I thought I would talk to you all a bit about my day in
Bandafassi with Benoit (I thought that his name was Benoir, which is the French
word for a big pastic tub, which is awesome, then a friend apologetically told
me otherwise, I was devastated). Thanks
a lot Jason, took a little bit of magic out of my life. Anyway, it was one of those pleasant days
when you have no real expectations, but are then pleasantly surprised. So let me begin:
I was planning on going into Kedougou from my site for one
reason or another. Usually when I ride
back to village from Kedougou I go through Bandafassi in order to hang out with
friends I have there and see my Tokara (my name sake). Because of this, usually when I go to
Kedougou from site I take the straight road that cuts through the bush all the
way. But this time I had promised my
friends in Bandafassi that I would pass through it the next time I rode back to
Kedougou. Usually when it’s time to go
to the regional house I am out of steam and looking forward to hanging out with
Americans and using things that require electricity and eating meat, so
spending a day at another village on the way there can seem unappealing. But I hadn’t been around for a while, so I
thought it would be nice. Now, my
friends attend the school there, so they aren’t available until around
3:00. I didn’t feel like milling around
my village, so I thought I would ride in early and spend some time at the
campement there, “the bedik”. It’s a
nice little campement with about 10 rooms and a small lounging area. They sell cold drinks there and aren’t
usually very busy, so I thought I would just drink a cold sprite and get to
know the owner better. She is a nice
Bedik woman, I embarrassingly can’t remember her name, but I have only stopped
by once or twice so I didn’t (and still don’t) know her very well. She would be a good person to know, so I got
to Bandafassi early and headed on over to the Bedik.
Hello Bandafassi
When I arrived there I put my bike down and walked into the
little restaurant/sitting room/shade structure.
It’s a quaint little building with a small bar and a few tables with
chairs around them. I decided to put my
backpack down and sit at one of the tables.
No one was there. Hmm, what to do
now? I guess I could just go over to my
friend’s house and hang out with the old people there. As I was considering these things I see a man
walk up. He introduces himself as Benoit
and says that his sister, the manager, is away at Dakar and while she is away
he is in charge. We start talking in Pular
a little bit, I tell him I live in Nianghe, but am from America. At this point he says that he actually speaks
English, which is great because that means that we can have a real
conversation.
He told me that he is a Bedik man, and I thought this was a
great opportunity to learn more about the Bediks in English. So I ask him some pretty basic questions
about life growing up in a Bedik village.
I was very interested in learning about the initiation ceremonies. He said that they are not at any set date,
but can be thrown at any time a boy is deemed worthy to become a man. This could be at any age. How does he prove this worth? Apparently he has to demonstrate the ability
to conduct himself as a man and his dedication to the village. The example he gave was being able to carry a
certain amount of wood up the mountain to the village, or to carry water or
palm wine that same distance.
this hill
Once everyone agrees
that you have the qualifications of a man, they then throw the ceremony. As an initiated man, to contribute to the
village you have to carry logs of wood up the mountain every Thursday. Along with this, you are granted access to
one of the two secret houses on top of the mountain. What is in the secret house? I don’t know… it’s a secret. After having been initiated for 5 years, you
are then granted access to the second secret house. Apparently it’s cooler or something because
it’s even more secret than the first secret house. Having access to this 2nd secret
house also makes you eligible for marriage.
This means that you aren’t supposed to marry until you have been
initiated for at least 5 years.
At this point I ask him about his views on alcohol. I forgot to mention, he is a university
educated man, majoring in film making.
I’ve noticed a sharp difference in views of university educated men and
those who have not received an education.
Thus I asked his opinion of his own culture as someone who has been far
enough away from it to view it with a more objective eye. Since drinking alcohol is a big part of Bedik
culture, I wanted to know what he thought of it. He said that Bediks have to go further and
further to get palm wine. Apparently
Bediks and Bassaris harvest palm wine in different ways, and the Bedik way can
kill the tree. For this reason they have
to go further and further to get their palm wine. Benoit said how when he was young he would
have to carry a 20 litre barrel for kilometers in order to bring back the palm
wine. Now people bike and motorcycle
theirs back. He jokingly said that
pretty soon they would need to bring out helicopters in order to bring the palm
wine back. So I asked him if he himself
drank alcohol. He said, “oh yeah, of course
I do, it’s part of being a Bedik… I actually have some palm wine right here. The first day I got back I bought some to
share with people. Let’s drink it! It
makes no sense to drink alone, I can always get more.” He was very gracious so I agreed. I just sat
back, sipped on some palm wine, which is called bannje in Pular, and learned
some more about Bedik culture and religion.
At this point the conversation switched to religion. I want again to say that this blog is my own
personal views and that what I am about to describe is my impressions from what
I heard, I don’t claim to be an expert on Bedik religious practices and could
have totally misheard and misinterpreted what I was being told. Anyway, so apparently in Bedik religion there
are many gods and spirits. One of their
more important gods is the sky god. But
since the sky god is so big and so far away, it is difficult for your prayers
to reach him. Because of this it is
helpful to have a benevolent spirit amplify your prayers. To attract these spirits you create little
stone shrines. You build up a mound of
stones and place a piece of iron in the middle.
This attracts the spirits called “Jaluns”. After this shrine is built, if you see a
stone or rock moving by itself, not being propelled by any force, that means
that a Jalun lives within it. You can
bring this stone back with you to your hut and put it in the corner overnight
(but what if your hut is a circle and thus has no corners?!?!). Anyway, you put the stone in your hut and
place three items in front of it: a feather, a small pile of millet, and human
hair. The next morning you check the
Jalun and whatever is missing is what the Jalun demands of you. So if the feather is gone, that means every
time you pray you need to have a chicken with you to please the Jalun, and then
the Jalun will help your prayers reach the sky.
If the millet is missing that means you must bring millet beer when you
pray. If the human hair is missing, that
means that for your prayers to reach the sky you must sacrifice a human. This means that the Jalun is actually an evil
spirit and in order to protect yourself and your village from catastrophe you
must expel the stone from your hut and from your village.
All in all it was a very pleasant experience.
It was one of those pleasant chance meeting
that you weren’t expecting, but because of that make them more enjoyable. I spent a great afternoon, drinking palm
wine, speaking English, and learning and the Bedik culture. He said he would love to practice his English
as there aren’t many people in Bandafassi who speak English, and I said I
wanted to learn more Bedik, so the next time I am in Bandafassi I’ll make sure
to stop by for a bit of language exchange.
And who knows, maybe I can get some more palm wine!
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