Although
we must revisit this work and engage in a deeper reading of the different
recorded versions of Soninke oral traditions on Wagadu, Germaine Dieterlen's L'Empire
de Ghana: le Wagadou et les traditions de Yéréré raises a number of
intriguing questions about the extent we can reconstruct this distant past.
Beginning with a translation of Diarra Sylla's rendition of this past as a gessere,
Dieterlen then provides additional context and attempts a wider analysis of the
ancient empire of Ghana (Wagadu). To some extent, she drew on the ethnographic
present as well as cultural practices and rites among the Bambara, Dogon, and
other West African peoples. This makes her interpretation of the institutions,
social structure, and culture of Wagadu necessarily speculative.
In
spite of some of these pitfalls in researching a period in pre-colonial West
African history that is only partly covered in external Arabic sources,
Dieterlen confirmed some of our own past theories. For instance, a cult of
sorts to the vulture and hyena was part of the Soninke ritual calendar.
According to Dieterlen, on the second moon of the Soninke's calendar, the wage
(noble clans) gathered with their gessere to offer sacrifices to the
hyena, an animal tied to their oath to Kaya Maga. Remember, the hyena played a
role in assisting Diabe in Soninke tradition. There was also a special regard
for the fox, it being a taboo for wage to kill this particular animal.
Even the dog was the subject of taboos for the wage. For instance, they
were not allowed to marry people who ate or sacrificed dogs, presumably due to
the dog that accompanied the legendary ancestor, Dinga. One cannot help but
wonder if the dogs with collars of gold and fine jewelry in the palace of the
Ghana kings was in memory of this? Unsurprisingly, al-Bakri was likely ignorant
of this, but informants told him of the palace dogs with richly decorated
collars.
Besides
these aforementioned taboos, Dieterlen offered some additional information on
Kumbi and the Wagadu kingdom. Presumably based on her informant, she reported
that Kumbi, the capital, had fifty-one quarters. Koumbi Saleh was allegedly the
quarter for the market associated with caravan trade. The imperial quarter was
supposedly called Kalaata, presumably the al-Ghaba of al-Bakri. There was even
a quarter or section associated with the gessere. A glimpse of the
different social classes or ranks in Wagadu can be seen in the description of
four types of royal drums. Essentially, the major groups were the nobles, clan
chiefs, slaves, and the people (commoners?). A distinct drum was used to call
each of these types of residents in the capital city. Although it is difficult
to see where the number of fifty-one quarters or neighborhoods came from, the
number is probably meant to be symbolic or merely to suggest a huge
concentration of people living within a larger capital district. That is very
likely to have been true, as al-Bakri's description of the capital as two
cities, one for Muslims and another for the king, with continuous habitations
between, fits this.
In
terms of the administration of the state, Dieterlen provided additional clues.
The Koussa, for instance, participated in collecting gold for the king. Other
Koussa were Koussa Tounkara, who assisted in organizing official ceremonies for
the rulers of Wagadu. Another role attached to spiritual powers like access to
ancestors through trance and the fabrication of ritual objects began with
Djourou Tandjigo, an artisan in the times of Diabe. In addition, there were fade
and hida, the governors or chiefs of provinces within Wagadu. Dumbe
and djuwara were said to have been generals or military leaders. The
Cisse clan which allegedly produced the most kings. A number of wage or
noble clans were tied to specific provinces or regions, such as a figure
remembered as Diamera Sokona, son of a fade named Birama, at Nakhata
(interestingly, this figure was also said to have been the first to offer a
woman to the Bida snake). Supposedly, control of territories included
administration of land, markets, livestock, hunting grounds, and water sources,
meaning these administrators had a lot of power over the areas under their
remit. As for the military chiefs, Dieterlen suggested that these were the
nana, a word possibly distorted in Arabic sources as Ghana.
But
what of the known history of Wagadu as a state? Or its dynastic genealogy? Here
contradictions abound as different versions of oral traditions disagree on
details. Dieterlen presented Wagadu as dominated by the Cisse, beginning with
Diabe as the first king based at Koumbi. Inexplicably, there were thirty-three
of these Cisse kings before a member of the Toure clan became the 34th king.
The Toure, who were associated with the power to control water, seized the
kingdom with Moudou Toure at the head. A Muslim, Moudou Toure enjoyed support
from some of the local Kakolo clans and Diane and Koma clans. Elsewhere, it is
claimed that Madyou Toure was the last to reign, though it is unclear what his
relationship was to Moudou Toure. Prior to this, one of the 5 Cisse clans
apparently dominated rulership, the Kharesi. But the switch to the Toure may
have led to a change in capitals and greater Islamization as the first Muslim
kings (in the late 11th century, according to Arabic sources). One may
interpret this as the rise to prominence of an Islamic noble clan in Wagadu,
evidence of which can be found in external Arabic sources on Wagadu in the
1100s and 1200s. Even Zafun allegedly entered the picture, where the older
brother of Diabe left when Diabe succeeded Dinga. This Cisse brother married a
woman of the Dyafone clan of Dyafounou, suggesting links between Zafun and
Wagadu began early in Ghana's history.
However,
a looming question remains. Can one reconcile Dieterlen's reconstruction of the
kingdom's past with other sources? Her text includes a few other variants of
the Soninke tale of Kumbi and the dispersal from Wagadu after the killing of
Bida. Some of these other sources provide a different king list for Wagadu. One
named the Wagadu kings as Khaya Makha Sise, Wakane Sakho, Damera Sokhna, Gumane
Fade, Sero Khumma (all brothers of Diabe, the first king). Then leadership
passed to the family of D'ariso, beginning a new line of kings: Kambine,
Suleyman, Bannabubu, Wagadu Makha II, Gane, Musa, Biramu, and then a disastrous
civil war. Needless to say, some of the people considered kings here were
supposedly noble governors or warrior leaders in Sylla and Dieterlen's version
of events. We also wonder about Biramu, a name which sounds close to Birama.
But once the D'ariso lineage succeeded, one notes father to son inheritance (6
generations) and the appearance of Islamic names. If the civil war which followed
the reign of Biramu, among his own sons no less, involved a warrior from D'ara
in Tiraka, then this could have been the moment of an Islamic faction seizing
the throne. Tiraka, after all, had been an important center for trade to Ghana,
Tadmakka, and other groups, with a Wangara population also there attested by
some external Arabic sources. This raises the legitimate question of how to
interpret the dynastic and/or religious change in Wagadu's leadership in the
11th century. It is tempting to see traditions of a Toure clan Muslim becoming
king with the support of some elements within the kingdom (and possible support
from the Almoravids).
Ultimately, Dieterlen's book raises more questions than it can possibly answer. Yet the connections she makes to other West African cultures and the Soninke ethnographic present can give the reader new ways to think about the history of pre-Islamic Wagadu. The clear role of the "traditional" religion as the legitimizing ideology behind kingship and the worldview of the people, as well as the strong role played by lineage in creating and distributing hierarchies, rank, and identities is worth exploring.