Pierre Fatumbi Verger recalled

Jorge Amado

A few days ago a person asked me in a serious manner if Pierre Verger really existed or if was another Bahian invention. Who knows, maybe it was an effort to explain the syncretism of our culture no longer through divinities but instead through a human being. Pierre Verger was born in France, he came from an aristocratic family, he was a citizen of the world, a photographer of world frontiers, from Peking to Havana, a young adventurer amidst the pathway of knowledge and emotions. He was also a doctor in science at the Centre de Recherches Scientifiques in France, alongside the wise Roger Bastide. In , whoever wants any news about him must ask about Fatumbi, this was the title that the ialorixàs and the babalaôs gave him, and that he incorporated into his name, hence, the personality of the professor and the researcher, the man of university and of books, he had become enriched from a humane point of view, and above all he became a man of peji, of camarinha, and of the roda-de-feita. In Africa not only did he learn the complete slave ship sea routes but also the journeys of mystery. He became a feiticeiro: Pierre Fatumbi Verger. In the Axé Opô Afonjà terreiro, the unforgettable Mãe Senhora sitting in her throne like a queen, proclaimed him Ojuobà, the eyes of Xangò, he who observes and knows all. He became a familiar figure in the ‘case di santo’ in Bahia, a teacher to us all, the same as us all in his respect and cordiality of the atabaques vibrations. Professor, researcher, photographer, writer, in Bahia he is Pierre Fatumbi Verger Ojuobà. In Bahia the syncretism of knowledge and of life were completed. The French mix from Cardinal Le moine in Paris, with the African from , Porto Novo, Oyò, it gave life to an absolute unique Bahian, so extraordinary that he almost seems an invention. No, this isn’t an invention, he exists, works, writes, travels the world. Undoubtedly he is a feiticeiro. This can’t be hidden or denied. Mãe Senhora would often say to Zélia, with a friendly smile: “ Careful with Verger, he is a feiticeiro, he has powers!”. Yes, he has powers, he knows things.

Jorge Amado Peji: shrine of the Candomblé Camarinha: a room reserved for the novices of Candomblé during the period of their initiation. Roda-de-feita: roda of the saint daughters that have completed their initiation and can now participate in all the Candomblé rituals.

------Funzione Gamma, scientific online magazine University "Sapienza" of Rome, registered with the Court Rome Civil (n. 426 of 28/10/2004)– www.funzionegamma.it Preface by Pierre Fatumbi Verger to the book “EWE” I rapidly learnt not to ask useless questions, maybe due to shyness, or lack of curiosity or for a certain difficulty in understanding the meaning of the explanations that were given to me. I also had a certain tendency of not being interested in things that were going on during my childhood and that would on the other hand thrill my family: the robbery of the Mona Lisa, the flooding in Paris in 1910, the sinking of the Titanic, sensational facts that were amongst the great questions in Europe. This congenial difference wasn’t the greatest quality asked for in a researcher, but good fortune would have it that I became the research director at the Centre de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris! It seems paradoxical that this lack of curiosity could have contributed to the publication of my book on the medicinal and magical use of plants amongst the Yorubans. My real and not premeditated discretion in respect to the knowledge preserved by the divine babalãos and curandeiros onisegun, was the reason of my success in this field. I had the opportunity from 1948 of often travelling to and from Africa and . This helped me to gain a favourable welcome into some Candomblé terreiros in Bahia and to integrate amongst the participants of African traditional religions. It was of interest to both sides that I frequented certain places without ever posing indiscreet questions, and that I brought back news of what was happening on the other side of the Atlantic. I managed to show in Africa certain boards with Brazilian plant specimens that were known in the Candomblé circles with their nagô-yoruba denomination, this facilitated the formation of herb boards of these same plants in Africa, and many other uses for medicines and magic trabalhos of my Yoruban friends. My initiation as babalão in the city of Keto, nowadays known as the Republic, west Africa, took place in 1953. this helped and facilitated my research also due to the fact that the knowledge and use of plants for potions and remedies, became for me not only a right but an obligation. The plants were delivered to me by my babalão brothers accompanied by their Yoruba names and short sentences that are called ofò, that enunciate often in a poetic manner the plant qualities. To begin with I became very curious about the literary aspect of these ofò. By 1967 I had put together thousands of these formulas, and thanks to Ulli Beier and professor Akinjogbin of the Institute of African History at the University of Ifé, I published eighty of these short poems in a book, Awon ewé Osanyn (The medicine leaves of the Yorubans). Whilst gathering the plants, for a long period of time I thought that my babalão colleagues were getting the better of me, seeing as on various occasions I would receive the same plant with different Yoruba names. The moment came when I understood that the short ofò sentences that defined what the plant in question would actually do, were generally presented with a monosyllabic verb that appeared in the name of the plant, this helped to remember it. I also understood ------Funzione Gamma, scientific online magazine University "Sapienza" of Rome, registered with the Court Rome Civil (n. 426 of 28/10/2004)– www.funzionegamma.it that this “effectuating verb” of pronounced enchantment was also one of the syllables of the plant used. In this manner, if the necessary syllable for the outcome of a trabalho didn’t appear in the name of the plant, this was then changed with another name where the syllable (effectuating verb) was present and consequentially the same plant would have another name. Having discovered the existence of the effectuating verb in the plant names and in the ofò was for me like Eureka for Archimedes. This book is an extract of everything that my teachers and babalão brothers had the good will to teach me during the many years in which I lived in Africa.

Introduction to the book “Ewe” by Pierre Fatumbi Verger This research took place in Africa, in a cultural universe based on orality, where the importance and value of oral transmission are completely different to civilizations based on scripture. The study was mainly amongst the babalãos, that in the Yoruba community make the divinations using a system that is called Ifà, based on 256 signs called odus, under which the traditional remedies are classified and the trabalhos that are presented in this publication. These 256 odu Ifà are double signs that derive from 16 simple signs that are even in number, and form the 16 primary odus, also with each of the other 16 simple signs they form the 240 secondary signs. The first of these secondary odus, is the result of the association of the first two simple signs ogbé and òyekù, this is called ogbé alamùulù, “ogbe –master-of- variety” or “ogbe-master-of difference”. During the preparation of formulas the babalão establishes a link between the remedy and the sign of Ifà, and this is drawn on the ground, ìyèròsùn. The link takes place through verbal ties between the name of the plant, the name of medicinal or magical action that the plant provokes and odu, the Ifà sign in which it’s classified. These verbal ties are essential as they help the babalão to memorize the notions and knowledge that are orally passed on and that therefore assume a collective and not individual aspect. The oral transmission of knowledge is considered within Yoruban tradition to be the vessel of axé, power, the strength of words that remains without effect in written texts. In order for words to take action they must be pronounced. Knowledge that is passed on orally has an initiation value through the effectuating verb, an initiation that doesn’t exist at a mental level of comprehension, but in the dynamics of behaviour. It’s based to a larger extent on reflexes rather than on rationality, reflexes that are induced from impulses originating from the cultural foundations of society. Knowledge is passed on from the babalão to the omo awo, from the teacher to the disciple, through short sentences based on breathing rhythms. They are constantly ------Funzione Gamma, scientific online magazine University "Sapienza" of Rome, registered with the Court Rome Civil (n. 426 of 28/10/2004)– www.funzionegamma.it repeated, they become verbal stereotypes that with ease become accepted definitions. According to Jen Pierre Vernant, the same thing occurred amongst the ancient Greeks, their rules as far as poetic composition were concerned entailed the knowledge of a diction technique that put into use traditional expressions, made up of pre-established word schemas. According to Marcel Granet, the Ancient Chinese also possessed a literature that was based on conventional expressions. Even the most original of artists when wanting to explain, narrate or describe would use stereotypical stories borrowed and taken from popular wisdom. The use of stereotypical expressions didn’t mean that they thought in a primitive fashion, but that the correct form of expressing ideas was to insert them in well known formulas in which they gained all their strength of influence.

Classification Knowledge of the scientific names of plants became fundamental, this is the reason why we gathered various specimens and we delivered them to various authorities such as the botany department of IFAN in Dakar, the herbarium at the forestal department in Ibadan, professor Portère of the ethno-botanical laboratory at the Natural history Museum in Paris, and finally professor H.M Burkill from the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew in London. Burkill was in fact attracted to the humour of some of the use of the plant formulas published in the book Awon ewé Osanyìn, and included them in the book Useful plants of West Tropical Africa, two of the five volumes were already published. We reached the conclusion that 3.529 of the Yoruba names corresponded to 1.086 scientific names. The reason behind this discrepancy is due to the different criteria used in classification by the Yorubans and western botanists. Knowledge of the scientific name of plants used by Yorubans isn’t enough to understand their richness. No experiments were carried out to prove their efficiency, but we’re sure that research into their medicinal effects would give useful indications of their pharmacological value. This isn’t the aim of this publication that instead has an ethnological purpose and not a medical purpose. We are saying which plants are used in the Yoruba pharmacopoeia and their value in medicinal magic for which they are used. Their medicinal virtues and values aren’t easy to pinpoint, seeing as it is rare for only one plant to be used in each formula. Generally speaking, each prescription uses three to six different plants. One plant alone could be compared to a letter in a word: on its own it hasn’t any meaning, once it’s associated to the other letters it gives a certain meaning to the word. We gathered thousands of formulas, we selected 447 that were then divided into six categories: A) 219 formulas of medicinal use (oògùn) in the concept of western medicine B) 31 formulas that correspond to pregnancy and birth (ìbimo) C) 33 formulas that correspond to the adoration of Yoruba divinities (orixà) D) 91 formulas for beneficial use (àwùre) ------Funzione Gamma, scientific online magazine University "Sapienza" of Rome, registered with the Court Rome Civil (n. 426 of 28/10/2004)– www.funzionegamma.it E) 32 formulas for malefic use (àbìlù) F) 41 formulas as protection against malefic use(ìdaàbòbò) Classifying each formula in a category isn’t an easy task. For example for an afòràn to enable a person to succeed in a law court, it is partly using àwùre and partly àbìlù. It’s also difficult to trace a dividing line between what is considered to be scientific knowledge and what is considered to be magical practice. This also depends on the importance of the traditionally oral Yoruba culture, the ofò enchantment that is pronounced whilst preparing and applying different medicinal formulas, oògun. If for western medicine major factors regard the knowledge of the scientific name of plants that are used and their pharmacological characteristics, in traditional societies on the other hand it is essential to know the ofò enchantments that are orally passed on. In these enchantments we encounter the definition of the action that each plant that makes up the formula will fulfil. There are various plants that at a first glance seem to fulfil a symbolic role, but in reality they have a therapeutic value. This is the case of two aquatic plants, ojù orò (Pistia Stratiotes, Aracae, water lettuce) and òsìbàtà (Nymphea Lotus, Nymphaceae, or lotus) that in their ofò evoke the idea of denomination and superiority. For a considerable amount of time we believed that these two plants were used only for symbolic reasons, but recently we read an article written by professor Jean Marie Pelte who underlines that there are sedative elements in osìbàtà. At a glance it’s difficult to perceive which part of the formula is actually magic (to be more respectful we should actually call this axé, power) and which are the provable virtues of these plants. We must remember that in Yoruba language there is often a direct link between plant names and their respective qualities, it would be of considerable importance to know if they received such names for their virtues or for their attributed characteristics, as if it were some kind of word game (or to be more respectful, ofò). These enchantment-word games are of great importance in traditionally oral societies. When they are pronounced in solemn speeches they can be considered definitions and they often make up the basis on which reasoning is built. They also serve the function of being conclusions to stories passed on from one generation to the next by the babalaôs: they express both the Yoruban culture’s viewpoint and the common sense of the people. As far as our studies are concerned it’s important to know if the interpretation corresponds to reality and if the qualities that are associated to the plants are based on their real virtues. As we said before, we’ll leave the specialists to study the validity of our suppositions and we’ll think about enumerating the leaves that the babalaôs use, providing some details on the preparation method of certain ingredients as shown in the enchantment texts that are pronounced during the ritual.

------Funzione Gamma, scientific online magazine University "Sapienza" of Rome, registered with the Court Rome Civil (n. 426 of 28/10/2004)– www.funzionegamma.it During the enchantments the names of leaves are accompanied by two or three lines that describe their qualities in that particular case. Each particular leaf has a different attributed virtue, depending on the association that is made with other leaves, seeing as they are composed using different medicinal preparations. Even though there is a difference in the quality of the leaves regarding the association that is made of them, there is a certain consistency in their symbolism. We are aware, for example, that amongst these leaves there are four that are known as awon ado ewé méerin, four male leaves, for their malefic use: ewé inà (Urera Manii, Urticaceae), ewé aàràgbà (Bridelia atroviridis, Euphorbiaceae), ewé èsìsì funfun (Tragia Benthami, Euphorbiaceae), ewé olòyin (Striga asiatica, Scrophulariaceae); another four are an antidote to goodness: ewé òdùndùn (Kalanchoe crenata, Crassuluceae, the coast leaf), ewé tètè (Amaranthus hibridus subsp. Incurvatus, Amaranthaceae), ewé rinrin (Pereromia Pellucida, Piperaceae, jabutimembeca) and ewé ikùpèrò (Dichrocephala integrifolia, Compositae).

------Funzione Gamma, scientific online magazine University "Sapienza" of Rome, registered with the Court Rome Civil (n. 426 of 28/10/2004)– www.funzionegamma.it