Nyama and Heka: African Concepts of the Word Christopher Wise Western Washington University, [email protected]

Nyama and Heka: African Concepts of the Word Christopher Wise Western Washington University, Christopher.Wise@Wwu.Edu

Western Washington University Western CEDAR

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2006 Nyama and Heka: African Concepts of the Word Christopher Wise Western Washington University, [email protected]

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This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Faculty and Staff Publications by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NYAMA AND HEKA: AFRICANCONCEPTS OF THEWORD

ChristopherWise

not s are in "Speech is inpeople hands. People the hands of speech." ? a Mande proverb

Introduction

Knowledge of theWest African griot epic has advanced enormously in the last fifteen years with the publication of volumes by Thomas Hale, Scribe, Griot,Novelist: Narrative Interpreters of the Songhay Empire1 and Griots and Griottes:Masters ofWords andMusic,2 Stephen Belcher, Epic Traditions of Africa',3 and Barbara G. Hoffman, Griots At War: Conflict, Conciliation, and Caste inMande.4 Despite the richness of these studies, the concept of nyama, or a theMande word for occult "power" "means," has remained secondary concern ofAfrican cultural criticism. Fascination with the figure of the griot some has tended to overshadow the problem of nyama, or, in cases, generic over considerations have taken precedence matters of the occult. In the first a or a instance, the critic risks subordinating nyama to Western idealism, an Platonic logic, in the second, to old-fashioned essentialism, or an Aristo to a telian logic. However, the extent which nyama may be construed as force generative of both complexes remains unarticulated. By assuming that nyama flows from the abysmal no-place of the blood-filled receptacle, and not the Platonic simulacrum of the human soul, many hitherto unresolved enigmas true about the griot may be resolved.While it is that the griot must "learn

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES, Vol. 43, No. 1-2,2006. Copyright ? 2006 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.

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secret to as the of occult power [or nyama]," quote JohnWilliam Johnson, is true of Sundiata Keita in theMande Epic,5 knowledge of nyama?so that it not does destroy those who wield it?does not necessarily imply Cartesian not to a a mastery. I do refer logocentric concept of nyama, but psyche upon a which the logos necessarily depends, psyche that is blowing wind before it no new becomes mind. There can be question of any master term to anchor African cultural criticism. Instead, nyama must be construed as a word that as may be replaced by any number of substitutions. If nyama is rethought a most properly Afrocentric complex, the obvious candidate would be the Egyptian termheka [!U j^l],but onemight also insertthe Biblical ruah in its place (assuming the hypotheses of Sigmund Freud and others that the or?as great lawgiver hailed from Egypt),6 Johnson proposes?the Afro the term Islamic "equivalent" of barakah might be synonymous with Mande are terms that show the of theword nyama.1 There plenty of dispensability of soul. nyama, including theGreek psyche before the Socratic invention the While the focus in this essay is on theMande concept of nyama, and more generally theMande world of the Bamana,8 Soninke, Khassonke, Maninka, to and other groups, the argument being made here applies the larger griot world made up ofmany other peoples in the region. For instance, equivalent Sahelian terms include the Soninke naxamala, theWolof neeno, the Fulfiilde nyeenyo, and theToucouleur-Fulfixlde nyaama. term It is difficult ifnot impossible to discuss theMande nyama without to a subordinating it Greek metaphysics, fact that necessarily complicates? without vitiating?the "thesis" ofmy essay.After years of studying Songhay a culture inNorthern Niger, Paul Stoller makes number of important dis coveries about Sahelian conceptions of the word, but he ends by rejecting what he calls the "extreme" conclusions of his own research. Instead, Stoller on opts for a "reconstruction of ethnography" based the "imperfect debris" Griots at Hoffman observes that "there is no of phenomenology.9 In War, or that underlies all standard grammar pronunciation [inMande society] as a no monolithic others Chomskyan-style deep-structure, competence' can for a to which the analyst make appeal."10 Hoffman nonetheless opts the s role inMande without conventional ethnographic study of griot society Hoffman subordinates to a pursuing the implications of her findings. nyama is to both Stoller and Hoff humanist ethnography. The occult word useful In his man in revealing the truth of their respective ethnographic subjects.11 a The Mande Blacksmiths, Patrick R. McNaughton also offers thoughtful on analysis of nyama inMande society;12 however, by focusing exclusively runs same as the blacksmith, his study the risk studies by scholars likeHale on and Hoffman, which have focused the griot but ignored others inMande

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are society who wield this power. The Mande who called the nyamakala in tanners clude griots [dje/u], blacksmiths [numu], [garanke], hunters [donzo], as well as Islamic basket-weavers \fina\y praise-singers \funi\.To discuss context griots apart from the of theirmembership in this social group not a only exaggerates their social significance, it also promotes distorted image of theWest African bard as a kind of folk troubadour. seems to Though theMande concept of nyama evoke the anti-human more ism of post-structuralist theory, it is closely akin to ancient ways of are thinking about language that African rather than deconstructive. The destrukion (or "de-sedimentation") of Platonic logocentrism could not have occurred without repositioning Socratic thought within the framework of Egyptian mythologies about language, particularly those surrounding the invention ofwriting by the god Thoth.13 In Egyptian theology, the creator an or god Ammon-Ra creates all other gods by act of speech, the breath of this god brings forth the universe. Ammon-Ra's oldest son is believed to be created virtue of or by his 3hw "magic," but this occult power is also hyposta U tizedas a god in itsown right,the Egyptian god knownas Heka [I ^ ] or the "Magician." "The word Mais often leftuntranslated when it refers to or the god: 'Heka;' he is called: the god 'Magic,'" Herman teVelde points out. means "Besides magical power hJc3 sometimes also magical spell and magical rite."14Pneumatic exhalation (or "heka" [IU ]^ ] ) is an occult force that infuses of theworld things. "In the realm of Egyptian magic," Ogden Goelet "actions not were comments, did necessarily speak louder than words. They often one and the same... are Thought, deed, image, and power theoretically united in the concept of heka. The world is created with, through, by, and was for speech."15 Memphite theology asserted that the universe brought into the of the being through power spoken word. Throughout Egypt's long the at center an history, breath remained the of Egyptian theology, ancient of that not concept language did imply any bifurcation of invisible thought and unreal "In the appearance. cosmogony ofThebes," Cheikh Anta Diop "the will 'I am notes, god Ammon say: the God who became by himself, and who was not created.'"16 Derrida observes that "Ra (the sun) is god the creator, and he engenders the mediation of the word. His other name, one the by which he is designated in [Plato's] Phaedrus, isAmmon."17 In Mande creation the creator God is called or myth, Manga/a (Nga/a Bemba the who creates the twin seeds berere by Bamana), fani andfani ba from his eleusine seed. As is true in are Egyptian creation myth, the seeds ofMangala conceived in the "egg ofGod' which is also called egg of theworld.'"18 "The world came out of an as egg," Derrida puts it. "The living creator of the life of theworld came out of an his as of egg... [I]n capacity origin everything,

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Ammon-Ra is also the origin of the egg."19The God of Genesis also speaks theworld into being, but this ancient concept of language is repressed under assert matter was not Platonic-Christian hegemony. "[T]o that eternal, that a came the world had temporal origin, that substance into being through divine fiat, indeed through divine speech" Susan Handleman writes, "(And God said, "Let there be...'") threatened the foundations of Greek ontol creator forth the ogy."20 In pre-Platonic Egyptian theology, the god brings an act into world through of speech but also by masturbating his children semen are as existence. The spoken word and human both construed magi a as true cal fluids that are voided from the gods body.The word is seed, is no or in Platonic and Christian thought, but womb soul is required for its not a sower of seeds in germination. The male god is self-sufficient, search an of fertile soil. His word or sperm is autonomous and powerful force. He is the god who begets without partner and whose spirit infuses the world can no to of things. There be objective universe for the god's word reflect In upon since it already saturates the realm of the ontological. Egyptian the Ideal an theology, philosophy is breathtaking heresy, True unspeakable atheism. It is undeniable thatAmmon-Ra's offspring Osiris is the father of the son Horus, but, like his Greek counterpart Zeus, Osiris remains the a more is the son of grandson of distant and originary father god. Osiris not a but a the son of the father god, who is himself metaphysical ground tortoise shell upon which theworld is carried. The spectral abyss of fathers and sons marks a passage into eternity but guarantees nothing outside of own the creator is "the one who its emptiness. To quote Jan Assman, god means and the makes himself millions... In Egyptian, millions' also endless/ as an endless word is etymologically connected with the concept of eternity' Greek belief in the Father as intan plentitude of time."21The paradoxical is then a filial gible yet "truly existing essence"?which represented by copy a a more in the unreal world of the senses?signifies break from far ancient in and a thinking of the word that flourished Egypt elsewhere, theology as or en abime. has of the word groundless ground mise Diop convincingly in the case shown Plato's indebtedness to Egyptian cosmogony, especially of The TimeauSy a text that has also received much attention from Derrida the absence of an and Julia Kristeva. In his last major work, Diop ponders this does not for him that atheistic idealism in Egyptian thought, but imply in or For Egyptian "philosophy" is somehow lacking subtlety sophistication. Platonism seems to be a ofAthens Diop, the epistemological break of sign of Platonism mirrors decadence rather than its strength. Diop's critique those of Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. However, Nietzsche's inWestern has been slow in critique of logical binarism philosophy entering

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into themainstream of academic Egyptology. Tom Hare, who intervenes in as an one the discipline of Egyptology outsider, is of the few contemporary awareness criticswho has exhibited any that Egyptian concepts of theword are not to ones: we merely different, inferior Greek "[H]ow often have heard not as that the Egyptians could think abstractly, the Greeks did," Hare ob serves. one "This contention [...] confuses the presence of thing with the absence of another."22Western scholars of nyamakala have understandably been fascinated with the figure of the griot, but they have also?like their counterparts inEgyptology?not fully assimilated the lessons ofNietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida. One notable exception may be McNaughton. In his wonderfully written TheMande Blacksmiths and elsewhere,McNaughton cautions about the problems inherent in projecting Greco-Christian ethics runs our on upon Mande culture: "A pattern through literature Mande culture a sense that applies Western of morality to ideas and practices thatMande in a s individuals generally view differentway."23 Father Joseph Henry Udme Les was d'unpeuple africain: Bambara24 which published in 1910, is perhaps most the obvious example of the ethnographic tendency to refractMande a society through the distorting lens of Greco-Christian ethics. The concept of has to recover s nyama yet fully from Henry influential but misleading as a descriptions of it kind of Satanic fluid.

Nyama, Heka, andVsyche

The occult of are concepts heka [S(U^ j^], nyama, and ruah commonly misconstrued as variants of the term early post-Socratic Greek Logos. In heka U and are closer to the term fact, [I ^ j& ], ruah, nyama Greek psyche, which is a creative wind that intertwines with eros to birth the human soul. as The OED defines psyche meaning "breath, to breathe, to blow, (later) to life with or cool; hence, (identified indicated by the breath); the animating in man source principle and other living beings, the of all vital activities, or or rational irrational, the soul spirit, in distinction from itsmaterial vehicle, the as body; sometimes considered capable of persisting in a disembodied state after separation from the body at death." Martin Bernal suggests that root sw theEgyptian [ () ]with themasculine articleks maywell be the of the origin Greek psyche ?s The Egyptian article k3, also transcribed as ka, (orwith thehieroglyph U[ ]), signifiesthe double, specter,or ghost. In Bernal's ka scheme, is the etymological precursor of the Greek ker or kar in Dorian and Aeolic dialects as (transcribed in Greek and Coptic ke, ki,

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mean or and choi),which is used by Homer to "fate" "soul." Bernal argues term thatthe Greek psyche,in Egyptian ka U[ ] and sw[ () ], represents or "two different souls aspects of the personality."26 Bernal's etymology of sw a theGreek psyche is convincing;however, the Egyptian [ \ ] is also hieroglyph for invisible breath that isweighed against the heart of the dead man. to For ancient Egyptians, admission the afterlife is contingent upon an speaking the truthfulword. The spoken word is invisible word. It may not an be seen, hence the appropriateness of the sign of the feather, object or that is associated with weightlessness, thatmay be blown by the mouths wind. Bernal observes that ka> which is signified by the hieroglyph for open arms a [U ], suggests concept of "open relations between beings,"27 but he not comment to does upon the question of iterability in relation the Egyptian or are on concept of the double, how words meaningful only the condition are that they repeated. Every Egyptian word has its ghostly double, but this not mean a does that k3 is metaphysical ground. In the Coptic New Testa ment, heka [JU^^i] isused to signifythe Greek word mageia ormagic: are "There several words in the Egyptian language, including 3hw and hk3, are as te notes. which usually translated magic/" Velde "The word hk3 has in trans been preserved inCoptic [...] and is found, tnt.al, the Coptic bible lation ofActs 8,where it is used of the sorceries of Simon Magnus."28 Heka as [lU^^l], which iswritten Hk3, signifies "magic power, divine creative energy [...] vital potential, [and] mysterious efficacy."29BernaFs linking of theEgyptian k3 ofHk3 and theGreek ker (orkar) of psyche may be brilliant are scholarship, but his theses regarding Egyptian philosophy somewhat to restore simplistic. In his zeal Egypt's place inWestern cultural history, Bernal ignores important differences between Sophist conceptions of the more or word and abstract, atheistic, philosophical conceptions. Whether or not Plato imports philosophy from Egypt, the Socratic articulation of a from logocentric thinking in The Phaedrus constitutes significant break the contingency based thinking of Sophists like Isocrates and Gorgias. Pre are Socratic thinkers inGreece much closer to earlyMemphite theologians than Plato. Bernal may be correct that logocentric philosophy originates in not of think Egypt, but itdoes necessarily follow that radically differentways not once in as do now inWest ing about language did prevail Egypt, they to Africa. Bernal seeks to restore dignity the ancient Egyptians by granting to it never occurs them the ability think in philosophical terms; however, a not to him that philosophical thinking may be marker of Egypt's decline, of the Greek its greatness.30 In the Phaedrus, the hallucinatory receptacle or soul is not born until aspirated breath conjoins with sexual desire, what on Nietzsche calls a certain "musical mood."31 The logos, which is inscribed

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the soul, and which becomes the ground of truth in Platonism, represses the cavern memory of the blood-filled lungs. A veil is drawn upon the bloody from which the wet word blows. The deconstructive maxim that "there is no or outside of the text" affirms the power of the word, spirit, pneumatic means no wind; or, textuality always spiritus.There is outside of this occult no power, world of things forwords (or "the Logos") to reflect upon. In other or cavern words, spirit aspirated breath ushers forth from the of the lungs, on spurred by orgiastic desire for union with the other. The pneumatic and the erotic intertwine to birth the soul as a hollowed out space that is outside are the abyss of the blood-filled lungs, which synonymous with heart. The or from soul mind is born spirit, from the groundless ground of the body although itburies thememory of its origin. Derridas deconstruction of Pla a an tonic thought shows that the soul remains myth of language, invention of the spirit that is propelled by sexual longing for the other.The simulacrum that is called the Soul makes the radically impossible claim that it is "outside to a the text;"which is say,outside the spirit of themother. The Soul is thing made of wind, after "the demonic secret of Eros has been put to work."32 no a There is soul that is not first matter of aspirated breath, which comes from the abyss of the blood-filled heart.We may say then that the soul or a not an an psyche is liquid text, interior receptacle but exterior fluid that is from the orifice of the human mouth. ejaculated The Greek word psyche is a or an figure of speech, already impossible time-space conflation inwhich are spirit (or aspirated breath) and specter (or the visual double) conjoined a in paradoxical binary. This is so because theword that is heard by the ears can never be seen its by human eyes, only effect upon the body; conversely, theword that enters the body through the lens of the eyes can never be heard or a spoken to, only silently observed. The Greek psyche after Plato becomes a now over spirit-specter binary, curtain drawn the abysmal coil of blood. In Derrida describes as a Dissemination, the pharmakon powerful liq uid that can disable or heal those who it. receive "[T]he pharmakon always a penetrates like liquid; it is absorbed, drunk, introduced into the inside [...] is the Liquid element of the pharmakon."^ The written word is associated with the because it is or an pharmakon disembodied authorless, orphan with out a to guardian keep it from going astray. Plato would have us believe that the word is to spoken (or "spirit") superior the written word (or "specter") because of the presence of the good son,who represents the father in the false U realmof thesensual. Heka [I ^ j$l] by contrast,is a spokenword (butalso written without a a word word) guardian, spoken that is always illegitimate, and In case open-ended, patricidal. the of nyama, the category of play is not as in stigmatized, the "disembodied" pharmakon ofwriting in the Phaedrus,

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as a not but construed valorized and serious?if deadly?activity. Hoffman norm emphasizes that inMande society "polysemy is the and ambiguity is are often the desired result: multiplicities of meanings conveyed byMande more we speech, often meanings than have English words for."34 In her not Ph.D. dissertation, she observes that "[v]eracity is the point of thejeliws to to to arouse praise. They intend theirwords stir, move, strong emotions, to not to evoke that which is possible, describe thatwhich is verifiable."35 not a Hoffman also cites theMande proverb "play does kill seriousness,"36 folk aphorism that could not be further from the Socratic stigmatization s of play in the Phadreus. In fact,Hoffman Griots At War shows how lethal can was "play" be in theMande society. "It through the process of study naraw ing the words of the in Kita," Hoffman states, "that I learned how even can dangerous, deadly, the nyama of talk be."37McNaughton similarly more insists that, for theMande, "the interpretation of good and evil ismuch dependent upon points of view."38McNaughton argues that "issues of good seem to and evil rarely drive theMande."39 The simplest definition of nyama or a of is "power" "means," often repeated synonyms that reinforce concept to or is language that is indifferent ethics ideal paternal authorities. If this so, or U if theMande concept of nyama is closer to the Egyptian heka [I ^ ] to than the post-Socratic Logos, itmay be possible rethink the role of the as a a griot complex of nyama rather than verbal artistwho manipulates the as material substance of language. Hoffman, for instance, describes nyama "the energy that inhabits all matter and all beings."40 McNaughton, whose as "theworlds description Hoffman enthusiastically affirms,describes nyama a or basic energy, the energy that animates the universe [...] special energy theMande occult power."41 Scholars who have attempted etymologies of terms and nyama and nyamakala have emphasized their complex history to Western Mande ambiguity, their possible links Soninke dialects and for and mala which forms of the word like nyakamala (nyaka "celebration" means Charles S. "to preserve"). In "Etymologies of Nyamakala," Bird, Martha B. Kendall, and Kalilou Tera report that a well-known Malian a is the jali-muso informed them that defining criteria of the nyamakala for The ability to manifest majigi, theMande word "magic."42 Egyptian U or word heka [I ^ ] is the etymological precursor of theGreek mageia, is the magic.43 Bernal shows how the Egyptian heka probable is but also the old origin of the Greek word for hundred, which hekaton, heka crone goddess of magic Hekate.44 Bernals suggestion that it is the etymon of theGreek numeral hekaton is compelling in part because a scale of the Annubis. What implies connection with the measuring jackal all of these terms share is the common root ka [ \J ] from the Egyptian heka

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[lU^^l], which may be the etymological antecedent of the Greek psyche. a to Bird, Kendall, and Tera write that a[i]n typical example, nyama is held mean or mean natural force' and kala is held to 'stick,' 'twig,' straw' and, by extension, 'the handle of a tool,' as in dabakala, 'hoe handle.'"45 The griot is someone who "know[s] how to handle nyama, as one would handle a tool."46 note Bird, Kendall, and Tera also that "the compound nyamakala [is] the only to word in anyMande language inwhich kala refers human agents."47 This status later point is important because it dramatizes the unusual social of to account ancient custom the nyamakala, and also helps for the of burying trees. or griots in baobab The branch, twig, stalk, stick, tool-handle suggest the penis, which ejaculates the seed fromwhich the world springs; that is, semen kalds phallic connotations imply that nyama is that is ejaculated into ear the of the other. Citing her teacher El Hadji Yamuru Diabate, Hoffman to someone to enter writes: "To speak griot language is make its nyama him."48 as Bird, Kendall, and Tera listmeanings for nyama follows: "evil or satanic; or morally neutral; dangerous; polluting: energizing animating; necessary for or can mean action; indicative of imperfect self-control."49Nyama also filth, or waste, garbage, refuse.McNaughton suggests that the root nya should be as translated "means [...] ability, the capacity to suceed, thewherewithal to as make something work."50 Youssouf Cisse also describes nyama meaning or life, spirit, endowed with animated spirit, "a flux that obeys the will of as a the soul."51The word is construed seed although Socrates dogmatically as a rejects disembodied forms of discourse zpharmakon, Greek word which means as both "remedy" and "poison," Derrida has shown.52 Bird, Kendall, can mean and Tera document that "kala powerful agent,' something with the to or force kill, and, by extension, antidote' remedy.'"53These scholars state, "This the to [meaning] expands logical possible meanings for nyamakala such as things antidote for evil; remedy against pollution; antidote for poison; or not an remedy for garbage."54 Nyama is illness, but it is ^pharmakon thatmay cure or cause illness. The griot has historically been associated with tasks the of arrow involving poison, including poisoning tips.55The nyamakala not use are only their knowledge of poisons for the sake ofwarfare: they also known as "masters of the leaves" or "masters ofmedicine \furatigiw]."56David Conrad and Barbara Frank have suggested that griots may not be buried in to the earth because of their connection dangerous medicines: "[Informants] or explain that ifgriots had been buried in the ground thrown into the river or ocean, the crops would have failed or the fish would have died."57 Though Father Henry conflates the nyamakala with Eurocentric satan ism cults, he rightly emphasizes that the fluid of nyama may cause illness, and Te out suffering, death.58 Velde points that the Egyptian concept heka

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U [I ^ j?!] similarlymay be employedfor evil purposes: "The Egyptians were aware that unordered creative energy was also atwork [in the universe]," te notes. we or Velde "Sometimes read of evil hka the need of protecting oneself against the hk3 of others."59Dominique Zahan remarks that "a skilled griot can or one derange stupefy the who hears his balemani [genealogy] recited, not a one if he should stop him in time with gift."60Occult possession is a possible consequence of the release of the fluid called nyama. "Nyama is a one an a force, power," Henry writes, "or if prefers, energy, fluid possessed by everyman, every animal, every living being."61 Henry rightly insists upon the matter of fluid in his definition, as does Charles Monteil, who calls common to can mean nyama "a fluid all nature."62Nyama also the saliva that as as a is necessary to hold the wind together well magical substance with a woman a healing properties. Johnson reports seeing Mande asking griot a out so for blessing by holding her hands that he could spit into them. The woman then "bathed" in the spittle by rubbing the liquid blessing into her over are face: "InMali incantations various libations generally terminated by comments. spitting into the mixture before it is consumed," Johnson "The moisture of the spittle vitalizes the power of the brew."63 In fact, the saliva to of the griot, because it is infused with nyama, is believed possess curative properties.64West African views about the supernatural aspects of the griots numerous as saliva are echoed in Egyptian texts such The Egyptian Book of an theDead: The Book ofGoing Forth By Day. "Spittle has important function a a to in number of Egyptian creation stories where generative force akin semen that of is ascribed to it,"Goelet notes.65 In The Egyptian Book of the as Dead, spittle is characterized possessing curative powers (see Chapters into 17, 72, and 102). The liquid substance of mother's blood, transmuted a bonding saliva, is yet another manifestation of theMande word, provided we text think it outside the categories of the ontological. "The is spit out," Derrida comments, "It is like a discourse inwhich the unities model them selves after an excrement, a secretion. And because it has to do here with a on is the element which glottic gesture, the tongue working itself, saliva sticks the unities together."66 In this sense, saliva, blood, sweat, urine, feces, semen are and interchangeable.

Fluids Nyama and The Body's

a utterance comes from the blood In physiological sense, the elocutionary as a wet ear The ancient filled lungs wind that penetrates the of the other.

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as a or Egyptians imagined thewords interior site container of blood, heart most filled with the blood of the mother. In The Papyrus ofAni, this text's as on famous image depicts the heart of the mother it isweighed the scale or of judgmentagainst the feather of truth[sw] [ () ], thehieroglyph for a invisible breath. The occult word is wind that drips with the blood of the comes as a mother. The word from this bloody no-place powerful force. essence a Blood is the of pneumatic breath, but it is not metaphysical sub stance. The word of the nyamakala is saturated with the blood of the other. Sory Camara has argued that links between theMande terms for griot and are or blood purely coincidental, proposing instead that the termjeli djeli term come (theMande for griot) may from theMande word for "hous means a ing,"which isjiyaliy from the verb jiya, which "to house person."67 an However, there is important link between the termsjeli (theMande word a for blood) and jiyali (theMande word for housing), rather than nullifying as so contradiction, Camara suggests. This is because the dwelling that is or an the "groundless ground" site of spirit's origin is earth-cavern, mater or nal womb, house made of blood. After surveying all known tales of the as a nyamakalas origins, Hale concludes that "[b]lood [...] appears common feature of all of these stories of [the griot s] origin and reinforces the close a association between the griot and significant social taboo."68West African an act an legends of the "first" griot involve of cannibalism during which cuts a to older brother off piece of his flesh feed his starving younger sibling. Hale points out that thewide diffusion of the tale of the two brothers, one an ofwhom unwittingly commits act of cannibalism, offers evidence of the ancientness of this story.69For instance, Claude Meillassoux has recorded a medieval Soninke version of the griot's origin that recounts the fall of the Ghana Empire.70 The similarities between this ancient legend of the griot's enactment are origin and the religious of Egyptian ritual striking. Ritual were performances of theOsirian monomyth, which staged throughout the or Nile Valley for centuries, pitted Seth against Horus, Osiris's killer and brother one against his posthumously conceived son.71 In of the cycle's most often repeated episodes, Horus tricks Seth into eating his semen, which is in one semen disguised lettuce. "The loser is the who is penetrated by the of the other," JanAssman notes.72After unwittingly eating Horus's semen, Seth must thatHorus ismore now acknowledge powerful, and that he is subject toHorus. In Seth must fact, publically proclaim thatHorus is the rightful ruler: "The of Horus triumph signifies the end of strife and the beginning of a of period peace and well being," Assman comments, "a period towhich reenacts every king laid claim."73 The Osiris cycle the reconciliation ofUp per and Lower Egypt, but it also establishes the protocol of noble and the

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one must who publicly sing his praises. When Seth and the "first"griot eat semen or a blood, they violate primal taboo by inverting the natural order. monstrous an act to They make themselves by performing that leads their creates a downfall and clearly defined social hierarchy. Both Seth and the griot are an act tricked into performing that they feel is profoundly abhorrent. If act this is performed unwittingly, it also empowers the griot in far-ranging te out ways. In the Egyptian context, Velde points that "an ordinary person to or to would certainly like make magic be creative, but he is only rarely to able do so."74The violation of the taboo against consuming the body's an one. fluid converts the ordinary person into extraordinary This taboo is numerous referenced in The Book of theDead which contains chapters that are formulas uttered to prevent the eating of human feces: "What I detest, not a I will eat" the scribe Ani repeatedly swears.75 In fascinating etymol ogy of nyamakala, theMalian scholar Bokar N'Diaye writes that nyama means or s as manure, filth, feces.76 N'Diaye etymology of nyama feces is also affirmed byMeillassoux, who reports that popular Mande etymologies term as of this emphasize itsmeaning "ordure" [human waste].77 Nyama is then all of these things: blood, semen, feces, saliva, the strange and powerful not means or substances of the human body. Nyama only energy life force, means it also "feces, trash, garbage, and, by extension, bloated, swollen," or McNaughton states, "literally crawling with nature's products processes gone out of control."78 McNaughton's etymology coordinates very well as in with Stoller's personal experience of occult power "the filth [that is] the heart."79 "The apparent continguity between power and filth implies to out the danger harbored by the power. The world's energy allowed get a of hand could leave theworld fetid ruin."80 In the Christian scriptures, it of is precisely the ancient injunction against eating human feces that Jesus not enters Nazareth calls into question: "It is what one's mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth iswhat defiles one," Jesus enters insists. "Do you not realize that everything that into themouth passes Like into the stomach and is expelled into the latrine?" (Matthew 15:11-17). outcasts because have the Christian god-man, the nyamakala become they waste. a violated the taboo against eating the body's Hale summarizes wide sources to are in trees range of scholarly suggest that griots buried baobab are and are because they polluted by their consumption of the body's fluids therefore considered unworthy of burial in the earth.81

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and Instrument Nyama, Gender, The Musical

or a If the breath spirit also implies bodily fluid, the significance of the to to bards instrument may be linked its ability generate this powerful substance. One of Susan and Roderick Mclntoshes' more dramatic finds at a stone a an Jenne-Jeno includes fetish of reclining figure wearing amulet as around its neck.82 The figure, theMclntoshes note, is clearly hermaph wears an roditic; the fact that it amulet around its neck arguably links it to to arm a man the griots, who this day themselves with amulets in similar one ner.83 By definition, the griot is the who defies conventional binaries: "Despised yet desired, needed yet loathed," Hoffman writes. "Nowhere is this paradox thoroughly explicated; however, where there is social paradox, are at there usually questions of power issue."84Matters of gender identity are to as as finally subordinate nyama, well the sheer power of erotic desire. The power of the breath inMande society is inextricable from the music of the instrument, which awakens orgiastic desire. A. M. Jones has written or about what he calls "African metrical lyrics," the inseparability of music in and lyrics the Sahelian context.85 The music of the ngoni, kora, balafon, and drum necessarily intertwines with the aspirated breath of the griot. (It to out are is important point that the ngoni, mo/o, and related instruments more common as far than the kora the primary stringed instruments for the as an coax griot.) The musical instrument functions chiefly aphrodisiac to pneumen from the lungs. To insist upon the indispensability of the kora is to really insist upon the indispensability of sexual desire, for the griot cannot or sing until he she is sufficiently aroused by the music. In regards to the drum, Titinga Frederic Pacere is probably right to suggest that theword of the drum, what he calls "bendrology" \bendreMore for "drum made from a or some sense calabash" +logy word] is in "prior" to both the oral-aural word as and the music of the stringed instrument, but only insofar he means the invisible rhythm of the blood-filled heart. This word could not, however, a a be metaphysical "Logos" but physiological organ that pumps blood. In theMore word as fact, for griot also is "bendre," Pacere himself points out: "The Bend-Naba, or chief of the Bendre (drum made from a calabash), is the chief of the The actual or external griots."86 drum, like the kora, ngoni, or is also an to the or to balafon, aphrodisiac get griot's heart beating, heat up the blood of the griot. The instrument of the and serve griots themusicians of ancient Egypt a similar function despite apparent gender differences of the performers. Eric and Hale have been cautious Charry about articulating possible links

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between the Egyptian lute and itsWest African counterpart [inMande the ngoni; inWolof, xa/am; in Fulbe, hoddu\ in Soninke, gambare\ in Songhay mo/o]. Charry, for instance, argues that the linguistic evidence is sketchy, was not emphasizing that the Egyptian lute played by women, men.87 It is true women men that Egyptian images of the lute depict rather than playing or this instrument, but the performers gender is either irrelevant secondary to thequestion of heka jj?|] or themagical wind thatissues from the numerous throat. In images of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, she is shown a a menat menat not bestowing pearl necklace called upon her lover.The is an ornament worn a only around the neck, but musical instrument that inaugurates the resurrection of the dead. Isis similarly brings Osiris from or the dead through her healing sexual powers. The sistrum, sesheshet,which a or serves a to is like rattle gourd, similar function: transmit vital energy to her lover that is necessary to his spiritual rebirth.Hathor, mistress of the menat, is "the female element that puts into motion the intrinsic forces of all manifestations of the divine."88 The ngoni similarly stirs the griots desire so that nyama may be ejaculated from his throat: what the Greeks called to "eros" is indispensable this process. This iswhy the lyrics and the music are as women are "inseparable," Jones puts it. If alone depicted playing out the lute in the Egyptian pyramid texts,Hare points that in Egyptian more seem to art generally "[t]he objects of erotic attention be exclusively correct women are women."89 Charry is that only depicted playing the lute in ancient Egypt, but it is likely that these images merely signify the sexism of a the artisan. "There is, obviously, close relationship between the economic structure of the funery industry [in ancient Egypt] and the construction states. accoutre of the epistemological subject," Hare "[T]ombs and their men a ments were overwhelmingly created for [...] As consequence, the are is epistemological position upon which these artifacts centered male."90 to more is the In regards the concept of heka [lU^^l] what is significant as Egyptian conception of the instrument aphrodisiac.

Nyama and theApparition of the Inapparent

an The concepts of nyama and heka imply occult materialism of not a The see "as the body, which is nonetheless metaphysics. Mande nyama or both natural and mystical," McNaughton states, "a special energy occult oc power which most Westerners would consider supernatural."91 Ironically, to cult articulations of theword end by returning language the body without

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sense. means affirming the human subject in any originary But this also that a a the world of the griot is frightening world of spiritwithout presence, are world where ghosts real and "man" is the chief ghost of all. In research I conducted among the Umarian Tidjaniya of Northern Mali and Burkina Faso in 1996-1997 (a Sufi brotherhood mainly comprised of Toucouleur was to Fulani and Dogon adepts), I surprised find thatToucouleur-Fulani and Dogon adepts believed that images of the dead could be summoned a from collective archive through the occult power of certain sounds. In fact, was to this power credited the teaching of the ancient Egyptians, should the ones who utter them be sufficiently pure of heart.92Mohamed Abdoulaye Maiga, whom I interviewed in Ouagadougou in August 1997, informed me of the following:

[T]here are certain sounds that exist, pure sounds that have been no passed down through the centuries. These sounds have real are sense... meaning in themselves. They devoid of You will find are these sounds in the Quran, but they much older than the time ofMuhammad. They originate before the founding of Christianity, even Judaism. The Egyptians taught these sounds to the Jews, who turn... passed them down in their If uttered by the person disciplined one even in Islam, may evoke images of the dead, conversing with the dead... God loves all people the same, of course, but those who a follow his commandments receive higher favors. If such person can access utters these sounds, he gain to the archive wherein the totality of human history resides. This archive contains everything ever as that has happened and that will happen in history, the past as well the future... Everyone who has ever lived orwho will ever live mean also exists within this archive. I their psychic bodies, of course, our our doubles. Not physical bodies.93

The word for the ears in elocutionary (or "spirit" deconstructive thought) is not to identical the signatory word for the eyes (or "specter" also in decon an structive thought). The spoken word is invisible wind that blows over the fine hairs of the ears.When the a double appears, it is spectral image generated by the power of the breath, inToucouleur-Fulfiilde nyaama. The can or so specter be seen, the conspirators believe, but it is not present in sense. any ontological The Umarian Tidjaniya adepts conjure the appari a tion through the power of the voice, ritual in which the son becomes the father of the father.The conjurer births the image thatwells up from sees within himself. Although the thing that he cannot be seen, for vocal

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not ized wind (or "spirit") is figurative image (or "specter"), he must accept on faith this impossible event, the appearance of the ghostly simulacrum. see swear to Those who allegedly the specter keep silent, thereby affirming as their role authoritative guardians of the "archive" fromwhich the specter is summoned, the maternal house of blood. The archive (from the Greek arkhe) "names at once the commencement and the commandment" Derrida or observes, "the order of the sequential, the therewhere things commence" or men and "the order of thejussive, the therewhere and gods command."94 a or cavern However, veil is always drawn upon thematernal dwelling earth not on no and its secrets,which may be disclosed penalty of death. There is no or theology, possibility of belief, without the secret.The specter mbeelu or never (in Fulfulde) may may not appear: "One will be able to prove that swear it happened," Derrida observes, "but only that it did."95 It is always or possible that faith in the specters apparition, the appearance of the in amounts visible ghost, to simple conspiracy. It is certain, in any event, that remove are to those who forcibly the veil destined find nothing, for there is nothing behind the sound. Maiga's description of Umarian Tidjaniya conjuration rites emphasizes the importance of sound apart from semantic not meaning. The sound uttered by Sufi adepts is wholly without meaning seems to tone: no though itsmeaning reside in the "These words have real are meaning in themselves," Maiga insists, but "pure sounds."96The concept a resonates of "pure sound" is paradoxical; however, Maiga's description with the findings of Sahelian researchers like Judith T. Irvine, Stoller, Pa cere, Hoffman, and others. Stoller insists that, for the Songhay, "[sound] is believed to have an existence separate from the domains of human, animal, are not to and plant life."97"Sounds carry forces which only good think, but to as a good feel."98Zahan similarly describes nyama kind of "vibration" that can whom cites from an be felt from deep inside the body.99 Irvine, Stoller not have unpublished paper, also argues thatwords inWest Africa "do just are breath meaning."100 Among theWolof people, Irvine suggests, "[words] and vibrations of air, constituted and shaped by the body and motives of the the addressee." For this speaker, physically contracting and influencing reason, a s to wind Irvine compares the "effects of griot praise song the effects of air fire are upon fire (both metaphorically and literally, since and supposed are to be basic constituents of the body)." Irvine's views echoed by Hoff manner more man, who points out that the of speaking may be important in theMande context than the actual words themselves: "We may choose are or our words, but we cannot control how they understood, what effects once are states. "What cannot be com they have they spoken," Hoffman municated by theword itself, it is hoped, will be transmitted by theway the

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context word is spoken, by the inwhich it is used, by the expressiveness with which it is uttered."101 Stoller also argues that the occult word in the Sahel as as should be defined "an energy which should be apprehended in and of as a itself rather than only representation of something"1?2Maiga's description as of theword "pure sound" is anti-Platonic, but he also affirms his belief in the iterability of these ritually transmitted sounds. The Umarian Tidjaniya's on utter emphasis the integrity of those who them insures that the adept 's not a repetition of the pure sound will entail mechanical parody of it, but a an authentic enactment, true affirmation. The meaning of the sound lies or not only in its esoteric tone, but the religious belief enunciation of the must as a as speaker. The sound be felt vibration from deep inside the body, a physiological trembling of the entrails.

Conclusion

Recent anthropological and cultural critics of the nyamakala have tended to refrain from interpreting gathered data about nyama, instead contenting an themselves with objective presentation of the facts.Given the vast cultural differences that must be negotiated between theWest and the Sahel, this seem an route. would eminently safe However, the unadorned display of rests to to evidence upon the guileless appeal Logos. According Aristotle, reason as is irrefutable brute fact that always trumps personal authority, well as the audience's empathy for the matter at hand. To better appreciate the Sahelian context, itmay be worth remembering that theWestern Logos is an an already ethos, "ethics" behind which sits the dwarf of certainty.There is no not a speaking of nyama that is already theory of nyama. At present, North on seems an American and European scholarship the griot to have reached impasse, hamstrung by the inherent ethnocentrism of its critical method ologies. Deconstruction cannot in itself deliver the occult secrets ofAfrican concepts of theword like heka and nyama, but it can circumvent more the obvious limitations of post-Socratic philosophy. Its success, in this in as regard, lies less its novelty literary theory than its lack of novelty, the fact that it echoes forgotten ways of thinking about language that prevailed before the Platonic "error of truth"was first articulated.

Western Washington University

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Notes 1. Thomas Novelist: Narrative Hale, Scribe, Griot, Interpreters of theSonghay Empire. (Gaines ville:U ofFlorida P, 1990). 2. Thomas Griots and Griottes: Masters Words and Hale, of Music. (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1998). 3. Traditions Stephen Belcher, Epic ofAfrica. (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana UP, 1999). 4. Barbara G. Griots At War: and Caste inMande. Hoffman, Conflict, Conciliation, (Bloom ington: Indiana UP, 2001). 5. A John William Johnson/'Introduction," The Epic of Son-Jara: West African Tradition. (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992) 9. 6. Moses and see Sigmund Freud, Monotheism. (New York: Vintage, 1939). Also, Jan Ass Moses The inWestern man, theEgyptian: Memory ofEgypt Monotheism. (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1997). 7. Johnson, 9. use term 8. Although the French "Bambara" and the has wide usage, American Mande as a term more specialists prefer "Bamana" that accurately reflects what this people calls itself. use term cases in I will the "Bamana" here, except in of usage formal article titles and original citations. 9. Paul Taste Senses in Stoller, The ofEthnographic Things: The Anthropology. (Philadelphia: U ofPennsylvania P, 1989) 139-140. 10. Hoffman, Griots At War 19. In a on 11. footnote the griot-novelist Massa Makan Diabate, Hoffman describes Diabate as a man two "who felt himself trapped between the worlds of orality and literacy and who was is deeply conflicted about his griot identity" (265). The Platonic speaking-writing binary so one can if not her own dramatically emphasized that only wonder Hoffman does project dilemma upon Diabate. and Art inWest 12. Patrick R. McNaughton, The Mande Blacksmiths: Knowledge, Power, Africa (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988). 13. See Jacques Derrida, Dissemination (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1981) 75-94. te van 14. Herman Velde, "The God Heka in Egyptian Theology," Jaarbericht het Voorsa Ex Oriente 21 177. iatishch-Egyptisch Genootshap. Lux, Vol. (1970) "A Book Dead: The Book Forth 15. Ogden Goelet, Commentary," The Egyptian ofthe ofGoing trans. By Day, Raymond Faulkner (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1998) 145-146. or 16. Cheikh Anta Diop, Civilization Barbarism (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1991) 329. 17. Derrida, Dissemination 87. Vol. 27 126. 18. Germaine Dieterlen, "The Mande Creation Myth," Africa, (1957) 19. Derrida, Dissemination 87. Moses: Rabbinic in 20. Susan A. Handelman, The Slayers of The Emergence of Interpretation Modern LiteraryTheory (Albany: State U ofNew York, 1982) 27; originalemphasis. 21. Jan Assman, The Search For God inAncient Egypt. Ithaca 5c London: Cornell UP, 2001) 240. Osiris: and theWord inAncient 22. Tom Hare, Remembering Number, Gender, Egyptian Rep Stanford 279. resentational Systems (Stanford: UP, 1999) and 'Who's Bad' 23. Patrick R. McNaughton, "The Semantics of Jugu: Blacksmiths, Lore, in and inWest ed. David C. Conrad and Mande," Status Identity Africa: Nyamakalaw ofMande, Barbara E. Frank (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1955) 46. Les leur vie 24. Joseph Henry, Udme d'unpeuple african: Bambara, psychique, ethique, sociale, religieuse (Munster: Aschendorff, 1910). Black Roots Classical Volume II: The 25. Martin Bernal, Athena: The Afroasiatic of Civilization, and Evidence Brunswick: 264-265. Archaeological Documentary (New Rutgers UP, 1991) 26. Bernal, Black Athena, Vol.11265. 27. Bernal, Black Athena, Vol.11264.

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28. Te Velde, 176. 29. Te Velde, 186. 30. Roots 1: Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic ofClassical Civilization, Volume The Fabrication ofAncient Greece, 1785-1985 (New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1987) 140-141. 31. FriedrichNietzsche, The Birth ofTragedy (New York: Anchor Books, 1956) 37. 32. JacquesDerrida, The Gift ofDeath (Chicago 6c London: U ofChicago P, 1995) 12. 33. Derrida, Dissemination 152. 34. Hoffman, Griots At War 19. 35. Barbara G. The Power and Status Mande Hoffman, of Speech: Language Social among Griots and Nobles, Ph.D. dissertation, (Indiana University, 1990) 80. 36. Power 6. Hoffman, The of Speech 37. Hoffman, Griots At War 37. 38. "The Semantics of 51. McNaughton, jugu 39. "The Semantics of McNaughton, jugu 51. 40. Hoffman, Griots At War 67. 41. Mande McNaughton, The Blacksmiths 15. Charles B. and 42. Bird, Martha Kendall, KalilouTera, "Etymologies of Nyamakala," Status and in West ed. David C. Conrad and Identity Africa, Barbara E. Frank (Bloomington and Indianapolis:Indiana UP, 1995) 31. 43. Te Velde, 186. 44. Bernal Black Athena Vol II4S4. 45. Bird et al, 28. 46. Bird et al, 28. 47. Bird et al, 28. 48. Barbara G. and Mande Status and in Hoffman, "Power, Structure, jeliw," Identity West ed. David C. Conrad 6c Barbara E. Frank Africa, (Bloomington 6c Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1995) 43. 49. Bird et al, 28. 50. McNaughton, "The Semantics of jugu 51. 51. Youssouf Cisse, "Notes sur les societes de chasseurs Malinke," Journal de la Societe des Africanistes, Vol. 34, No. 2 (1964) 193. 52. Derrida, Dissemination 94. 53. Bird et al, 29. 54. Bird et al, 29. 55. David Conrad and Barbara E. Frank, "Nyamakala; Contradiction and Ambiguity in Mande Status and in Society," Identity West Africa, ed. David C. Conrad and Barbara E. Frank (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1995) 6. 56. McNaughton, The Mande Blacksmiths 47. 57. Conrad and Frank, "Nyamakala" 6. 58. Henry, 27. 59. Te Velde, 185. 60. La du verbe Dominique Zahan, Dialectique chez lesBambara (Paris:Mouton 6c Co, 1963) 141. 61. Henry, 27. 62. Charles Les Bambara du et du Kaarta Monteil, Segou (Paris: Larouse, 1924; Reprint, Paris: G.P. Maisonneuve et Larouse, 1976) 121. 63. Johnson, 124. 64. Hoffman, Griots At War 169. 65. Goelet, 147. 66. JacquesDerrida, Of Grammatology(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1976) 161. 67. Gens de la Essai sur la condition et le role des dans Sory Camara, parole: griots la societe malinke (Paris: Mouton, 1976) 101. 68. Hale, Griots and Griottes 64. 69. Hale, Griots and Griottes 62.

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70. Claude et Meillassoux, "Histoire institutions du kafo de Bamako d'apres la traditions d 14 des Mare," Cahiers Etudes Africaines, Vol. 4, No. (1964) 189-190. 71. Assman, The Search For God 124. 72. Assman, The Search For God 140. 73. Assman, The Search For God 141. 74. Te Velde, 185. 75. Te Velde, 134. Les castes au 14. 76. Bokar N'Diaye, Mali (Bamako: Editions Populaires, 1970) 77. Meillassoux, 79. 78. McNaughton, The Mande Blacksmiths 18. 79. Paul Stoller,In Sorcerys Shadow (Chicago:U ofChicago P, 1989) 127. 80. McNaughton, The Mande Blacksmiths 18. 81. Hale, Griots and Griottes 194-196. 82. Roderick Mcintosh and Susan Keech Mcintosh, "Finding West Africa's Oldest City," National Vol. No. 3 Geographic, 162, (September 1982) 415. 83. Hoffman, Griots At War 37. 84. Hoffman, Griots At War 12. 85. A.M. "African Metrical Jones, Lyrics," African Language Studies, Vol. 5 (1964) 52-53. or 86. Titinga Frederic Pacere "Saglego, Drum Poem (for the Sahel)," The Desert Shore: Literatures of the Sahel, ed. Christopher Wise. (London 8c Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001) 64. 87. Eric Lutes inWest An Historical Charry, "Plucked Africa: Overview," Galpin Society Journal(March 1996) 17-18. 88. Ruth Schumann Antelme and Sacred inAncient Stephane Rossini, Sexuality Egypt (Rochester: Inner Traditions, 2001) 47. 89. Hare, 139. 90. Hare, 138. 91. McNaughton, The Mande Blacksmiths 15. nature me to assume 92. The unusual of Sahelian conjuration rites led mistakenly that these were to 2001-2003 I con practices specific this region. During the academic years, however, ducted further research among Sufi brotherhoods in the Occupied Territories (or Palestine) and are no means to Jordan and found that the beliefs of the Umarian Tidjaniya by specific West one a at Africa. In case, prominent professor of the Shari'a faculty the University of Jordan, was to to Amman known talk spirits during his lectures (although, like Yambo Ouologuem, was as an he locally viewed eccentric). The Yambo Post 93. Christopher Wise, "Yambo Ouologuem Among Tidj aniya," Ouologuem: colonial Writer, Islamic Militant (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1999) 228. 94. JacquesDerrida, Archive Fever (Chicago:U ofChicago P, 1995) 1; originalemphasis. Stanford 83-84. 95. Jacques Derrida, Veils (Stanford, California: UP, 2001) 96. Wise, 228. 97. Stoller,The Taste ofEthnographic Things 112. 98. Stoller,The Taste ofEthnographic Things 112. 99. Zahan, 133. 100. Stoller,The Taste ofEthnographic Things 112. 101. Hoffman, Griots At War 33-34. 102. Stoller,The Taste ofEthnographic Things 117; emphasismine.

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