THE SUPYIRE COSMOLOGY THE SUPYIRE PEOPLE AND CULTURE: AN OUTLINE SKETCH
Supernatural spirits
There are different races of spirits who live in the bush country, outside of the villages. Those that commonly appear in folk tales are called the bush people. They
have long hair, often blond, have white skin and backward turning feet. In one tale, they return home to a baobab tree after a day cultivating their fields. They bring
firewood and put down their hoes. Then the hoes pick them up and put them down So mixed up with the magical elements of the stories is the mundane, everyday life
they lead. Living as they do in the wild, chaotic untamed bush, they are somewhat dangerous creatures, with potential for causing harm as well as good.
The Supyire have also adapted to the existence of jinas, which form part of the world of the neighbouring Bambara people, the majority ethnic group in Mali.
Appearing less often in traditional stories than the bush people, less is known about the lives of jinas. Still, they probably wield the greater influence on the course of
human life. One diviner said that the jinas need to talk with Kile before he agrees to send the rain. They choose certain people to be their instruments, and at certain times
will take possession of them and give them powers, such as the ability to perform divination or play musical instruments during religious festivals.
Another race that live in the bush, are the w•rokolobii,
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known for their evil deeds. According to Joyce Carlson’s research,
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they will shoot a person on sight, but fortunately they fall asleep very easily, and will sometimes even fall asleep
before they are able to discharge their arrow. If you construct a corral or house near
the home of one of them, they will eventually kill all your cattle or family.
Also hostile towards humans are the faraüi water spirits that can kill a person
who falls into a stream, the body being left to float on the water. The Bambara too know this spirit.
A more benevolent spirit is your guiding spirit nahafoo, otherwise known as your
mîlîgî, a word borrowed ultimately from Arabic where it means angel. It will protect you, but can also punish you if it is neglected and does not receive sufficient
sacrificial gifts.
26
A loan word from Bambara.
27
Carlson “The Supyire Pantheon”, p.7.
Ancestors
The ancestors kw—ubii,
literally “the dead ones” are those who lived long honourable lives in society, and have contributed to the continuation of the race
through marriage and children. They lead a village life of their own, raising herds and cultivating fields. The more importance a person gains in this life, the greater
power he will wield as an intermediary when he has passed on to the village of the ancestors.
Particularly powerful among the ancestors are the spirits of twins. A woman who was both a twin and a mother of twins from a Senufo group in Cô
te d’Ivoire recounted a creation myth
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which explains their significan ce. “When [God] created
the first man and woman, they became man and wife. When the woman conceived for the first time, she gave birth to a boy and a girl, who were twins.”
The balance between male and female is important; twins who are of the same sex are a sign that something is out of balance and not seen so favourably. It is
important to give the twins the same gifts; jealousy caused by unequal treatment would endanger the life and health of the family.
A small model made of two winnowing baskets joined together represents the family’s twin spirits. When I took a lady who was having a long, difficult labour to
hospital, her family members brought along this model, presumably to help give a safe delivery.
Fetishes
Fetishes are man-made objects endued with supernatural power which families will often hang in a bag in the vestibule, entrance hut to their compound.
Alternatively, they house it in its own little hut. Typically a fetish can be made out of gold, or can be fabricated according to some “recipe”. Widespread among the
Supyire are fetishes called the Wara, the Kono and K›nr›. They get renowned for
having certain powers. For example, the K›nr›, known as the fetish of love, can help
to consolidate the love between a man and a woman and be used to produce a product which will increase
the fertility of one’s fields. As a certain fetish gains a reputation, people will copy its recipe to make their
own fetish that will bear the same name. Often lesser known fetishes with different
28
See Glaze Art and Death in a Senufo Village, p.73.
powers will be brought and added to the bag and assimilated to the main fetish, so that if the contents of each
K›nr›, for instance, were now examined, they would not be identical.
The power of the fetish is greatly feared, for the owner can use it not only to seek his own goo
d, but also to harm others. Or it can be used as a sign of one’s power. The story is told by Nawara Sagoro that when Tieba was king of Sikasso in
the 19
th
century, a certain renowned Senufo fetisher and warrior among the king’s troops,
Namon›, used his tail fetish to bind the king and his court. In sacrificing to the fetish, reciting the name of the king, he “tied” them, thus enabling Namon› to go
right into the king’s bedroom, shave his head, and escape without waking anyone.
This occurred on three separate occasions, until the king suspected Namon› and
arranged for him to be killed in battle by his own side. The power of the fetish is also used to serve as a policeman and judge in a
small village community. In the case of a theft or suspected adultery, the wronged party will consult the owner of the fetish and ask him to harm or kill the offending
party. Every year the owner will organize a celebration in honour of the fetish and
maintain good relations with it. Someone will don a mask and a particular outfit to personify the fetish and dance. The fetish mask will also come out to dance at the
funeral of its owner. It is often forbidden for women to see the fetish or its mask. The fetish can take action on its own too, especially against sorcery, for
sorcery is viewed as most anti-social. Typically the sorcerer nearly always a woman can transform herself into an animal and drag away the souls of others while
they sleep to use them for her purposes, transforming them into animals. This leaves the soul of the victim weak and leads to sickness or death. A member of the family of
an old lady who died in the 1970s related how when she died, she was said to have been killed by the Kono. The Kono mask had been out dancing not long before her
death and a cat had been spotted during the celebration. So when the old lady died, it was deduced that she had transformed herself into the cat to get close to the fetish
and the fetish had punished her. Her clothes were then left on the roof of the fetish house to rot as a sign of what had happened.
Life force
Robert Carlson
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writes that every living thing in Supyire cosmology is “endowed with a kind of impersonal life force called ¤…m…. This force can
harm other animals or things and is thus potentially the cause of disease and even death. Certain animals and people, such as pythons and albinos, have
more ¤…m… than others. You can get sick even by walking past the place
where a python has been coiled up, even if it is no longer there. Hunters must protect themselves in various ways against the
¤…m… of their prey. Soldiers and policemen, too, who may kill someone in fulfilling their duties, are also
subject to attack from the ¤…m…
of their victims.”
Conclusion
Although tradition holds great weight among the Supyire,
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it would be wrong to give the impression that they hold to an unchanging body of orthodox
doctrine. What is outlined above should only be taken as a rough guideline of beliefs. Many of the details are somewhat vague, and the lines blurred. So in one
conversation Robert Carlson recorded between two old men, one of them is heard arguing that Kile and the jinas are one and the same. In the mind of one diviner
interviewed, jinas and bush people were the one and the same. The same blurring can be seen in that the same word kile has three meanings:
First, the Creator God is Kile. Second, the sky is called kile. And third, if you find anything considered extraordinary in nature, such as a skin shed by a python,
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or the nest of a rare bird called
kileükuu , God’s chicken or two chameleons mating, you
can take them home, and they become a kile. They are considered as a manifestation of God, and have supernatural powers. This little kile can receive sacrifices like a
fetish, but it is more the god of an individual or a family, and as such has less influence on the community as a whole.
29
Carlson, Robert “External Causation in Supyire Culture”, Notes on Anthropology 3:3 1999 7-14 p.11.
30
See above, p.12.
31
A woman named Siri, hearing that a man had found a snake skin exclaimed “U a kile ta” which can
be tra nslated “He has found a god” from anthropological notes by Ruth Herber passed on to Joyce
Carlson. Nawara Sagoro explained that finding a python skin fits into the category because normally the python swallows its skin once shed.
In the 1950s a new religion involving a powerful fetish swept through the area. Before a village could adopt it though, it had to get rid of certain other fetishes,
and a considerable number were burnt. So, despite the weight of tradition, when the Supyire have encountered something new which proves itself to be powerful, they
have adapted it, and then adopted it into their own unique pantheon.