IV. 3. BACK TO DJIMINI -- VIOLENCE REAPPEARS

4.3. Djimini violence reappears

A CENTURY OF PEACE BRINGS ANOTHER CYCLE 
OF GROWTH, UPHEAVAL 
AND RESISTANCE TO NEW FORCES OF GAIN 

Internet

Senufo warrior

• New forces menace

• Senufo fight back

• Different violence, similar goal

*      *      *

Next,

New forces menace

NEW FORCES MENACE

 NORTHERN TRADERS MULTIPLY
(From about 1870) 

The Hausa merchant "Mori" 

settles in the textile center of Marabadiassa,

and "Karamoko Bassiri" in Bouake, farther west

-- The imams of Dabalakoro and Darhala

(Muslim villages that spring up along the trade route)

The imam of Darhala

said that his father and others arrived then as well

William Allen, Narrative of an expedition to the River Niger, 1848

Hausa dignitaries

• Their advance is part of a general evolution:

° 1820's

Fulani from Northern Nigeria ride south, with white clothing and banners, crying "Allahu Akhbar!" and awaiting paradise should they die in combat. At Oyo's capital they incite Muslim slaves to kill their animist masters and join them. 

-- Clapperton,
 Records of a second expedition to the interior of Africa, 1825-27,
ed. Paul Lovejoy, 203-4

° 1850's 

Bornu Fulani and Kanuri move south, enslaving or killing populations or demanding tribute.  

-- Barth, II, 93

° 1870's

Segu's Amadu Tall "seems to be less and less interested in his possessions in Kaarta, Fadugu and Bélédugu (in Senegal and Mali), which are in constant revolt... (he) is turning his efforts toward the south..."

-- Dakar archives, 1880

 ° 1890's 

Northerners reach the coast.

-- Dakar archives, 1894

• They colonise and enserf:  

° The indigenous language is disappearing

"The spirits of the land, say the Senufo of Kenedugu, have retreated to certain swamps... Woe to the careless person who should pronounce words in the Bambara language, that of the conqueror, next to those swamps. He will immediately be sucked in. The country is Senufo, and its spirits wish to hear Senufo alone."

-- Dakar archives, 1888

° Populations are becoming tributary

North of Djimini: "It is to them (the northerners) that they (the Senufo) give their work and their harvests. In fact they are captives, except that they are not sold."  

-- Dakar archives, 1888

Within Djimini: "They tried to steal our harvests"

 -- Serisio Coulibali, farmer

The northerners preach Islam,
which in an animist context
means transforming society itself.

*      *      *

Next,
Senufo fight back 

SENUFO FIGHT BACK

GNAPON'S SON NAMBOLOSSE
LEADS THEIR RESISTANCE

It is he who is killed in 1878,
when "too old to fight."

-- Dakar archives, 1878

• He is the Senufo hero:
"He made the traders respect us. 

He forced them to speak our tongue.

He pillaged caravans and said,

'If I renounce crime, how will I eat?'

 -- Serisio Coulibali, farmer

Internet

° Who are the riders? 

They can't be Muslims, 
for the facial cuts are animist
(At least those on Internet)

Do they represent Nambolosse? 

Are villagers horsemen?  

Or do the statues represent Sonnangui, slave-owning Senufo who become producers for market (as the next chapter explains).

Internet

Horsewoman

° What about women riders?  

The sister of the terrifying warlord Samory was a raider. 

Was she alone, or did other women raid as well?

What about the facial cuts? 

One would have to see a representative exhibit or perhaps people on the spot still know.

They are questions I thought of only later.  

• After Nambolosse's death the Senufo 
continue their attacks.

They distinguish between
local and long-distance traders,

assaulting only caravans with donkeys,

which are raised in the north.

-- Dakar archives, 1891, confirmed by interlocutors.
Donkeys would not be raised so near the forest, 
with its deadly tsetse flies. 

° The petty traders are left alone,

for they have become part of Senufo society

They are Dyula, like the marabout whose prayers helped found Bokhala. Their Islam is so "lax" that their elders were often drunk in public.

Translation: they will not use Islam to defy the traditional order.

-- Drunk in public:
Journal de Braulot, Dakar archives, 1893

° "We let the little Dyula alone, 

but the Soninke were like fish. 

We did not know where they came from 

or where they were going,

and we caught them like fish."  

-- Bafétigui Coulibali, imam of Dabakalakoro

° "We:" the imam identifies with the animists 

against other Muslims: please read on.

Senufo resistance is effective. 
For over 15 years,
raiders devastate territories to the east and west,
but spare Djimini.

*     *     *

Next,
Different violence, similar goal

DIFFERENT VIOLENCE, SIMILAR GOAL

HUMAN SACRIFICE,
ANOTHER WAY TO COUNTER THREAT 
FROM RISING COMMERCIAL FORCES 

The king of Dahomey immolates 10 slaves in 1850 and 300 in 1853, 

to keep palm oil growers from obtaining them
(Dahomey: now part of Benin)

• Every year Dahomeyan family heads

sacrifice wealth to the ancestors,

the amount depending on status. 

The king sacrifices what costs most,

slaves

Journals of two missions to the king of Dahomey, in 1849 and 1850 by Frederic E. Forbes

• When the British block the port
to prevent slave-carrying ships from sailing (in 1852), 
the ruler finds himself with a mass of captives
that the oligarchy cannot absorb
and that are costly to maintain  

Dahomey Human sacrifice in 1853, "Le Tour du Monde"

Palm-oil production has increased under European demand, and its producers would gladly buy those slaves.

The king sacrifices them instead. 

• Ritualized destruction emphasizes authority,

as usual

In the first drawing, the king is giving the order to pitch the captives over the wall. The population watches from outside.

In the second, the ruler and crowd participate in the execution together. The people cheer each time the executioner raises a head, while the king sits under the parasol (a symbol of power) in the front row.

There is no comparable ritual in Djimini, 

where the economy is much less developed
and that has no king.

But pillaging caravans and massacring labor
have the same goal,
to protect societies that commercial forces threaten.

End of this chapter.

*      *      *

Next chapter,

IV, 4.
Commercial forces win, then crumble