Que pensez-vous de la culture soninké ? A-t-elle un avenir ?

[sajokuumba Kamara]

Hi sajokuumba Kamara,
I, personally, do not agree with lots of your assertions here.

You are saying that “Arab culture and Arab religion are some of the most important of the many and diverse causes of the death of ” our culture…., that, “Our near Ancestors converted to Islam and therefore Arab culture and became more Arab than the Arabs.”
I really do not agree with this sentence.

First of all, the Soninke people (I prefer, rather than the Mande people) are not the only people who converted to Islam. Across the five continents around the world, you will find thousands of other ethnic groups and people who also converted to Islam without denying themselves, without repudiating their ancestors traditions and culture. So are the Soninke.

Because, remember, the Soninke people are one of the earliest people who converted to Islam, assuming that the Wagadu empire started at the 5th century AD and that the conversion took place before the dislocation of the Ghana empire.

From that time to the 19th, up to the 20th century AD, the Soninke people have been transmitting their culture from generation to generation.
They are good Muslims, but the aren’t Arabs. They have been practicing Islam during centuries, but they never denied their culture for the Arab culture.
What about colonisation? What is the impact of the European Civilization and now the Globalization on the Soninke culture? I think we should ask ourselves these questions to find out the main reasons which are causing the death of the Soninke culture.

The second point is about what you call “the cast system”. Again, here, you are building your theory based on “the Arab culture”, because, you said “They (The Mande world and the West African ethnic groups) failed because they have adopted Arab culture.” Again, I am obliged to say again that they did not adopt the Arab culture. They just converted to Islam.

You said further that “they have failed because the Europeans rule the African continent; they have failed because they could not implement an educational system that could free the minds of the young so that they can adequately face the challenges of Life and living.”. This is true. But, I am not sure I have understood what you meant here. Because, for me, an ethnic group can preserve its culture, transmitting it from generation to generation, without implementing an educational system, sophisticated as some European people. If you go to Amazon, you will find lots of ethnic groups who preserved their culture and who never had a contact with modern civilization. On the contrary, it is modern civilization that is currently killing these cultures.

If all the historians agree that the Wagadu empire was one of the powerful and strongest black empire (Kwame Nkrumah gave the name of this symbolic empire to his country – Gold Coast), I have not doubt that the same people still have all the capabilities to reorganize themselves in order to build a new stronger empire. But slavery and colonisation annihilated all these possibilities. For further development of this theory, I suggest you this book : ” The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks. Author : Randall Robinson”.

These were just some thoughts I wanted to share with you.
Regards.

Brother Cisse,

It is lovely to have a dialogue with intelligent people even if we do not always agree. Thanks for the sharing. It is the process that matters, the dialogue. So long as we do not hold unbending attitudes to the subject matter, we might end up enlightening ourselves. Further, if I might add, it is not about agreeing with each other; rather it is more about shedding light on an important subject. You, indeed, have shed some light on the subject.

But before I continue the dialogue, I would like to personally thank you for the great work you have done to build this website along with the Waounde one among others. I am extremely happy that we can communicate with each other through your wonderful initiatives. My deepest gratitude to you and the those working with you.

Now my central thesis holds that "Arabism" is largely responsible for the demise of Sooninkaaxu. Your points about the range and extent of Islam are well taken. Now Brother Cisse, can you point out to me a single progressive Islamic country in the world? If you can, you first want to remind us of Malaysia. There, my good brother, the Chinese diaspora is behind that country's success.

The point for us to consider is the impact of not the five principal faratas of Islam but the shar'ia and the hadiths. It is my contention that the five faratas in and of themselves do not constitute the problem but the law of god that is not replaceable. Herein lies the culture. Modern jurisprudence has long since surpassed this "god" given attempt to move the Arabs from backwardness to some degree of civilization. This they attained and for a few centuries, theirs were the great centers of learning. Greek and Roman knowledge met with desert curiosity and there was a spark.The nomadic Arab met with Persian and Indian high cultures and there was again a spark. Arabs enter the Valley of the Gods, Kemet-Egypt, and a new Meditation was born. Taking from all these former centers of learning and science and meditation, the arab culture flowered. The Sufis were the real heroes of this transformation along with a few enlightened caliphs. Then the lights went out. The compendium of human knowledge gathered by the Arabs became the basis of the European struggle against another more ancient religion-Roman Catholicism.

Brother Cisse, the point I am making is that unless the Sharia is set aside and the hadiths are put in proper perspective, we are in a stagnant pool. The Sharia is the basis of the new Arab culture and therefore Islam. What progress there was could be attributed to new wealth gathered through the jihads and other conquests and the investment of these spoils which added to the glitter of the Arab culture. The Sufis carried the culture to its glory and in the process many were murdered.

If you convert to Islam, you invariably convert to Arab culture for Islam is the five faratas, the sharia as given in the Quran and the hadiths which tantamount to unwritten law. The first farata, as I have stated, is not a problem. To me it is the release from idolary for the Sooninko who wanted to respond to this vital reminder. Brother Cisse, and other readers, please sit with this and consider it in depth. Can you distinguish Arab culture from the Arab religion, which is Islam for the religion is the very basis of the culture? Please think on this. This is extremely important to understand.

It appears as if you might have by-passed my rectifications to Brother NAS' translation. When I talk of Mande, I do not mean Mandingo-the people or Mandinga-the language. I am referring to an ancient philosophy, the remnants of a body of very profound knowledge that our ancestors retained when they left Ancient Egypt. It has suffered much, but it was still potent. This Mande pervades all the related peoples, the bulk of which is within the Mandingo/Banmana group. There could be more Cisse Mandingos than Cisse Sooninko. We are one, the combination of the Kagoro/Sooninko groups. My theory is that the Kagoros left Ancient Egypt first and then they were followed much later by those from Sooni-present day Aswan, Egypt. In order words, Mande is what was left of the profound knowledge that we once possessed. Settling in the Sahel cost us a lot.

The culture did not prepare us to adequately meet the Europeans when they arrived. Your points are well taken,; they are germane to the dialogue. Now my question is this: is it Sooninke culture that prevented our fathers from sending our sisters to school or is it our understanding of Islam that is actually behind it? Haven't the Islamic sharia and Islamic jurisprudence robbed our mothers and sisters of their once powerful positions in society? What happened to the Sooninke matriarchy when we converted to Islam to use your words? Please think on this. It is very important for young Sooninko to consider what culture is. The basis of all high culture is either a grand philosophy or a religion, mostly, if not always, it is religion. This is why I focus on our understanding of religion and Islam in particular.

I am engaged, like you, in the belief that we are indeed capable of re-uniting. I think all out dialogues are attempts to discover the bases for this new unity. We are all together in this consciously or not. This is why I joined this particular dialogue. It is about our culture; it is this that allows us to develop a world view; it is this culture that determines the way we see Life and the way we live. To come upon the new, we have to be free.

Let us all continue this dialogue and those who can translate, let them please do so. I read French moderately well. but I prefer to write in English as I am more fluent in this language as you are Brother Cisse and also Brother NAS and some others. Those of you from Mali, Senegal, Mauritania do better with English than those of us from the Gambia do with the French language. But that should not be a barrier. As more people come upon English and French on this website, its appeal will broaden for language will not be a barrier.

We have work to do. We have to discover the basis for a new Sooninke Culture and I see that you and some of the other brothers and sisters are already on it. I have read a lot of the past forums among the many and varied postings of the website which I used to gauge the level of seriousness of the dialogues. Let us continue inquiring in the same spirit. Agreement is not always necessary; the important thing is brilliant light being shed on the subject.

With much love to you Brother Cisse and Nas and those contributing to this vital dialogue.