8 Sufism Degree Zero
1. This surge of interest in West African Sufi orders has spawned a literature far too vast to cite comprehensively. For an overview of the literature, see Hiskett 1984: 244-60, Levtzion 1986: 12-16, O'Brien 1981, and O'Brien and Coulon 1988. [BACK]
2. Hiskett 1984: 258. [BACK]
3. The term recrudescence is J. Spencer Trimingham's (1962: 155). He uses it with specific reference to the nineteenth century, but recent scholarship is increasingly turning to the eighteenth century for the social and ideological roots of the movements he describes. [BACK]
4. Even more important, although Hiskett does not make this point, the "local patriotism" fostered by the Sufi orders and expressed in terms of allegiance to them may transcend or override traditional lines of segmentation or factional cleavage. Evans-Pritchard's (1949) analysis of the Sanusi order in Cyrenaica stresses precisely this aspect. [BACK]
5. Hiskett stresses the links between the Sufi orders and various jihad movements in detail, but he also points out quite clearly that many Sufi leaders did not subscribe to the ideology of military jihad. [BACK]
6. It is clear that at one time membership in various Sufi orders was not at all exclusive, and that individuals could be initiated into several of them. This is, by and large, no longer possible, and certainly not in West Africa. [BACK]
7. Cohen 1969 has argued that this is the case among the modern "Hausa" of Ibadan. It might be argued that the Mouride order has played a similar role in the development of Wolof ethnicity in Senegal. [BACK]
8. René Otayek (1988: 98) ascribes the absence of tightly institutionalized Sufism and of charismatic Sufi leaders in Burkina Faso to the "Mossi kingdoms' impermeability to outside influences." This kind of argument is an excellent example of the dangers of elaborating a "typical" model and of attempting to explain deviations. As noted, Sufism in Burkina Faso shares many features with Sufism
just across the border in northern Côte d'Ivoire—but the influence of the Mossi kingdoms is decidedly not one of them. [BACK]
9. One exception to this rule is the phrase "A ka di Alla ye" ("It pleases God"). For obvious reasons, this is a special case. Somewhat similarly, persons in positions of authority—elders or parents—may wish to emphasize that they are personally pleased or displeased by the specific actions of others, especially subordinates. [BACK]
10. While it might be labeled "singing" by Westerners, liturgical "chanting," either in Arabic or in Dyula, is never associated with dancing and is never referred to as donkili. It falls rather into the broad category of kalan , along with reading, reciting, studying, teaching, and delivering sermons. Unlike "singing," "chanting" is an exclusively male activity and confers religious merit. [BACK]
11. RDA is in fact a Dieli from Koko. However, for most purposes, the Dieli community of Koko has been completely assimilated to the Dyula. It is interesting, though, that in most dialects of Manding, the term dieli denotes a "caste" of griots. Dyula of Koko use the term dieliba for hereditary griots, to distinguish them from their Dieli neighbors. RDA is often called a "griot" (using the French term), but never a dieliba. Perhaps his hereditary Dieli identity helps make his adoption of griot-like behavior more acceptable to the local Dyula population. [BACK]
12. In Koko, this is usually the Friday mosque, which doubles as a local mosque for the quarter. [BACK]