two pairs of twins, each consisting of one male and one female, archetypes of the future men. One of the males, Pemba, desiring to dominate the creation, emerged prematurely, before gestation was complete, tearing away a piece of his placenta as he did so. He came down through empty space; the piece of placenta became the earth but it was dry and barren and he could do nothing with it. Seeing this, he went back to heaven and tried to resume his place in the placenta and find his twin. In this he could not succeed, for God had changed the remaining part of his placenta into the sun. So Pemba then stole from one of God’s clavicles the eight male seeds which he carried down in a calabash flask (bara).
He sowed these seeds in the piece of placenta which had become the earth. In this first field, which the Keita locate near Bounan (a village not far from Lake Debo), only the fani berere—one of the eleusine seeds—germinated in the blood of the placenta; the other seeds died for want of water. Because of Pemba’s theft and his incestuous act (for Pemba had put the seed in his own placenta, that is, in his mother’s womb) the earth became impure and the eleusine seed turned red as it it is today.
The other male twin, Faro, assumed, while in heaven, the form of twin mannogo fishes, which are represented in the Niger River today by the mannogo ble and the mannogo fi. The first represented his strength and his life, the second his body. In order to atone for Pemba’s sin and purify the earth, Faro was sacrificed in heaven and his body was cut into sixty pieces which were scattered throughout space. They fell on the earth where they became trees, symbols of vegetal resurrection. God then brought Faro back to life in heaven and, giving him human shape, sent him down to earth on an ark made of his celestial placenta.
The ark came to rest on the mountain called Kouroula, in the area called kele koroni “ancient space,” which lies between Kri and Kri Koro. This area was then given the name of Mande which the inhabitants translate as “son of the person” (ma) or more explicitly “son of the mannogo,” the “person” being Faro whose first bodily form was that of a silurian fish. The place is also called “the mountain that encircles the world”; it is said that “Faro came out of this mountain, he took his life from the cloudy sky of Mande.”
Where the ark came to rest near Kri there was a cave called kaba koro, or more commonly ka. Near this cave appeared a hollow in the earth which became the first pool, ko koro or ko ba. On the ark stood Faro, brought back to life, and also the eight original ancestors of men, created from Faro’s placenta, that is to say four pairs of male and female twins called mogo si segi. The males of these twins were called: Kanisimbo (“from Ka’s womb”), Kani yogo simbo (“from the same Ka’s womb”), Simboumba Tangnagati (“the big remaining part of the womb which took command”), Nounou (from nono, milk). In the ark were also all the animals and plants that were going to multiply on earth.
The first human beings, like Faro himself, had a common vital force (nyama) and complementary spiritual forces ni and dya, each of which had both a male and a female form. Also, in their clavicles were deposited the symbols of the eight seeds created by God. Emerging from the ark they watched, for the first time, the rising of the sun.
The bardic ancestor, Sourakata, then came down from heaven at Kri Koro holding in his hands the skull of the sacrificed Faro. This skull became the first drum. He played on it only once to ask, in vain, for rain. Ke then put the drum in a cave. The ancestral smith then came down to Kri, while Mousso Koroni Koundye, Pemba’s female twin, came down “on the wind” at Bounan.
When he saw the prevailing drought the smith struck a rock with his hammer to ask for rain, and water poured down from heaven, filling the hollow ko koro with purifying and fertilizing water. Two fishes then came down: mannogo ble and mannogo fi, manifestations of Faro. Mannogo fi is the archetype of man who was to be Faro’s “son”; mannogo ble represents Faro himself, and on earth and in the water was to be the intermediary between him and mankind. This is why, for the Mande, this fish has become the basic taboo of a great number of people including the Keita.
REVELATION OF THE WORD AND BUILDING OF THE FIRST SANCTUARY Simboumba Tangnagati, one of the male twins, who had entered the pool with the first fall of rain, was then given by Faro the first thirty words and the eight female seeds from God’s clavicle. Now, coming out of the water, Simboumba said: “nko (I speak).” In order to plant out the seeds he had received, Simboumba Tangnagati left the area of the pool and, that very day at sunset, built a sanctuary on a hill near Kri Koro. This building, called lu daga blo (hall of the upper house), stood on the top of a hill; it was regarded as the “egg of the world” and was consecrated to the mannago ble. It was made of black earth from the original pool, and its roof was made of a bamboo from the same place which represented Faro’s hair. The roof had six edges symbolizing the mannago ble’s beard, Faro’s speech, and the spilling of water; inside the building Simboumba Tangnagati drew the sign of the mannogo ble.
From the door of the sanctuary Simboumba Tangnagati, who thenceforward was to be responsible for the seeds, the rain, and speech, gave men the first thirty words while the seeds were still in the sanctuary. He talked the whole night, ceasing only when he saw the sun and Sirius rising at the same time. This sun was what remained of Pemba’s placenta, while Sirius, sigi dolo, was the image of Faro’s placenta. During this night-long speech, the bard who was present carried a staff, symbol of Faro’s resurrection, made of nogonogo wood that had grown in the first pool.
The following night the mannogo ble, coming out of the Kri pool where he had been hidden among the rice, entered the sanctuary. The next day Simboumba Tangnagati put the seeds on the mannogo ble’s head, at a place where there were signs. Then the rain started to pour down on the hill where the blo was. The mannogo ble then left the sanctuary and went back to the Kri pool. Then the rain, bringing down earth from the hill, spread it out near the pool.
The first human ancestor, Kanisimbo, now sowed in this earth some of the seeds which Simboumba Tangnagati had put in the blo. This first field was called kanisimbo foro. It was rectangular like the ark and orientated in an east-west direction. Kanisimbo marked off its limits with the rope made of nogonogo fibers from which the ark had been suspended during its descent to earth. The field was eighty “cubits” long and sixty “cubits” wide. The “cubits” marked out the work and also represented the length of a man’s forearm. Kanisimbo then gave the rope to Simboumba, who used it to tie down the roof of the sanctuary.
In the middle of the field Kanisimbo built a shri
ne made of three upright stones supporting a fourth. On the east he sowed the fani berere, on the west, the fani ba, on the north, the small millet sano, on the south, rice, malo, and in the center, maize, kaba. Finally hibiscus seeds, da, were sown all around the field.
After the first storm that followed upon the building of the blo, two stars began to circle around Sirius (sigi dolo). They represented the two descents of the seeds: the one, called no dolo, symbolized Pemba’s male seeds, the second, called dyi dolo, Faro’s female seeds.
THE BUILDING OF THE SECOND SANCTUARY During this period Mousso Koroni Koundye, Pemba’s female twin, left Kri and fled to Bounan. There she grew the impure fani berere seeds and she and Pemba ate them together. Faro went after her and made her return to Kri, whither she carried back part of the crop. Between Bounan and Kri, however, she dropped seeds all along her way, “sowing at night and cultivating by day.” The wild animals sent by Faro tried with varying success to stop her.
Back in Kri, Mousso Koroni, in her fear, hid the fani berere brought from Bounan for seven years. Then, on a moonless night (kalo laba), she sowed it “when the sun was in the south.” She kept trying “to catch the sun,” which was made of the rest of her and Pemba’s placenta. By sowing when the sun was in the south, at the time when it looked as if it were going to “fall,” she thought “it would dry her field if Faro should attempt to flood it.” But the moon when it rose revealed what she had done. The pool kokoro overflowed, poured down the hill, and flooded her field, and the mannogo ble swallowed the seeds. It sowed part of them on the same spot and turned the rest into fishes’ roe.
Men then came down to reap the field which Mousso Koroni had sown and thus, by recovering the seeds, witnessed to Faro’s victory. They first built a second Mande blo which was an exact copy of the original one. In order to find the right place for it, Simboumba Tangnagati, the third ancestor, took his own seeds in a flask (bara) and followed the path the water had made when it flowed out of the pool. The mannogo ble showed the way. The place where the water had stopped in Mousso Koroni’s field lay between Kaba and Kela and this spot became Faro’s first seat (faro tyn). The second blo was built near it, at sunset, after rain had fallen. It was dedicated to the mannogo fi.
Inside this second sanctuary, also made of earth from the pool, Simboumba Tangnagati drew the sign of the mannogo ble, including all the marks he had on his head, and then the sign of the mannogo fi. The bamboo roof had six edges representing the beard of the mannogo fi.
The two stars which circled around sigi dolo—no dolo and dyi dolo— were symbolized by two balls of earth from the pool, dried and hung from the roof of the sanctuary; other signs represented Sirius, the sun, the moon, and the move from the first to the second sanctuary; each word was associated with a star and also had its sign.
A well (kolo) was dug near the sanctuary for Faro and for the mannogo which is thought to enter it whenever the roof is being repaired. To draw water from the well and pour it on the sown fields is called “to take the mannogo and put it in the field.” Around the second sanctuary a field of fani berere was made to replace the one made by Mousso Koroni. Afterward it was changed into a maize field, maize (kaba) being a basic seed for the Keita. While his brothers went back to the hill, Simboumba Tangnagati, the third ancestor, settled down at the foot of the hill and took command “because of the word.”
The first village was laid out at the four cardinal points around the central field which contained the sanctuary and was called Kaba, thus recalling that its center was a maize field, kaba. Kaba is also the name of the place where Faro came down to earth in the Kouroula mountains and in other contexts means “cloudy sky.”
FARO’S JOURNEY Faro now traveled east in order to flood all the places where Mousso Koroni had dropped eleusine seeds and he finally reached Bounan and flooded Pemba’s field. He was able to recover all the seeds that had been stolen, for he sent the mannogo ble everywhere to eat the seeds and it was followed by all the other fishes.
Thus the River Niger, which has been formed from this series of floods, represents Faro’s body; and it is said that “Faro lies face downward in the Niger.” His head is Lake Debo, his right arm is the Bani, while his body is the Niger itself. The Bani and Niger are also called bala, which is male, and bogolo, which is female; the river from its source to Sama is Faro’s single leg and Sama itself is his genitals. But on the opposite bank Faro, who was androgynous (or a twin), took the opposite sex; thus between Tamani and Sama, from being male on the right bank he became female on the left bank. All along the river a series of faro tyn marks the places where he halted: the place where he drowned Mousso Koroni’s seeds that the mannogo ble had eaten; the place where he left his seeds in the shape of silurian fish for the future birth of men. For Faro is said to be unique and ubiquitous, and procreative.
So, above Koulikoro, Faro himself is responsible for the course of the river; below Koulikoro, one of his descendants is the guardian of each place marked out by the ten faro tyn. According to the Keita, as we shall see, the following places are connected with and participate in the myth and ritual of Faro: twenty-two main faro tyn between Kaba and Akka connected directly with Faro: these are supposed to represent the twenty-two parts of his body; twenty-two from Koulikoro to Mopti, which are connected with the second generation, i.e., Faro’s children; twenty-two from Mopti to Akka connected with the third generation, i.e., Faro’s grandchildren. The fourth generation is associated with pools, wells, and streams.
These four generations are also associated with the four ancestors who came down on the ark. The first generation settled in all the places where Mousso Koroni had sown her seeds; the second settled where the mannogo “dug in order to stop Mousso Koroni from sowing more seeds”; the third lived in the places where the maize (kaba) was sown to mark “the extension of Mande as far as Akka.”
With each of these places on the river is connected a wild animal who is believed either to have prevented Mousso Koroni’s sowing or to have protected the ritual field of Faro; later on those animals became the totemic taboos (tne or tana) of the various lineages of Mande.
Each of the faro tyn has a special name, connected with the spreading of water and with Faro’s expansion on earth: at Kaba, senebo, “coming out of cultivation,” meaning the fields of fani berere taken back from Mousso Koroni in which the seeds from the Kouroula hills were sown; at Kourouba, kandyi, “Ka water,” meaning the water and rain that Faro brought down onto the earth; at Dangassa, senebo, “coming out of cultivation,” meaning the field of fani ba, that one of the two eleusine seeds which was kept pure and was never eaten by Pemba; this seed also came from the hills. Thus the cultivation of the two original eleusine seeds is separately represented by the first three faro tyn. Pemba was the first who sowed, cultivated, and ate the fani berere; later, after Faro’s arrival, men did the same with fani ba. The kandyi faro tyn, which is situated between the first and the third, is a sign of the coming of water and of Faro’s activities, for “men now grow both sorts of eleusine thanks to Faro’s water.”
At Samayana, above Bamako, the faro tyn is called sirakuru, “the ark road.” Here Faro changed his direction; in heaven he walked straight but on earth he walked in a sinuous way like a watercourse, and this purifies and regenerates the soil; at Bamako it is called sutadunu, “the corpse drum”: the whirling water roars and its noise represents the rhythm of Faro’s drum, faro dundun, which is played for weddings and funerals. The roaring of the water refers to Faro’s revelation to men of the second word which happened farther along the river; at Kayo Faro dug a deep hole in the rocks, thus showing his strength; at Koulikoro the faro tyn is situated near a sharp rock which juts into the river. Faro placed his first child there to guard the way while he changed to the other bank and became a female; at Mignon, which means “patient,” Faro rested after he had dug the hole. He made the river “broader like a wide road.” Faro’s vital force (nyama) is in Nyamina; at Tamani, “soul of the drum,” he ga
ve men the second word, which was the symbol of fecundity for it multiplies like birth; at Sama, which means “the delegate,” he sent a “delegate of the word.”
At Dyafarable, which means “to part the dya,” Faro’s dya separated from his body and his ni to take its place in the River Dyaka. All human dya dwell there along with his. The faro tyn is called gangare, “horseman,” and Faro may be seen on it in the form of a white horse. Faro at last reached Bounan where he vanquished Pemba and ordered the mannogo ble to eat the seeds from his field. Then, “spreading the river like a mat (debe),” which gave its name to Lake Debo, Faro and the mannogo ble stopped in Akka. Akka symbolizes “Faro’s clavicles”; the word comes from hake “limit” and also signifies the end of Faro’s travels.
It is said also that “the place where Faro’s ark stopped is situated between Akka and Baka,” for the distance between these places represents the length of the ark that came “with the river” from Kaba.
At the end of Lake Debo stand three hills, Gourao, Mamari, and Gambe; they represent, on the one hand, the three main seeds: fani berere, fani ba, and kaba, and, on the other hand, the three ancestors who stayed in Kaba and the Kri hills that symbolize them in Mande.
According to the Keita, the Bozo are the descendants of the first men who followed Faro along the river and occupied the banks. They are Faro’s dya. They are said to have been the first to grow and harvest the fani ba sown by Faro and the mannogo ble in the field taken back from Pemba.
Primal Myths Page 12