Koumen

An Initiation Text of the Peul Pastoral Fulani

Igbo Mmuo-maiden spirit-masks

Masks have been used in some classical African contexts
as central to initiation into particular groups.
Image source: unrecalled website
The timeless remoteness and beauty of the masks in the foreground, in concert with the
shadowy humanoid figures in the background, clustering near an upwards thrusting
mass recalling a hill, may suggest the projection from a centre, barely cognisable in its
transcendence of the material universe, of concretely manifest but still mysterious powers
represented by the masks, a conception significant for many initiation systems across the
world, such systems being often efforts to relate with the abstract through the concrete.
Retold by Ahmadou Hampate Ba and Germaine Dieterlen
Translated by Google Chrome Browser and Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Compcros: Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems

Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos

in Search of Knowledge
1

Introduction by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

This is the first (partial) translation known to me into English of
Koumen : Initiation Text of the Peul Pastoral Fulani retold in
French from the original language by Ahmadou Hampt Ba
and Germaine Dieterlen, central figures in the study of African
mysticism and esotericism. The translation into English was
done by the Google Chrome browser and Oluwatoyin Vincent
Adepoju.
The translation contains the preface by Hubert Deschamps and
the list of contents. The translation was done from the source
text at webPulaaku, largely by the Google Chrome browser
which automatically translates into English a page one opens in
the browser in a range of languages. Having practically no
knowledge of French, the language in which the work is written,
my efforts have consisted simply in rendering the Google
translation into smooth English, drawing slightly on my
knowledge of the contents of the text gained from a summarizing
translation of Germaine Dieterlen's " Initiation Among the Peul
Pastoral Fulani" in African Systems of Thought edited by Meyer
Fortes and Germaine Dieterlen.
This translation is part of my on-going work on Ahmadou
Hampate Ba, complemented by his collaborations with other
people, represented by my earlier productions, "Fulani
Mythology and the Unity of Classical African Systems of
Thought" and "Quest for Ultimate Being : Invocation of Kaidara,
Fulani God of Gold and of Knowledge", itself part of a larger
project on developing the contemporary and timeless
significance of classical and post-classical African creativity,
within an overarching comparative exploration of cognitive
processes and systems in a quest for ultimate meaning.

Preface by Hubert Deschamps

This collaboration of Fulani scholar Ahmadou Hampt Ba and
Ms. Dieterlen, demonstrating deep knowledge of the religions
and myths of the Sudan, has given ethnographic literature a
masterpiece.
This initiatory text transmitted by the master of initiation Aro
Dembo , of Ndilli, in Ferlo (Senegal), is a kind of Pilgrim's
Progress . It traces the progress of the pastoralist Sile
Saajo through the twelve clearings of knowledge, guided by the
bearded
dwarf
ancestor, Koumen ,
the
mythical
serpent Caanaba or Tyanaba , and his wife Foroforondu .
A series of tests ensues, all of which are introductions to the
structure of the world and facilitate the development of control
over oneself. The first four tests correspond to the four elements
in the first clearing or initiatory space, then come the test of
courage in the clearings of the seven suns, then contact with the
mythical bovine hermaphrodite and the unknotting of the
twenty-eight knots, the completion of knowledge. Left alone
with the emblems of the pastoralist, the initiate will have to
defeat a magical lion to return to the land of men.
The dramatic poetry of the story evokes the most beautiful pages
of the Bible, and it took outstanding translators to keep it as
fresh. The text is dense in symbolism yet its style is almost
dancing in a rhythmic flow, even as no sentence, and hardly a
word, is not rich in symbolism. These symbols are explained in
the copious notes, placed next to the text, and with an
introduction that clearly introduces us to the spiritual life of
Fule and its material support: family, cattle, cattle brands,

milk, vegetables, altars, poles, cattle ropes, cattle whisk and

cattle milk.
The reader is exposed to the degrees of initiation, to the role
of the silatigi (the comprehensively initiated priest of the
community) and the myth of the snake Caanaba who emerges
out of the ocean at the mouth of the Senegal, the ocean which
runs through all the countries of Western Fule and through
Faguibine
before
disappearing
into
the
lake.
The conclusion and accompanying pictures show how the myth
of the snake, the coats of the cattle, the suns and clearings
explain some paintings found by H. Lhote in the Sahara during
his Bovidian period" in which he depicted the ancestors of the
Fule. What he had projected imaginatively in visual art, the
authors of this text demonstrate conclusively. The continuity of
civilization and beliefs over five millennia thus unfolded is
striking. Through the great human achievement that is this work
we dive with Koumen into an ancient African space and
experience its esoteric depth as it thrived in a natural and
enchanting environment.

Contents
Introduction

First Clearing
Second Glade
Third Glade
Fourth Glade
Fifth Glade
Sixth Glade
Glade Seventh
Eighth Glade
Ninth Glade
Tenth Glade
Eleventh Glade
Twelfth Glade
The end nodes
The final battle: invocation Jalaa

Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography