Amadou Hampt B

Aspects of African Civilization

(Person, Culture, Religion)
Translated by Susan B. Hunt
Originally published in French as
Aspects de la civilisation africaine: personne, culture, religion
Paris: Prsence africaine, 1972.
Chapter 1
Notes on the Notion of Person
in the Fulani and Bambara Traditions
In the Fulani and Bambara traditions (the only traditions to which I will make reference because I believe
I know them), two terms are used to designate the person. For the Fulani, they are Neddo and
neddaaku; for the Bambara, they are Maa and Maaya. The first word means "the Person" and the
second "the people of the person."
Indeed, tradition teaches that initially there is Maa, the Person receptacle, then Maaya, i.e., the various
aspects of Maa contained in the Maa receptacle. As the Bambara expression says: "Maa ka Maaya ka ca
a yere kono": "The people of the person are multiple in the person." One finds exactly the same notion
among the Fulani.
The concept of the person is thus, from the outset, very complex. It implies an interior multiplicity
concentric or superimposed planes of existence (physical, psychological and spiritual at various levels)
as well as a constant dynamism.
Existence, which begins with conception, is preceded by a cosmic pre existence where man is reputed to
reside in a kingdom of love and harmony called Benke so. The birth of a child is regarded as palpable
proof that a piece of anonymous existence was detached and incarnated in order to accomplish a
mission on our earth. The naming ceremony or baptism during which a "togo" or first name is given to
the newborn has a special importance. The togo defines the little individual. It locates him within the
larger community.
Three types of birth can take place: an abortion or "ji bon", literally "spilled water", regarded as
unfortunate; a birth that has been carried to full term, called "banngi", considered a happy event not
only for the parents, but for the village, the tribe and, on a larger plane, for humanity as a whole; finally,
a birth after more than nine months, called "menkono", or "nyanguan", literally, "a long time belly",
prelude to the birth of an extraordinary being, the nyanguan, the super sorcerer, who comes into the
world rich with powerful potential.

The development of the person will take place at the rhythm established by the great periods of bodily
development, each of which corresponds to a degree of initiation. The purpose of initiation is to give the
psychological person a moral and mental power which conditions and aids the perfect and total
realization of the individual.
According to tradition, the life of a normal man is composed of two great phases: one ascending to sixty
three years of age, the other descending to one hundred and twenty six years of age. Each of these
phases is made up of three large segments of twenty one years comprising three periods of seven years.
Each segment of twenty one years defines a degree in initiation, and each period of seven years marks a
threshold in the evolution of the human person.
Thus, for example, in the first seven years of existence, during which the person in formation requires
the utmost possible care, a child will remain closely connected to his mother on whom he depends for
all aspects of his life. From seven years to fourteen years, he faces the milieu around him and is
influenced by it, but every day he feels the need to refer back to his mother who remains his point of
reference. From fourteen to twenty one years of age he attends the school of life and studies with its
masters, and moves gradually away from the influence of his mother.
The age of twenty one marks a very important threshold, since it is the age for ritual circumcision and
initiation into the ceremonies of the gods. During the second twenty one years of his life, a man will
mature the teachings that he received during the previous period. Throughout that time, he is expected
to be on the lookout for wise men, and if it should happen that one of them grants him a word, it is as a
favor or a test and not because he has a right to it. At forty three years of age, on the other hand, he is
supposed to have reached maturity, for all intents and purposes, and to figure among the masters.
Having the right to speak, he uses it to teach others that which he has learned and matured during the
two first periods of his life. Finally, at sixty three years of age, the great ascending phase ends. He is
regarded as having completed his active life and is no longer constrained by any obligation to continue
to teach. He is not prevented from doing so however, if this is his calling or his capability.
At no time is the human person considered to be a monolithic unit limited to his physical body, but
rather a complex being inhabited by a multiplicity of beings in continuous motion. There is no question
of a static or finished being.
The human person, like the seed of a plant, evolves from an initial capital which is his own potential.
This potential will develop throughout the ascending phase of life according to the terrain and the
circumstances encountered. The forces released by this potentiality are in perpetual movement, just like
the cosmos itself.
To illustrate this notion, we refer briefly to the myth of the creation of man in the Bambara tradition:
Maa Ngala (or God Master) created himself. Then he created twenty beings who together constituted

the entire universe. But he realized that of these first twenty creatures, none was able to become his
"kuma nyon", i.e., his interlocutor, someone able to converse with him. So he took a little piece of each
of these twenty existing creatures, mixed them all together, and used them to create a twenty first
hybrid being, man, to whom he gave the name "Maa". The first word therefore consisted of his own
divine name.
To contain man, the all in one being, Maa Ngala devised a special body, vertical and symmetric, able to
contain at one and the same time a piece of all the existing beings. This body, called "Fari", symbolizes a
sanctuary where all beings are moving in a circle. This is why tradition regards the body of man as the
world in miniature, according to the expression "Maa ye dinye merenin de ye," which means "Man is the
universe in miniature."
The entire body has a symbolism which is a quite precise. The head, for example, represents the highest
level of the being, pierced by seven large openings. Each of these is the port of entry to a state of being
or world, and is guarded by a divinity. Each entrance provides access to a new interior door, and so on to
infinity. The face is considered the primary facade of the habitat of the deeper people of Maa, and
exterior signs (gestures, expressions) permit one to decipher the characteristics of these persons. "Show
me your face, and I will tell you the manner of being of your interior people," says the proverb. Each
interior being corresponds to a world which rotates around an axis or central point.
The psychology of man is thus a complex unity. Like a vast ocean, the part that is known is nothing
compared to that which remains to be known. The Malian maxim says it well: "One never finishes
knowing Maa. . ."
Why this complexity?
On the one hand, the divine name with which Maa is invested confers on him the spirit, and the fact of
participating in the Supreme Force. This refers to his primary vocation: to become the interlocutor of
Maa Ngala.
On the other hand, the diverse elements in him make him the confluence of all the cosmic forces, the
highest as well as the basest. The grandeur and the drama of Maa stems from the fact that he is the
meeting place of contradictory forces in perpetual motion, which only a well executed evolution on the
path of initiation will enable him to order throughout the phases of his life.
The many and varied forces which move about the universe hidden inside Maa constitute the states, or
psychological persons, emanating from the spirit of Maa himself. The Spirit, the immaterial and
immortal principal, is not an imaginary being. It exists. It is the Spirit that gives birth to the Imagination,
a very real faculty (not to be confused with the imaginaire), the faculty thanks to which Maa becomes
capable of vision and of establishing relations with the spirits or beings that dwell outside of him or
outside the visible world. To repeat an expression of my friend Boubou Hama, the Imagination
"concretizes the abstract" which through it takes on image and form. The spirit of Maa enables him to

know, to comprehend and to focus his attention. By developing these aptitudes, Maa becomes capable
of judgment.
As one can see, the person is not closed in on himself like a tightly closed box. He is open in several
directions, several dimensions one can say, at the same time interior and exterior.
The various beings or states which are inside him correspond to worlds which rise in stages between
man and his creator. These are related to each other, and, through man, they are in relation to the
interior worlds.
The person is exceedingly connected to his fellow creatures. One does not know how to conceive of him
as isolated or independent. Just as life is a unity, the human community is one and interdependent.
Because of this profound sense of the unity of life, the human person is not detached from the natural
world which surrounds him. He maintains relations of dependence and equilibrium with it, codified in
the rules of behavior taught by traditional doctrine, Bembaw sira. These strict laws determine the
behavior of man vis vis all the beings that inhabit the living part of the earth: minerals, vegetables and
animals. These laws cannot be violated, under penalty of provoking within the balance of nature and the
forces which underlie it a disturbance which would turn against man himself.
The concept of the unity of life goes hand in hand with the fundamental notions of balance, exchange,
and interdependence. Maa, who contains in himself an element of all existing things, is called to become
guarantor of the equilibrium of the exterior world, and even of the cosmos. To the extent that he
returns to his true nature (that of primordial Maa), man appears, in the world, as the axis whose
vocation it is to keep the external multiplicity from falling into chaos.
This is why the richness of the soil, the regularity of the rains, the balance of the forces of nature, etc.,
depend on the good or bad conduct of kings or traditional religious chiefs.
So long as man has not ordered the worlds, the forces, and the people who are in him, he is Maa nin,
i.e., a kind of homunculus, an ordinary man, a man who has not been realized. Tradition says: "Maa
kakan ka s i yere la noote a b to Maa ni yala," which is to say, "One who is not able to leave the state
of Maa nin, to return to the state of Maa, is one who is not master of himself."
To conclude, I draw attention to the fact that tradition is concerned with the human person as an
interior multiplicity, unfinished at the beginning, called to order and unify himself for the purpose of
finding his right place within unities more vast than the human community and the whole cosmos.
Synthesis of the universe and crossroads of the forces of life, man is therefore called to become the
equilibrium point where it will be possible to combine, through him, the various dimensions of which he
is the bearer. Then will he truly deserve the name of Maa, interlocutor of Maa Ngala and guarantor of
the balance of creation.

ENDNOTES
1. For a somewhat more detailed discussion of the Bambara creation myth, see B, Amadou Hampt.
1981. "The Living Tradition", General History of Africa, Vol. 1, Methodology and African Prehistory, J. Ki
Zerbo, ed. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press and Unesco): 168 170.