West AfricaBoard

January 12, 2024

Subject: Documenting Endogenous Creation Narratives

By: Fatoumata Coulibaly

I am pleased to share findings from our ongoing work collaborating with knowledge-keepers across Bamanan to document indigenous oral traditions. While these cosmological beliefs held sacred significance for generations, some traditional practices promoted hierarchical and oppressive social structures that contradict our current principles of equity.

Our goal is not to legitimize any religion, but to respectfully preserve invaluable aspects of cultural heritage and history that have been handed down orally for centuries. Through open-minded discussions with community partners, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of origin stories and the complex relationship between spiritual beliefs and human-environment interactions as encoded in traditional narratives.

By facilitating the transmission of narratives according to community-defined standards, our department seeks to honor intangible elements of cultural patrimony while also creating space for reimagining practices to align more closely with Bamanan's values. It is our hope that empowering hereditary knowledge-bearers to convey beliefs, rituals and linguistics can help immortalize ancestral wisdoms.

Dogon

The Dogon peoples have inhabited the Bandiagara Escarpment region of Bamanan for centuries, migrating there after the collapse of the historic Mali Empire. Their isolation within the cliff formations protected communities and allowed unique languages and customs to develop among settlements.

Central to Dogon cosmology is recognition of Amma as the supreme creator, with subordinate deities including Nommo, Lebe and Yurugu representing natural forces. Ancestor worship and veneration of ancestral spirits are also core to Dogon spiritual practice.

Traditionally, Dogon lifeways involved animistic relationships between inhabitants, ancestral beings and the spirits inhabiting the landscape. Oral traditions, cult rituals, masking ceremonies and other customs served to maintain cosmological balance.

In recent times, factors like European colonization, slave raids, Christian/Islamic missionary activities and population migrations disrupted connections to sacred lands and opened possibilities for syncretic belief integration. However, much Dogon cultural knowledge and identity has endured.

Bambara (ߓߡߊߣߊ߲)

Bambara oral histories recount the emergence of reality from undifferentiated chaos, as the primordial goddess Me-na gave birth to male twins who separated earth and sky. All natural elements derive from this primordial beginning, with key locations and plants bearing spiritual significance. Maa itself is believed to have emanated from the cosmological ordering enacted by these first beings.

Imaziɣen

The indigenous peoples spanning North Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic historically referred to themselves as Imazighen (singular: Amazigh), meaning "free men". While outsiders used exonyms like "Berbers" or "Moors" over centuries, Amazigh remains the self-designated name for this ethno-linguistic group.

Following the 7th century Arab conquest, indigenous North African identities were increasingly suppressed under policies promoting pan-Arabism. By the 18th century, locals identified as either Arabs or Berbers, though the latter term derives from Amazigh. Europeans called the region "Barbary" while retaining "Moor" as an exonym, distinct from the indigenous self-name of Berber/Amazigh.

In the 19th century, French colonialism imposed new frameworks claiming the Amazigh as the "true autochthones of North Africa". Simultaneously, pan-Arab and Eurocentric erasures recast the region's pre-Islamic origins. Under neighboring monarchical rule as well, systematic suppression targeted indigenous Amazigh traditions.

Consequently, comprehensive documentation of authentically Amazigh belief systems in prior to these influences has faced major obstacles. While some accounts suggest animistic, land-based spiritual worldviews, Bamanan researchers emphasize ongoing careful work is needed. Asserting Amazigh cultural rights and decolonizing hegemonic narratives remains crucial to empowering Bamanan communities and reconstructing their perspectives.

Conclusion

By recording Bamanan peoples' own understandings of genesis and the sacred nature of the world, we hope to respectfully preserve endogenous African spiritual philosophies before they are lost to changing realities. Our role is documentation, not interpretation or comparison to external lenses.