Glimpses of Pre-Islamic Soninke

Although there is often potential danger in using oral traditions and modern ethnographic analogies to understand different societies from the distant past, a reappraisal of Soninke oral traditions and the corpus of external Arabic sources supports doing so. Islam has spread among Soninke people for 1000 years, but a cursory examination of Mandinka, Bambara and similar religious traditions can inform our understanding of Ghana. In so doing, the polity's pre-Islamic roots become clearer and aspects of its social, political and economic life can be unveiled. External sources like al-Bakri, despite being of great use, suffer from not personally traveling to Ghana or letting their religious and ethnocentric biases obscure the realities of other societies. Thus, in order to delve deep into Soninke origins, we shall begin with the oral traditions as recorded in Arabic  by Mamadi Aïssa (and translated into French by Maurice Delafosse) of Nioro.

The "Histoire de royaoume de Ouagadou" begins Traditions historiques et légendaires du Soudan occidental. Tracing the origins of the Soninke clans to Dinga, assuredly a mythical figure, this report of Soninke origins reflects Islamic influences. For instance, Dinga is said to come from the East and to have been a descendant of Job, Solomon, and David. Nonetheless, there are powerful indicators of the pre-Islamic Soninke worldview in the tale of his migrations. First, Dinga traveled in the company of 300 magicians, led by Karabara Diadiane, an ancestor of the Soudoro clan (Aissa 6). This establishes right away that the mythical founder of the Soninke people was associated with magic, occult power or spiritual power. The tale of Dinga then shifts to his migrations, including a stop at a village named Dienne. Dinga takes a local wife but she fails to bear him a child after 27 years together. So, unsurprisingly, Dinga moves on to another place (Aissa 7). The fact that his first was barren or failed to become pregnant after so long, which was a cause for divorce, highlights the central role of fertility and progeny in an agricultural society like that of the ancient Soninke. Dinga's search for a wife to bear him children is likely related to the migrations of the Soninke ancestors in search of water or fertile lands.

After leaving his first wife, Dinga married a woman in the village of Diagha. This wife bears him 3 sons, twins. One of the twins dies but the other two people ancestors of the Souare and Dyikine clans (Aissa 7). Twins always have spiritual significance. The death of one of the triplets may have have been necessary for restoring a balance of two halves. Or, alternatively, perhaps the death of one of the twins was an ominous sign for the posterity of Dinga? Regardless, Dinga relocates from Diagha to Kingui, where he stops at Daraga. Dinga requests his followers, who must consist of his large body of magicians, retainers, dependents, sons, and slaves, to get water from a well. Unfortunately, a genie or jinn (or goblin, Levtzion 17) inhabiting the well prevents them from doing so. Dinga himself then confronts the jinn, but has to rely on aid from the leader of the magicians, Karabara Diadiane, to defeat the genie through sorcery (Aissa 7). This episode indicates the importance of wells and sources of water for the life of a community. Dinga, as leader, endeavored to ensure a water supply from the well but was only able to succeed with the help of a powerful magician. Royal power, therefore, relied on the supernatural or occult powers and wisdom of ritual specialists and priests. Kings or chiefs could not ensure the survival of their dependents without their assistance.

After defeating the genie of the well, Dinga accepts its offer of marriage to his three daughters. These three daughters become the mothers of several sons (the origins of various Soninke clans are traced to them). The spirit or jinn in the well, a source of water or life, therefore becomes an ancestor of the Soninke through Dinga's numerous progeny. This may symbolize water as one of the four elements to the Soninke. One of the progeny of Dinga is, according to this version of the legend, the serpent or Bida himself (Aissa 8). Thus, Bida, or the serpent, is related to the Soninke clans. The serpent may have become a totemic or powerful symbol in Soninke origins as it was a liminal animal inhabiting watery and dry spaces. Further, the snake's ability to shed its skin may have become an additional factor in its symbolic role associated with life, water, and rebirth. Indeed, the power of the snake "cult" among the Soninke was so strong that even 20th century Muslim Soninke avoided the taboo of killing or harming the bida snake (Bathily 19). If this belief was true for the "Zafun" described in the Arabic sources, then the Soninke societies described by al-Bakri and others in the 11th and 12th century likely believed the snake was a powerful entity linked to fertility, rain, gold (which could be panned from rivers after rainfall), and, thus, worthy of sacrifice and perhaps consulted for oracular powers (Levtzion & Hopkins 78). Similar beliefs about animals like the fox may have also been a factor in Soninke religion. According to Askia Muhammad, some of the self-proclaimed Muslims he freed actually believed in a fox cult and consulted shrines for idols or spirits (al-Maghili 77). 

The other sons of Dinga are worth mentioning for their role in the establishment of Wagadu. According to the this version of the tale, the founder of the Sisse or Cisse clan was the son of Dinga through the second daughter of the well jinn (Aissa 8). Maghan Diabe eventually occupies the center stage through his role in the foundation of Wagadu as a prosperous kingdom. According to the traditions, Dinga, old and blind, offers to give an older son the kingship (represented by a royal talisman) in exchange for roasted meat (Aissa 10). Considering the role of hunters or hunting in the oral traditions surrounding Sundiata and other Mande cultures, perhaps this is an indication of the importance of hunters in society and rulership. First of all, Dinga, now blind, must step down or vacate the throne. His disability means his ability to conduct the community is compromised, especially if hunting and war were essential traits of kingship. What makes things even more interesting, and perhaps influenced by Biblical traditions, is Aissa's version making Maghan Diabe king through a ruse. Again, as in the case of Dinga's success against the spirit in the well, Maghan Diabe is only able to pull it off through the assistance of the sorcerer, Karabara Diadiane. Nevertheless, Maghan Diabe's seizure of power by providing his father with roasted meat before his older brother may indicate greater prowess as a hunter or warrior. Thus, despite being younger than his brother, he was the more skilled hunter/warrior who earned the authority of the ailing Dinga. The entire episode is suggestive of the great role priests or those in control of occult forces could have in the royal court as well as the ability to hunt. Moreover, by providing food or sustenance to his father, Maghan Diabe reverses the traditional father-son relationship and demonstrates respect for elders, even if he attempted to win the "royal chains" or talisman through trickery. 

However, Maghan Diabe's older brother still receives an important gift. Instead of the kingship, Dinga bestows upon him a talisman associated with control of rain (Aissa 11). Consequently, a different branch of the royal family retained control of rain while the line of Maghan Diabe ruled Wagadu. This episode avoids fratricidal violence among brothers or clans of the Soninke while perhaps establishing a branch of the royal lineage as a line of ritual specialists or rainmakers at Kumbi. If an accurate portrayal of events, this suggests the kings of Wagadu were not directly associated with rainmaking but members of their family became a hereditary line of priests with that power. However, the fissioning of the Soninke into various clans might have been an impetus for more migrations. The next move was inspired by Diabe's consulting a diviner. The prophecy of this person predicts Diabe will become a great king and tells him to undertake another journey through the desert. The allusion to a diviner here may be a testament to the antiquity of geomancy or divination among the Soninke. This journey of the hero also presents new challenges and requires a crossing of the desert with 40 beasts of burden. By undertaking this quest through inhospitable land, Diabe may have been undergoing another ordeal that would lead him to the greener, wealthier pastures of Wagadu.

Diabe's quest through the land also included encounters with animals. In this case, hyenas and vultures enter the story. The leader of the hyenas cannot offer assistance to Diabe's group. An old vulture encountered afterwards, one that cannot fly, could direct them but requires something in exchange. After feeding the vulture all 40 of the animals in his group, it agrees to guide Diabe to the site of Kumbi (Aissa 12). Since animals besides the snake or serpent do not speak or communicate with humans, the significance of the hyenas and vultures merits commentary. The hyena, as an animal that can laugh and is a dog-like scavenger, may have become a liminal creature in between human and animal society. The hyena's human-life laughs and dog-like features would have familiar to the Soninke, yet their scavenger lifestyle may have triggered disgust or disdain. The vulture, also a scavenger, may have been a liminal being through his ability to fly and its association with death or decay. However, after feeding it, its youth is restored and it guides the protagonist to Kumbi with his renewed flying ability. Perhaps the vulture's ability to fly and be more useful in a harsh climate represented an ability to traverse different worlds or cosmos to the Soninke.

After finally reaching Kumbi, another miraculous event occurs. At the site where the vultures leads them stands a tree. As Diabe orders the tree to be cut, a giant python or snake appears. In addition, a drum falls from the tree and 9,999 men appear, including 4 Soninke chiefs (Aissa 13). This myth connects the tree or forest with the snake and a ritual drum, perhaps the same as the one identified by al-Bakri for the royal court. Historians have long known from al-Bakri that Ghana's royal capital included a sacred grove (Levtzion & Hopkins 80). The tree, through its association with the snake (Bida), possibly became the area for the sacred grove associated with the pre-Islamic religion (al-Ghaba). But, Diabe had one more ordeal to undergo before fully establishing the kingdom of Wagadu at Kumbi. Four Soninke chiefs, including one ancestor of the Silla clan, could not agree on who should rule (Aissa 13). After one proposes a test involving the drum that fell from the tree, only Diabe is able to fit his arm. This must be an allusion to the royal drums used in Ghana's royal court. Next, Diabe must form the proper relationship with the snake, or Bida. The two come to an agreement in which Diabe will provide one beautiful maiden to the snake in exchange for 20 days of golden rain. This ritual exchange was associated with a sacrificial or ritual fest in Kumbi (Aissa 14). Undoubtedly, this is a reference to the panning and mining of gold in Wagadu. The snake's origins in the spirit of the well also signified fertility, water or life. By coming into a harmonious agreement with the snake, perhaps the Soninke traditions are suggesting Wagadu developed into a prosperous ecological balance with the spirits of nature. Through ritual offerings, sacrifices, and celebrations, the king and his ritual specialists must have been tasked with maintaining this balance. 

Unfortunately for the Cisse rulers of Wagadu, the agreement with Bida ended when an exceptional man, said to possess magical powers, chose to slay the serpent. After Diabe and his 4 brothers ruled in succession, the last, Kaya Magha, experienced the dissolution of the kingdom. Mamadi Sefe-Dokhote, kills the snake to protect the woman he loved from being given to the snake. Just as Siya is about to be given to the serpent in the ritual, Mamadi slays it by cutting off its head seven times (either through its ability to regenerate the body part or magic). By accomplishing this, Mamadi ensures the fall of Wagadu as no more rain or gold causes the dispersal of its people (Aissa 17). The careful balance maintained through rituals and the political order defined by the ruling ideology was destroyed. The Soninke dispersed and Wagadu  is gone.

The next problem becomes one of making sense of Wagadu with the oral traditions and textual sources. The medieval kingdom or empire of Ghana was a Soninke state in which the Soninke royal title was identified by al-Bakri in the name of one king, Tunkamenin (Bathily 13). However, the oral traditions of Wagadu are about far deeper origins of the Soninke people than the medieval kingdom of Ghana. Indeed, some of the clans identified in the traditions appear in the external Arabic sources of the Middle Ages as separate kingdoms or polities, not always loyal to Ghana. It seems likely that the Wagadu and Cisse dynasty identified in the oral traditions refer to a predecessor state to Ghana, or perhaps an earlier incarnation of the state that ended before the 9th  or 10th century. If the "Ghana" of the Arabic sources was a later offshoot of the Wagadu kingdom, then perhaps Ghana was just the most successful of the successor states. The other alternative could be the omission or loss of several names of kings leading up to Kaya Magha, so that the oral traditions telescope events and personages into a simplified chronology of only five kings of Wagadu before its dissolution. The breakup of Wagadu and formation of new Soninke polities would, over several centuries, have led to the loss of names for Wagadu's kings after losing the institutional framework of the royal court that likely sponsored the storage and dissemination of such information. The persistence of pagan practices among some Soninke, such as those of Gajaja, did not mean the preservation of this history (Bathily 38).

Luckily, when one carefully examines the traditions of Wagadu, external Arabic sources, and the ethnographic evidence of related cultures, one can potentially reach deeper conclusions about the origins of the kingdom and how it operated. If Wagadu's name referred to the ruling clans who divided the territory into their spheres of influence, and the clan leaders were expected to report to the royal capital for an annual religious festival in honor of the serpent, one can begin to see how the state's ruling ideology used religion to buttress the king's authority (Aissa 15). The traditional religion, however, would not have been enough to ensure loyalty as provincial leaders of ruling clans may have sought power or influence. Others likely formed marriage alliances with the tunka, perhaps contributing sons to serve in the court. Indeed, the capital could have shifted when different clans jostled for power (Bathily 19). Religious practices specifically tied to localities or aspects of nature were also relevant to the ancient Soninke. According to Askia Muhammad's questions to al-Maghili, similar concerns were an issue for the Askia (Hunwick 69). While Askia Muhammad may have been attempting to overemphasize the non-Islamic practices of Sunni Ali or the previous Songhay dynasty, the "worship" of rocks, trees, and idols was likely widespread across the Western Sudan. Specialists serving as intermediaries and others offering their services as soothsayers must have been a common site. Soninke religious specialists presumably held similar beliefs in their "idols" of trees and stones in the area of al-Ghaba.

Yet the snake cult and veneration of royal kings must have contributed to making Ghana's royal grove+s a powerful center for political, economic, and ritual purposes. Indeed, the capital of Ghana near the site of the snake cult may have been significant for royal succession, too, as al-Bakri indicates for the Zafun. Indeed, for the "Zafqu" of al-Bakri, the monstrous serpent lived in a cave in the desert. It received offerings of food, milk, drink, precious garments, and was called with formulas and whistling. The snake was involved with choosing the next king after the death of a ruler (Levtzion & Hopkins 78). If, the identification of the "Zafqu" with the Zafun or Diafunu is credible, then al-Bakri's description may offer clues on the function of the serpent cult in Ghana. Of course, the Zafun were also sometimes described as nomadic people wearing the veil, perhaps a reference to Berber influences on part of the Soninke population (Levtzion & Hopkins 170). If so, perhaps something akin to a solar cult was part of their religious practices, if al-Muhallabi's description of pre-Islamic Awdaghust Berbers is reliable (Levtzion & Hopkins 168). Ghana's snake, however, may have been associated with the sacred groves and wells rather than a desert in the cave. The role of royal veneration or ancestor worship cannot be dismissed, either. For Ghana, al-Bakri describes "domed buildings and groves and thickets where the sorcerers of these people, men in charge of their religious cult, live" (Levtzion & Hopkins 80). The tombs of kings were associated with idols and additionally featured an enormous dome with carpets, cushions, ornaments, weapons, food, drink, and the men who served his meals. Furthermore, al-Bakri describes sacrifices to the death and offerings of intoxicating drinks, suggesting kings and the deceased ancestors were appeased through rituals and honored. A later example from the Mossi states, cited in the Tarikh al-Sudan includes an instance of the Yatenga king consulting his ancestors through the traditional religion about possibly converting to Islam. Such a major decision, if it really was resolved through a ritual ceremony to consult ancestors, might offer clues to understanding how "traditional" religion in Ghana shaped political decisions (Hunwick 106). Through ostentatious display of their wealth in imported textiles, luxuries, and elite tombs, the kings of Ghana likely sought to buttress their rule through ancestry and connections to the snake cult. Indeed, Ibn Hawqal also believed the wealthy of Ghana were buried with their slave girls, showing off their power through the large accumulation of dependents and slaves they possessed, who then presumably served him in the afterlife (Levtzion & Hopkins 52).

Pre-Islamic Soninke religion also raises an interesting question about the status of women. What was the role of women in their religion and society? Even if al-Bakri's claim of matrilineal inheritance of the crown is questionable, certainly women were important in the "traditional" religion. A discovery of a female statue from Wagadu, currently located at a museum in Mauritania, emphasizes fertility. Soninke kings, through their association with the snake cult and fertility, presumably also valued women's fertility as the source of children. The symbolic associations of motherhood and trees could have been a factor here. Moreover, the association of women with divination and sorcery in other parts of the Western Sudan or Sahel might offer another avenue for exploration. For example, the Damdam kingdom mentioned by al-Bakri worshipped an idol in the form of a woman atop a fortress (Levtzion & Hopkins 86). Such an idol, the site of pilgrimage for this Damdam people who lived near Gao, could be a female spirit or mother goddess figure. The example of  Kugha, a town known for its associations with Ghana through gift exchange, may be illustrative (Levtzion & Hopkins 49). According to al-Idrisi, the women of Kugha were famous for their witchcraft (Levtzion & Hopkins 112). Were women renowned for their control of occult forces also present in Wagadu? What was the status of women in the "traditional" religion of the Soninke? If sorcery and witchcraft accusations were allegedly common in 14th century Ghana and Mali, according to al-Umari, surely women were also active participants in the process (Levtzion & Hopkins 265). Perceptions of sorcery and accusations of witchcraft may have also been one way to solve community discord through litigation before the king. Women certainly would have been involved in this in ways that are not detectable in our limited source materials. In addition, Islamic sources like al-Bakri may have assumed women were not in positions of authority, religious or otherwise. 

In summation, reading the traditions of Wagadu and focusing on the religious symbolism can pave the way forward for uncovering or emphasizing different aspects about the kingdom of Ghana. Although much will remain unknown or unverifiable, it is clear that pre-Islamic Soninke religion was foundational to the state. It shaped the royal court, its legitimacy, the development of ancestor veneration, and, almost certainly, the ways in which Islamic traditions and divination practices developed among Soninke, Mandinka and Bambara peoples. It has been proposed here that the Soninke religion possibly embraced the concept of fundamental elements, included ancestor worship, and perhaps incorporated animals as totemic figures in their view of ethnogenesis. Influences from across the Sahara, Sudan, and even the Mediterranean may have shaped Soninke beliefs. For instance, the worship of the Sun, attributed to pre-Islamic Berbers of Awdaghust, may have been an influence on the Zafun or Soninke near the desert. Religious and spiritual practices of Wagadu may have also been shaped by idol worship in Takrur, traditions of magic in Kugha, and Islamic systems of divination or belief. In fact, there were likely agricultural festivals and rites organized around a sacred calendar that may have been lunar or solar. Women may have possessed far more authority or spiritual power than our sources indicate, particularly in the domain of religion and, perhaps, possession. Like the Mallal king who converted to Islam after an Ibadi prayed for rain, it is likely that Islam was also spreading in Ghana among those who found it efficacious for reaching a goal. Moreover, Ghana or Soninke religion retained many aspects of the pre-Islamic past long after the decline and fall of Ghana. By highlighting its influence on the ancient kingdom of Wagadu, one can understand the indigenous roots of a complex Sudanic civilization that did not reject cosmopolitan influences. 

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