Doorway to the Great Mosque of DjenneInstruments for Africa
Archaeological evidence puts the origin of Djenne to the third century BC. In the early middle ages the city shifted its position a little and the ‘new’ city of Djenne sprung up.
The Great Mosque of DjenneInstruments for Africa
The thirteenth century was a momentous time both in Europe, Asia and Mali with great social, political and religious fermentation and movement of people.
Great Mosque of DjennéInstruments for Africa
In Europe the minstrels and troubadours told the great epics of the feats of Arthur and his knights, of Roland, and of the heroes of the Nibelungenlied to inspire the many thousands who were on the way to liberate the Holy Land from the ‘infidel’ Muslims in those Christian Jihads called the Crusades.
The Great Mosque of DjenneInstruments for Africa
Meanwhile in Mali a great leader was born: Sundiata Keita, the ‘Lion King’, whose exploits have inspired the Griots, the minstrels of Manding (today’s Guinea and Mali) to sing his epic for the last 800 years.
The Great Mosque of DjennéInstruments for Africa
He unified many small West African kingdoms into the great Malian Empire that stretched between the Atlantic coast of modern day Senegal and encompassed all of the Niger inland delta. The Sundiata epic begins:
"Listen, sons of Manding, children of the black race, listen to my words. I will speak to you of Sundiata, the father of the bright country, of the savannah, the ancestor of the archers, the master of a hundred vanquished kings."
The Rooftop of the Great Mosque of DjenneInstruments for Africa
Sundiata lived between 1190 and 1255, and he is the creator of the ‘Mande Charter’ which is sometimes referred to as the first human rights declaration. It begins:
"Every human life is a life
..there is no life more 'ancient', or more respectable than another life, as no life is worthier than another life."
Praying at the Great Mosque of DjennéInstruments for Africa
Neither the Mande Charter, nor the Sundiata epic was written down but just like the epics of Europe they were handed down by oral tradition from generation to generation.
Men pray at the Great Mosque of DjennéInstruments for Africa
Writing was introduced to Mali in the form of written Arabic, through the conversion of the first Malians who undertook the Hadj to Mecca. It was, like Latin in Europe, the language of religion.
Only the learned marabouts knew the language. Nevertheless, in Djenne a culture of learning sprung up and some regard the city as the very oldest cultural centre in the Sub Saharan region.
People at the Great Mosque of DjenneInstruments for Africa
The chronicler Abd-al-Sadi wrote the famous Tariq al Sudan (1655) partly when he lived in Djenne, and noted:
"God has drawn into this blessed city a certain number of doctors and pious people, foreign to the country, who have come to live there; these people are from different tribes and different countries."
People at the Great Mosque of DjenneInstruments for Africa
Al-Sadi was writing at the height of Arabic scholarship in Djenne. The Moroccans conquered the city in 1591 and brought with them fresh impulses and inspiration which stimulated a vibrant period of creativity in architecture and literature.
Those glory days are long since over, partly because the French administration insisted on French being taught rather than Arabic and therefore the language lost some of its status.
Inside the Great Mosque of DjenneInstruments for Africa
However, in some ways Djenne remains a centre for Islamic studies and people from far and wide send their sons to study under a Djenne marabout. These boys are called Talibes and they are made to spend this time of their boyhood often in great deprivation with the purpose of making them strong and reliant on Allah.
Praying in front of the Great Mosque of DjennéInstruments for Africa
There are around 50 Koran schools where marabouts also teach both boys and girls from Djenne to recite the Koran, writing their homework on wooden tablets. Only a very small number of these children will ever learn to understand Arabic, but they will learn to recite the Koran by heart.
After many years of learning by rote they are gradually given some insight into the meaning of what they recite.
Man reads prayersInstruments for Africa
This is very different from the way we in the West regard education: we are used to it being freely available in libraries and schools and we regard the developing of understanding an essential part in the education process, but in Djenne learning is traditionally given slowly, even cautiously, and it has to be earned.
A man prayingInstruments for Africa
The reason for this is the great respect and reverence in which the Arabic language is held: it is regarded as holy and imbued with the power of magic. To enter into these mysteries too quickly is believed to be harmful, even dangerous.
