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O Kaabu E Os Seus Vizinhos: Uma Leitura Espacial E Histórica Explicativa De Conflitos Afro-Ásia, Núm

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O Kaabu E Os Seus Vizinhos: Uma Leitura Espacial E Histórica Explicativa De Conflitos Afro-Ásia, Núm Afro-Ásia ISSN: 0002-0591 [email protected] Universidade Federal da Bahia Brasil Lopes, Carlos O Kaabu e os seus vizinhos: uma leitura espacial e histórica explicativa de conflitos Afro-Ásia, núm. 32, 2005, pp. 9-28 Universidade Federal da Bahia Bahía, Brasil Disponível em: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=77003201 Como citar este artigo Número completo Sistema de Informação Científica Mais artigos Rede de Revistas Científicas da América Latina, Caribe , Espanha e Portugal Home da revista no Redalyc Projeto acadêmico sem fins lucrativos desenvolvido no âmbito da iniciativa Acesso Aberto O KAABU E OS SEUS VIZINHOS: UMA LEITURA ESPACIAL E HISTÓRICA EXPLICATIVA DE CONFLITOS Carlos Lopes* Introdução Na definição dada pelos geógrafos, o espaço pode ter três dimensões: uma, determinada por um sentido absoluto que é a coisa em si e é o espaço dos cartógrafos com longitudes e latitudes, ou quilômetros qua- drados; uma segunda, que liga este primeiro espaço com os objetivos que ativam as suas ligações e perspectivas; e, por fim, uma terceira que inter- preta as relações entre os objetos, e as relações multiplicadas que estes criam entre si. Por exemplo, um hectare no centro de uma cidade não tem a mesma dimensão assumida pelo mesmo espaço numa zona rural, pois este último não possui toda a complexidade das representatividades multi- plicadas. O paradigma atual pretende que sem uma organização do espaço não existe processo de mobilização das forças produtivas.1 A relação entre espaço e território é muito complexa, visto que o primeiro não tem a força de fixação do segundo. Na interpretação soci- ológica e histórica de espaço o que se pretende sublinhar é o poder das * Doutor em História da Universidade de Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne. Argumentos deste texto estão tratados de forma mais alargada em meu livro Kaabunké. Espaço, território e poder na Guiné-Bissau, Gâmbia e Casamance pré-coloniais, Lisboa, Comissão Nacional para as Come- morações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, 1999. 1 Akin Mabogunje, The Development Process. A spatial perspective, Londres, Hutchinson / University Library, 1984. Afro-Ásia, 32 (2005), 9-28 9 influências, e indiretamente admitir que estas nem sempre podem ser redutíveis ou compactadas num território. É, pois, uma noção do espaço que vai para além da física imposta pelo conceito de território. Território normalmente está associado ao exercício de um poder com característi- cas centralizadoras e é por isso que o Estado, como forma centralizadora de poder que é, define-se sempre a partir de um território. As leituras modernas sobre a historiografia africana são muito influenciadas pelos debates da multidisciplinaridade e, sobretudo, pelas influências crescentes da sociologia e do questionamento antropológico. A partir das interrogações sobre a etnicidade bem representadas no volu- me de Amselle e M’Bokolo, desenvolveram-se teorias que militam em favor da relativização das classificações, tipologias e outros instrumen- tos metodológicos que influenciaram não só a etnologia, mas também a historiografia sobre a África.2 Em contrapartida no terreno da lingüísti- ca faziam-se progressos importantes em direção oposta, militando a fa- vor de leituras mais complexas e de influências multifacetadas, permi- tindo agora considerar novas fórmulas de apreciação das estruturas po- líticas e sociais africanas. Este movimento ainda com parâmetros mal definidos a que Amselle chama de “lógica mestiça”, em contraponto à lógica etnológica, oferece uma leitura refrescada dos acontecimentos que marcaram a história afri- cana. Segundo Amselle, “enquanto antes da conquista colonial não exis- tia senão uma continuidade relativamente hábil de esquemas e práticas culturais no conjunto das sociedades, num eixo ligando a Europa à Áfri- ca, podemos considerar que, por exemplo, a confrontação francesa com os tuculores contribuiu para acentuar a coerência e as diferenças das duas culturas”.3 Ou seja, a consolidação das diferenças faz-se pelo pró- prio percurso histórico, o que pela lógica implica uma dinâmica de mu- danças que se adapta mal a fixações rápidas: o que hoje existe pode ser completamente posto em causa amanhã. Na mesma interpretação o que ontem parecia fundamental pode hoje ser irrelevante ou marginal. 2 Jean-Loup Amselle e Elikia M’Bokolo (eds.), Au coeur de l’ethnie: ethnies, tribalisme et Etat en Afrique, Paris, La Découverte, 1985. 3 Jean-Loup Amselle, Logiques métisses. Antropologie de l’identité en Afrique et ailleurs, Paris, Payot, 1990, p. 12. 10 Afro-Ásia, 32 (2005), 9-28 A região a que este texto se refere provavelmente deve o seu nome a André Álvares de Almada, que nos finais do século XVI nos brindou com um relato detalhado sobre esta costa extrema ocidental do continen- te africano.4 Segundo Pélissier, a designação desta região não é de ma- neira nenhuma isenta de polêmica, já que mesmo o espaço de Rios de Guiné do Cabo Verde compreende toda a costa desde Gorée até Serra Leoa nos séculos XV a XVII.5 O espaço que é objeto deste texto corresponde à definição de Rios de Guiné do Cabo Verde tal como enten- dida a partir do século XVIII, ou seja, a zona compreendida entre os rios Gâmbia e Nunes, que também corresponde aos limites costeiros da influ- ência do Kaabu, como veremos mais adiante. Esta sub-região tem carac- terísticas ecológicas muito específicas, com terrenos de sedimentação recente, incluindo grandes extensões de mangue, sulcados por grandes vias fluviais de água salgada. Os grandes rios Gâmbia, Casamance, Cacheu, Geba e Corubal têm as suas origens nos contrafortes do Futa- Jalom, constituindo assim um espaço diferenciado daquele que existe a norte e a sul desta sub-região. Este texto tenta fazer uma leitura das relações espaciais, em contraponto às especificamente temporais, na zona de influência do Kaabu. Kaabu, descoberta historiográfica recente Desde 1972, por ocasião do I Congresso dos Estudos Mandingas, orga- nizado pela School of Oriental and African Studies, de Londres, os his- toriadores especializados no Mande voltaram as suas atenções para a paradoxal descoberta historiográfica do Kaabu, importante Estado do Sudão Ocidental.6 Desde então se multiplicam trabalhos, teorias, con- 4 André Alvares d’Almada, Tratado breve dos rios da Guiné do Cabo Verde, 2a ed., Lisboa, [s.n.], 1964 5 Réné Pélissier, Naissance de la Guiné. Portugais et africains en Sénégambie (1841-1936), Orgeval, Pélissier, 1989. 6 O Mande é uma região do Sudão Ocidental, em torno do alto curso do rio Níger, onde floreceu o Estado do Mali. Nas línguas dessa região o sufixo “nké” (“nquê” na transcrição para o português) ou “nka” representam a ideia de integração e território, “o país de” ou “o povo de”, como por exemplo “mandenka” que, obviamente, está na origem da terminologia “mandinga”, “mandinka”, “mandingue”. Outros exemplos podem ser assinalados para todos os povos mandingas ou influ- enciados por estes, como por exemplo kaabunquê, soninquê, jakaquê, futanquê. Os termos “man- dinga” e “malinquê” são usados muitas vezes como sinônimos. Afro-Ásia, 32 (2005), 9-28 11 gressos e outras tentativas de valorização do conhecimento desta impor- tante estrutura política. Recentemente foram publicados trabalhos de im- portância considerável para um melhor conhecimento do Kaabu, comple- tando assim as pesquisas já divulgadas de pioneiros como Cissoko, Sidibé e Mané.7 Do conjunto destes trabalhos ressalta o fato de que o Kaabu merece ser considerado como o verdadeiro herdeiro da tradição guerreira do Mali, que continua a representar o apogeu em termos de estruturação política dos mandingas. O conhecimento sobre o Mali é vasto, e na sua vertente política, muito útil para compreender o Kaabu, já que toda a es- trutura da “mansaya” (poder político), bem como a hierarquização social malinquê, foi transmitida ao Kaabu que começou por ser um Estado vassalo deste, governado por um “farim”, o Farim Cabo, o qual por sua vez aca- bou por se autonomizar. A gênese do Kaabu está igualmente associada à epopéia de Tiramakhan Traoré, que teria sido enviado pelo “mansa” (rei, governante) do Mali para conquistar as terras do oeste. O Kaabu parece ter sido governado sempre por uma classe nobre, os “nyantio”, cujos patrônimos Sané e Mané, bem como a sucessão matrilinear,8 denotam diferenças importantes em relação à influência islâmica e patrilinear prevalecente no Mali, na altura do estabelecimento do Kaabu. Esta singularidade contribui sobremaneira para identificar no espaço de influência do Kaabu uma dinâmica religiosa e cultural dife- rente da do Mali, embora tomando emprestado deste o essencial da hie- 7 Djibril Tamsir Niane, Histoire des Mandingues de l’Ouest, Paris, Karthala-Arsan, 1989; Jean Girard, L’Or du Bambouk. Une dynamique de civilisation ouest-africaine. Du royaume de Gabou à la Casamance, Genebra, Georg, 1992; Lopes, Kaabunké...; Sekéné Mody Cissoko, “Introduction à l’histoire des Mandingues de l’Ouest, L’empire du Kabou (XVI-XIX siècle)”, Congrès d’Études Mandingues, I, Londres, 1972; Cissoko, “La royauté (Mansaya) chez les Mandingues Occidentaux d’après leur traditions orales”, BIFAN, v. XXXII, serie B, nº. 2 (1969), pp. 325-338; Cissoko “De l’organisation politique du Kaabú”, Ethiopiques, nº. 28 (1981), pp. 195-266; Mamadou Mané, “Les origines et la formation du Kaabu”, Ethiopiques, nº. 28 (1981), pp. 93-104; Mané, “Contribution à l’Histoire du Kaabu, des origines au XIXe siècle”, BIFAN, v. XL, serie B, nº. 1 (1976), pp. 87-159; Bakary K. Sidibé, “The Story of Kaabu: its extent”, Congrès d’Études Mandingues, I, Londres, 1972.
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