Journal of Islamic Studies Advance Access originally published online on February 1, 2007
Journal of Islamic Studies 2008 19(1):36-58; doi:10.1093/jis/etl072
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Islamic Mystical Resonances in Fulbe Literature
SOAS
E-mail: kaidara{at}hotmail.com
 |
Abstract |
|---|
The real ‘origins’ of the Fulbe tale of initiation, Kaïdara, are unknown. Hélène Heckmann, Amadou Hampâté Bâ’s wife, says (Oui Mon Commandant, 383) that Bâ received ‘knowledge which was relevant to Fulbe pastoral initiation [in 1943] because of his lineage, from one of the last great Fulbe silatigis, Ardo Dembo, whom he met in the Senegalese Ferlo region on the occasion of an ethnographic and religious enquiry carried out for the records of IFAN’. According to Heckmann, Bâ was not ‘initiated’ into the mysteries of Kaïdara: ‘What is properly termed as Fulbe initiation already no longer exists, at this time, except among purely pastoral groups’. Therefore the knowledge which Bâ received is most likely to have been the narrative itself, told as a narrative, rather than as a form of initiation.
Africanist and francophone scholars have long known that Bâ’s famous transcription of the Fulbe tale of initiation, Kaïdara, makes some references to Islamic mystical teachings. However, a properly detailed study of these references has not been done. A close examination, however, reveals just how central the Islamic mystical tradition is to the tale. This article examines Kaïdara in the context of the mystical literary form of the Ishr
q
school, the risla, whose early composers, Ibn Sn and Ibn Tufayl and Suhraward would have been known for several centuries in Senegal through trade routes and 
ajj journeys.
The article compares Kaïdara with specific aspects of the risla: its structure and language, the journey to the 
alam al-mithl, the concept of esoteric realities being revealed in successive stages and, finally, the incorporation of Qur
nic imagery and values.
Like the rislah, Kaïdara teaches its aspirants that the greatest treasure in this existence is knowledge of divine sacred laws. This knowledge is acquired through self-perfection, which leads to the awakening of a mode of perception that is able to apprehend the hidden meaning of appearances, the wisdom lying beyond visible phenomena.