The Diallobé country before the French Ambiguous

Culture confrontation in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart,Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s

TRADITIONAL AFRICAN SOCIETIES

Traditional Africans share the basic instinct of gregariousness with the rest of human-kind. Families and members of kin-groups from minimal to maximal lineages generally live together and form community. Africans share life intensely in common. There are communal farmland, economic trees, streams, barns, and markets. There are also communal shrines, squares, masquerades, ritual objects and festivals for recreational activity, social, economic and religious purposes. Members of the same kindred or clan could distinguish themselves by their proficiency in a particular trade, skill or profession. Some traditional African communities or even entire language group may be experts in rain-making, wood carving, practice of traditional medicine, or black-smithing. For example, the Lovedu of South Africa, the Ibibio of southeast Nigeria and the Awka in Igboland are widely reputed for their skills in rainmaking, wood-carving and black-smithing respectively. These and similar features characterise the communal life of both agrarian and normadic groups of traditional Africa. Closeness to nature, the experience of life in terribly hazardous environment, and the crucial need for security and better performance in means of livelihood are some relevant factors that combine to deepen the natural impulse for gregariousness and sense of community among different African peoples. For traditional Africans, community is much more than simply a social grouping of people bound together by reasons of natural origin and/or deep common interests and values. It is both a society as well as a unity of the visible and invisible worlds; the world of the physically living on the one hand, and the world of the ancestors, divinities and souls of children yet to be born to individual kin-groups. In a wider sense, African traditional community comprehends the totality of the world of African experience including the 7 physical environment, as well as all spirit beings acknowledged by a given group. Most traditional African groups, including the traditional Yoruba of Nigeria and the Dogon of Mali, have intriguing sacred stories or myths that tell how the world, human beings and important institutions came into being. Such sacred stories generally also underscore the involvement of ancestors and mythical beings in the life and affairs of the community of the physically living. They also try to explain the significance of different rituals for human beings and their important life-interests. The invisible members, especially ancestors and spiritual beings are powerful and by far superior to human beings. Their reality and presence in the community are duly acknowledged and honoured among various traditional African groups. Neglect could spell disaster for human beings and the community. The invisible beings are represented by different kinds of symbols like carved objects, shrines and sacred altars. They may also be recalled in personal names given to children, especially in cases where particular ancestors or spirit beings are held to have reincarnated in individual children. The presence of the ancestors is particularly felt in traditional African community. They are believed to be benevolent and powerful representatives of the community. The networks of relationships among human beings are remarkably extended and deep. In fact, the words ‘family’, ‘brother’, or ‘sister’, etc. define far more for Africans than what they mean today for the average European or North American. The family for the traditional African usually includes one’s direct parents, grand and great grand parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews. And normally, a child would refer to any of his uncles or aunts as his father or mother, his nephews and nieces as his/her brothers and sisters. People generally do not ask a child his/her personal name. 8 Rather, a child is identified as ‘a child of so and so parents’. The extended family system is the model. The molecular family pattern is alien and believed to be inimical to the traditional value of community. Moreover, the country of the Diallobe is entirely ruled by a culture of faith, a mystical faith which is turned toward darkness and gives the afterlife supremacy. Here is the cultural background in which, a young Senegalese boy, Samba Diallo a devout Muslim, born and raised in the country of Senegal, learns the culture, tradition, and faith of his people. Samba Diallo, and by extension his aunt were born into the religious, social and political aristocracy dominating a whole area of Senegal: the Fouta Toro. In fact, with the increasing influence of Islam in the area, the Toucouleur were in power. In addition, in th19th century, this region extended over the Senegal and Mauritania banks of the Senegal River. 1.1. The traditional Igbo and Gikuyu societies If it is true that traditional values that are shared by members of a society can be taken as elements to identify that society, we therefore can assume the existence of a connotation between culture and identity. The expression of those values has survived through time because they were sustained by oral traditions which constitute African identity. And it is this identity which made and still makes African societies exist as different ones with their specificities. In order to survive, this identity needs to be perpetuated; and it is made possible thanks to the chief role of Orality. Igbo and Gikuyu people have lived in peace and harmony before the arrival of the colonialists. These traditional societies are well displayed in Things Fall Apart and The River Between. The novels describe the above mentioned traditional village and community life before the contact with external colonial powers. 9 Contrary to what white men sustained, Igbo and Gikuyu people have had a good organization in that they have a political, religious, economic life of theirs. The dynamism of their societies means that Africa has always had its own vision of the world. Their practices were good enough to create and maintain harmony and peace within the community. Things Fall Apart is referred to as pre-colonial Igbo society in the 19th century. The related events took place in the past in a village called Umofia. Through the village of Umofia, Achebe reveals the essence of traditional Igbo society and culture. The writer describes Umofia as: “A great nation which has no lesson to receive from no one, even from the white man.” (Achebe,1965:10) To a Western eye, life in Umuofia appears problematic in many respects. Nothing in how the village operates is reminiscent of typical Western order. From an economic, social, judicial or even religious point of view, the various modus operandi of Umuofia find their relevance in Ibo‟s traditions and culture. What the British in Things Fall Apart perceive as unorthodox and chaotic, is in fact a well thought out organization that suits the Ibo on many levels. The stories of Okonkwo and his fellow countrymen are told from an insider‟s point of view with an omniscient narrator able to fill the reader in on every aspect of the Ibo culture. Umuofia is a rural village where people live mainly on agriculture and hunting. Achebe repeatedly writes about the importance of yams, something that is only understood in reference to the Ibo culture. For the Ibo‟s youth, the art of preparing yams is considered a rite of passage; Nwoye and Ikemefuna learn it the hard way when they failed to accomplish the task according to Okonkwo‟s high expectations (28). The ability to plant and harvest extended amounts of crops, of yams principally, loudly speaks. On the religious point of view, we can assume that harmonious living is sustained by religious organization which is a pivotal value. African traditional religions, which have been rightly referred to as the mother of the people’s 10 culture, plays a key role in the realisation of this all-important value among every traditional African group. Religion is central in inculcating in the promotion and realisation of harmonious inter-relationship among individuals and the community. In the traditional African background, religion is a most important aspect of life. It pervades and permeates all aspects of life and infuses the social, economic, political dimensions with meaning and significance. But there are some more striking avenues through which the traditional religion helps the community to realise the community ideal of harmonious living. They include transmission of certain key religious ideas and beliefs, initiation practices, ritual activities, sacred symbol forms and vital public institutions. If marriage is referred to as a social institution in the Igbo, it goes without saying that it plays many functions among which: the reinforcement of social cohesion, the respect of social hierarchy, the privilege given to the community as a group on detriment of the individual. It also helps in that it fosters and strengthens the relationship between the different members of the community. Marriage also defines women as a social pillar whose choice is fundamental because they are the conservators and teachers of the patrimony. It is what Jonan okwe, the main character in Flowers and Shadows, has summed up as follows: “My son, a good wife is what a man should pray for. Have a good wife and you will have a happy life.” (Okri,1980:62) Like the Igbo, the Gikuyu have their own way of sealing a union between a man and a woman. Marriage begins with the soliciting boy and his friends visiting the girl and asking her in a roundabout manner whether she wants to keep seeing them. As she accepts, they come back another day to meet parents; in this occasion, the parents talk about marriage as they drink beer, and the girl is to sip beer at each question as sign of approval. About marriage, a number of moral virtues are highlighted in its description. Divorce is very rare because the community does its best in keeping a marriage together and the presence of the wife is essential of the homestead. 11 This may well be regarded as one of the countering arguments from Jomo Kenyatta against accusations of savagery and barbarism, the inability to selfgovernance, and moral deficiency towards colonized societies in general. The role that is devoted to women in traditional African societies is central in that they provide men children, in order to ensure continuity with the ancestors. That‟s why in traditional thought, this means that marrying a second wife might become necessary so as to ensure the birth of children, particularly if the first wife is proved to be barren. To foster this analysis on the role of women in traditional Africa, John Mbiti reports that in traditional African thought: “The value of a woman begins when she is born, not when she gets married…A babygirl means beautiful cows.” (Mbiti,1991:63) The ritualistic function of women emanated from belief in the ritual essence of women as progenitors of the society. The idea is that women know the secret of life since they are the source of life. Because of their biological function in the life-giving process, the society looks on them to safeguard life. Thus, it is the biological role of women that influenced belief in their power. There is a memorable question that old Uchendu asks, which emphasizes the position of women in Things Fall Apart in a dramatic way: can you tell me Okonkwo, why it is that one of the commonest names we give to our children is Nneka, or “Mother is Supreme?” 

The Diallobé country before the French Ambiguous

Adventure starts with life in the Country of the Diallobé prior to the arrival of the White man. The Diallobé, we learn from the opening 21 pages of the novel, are a deeply religious population who strongly believe in God; not the God of the White missionaries however, but in Allah, the God of Islam. With Samba Diallo and his clan, Kane presents the reader with more than just an indigenous Black society; he depicts a deeply monotheistic religious people for whom everything revolves around faith. Samba Diallo as well as the rest of his community members are Toucouleur and belong to the Diallobé tribe, a community in the North of the present-day Senegal among the first to have adopted Islam. In Ambiguous Adventure, Islam represents the dominant religion. The Diallobé are presented as people who profoundly believe in God Like Samba Diallo. They live their lives following the teachings of the Koran, the Holy Book of Islam. Evidence attesting to the Islamic faith of the Diallobé is plentiful. The story starts with Samba Diallo at the Foyer ardent, a Koranic school run by Maître Thierno. With Thierno, Samba Diallo is initiated at a very young age to the Words of God. There, he learns the words of Lord in their original Arabic as he memorizes sourates from the Koran. A young boy from the Fulani tribe, Samba Diallo is indeed Muslim as his family is and has been for generations. And it is in this heavily religious, yet hybrid community, that the hero of Ambiguous Adventure evolves before the colonizers first set foot on the Country of the Diallobé. Before the French, The Diallobé was an already heterogeneous Society. As mentioned earlier, the Diallobé belong to the Toucouleur tribe in the Northern part of Senegal. Both Cheikh Hamidou Kane and Samba Diallo are members of that ethnicity; however, little information on the Fulani is provided in the novel. As true believers in their Chahâda, the Fulani, and the Diallobé in particular, are a deeply religious community who bear witness that there is no god but God and that Mohammed is his prophet. This strong belief in the Islamic profession of faith leaves no room for any other belief system among the Diallobé. Islam in Ambiguous Adventure is “pure,” rigorously and exclusively 22 following the teachings of the Koran. Unlike in So Long a Letter, for example, where Mariama Ba depicts the syncretism at play in Senegal, with traditional beliefs cohabiting alongside Islam, with Kane, no mention of any pagan practices is made. From a religious point of view, the Diallobé are presented as being a strict Muslim community; but behind their apparent monolithic faith, a diversity of points of views emerges. The Most Royal Lady and Thierno, though they both genuinely believe in God and in the teachings of the Holy Koran, interpret differently what it means to be a good Muslim and how best to serve and protect their religion. The former believes in a philosophy of life and an approach to religion that is less radical and more inclusive while the latter is a proponent of an immutable Islam focused on the hereafter. Another piece of information gleaned from the Diallobé is that they are a stratified community where the notion of class is very important. Samba Diallo as well as his family members are often referred to as “princes,” a recognition of their aristocratic lineage. With the Diallobé indeed, nobility is an inherited “quality” and is defined at birth. This social reality which elevates a man on grounds other than his faith and dedication to God, is, according to the radical interpreters of the religion, antithetical to Islam. For Thierno and some Muslim purists, the system of class, and nobility in particular, is nothing but the celebration of man and consequently outside of the realm of true belief. For more an in-depth analysis of soufisme and the different levels of interpretations in Islam, with the belief that one cannot exalt both God and man at the same time, Thierno denounces what he considers a near-pagan practise within his community. By so doing, he inscribes himself in opposition to The Most Royal Lady who, by all external standards, bears proudly the markers of her noble descent. 23 But by far the most important piece of evidence attesting to the hierarchical nature of the Diallobé community is the use of the word “nobility” acknowledging the existence of slaves within their community. The word is an obvious proof and the narrator falls short of providing significant information on the state of slavery within the Diallobé or within the Islam faith in general. The teacher believed profoundly that the adoration of God was not compatible with any exaltation of man. But, at the bottom of all nobility there is a basis of paganism. Nobility is the exaltation of man, faith is before all else humility. A final note on the Diallobé has to do with the role and place of women. The Most Royal Lady, more than any other character in the novel, is presented as a strong individual and a decision maker. Throughout the novel, her voice is heard clearly and loudly as she leads her people to the new and unpopular French school. She is however the only woman, the only Diallobé woman, who takes an active part in the narrative. The other women from the Country of the Diallobé (like Samba Diallo‟s mother) are only alluded to but the reader never gets to hear their voices. So what about those women who the reader knows are present but never hear? To let Ambiguous Adventure speak effectively, this analysis needs to focus, not just on the language Kane uses, but also on what he leaves unsaid. Women in the Country of the Diallobé, in the image of women in Islam in general, live in the shadow of their male counterparts. They are rarely heard, especially in public. It is therefore out of a wish to avoid a potential male attraction that women are not allowed in the same spheres as men. Women outside the Country of the Diallobé are fully fledged characters with opinions of their own and are actively engaged in dialogue with their male counterparts. 24 In Ambiguous Adventure indeed, it was on an exceptional basis that women were allowed to attend the meeting on whether or not to send the Diallobé children to the French school. And when they did, they were kept at a distance from their male counterparts and their voices were never heard. It is The Most Royal Lady, an older, asexual woman, a person nothing like the average Diallobé, who acted as their spokesperson, confirming the received idea that it is only the woman who is no longer sexually desirable to men who is permitted to take part in social matters. The Most Royal Lady indeed is a sixty year-old aristocratic woman with patriarchal status. Contrary to the traditional gendered roles that describe women as wives and mothers, she is known to the reader as an aunt (to Samba Diallo), a sister (to the knight) and a daughter (to her late Chief father). While she might not be representative of the larger role and place of women in the Country of the Diallobé, there is no denying that by making her carry the voice of progress and outreach to the “other,” Kane makes a statement recognizing female leadership in a heavily male dominated environment while at the same time not transgressing the theological imperatives of the Koran. With the adoption of Islam, the Diallobé embraced more than a simple religion; they adopted a new language, a new philosophy and a new outlook on life. As devout Muslims, the Diallobé, and Samba Diallo in particular, use Arabic on a daily basis but do not speak nor do they write the language. For Samba Diallo, Arabic constitutes an unintelligible yet paradoxically necessary language. As the medium in which the Koran was revealed, Arabic indeed is a language any practising Muslim needs as he/she copes with the mandates of Islam. At the Foyer ardent, Samba Diallo learns to recite perfectly the contents of his tablets without access to the latter‟s semantic meanings. As a consequence, his relationship to God, though personal, is mediated by Thierno. As a teacher and one of the Diallobé‟s 25 spiritual leaders, Thierno does not just interpret the Koran for Samba Diallo and his peers; he also instils in them the values and philosophies of the Islamic faith. More than the Arabic language, Maitre Thierno teaches his disciples how to live, not for material wealth, but for something holy. With Thierno, Samba Diallo learns that life on earth ought to be nothing but a rehearsal for the hereafter. God holds a special place in the lives of the Diallobé. He is at the beginning and the end of all and the journey of life itself is to be lived in celebration of this philosophy. In a nutshell, Samba Diallo learns with Thierno, that people are but: “miserable lump of earthly mold” (Kane,1963:4) This emphasis on spirit over matter influences, on one hand, the minimalist and simplicity of the lives of the Diallobé, and on another, the ways they think metaphysical concepts. At least five times a day, Muslims are required to pray. The prayers in question follow strict guidelines and are to be executed in the original Arabic of the Koran. The teachings of God are indeed filtered through Thierno in part because of language. For Samba Diallo and his people (i.e. Maître Thierno), in an effort to repress a man‟s ego as he tries to get closer to God, the ideals of death are privileged over the ideals of life; and at the Foyer ardent, there is no limit to how far Le Maître can go to ensure that children properly learn, at a very young age, the values of a good Muslim. The first time the reader meets Samba Diallo, he is being punished by Thierno for failing to recite properly: “That day, Thierno had beaten him again…He had seized Samba Diallo by the fleshy part of his thigh and, between his thumb and his index finger, had given him a long hard pinch” (Kane,1963:1) This expression of love, of genuine concern through utter violence might not be understandable to a Western audience whose conception of children‟s 26 rights prohibits any form of “physical abuse.” In the Country of the Diallobé however, corporeal punishments are totally acceptable. Far from being child abuse, they participate in teaching children humility and perseverance. Still in keeping with Thierno‟s idea of repressing the ego, Samba Diallo and his peers, clothed in rags, go door to door begging for their daily meals. By now, the reader knows that Samba Diallo belongs to an aristocratic family who could amply afford to feed him. This situation of voluntary disenfranchisement, as far as the Diallobé are concerned, participates in making children forget early about their bodies, about their egos. The Foyer ardent is, as we have seen so far, the place where the reader is first presented with Muslim philosophy. Under the direction of Thierno, the overall teachings of the contents of texts are revealed. Islam, we learn from Thierno, a man who never laughed, is less about the celebration of life on earth than it is with the preparation of the hereafter. At a tender age, children at the Koranic school are taught the concept of death. Far from being an end in itself, death indeed is presented as the necessary passage to eternity; something not to be feared but actively expected and welcomed. Samba Diallo, in the image of his creator, Cheikh Hamidou Kane, is primarily defined as a Fulani and as a Muslim. Kane insists on his ethnic and religious lineage for a sense of place and belonging. The novel is set in the “Country of the Diallobé” with Diallobé meaning nothing but that which belongs to “Diallo.” The “-be” suffix signals the notion of belonging and readers of Ambiguous Adventure with some familiarity with the Senegalese culture quickly recognize Diallo as a common Peulh patronym, often from the higher class. So the expression “Country of the Diallobé,” beyond its significance as a geographical entity, carries within itself information pertaining to ethnicity as well as class. Indeed, in Senegal, patronyms often carry within themselves both the linguistic, cultural and sometimes even 27 the class of a person. Throughout the novel, the narrator provides information regarding the Peulh origins of Samba Diallo and his clan members. Not only are they of noble descent, but there are of the kind that rules their country. Consequently, one could expect that their language would be commensurate with their social prestige. Indeed Samba Diallo‟s noble origins are part and parcel of who he is. Class determination from a person‟s last name is not always accurate. Traditional social codes forbid inter-class marriages, but in reality, and especially with the younger generations, the rules are not always followed. For this reason, someone might carry what is believed to be a noble last name and yet have in his/her lineage an ancestor (mostly female) who belonged to a lower class. If we read Samba Diallo‟s stubborn nobility as an indication of Kane‟s himself, then we start to catch a glimpse of the reason why names of places such as the “Town of L…,” is a deliberate choice by Kane not to confine his narrative to a restricted geographical entity. The story Kane tells in Ambiguous Adventure is indeed that of the Peulh community at large, a community known to exist well beyond the geographical limits of the present day Senegal. In this task of uncovering Samba Diallo‟s origins, we can consider Samba Diallo as literally another Cheikh Hamidou Kane because of the significance of the two names. “Diallo is the Peulh equivalent of the Tukolor name Kane” while Samba represented the “conventional,” the other name given to the second-born son within Tukolor families. Here, it is important to acknowledge the establishing both his linguistic and cultural lineages beyond Kane‟s suggestions.