Senegambian World View Propositions

A summary of Peace is Everything: World View of Muslims in the Senegambia by David Maranz 1993 (International Museum of Cultures Publications, No 28) as found in Appendix 3 of the same book.

• Metatheme 1 Senegambians seek to have a personal transcendent peace, which is experienced through a moral conscience, a spirit of personal peace, and social peace.
• • Theme 1 To possess peace, human beings need to establish alliances with the forces and beings that govern the world.
  • • Subtheme I-A. Peace in this world must be sought in accordance with the fundamental, superior, and unchangeable laws of the transempirical world.
    • Subtheme I-B. Man's role is to initiate and execute appropriate, specific actions (cults and ceremonies) that can serve to reestablish and maintain communion with the beings and forces that operate in the world of man.
    • Subtheme I-C. The beings and forces of the transempirical world confer on initiated individuals a consciousness awakened to the supernatural realm that makes them masters of the laws of the seen and the unseen.
  • Theme 2 Peace in the human spirit is the consequence of a condition of harmony between human beings and transempirical beings and forces.
  • • Subtheme 2-A. When a person has the interior radiance of peace, it is manifested through coherence of thought and interior harmony, which together enable the person to counterbalance the ascendancy of transcendent forces over him or her.
    • Subtheme 2-B. When there is a breach in the relationship to transempirical beings and/or forces, man suffers disastrous consequences (such as insanity, chronic bad luck, and failure in life).
  • Theme 3 Peace in the human soul is the result of living in harmony with the laws established by the transempirical beings and forces.
  • • Subtheme 3-A. The state of personal peace is measured by the fullness of the soul (dënn bu yaa).
    • Subtheme 3-B. The condition of personal peace is experienced in terms of a spiritual revelation based on:
    • • (a) Soul memory (xol du fàtte) which is the reservoir and the sum of all the experiences of life.
      • (b) Soul restoration (dund ag yeegu xol), which is the re-creating in an individual of a state of readiness to receive the miracle of communication with the transempirical world.
      • (c) Soul awakening (f'it wu yee wu), which originates with initiation into the verities hidden behind the visible and sensible reality perceived by the uninitiated.
      • (d) The attachment of the soul (nooy ci mbir) to the objects and symbols of transempirical forces, which is the result of soul awakening.
  • Theme 4 Transcendent peace results in spiritual and material blessing (barke), social supremacy (daraja) and a high place in the social hierarchy (martaba).
  • Theme 5 Transcendent peace is a consequence of meeting the demands of the laws of cosmic balance. These laws emanate from the normal functioning of transempirical forces. Their purpose is to effect corrective action, when needed, that will lead to superior justice in interhuman relations.
• Metatheme 2 Peace, happiness, and success are achieved by means of power granted by supernatural forces of the transempirical world.
• • Theme 1 It is possible to obtain knowledge about one's personal destiny, to understand the origins and causes of the events of life, and to obtain prescriptions for improving or altering future events in one's favor. The same principles and processes apply to community destinies and events.
  • Theme 2 It is possible and desirable to exercise control over one's destiny, over the events of life, and over the events of the community.
  • Theme 3 Humans should have protection(s) through esoteric power at personal, family, and community levels, in order to: (a) be defended against destructive cosmic forces; (b) resist occult attacks set in motion by enemies; and (c) avoid or challenge chronic misfortune.
• Metatheme 3 Humans should live in interdependent community.
• • Theme I Humans should share material goods and nonmaterial values.
  • • Subtheme I-A. Sharing is defined on the basis of religious principles.
    • Subtheme I-B. Sharing has moral, ideological. and philosophical content; it is not merely a personal or cultural choice.
  • Theme 2 Humans should work together.
  • • Subtheme 2-A. The proper ways of life of mankind have their bases in historical fact.
    • Subtheme 2-B. The specific way of life of a people determines the quality of their whole culture and civilization.
  • Theme 3 Humans should esteem one another.
  • • Subtheme 3-A. By following specific traditional wisdom members of society achieve mutual esteem.
    • Subtheme 3-B. Mutual esteem is incumbent upon everyone in society.
• Metatheme 4 Social peace is achieved through an integrated community life.
• • Theme 1 Every community requires institutions that serve to guard the peace.
  • • Subtheme I-A. Social peace should be founded and maintained through established structures (e.g., pénc committees of elders. mosques, daayira, religious-based associations; etc.).
    • Subtheme I-B. The laws regulating social peace ~re customary, informal, and flexible (including joking relations, kal).
    • Subtheme I-C. Humans need to be indulgent toward the faults of others.
    • Subtheme I-D. Proverbs, and other forms of preserved wisdom constitute a socially inherited reservoir of traditional values that especially serve the interests of social peace.
  • Theme 2 Peaceful values are to be lived out in daily life through multiple relation-ships as senior citizens/youth, husbands/wives. chiefs/commoners, citizens/ citizens.
  • • Subtheme 2-A. People of age are owed respect
    • Subtheme 2-B. People should readily ask pardon of each other in cases of social breach (baal ma àq).
    • Subtheme 2-C. Social isolation is to be avoided (at almost any price).
    • Subtheme 2-D. Physical aggression is prohibited except in cases of extreme provocation (e.g., to defend one's honor).
• Metatheme 5 Man lives in symbiosis with nature, which is for him his source of physical life and survival.
• • Theme l The apprenticeship in the laws of nature is mediated through Senegambian traditional religion.
  • • Subtheme I-A. Man needs to have a mystical understanding of the animal, vegetable, and mineral realms.
    • Subtheme I-B. Man needs to respect the taboos related to his position in the functioning of nature.
  • Theme 2 Man relates to the transempirical world by means of participation with and intervention in the operation of the natural phenomena through which the world is governed.
  • • Subtheme 2-A. Certain individuals or castes have been designated for initiation into the esoteric knowledge and practices related to the flora, that they then exercise on behalf of society.
    • Subtheme 2-B. idem: fauna.
    • Subtheme 2-C. idem: minerals, ores and metals.
    • Subtheme 2-D. idem: rain.
    • Subtheme 2-E. idem: the cosmos.
• Metatheme 6 Man is defined in terms of kinship and in relation to the cosmos.
• • Theme 1 The significance of man (nit, integral man, i.e., body, soul, and spirit) is measured by his moral rectitude.
  • Theme 2 The character of man is built upon the foundation of values transmitted by family and society.
  • Theme 3 Man's social status and position are defined in terms of kinship.
  • Theme 4 The comportment prescribed for a man toward non-kin is determined by respective social position.
• Metatheme 7 The unique nature of being Black-African man. and of being Senegambian man in particular, has profound implications on thought patterns, on comportment, and on the emotions.
• • Theme 1 Having a black skin implies a heavy burden that can be manifested in attitudes such as defeatism, fatalism, submission. and dejection.
  • Theme 2 The Black-African has been long oppressed in the world.
  • Theme 3 Solidarity between Black-African peoples is of great importance in confronting the historical discrimination that persists in the world today.
• Metatheme 8 The uttered word has inherent power that can he set in action through its proper formulation.
• • Theme I Sacred texts, both oral and written. and rhythms can serve to discharge mystical power through adequate formulations.
  • Theme 2 There is an elite number of inspired men who know the secrets of mystical and powerful speech.
  • Theme 3 There are magic formulas that have a capacity to cause supernatural mutation of, mastery of, or subjection of visible matter or invisible entities.
  • Theme 4 The speech of man can have power to transfer secret intent, either beneficial or harmful.

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