Camara Laye's L'Enfant noir and the Mythical Verb

Author(s): Jacques Bourgeacq

Source: The French Review, Vol. 63, No. 3 (Feb., 1990), pp. 503-513
Published by: American Association of Teachers of French
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/394495
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THE FRENCHREVIEW,Vol. 63, No. 3, February 1990

Printed in U.S.A.

CamaraLaye'sL'Enfant
noirand
the MythicalVerb
byJacques
Bourgeacq
IN 1953 and after several English translations,
SINCE ITS PUBLICATION
Camara Laye's L'Enfantnoir has become one of the most widely read African literary texts in the French and English-speaking worlds.' Aside from
its universal relevance, its nostalgic tone and often poetic language, L'Enfant
noir's appeal might also be explained by the straightforwardness of its
narrative style and the author's candid attitude, all these qualities resulting
in a general impression of genuine simplicity.
This apparent simplicity certainly accounts for the appeal this text has
had for a variety of readers and probably also for its inclusion in general
literary anthologies and world literature courses. But this simplicity is deceptive and hides unsuspected levels of meaning unless the reader is made
aware of the cultural world view to which the text refers.
Camara Laye was a member of the Mandenka people, that is, of a historically important ethnic group. Founders of the well-known Mali empire, the
Mandenka (or Malinke) established their hegemony over a large area that
once covered several present-day West African states. As attested by historians and ethnographers, the Mandenka shared their culture and language
for several centuries with surrounding ethnic groups. Ethnographical research (M. Griaule and G. Dieterlen2 in particular)has established the close
affinity of the so-called Mande peoples. Among these groups are the Mandenka, Bambara and Dogon, whose conception of the universe and religious beliefs have been shown to be nearly identical.3
One of the cornerstones of African thought and of Mande thought in
particular is the notion of Verb, of parole.This notion is indeed laden with a
complex mythical significance, which has pervasive relevance down to the
most mundane aspects of daily life. This study purports to show the constant presence of the Verb and its significant role in Camara Laye's L'Enfant

noir.

Sory Camara, another Mandenka, published in 1982 a series of texts

from the Mandenka oral tradition, as well as records of his conversations
with an old Soma (Master of initiation), under the title Parolestres anciennes
ou le mythede l'accomplissement
de l'homme.4Some of the ideas developed in
these texts are most relevant to the central theme of L'Enfantnoir, i.e. the
accomplishment of human destiny. One of these ideas, the notion of Parole
d fondement(words with deep meaning), as culturally defined in Sory Cama503

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504

REVIEW
FRENCH

ra's text, can provide a useful vantage point as an approach to the spiritual

noir.
world of L'Enfant
These "Paroles tres anciennes" (Kuma kodoba)are handed down, says
Sory Camara, by the elders to individuals persistent enough to ask questions and keep on listening. The elders' pedagogy is based on withholding
full explanations of ancestral wisdom and knowledge. This forces the disciple to reflect upon and establish for himself, in the long run and as needed
in the difficult moments of life, the necessary mental associations between
personal experience and traditional knowledge. Let us listen to one soma
who spoke to Sory Camara (temporarily his disciple) in these terms:
Les Paroles tres anciennes
C'est comme les graines
Tu les semes avant les pluies
La terre est chauff6e par le soleil
La pluie vient la mouiller
L'eaude la terre p6netre dans les graines
Les graines se changent en herbes
Puis deviennent des 6pis de mil
Ainsi toi a qui je viens de dire la Parole tres ancienne
Tu es la terre
J'aiseme en toi la graine de la parole
11faut que l'eau de ta vie penetre en la graine
Pour que la germination de la parole ait lieu. (8)
Alluding to the Mandenka symbolic reference to Man as a germinating
grain, this excerpt stresses time and patient reflection (i.e. maturity) as a
sine qua non condition for the attainment of knowledge and self-identity. A
proverb quoted by Sory Camara points to the same idea: "Lave-toi le ventre
cependant que les autres te lavent le dos" (p. 8). One of Sory Camara's texts
is entitled "Faireson soleil chez les Mandenka ou le voyage Atravers la vie."
The expression "Faireson soleil" emphasizes the idea that, in spite of communal ties (i.e., the sun shining for all), each individual must alone determine his own singular life (one must make his own sun). The sun is here a
symbol of life, as it rises and sets to rise again on a new day. The elder's
transcribed text thus stresses the necessity of acquiring a retrospective and
introspective vision along the road of life. As the child becomes a man, he
comes back over the "paroles" he has collected, like grains, and he must
follow "le chemin du dedans":
11emprunte le chemin du dedans
Dans la nuit
11revient sur les paroles de son a'ieul
Le noyau qui est dedans
ITle volt Ace moment-l
Alors
I1se reconnait, enfant, sous le Jalandingos
I1se volt lui-mime sous le Sika
C'est cela voir et voir la vision. (20)

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THEMYTHICALVERB

505

The "paroles Afondement" sown into the self ultimately turn into a vision,
a personal vision. A last quote:
Si quelqu'unse l1ve
Qu'il s'asseye
S'il se l~ve Anouveau
Afin de se voir se levant
C'est cela voir la vision veritablement.(21)
The relevance of these considerations to L'Enfantnoir is evident. The
narrator as an adult relives his life as a child and adolescent. He sits down to
stand up again in order to see himself standing up; he attempts to harvest
the grains sown into him in the morning of his sun. The whole conception
and structure of L'Enfantnoir is based on this principle.
Mandenka pedagogy and psychology thus understood provide the necessary context to a meaningful discussion of L'Enfantnoir. They point, moreover, to the complex notion of the Verb in that culture. This notion is so
pervasive among the Mandenka (and other West Africans as well) that
Camara Laye's numerous references to it in his text cannot be fortuitous;
N'domo (i.e., tribal) initiatory instruction and daily osmosis are sufficient to
emphasize in each individual, although at varied degrees, the importance
and significance of the notion of Verb. Emphasizing the notion of the
Cosmos as a verbal message, Genevieve Calame-Griaule states that among
the Dogon (another Mande people)
des l'enfanceles individusapprennentAregarderle monde avec les yeux du
symbole pour en d6chiffrerle message. C'est pourquoion peut parlerd'une
connaissanceimpliciterepandueA tous les niveaux de la soci6te, de notions
diffuses dont l'enseignementfait prendreconsciencemais dont les individus
ressentent dans leur propre experiencela n6cessite avant d'apprendreA les
exprimerde faqonprecise.(16)
As we shall see, the notion of Verb cannot be detached from the sacred.
It has, then, mythical significance and metaphysical implications which
should be considered before proceeding to instances in the text of L'Enfant
noir in which this notion plays a precise and significant role.
Mandenka/Bambara cosmogony teaches that the whole cosmos is the
supreme god Bemba's Verb. It is common konwledge throughout the
Mande that the cosmos began as a gigantic vibration, an emanation of
Bembahimself. This vibration, in the form of a spiral, produced three basic
principles or entites. Bembabeing the raison d'etre(or spirit) of the Verbuniverse, Faro stands for its first orderly, organised manifestation. Nyale
represents its impulsion, its subsequent disorderly or chaotic aspect (Nyale
is also known as Muso Koroni).And Ndomadyiriappears to be the blending
of the other two principles into the material achievement of the cosmic
Verb. At the human level, Nyale corresponds to uncontrolled urge and
desire, Faro to rational, controlled thought, while Ndomadyiri provides
meaning for the sounds of Nyale and Faro to produce articulate language.

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506

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REVIEW

To these principles correspond the four basic elements and forces that
constitute the cosmos in its whole as well as in its most minute parts: Nyale
is air (volatility) and fire (dynamism, heat, but also fury); Faro is water
(fluidity and expansion, fecundity); and Ndomadyiriis earth (contexture and
stability, i.e. meaning).
At the ontological level, these elements are components of human consciousness and circulate through the human body (described by D. Zahan
as a "laboratoire catalyseur d'lements ext'rieurs") to be transformed into
verbal speech (13). With god's Verb as its prototype, the human verb is
viewed as a living entity that has its birth, life and death, and travels
through the human organism, as god's Verb travels through the cosmos, in
a microcosm/macrocosm relationship. Much has been written on the matter, some of the best known scholars being Dieterlen, Zahan, CalameGriaule, Youssouf Cisse, and Sory Camara, among others. The four principles are also ultimately related to the metaphysical components of the
human person(Fari, dya, ni, nyama,etc.). Thus the verb is viewed as a force
which has great incidence on Man's body and soul. Hence the necessity to
learn how to control this force within oneself and how to protect oneself
against that of others. One of the most basic functions of Mandenka education in fact is to give the individual as complete a knowledge and total
mastery of the force as possible. The case of the griot is a classical example
of this phenomenon. "Maitre de la parole," as he is often called, the griot
possesses the technique of manipulation of the verbal force, much as the
smith is master of fire. They are both capturing and handling cosmic forces,
each in his own way.
One more pertinent notion must be discussed before applying these
considerations to L'Enfantnoir. It is the concept of silence. Paradoxically,
silence is viewed in Mande as the epitome of the Verb. As D. Zahan puts it,
"Le silence occupe une place fondamentale dans l'expression de la pensbe
bambara. Ces Soudanais sont persuades que la parole n'est efficace et ne se
valorise pleinement qu'h condition d'etre envelopp'e d'ombre" (150).
The Mande people have many proverbs and maxims concerning the verb
and silence, and the superiority of silence over speech: "Si la parole construit le village, le silence batit le monde" (153); "Toute chose serieuse se fait
en silence, mais toute chose futile dans le tumulte;" "le silence tranquillise le
dya [the soul], la parole lui fait peur;""la parole a brave toutes choses fors le
silence" (149-54). Within the general notion of Verb, says Zahan, silence is
the ultimate reality. Silence is related to night, shadow and depth, where
ultimate truth lies, while speech represents clear but superficial knowledge.
Meaningful reality is better grasped or sensed by the unexpressed or rather
the partially expressed, the allusive, euphemistic and symbolic reference. It
is as if, says Zahan, the Verb, like Man and all things, had two faces-one
visible, the other invisible, its double or shadow. In the Konden Diara
episode in L'Enfantnoir, Camara Laye speaks of the "conjonction du silence
et de la nuit" (97) and refers to Konden Diara as leaving "I'ombredes mots"

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THEMYTHICALVERB

507

(92). In the oral narrative discourse, a key word, especially when rhythmically repeated, triggers in the culturally-tuned listener a chain of associations determined to a large extent by the traditional web of knowledge.
This verbal process which is one of the basic elements of traditional narratives, has been named by Makhili Gassama the "mot-accoucheur" (55-56).
It is that symbolic function that makes some African texts a challenge to
decipher. (Amos Tutuola's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is an obvious
example.)
Fortunately for us, many African texts have been written partially with
Westerners in mind, for authors have had to address two publics in a single
text. But this challenge is by no means foreign to the traditional African
narrative mode, wherein the wise as well as the inexperienced often listen
to the same story at the same time, extracting the layer of the message
corresponding to the level of their respective knowledge. How else could
we explain the interest that mature Africans show in a story they have
heard a hundred times? It is simply that some of the grains sown earlier
had not germinated yet, to repeat Sory Camara's Soma'sexpression. Certain key words of the talented and knowledgeable story teller are thus like
water poured on the grains within the listener and constitute an essential
factor in the dynamics of the narrative and educational processes.
The most evident element in L'Enfantnoir dealing with the Verb is the
presence and intervention of the griot (Djeli) in circumstances requiring a
strengthening of the vital force in an individual. Through his bio-mythical
ascendance and learned mastery of a technique, the griot has the power to
make the past come alive and connect it to the present. Hence his use of
genealogical references to an individual and of lavish praise with a view to
increase his vital force (nyama). The crucial importance of the griot is
illustrated in the Mandenka epic when the hero Soundiata loses his, perceives the loss as a catastrophe, and does everything possible to free him
from King Soumaoro, his enemy. In L'Enfantnoir, the griot is present
during the fusion of the gold, a most sacred and risky operation, since gold
is an element of Faroand the operation itself a reenactment of primordial
creation, with all its forces unleashed. The four elements are thus present
and in fact do appear in the text. The griot contributes his effective support
at a time when the smith places himself in a situation of instability of his
dya (material component of the soul). When the narrator says of himself
that he was "grise par tant de louanges dont il semblait rejaillir quelque
chose sur ma petite personne," (24) the word rejaillir is to be taken less
metaphorically than one would expect. Reference here is to a fluid called
nyama. Youssouf Cisse states that Kuma (the Verb) was created to enable
men to communicate and to control most of their nyama.Kuma nyu ma (the
good word) serves to obtain nyafa (that which extinguishes nyama) = pardon. It refers to the harm done by Man in words and acts to other creatures
(animals, genies, etc.) (pp. 200-210).
Meanwhile the smith himself uses words in support of his operation. But

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FRENCHREVIEW

these words, says the narrator, are inner words. Lips are moving, but
words remain so to speak "in the shadow," although the narrator indicates
that they do constitute the essential act of the operation: "ces paroles
secr'tes, ces incantations qu'il adressait Ace que nous ne devions, Ace que
nous ne pouvions ni voir ni entendre, c'6tait la l'essentiel" (29). Except for
the griot's chant, the whole operation is marked by silence, both that of the
smith and that of the audience. As we have seen, silence is the ultimate
level of the cosmiclhuman verb. The presence of the smith's totemic black
snake is significant as another support. The narrator describes the smith's
caress to the snake as some mysterious conversation, the hand asking and
the shivering snake responding (20). In this regard we must also remember
the snake's role through dream in the divination powers of the smith in
L'Enfantnoir. Less obvious is the importance of the hand as a traditional
verbal element. Zahan describes at length the relationship of the hand to
the Verb. The hand is related to speech through its prehensile nature:
speech enables one to grasp and be grasped. Sorcerers are believed to catch
the dya of their victims as if with their hands. During sacrifices, the officiant often places the palm of his hands on the earth to capture its force (25,
note 3). We must also remember the importance of the hand as a support in
the episode recalled by the narrator of L'Enfantnoirof his first departure for
Conakry: the hands of his brothers and sisters gave him strength.
The power of the uttered word is also evident in the text of L'Enfantnoir
in a number of direct references to the mythical Verb. In the light of what
we have discussed so far, no elaborate explanation is needed for the mother's verbal power in forcing a stubborn horse to rise or in preventing
witchcraft through her verbal warnings. We can also mention the chants of
harvesters and the beat of their drums that symbolize the primordial vibrating sound. These chants, like those of the griot during smelting, are
invocations to the natural elements for a special purpose. The "chanson du
riz" is in fact a chant to the rice, in this case to obtain its pardon (myafa)for
killing it. The chant is here part of an expiatory and protecting rite against
the liberated nyamaof the rice.
Observance of silence is also based on a fear of triggering some unwanted and disturbing forces through careless speech. There are circumstances such as death, in which strict specific behavior is required. The
silence that follows Check's death and the reluctance of the maternal
grandmother at Tindican to talk about her late husband are examples of
such verbal behavior. About Check the narrator states: "Check! ... Check!
... Mais je ne devais pas l'appeler A voix haute: on ne doit pas appeler les
morts A voix haute!" (179) For indeed when at death the dya escapes the
body, it tends to come back in the form of a shadow (or ghost) to the
familiar places of its life. The living experience mixed feelings concerning
the shadow (ombrein Camara Laye's text) since, according to Moussa Oumar Sy, the dya-shadow does not attempt to go around obstacles and
humans in its way. It goes through them, thus giving the impression of

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THEMYTHICALVERB

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being angry (12). Vivid mental representations of the dead, as in dreams,

amount to silent inner words that can induce their return. The narrator
states concerning Check's shadow:
Et puis, la nuit, c'6tait malgre tout comme si je l'eusse appel6A voix haute:
brusquement,il tait devantmoi!Et je me reveillais,le corpsinondede sueur;je
prenaispeur, Kouyateprenaitpeur, car si nous aimionsl'ombrede Check,si
son ombre&taittout ce qui nous demeurait,nous la redoutionspresqueautant
que nous l'aimions,et nous n'osions plus dormir seuls, nous n'osions plus
affronternos reves seuls.... (179)
Silence is also the main trait of Uncle Lansana, the farmer in Tindican.
The narrator attributes his uncle's silent disposition to the solitary nature
of his profession that fosters an inner life: "On remue toutes sortes de
pensees, on en fait le tour et interminablement on recommence, car les
pensees ne se laissent jamais tout A fait pen6trer; ce mutisme des choses,
des raisons profondes des choses, conduit au silence" (47). Lansana's work
places him indeed in daily contact with the sacred and the ultimate expression of the sacred is silence. And the "reve int&rieur"referred to by the
narrator to describe his uncle reminds us of Sory Camara's precept given
by the Soma concerning "le chemin du dedans," i.e., the symbolic vision.
Another episode of L'Enfantnoir confirms in a subtle way the power of
silence. Marie and the narrator are contemplating the sea and the islands
from the shore. The narrator reflects on their mutual and silent love:
Nos coeursqui etaientcommeles Ilotsque nous regardionsfremirau loin dans
une lumibrevoil&e:nous pouvionsnous y transporterpar la pensbe,nous ne
devions pas les aborderpar la parole.Notre amitie&taiten nous, enfouie au
plus profondde nous. IIfallaitqu'elledemeuratsecrbte:une parole,une seule
une paroleaussil'euitpresqueimmanquableparolepeut-etrel'edteffarouch&e;
ment transform'e.(166)
This passage calls for several comments. First, the narrator speaks of
love in the same tone as earlier he had spoken of sacred things. It is so
sacred in fact that it must be protected by strict silence. Second, the "lumiere
voilie"which describes both the islands and the inner feelings points to the
nature of the cosmo-human vision I have described earlier. Finally, the
metaphoric imagery used here refers to the traditional system of correspondences. It is not clear whether or not the heart or feelings of love
correspond to an island in the Mandenka traditional thought system. What
is clear however is that the author, if in fact he is inventing, constructs his
associations in reference to this traditional model. We will discuss further
this traditional web subsequently.
Let us now review for the time being some of the many instances in the
text of L'Enfantnoirin which Camara Laye subtly alludes to the cosmic level
of the Verb. We will take them in their order of appearance in the text. The
orange tree and the large number of its fruit in the family compound is
juxtaposed to a remark that the father is "chef d'une innombrable famille"

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(12). The whistling of the gold during smelting (27) and the whistling taboo
during harvest (58) probably refer to the primordial sound. At any rate the
gold smelting operation refers to primordial creation by the presence of the
four elements and imagery of marriage and birth (27). The jewel produced
by the smith is in the shape of a spiral, a direct allusion to the cosmic
creation as God's spiraling Verb. One of the most striking references to
cosmic creation is the Konden Diara episode of the little white threads
hanging from the top of the bombax tree (101-03). This episode is rich in
symbolism. Bemba's creation is often described in terms of weaving. In
Camara Laye's text, the unity of the community strengthened by the
Konden Diara ritual (a dress rehearsal for initiation) is akin to that of
cosmic creation. This symbolism, ungrasped yet by the Konden Diara children, will eventually make its way home, when they have learned to associate new learning to old knowledge. The swallow, that is supposed to have
hung these threads to the top of the tree and connected them to the roofs
of the village is a bird associated with Faro,the principle of order and unity.
Camara Laye chooses this time to stress the esoteric aspect of this ritual:
"Mais les hommes? Mais tous ceux qui savent? Eh bien, ils ne disent pas
une parole, ils tiennent leur science strictement secrete" (107). During that
same episode, Camara Laye's description of the gathering of the initiates
through the village to take them to Konden Diara is striking. The imagery
he uses is specifically taken from the terminology of agriculture: the child
"se plante" in the middle of the compound with his Coro(a drum used by
harvesters); the elders come to "cueillir,"to pick the initiates; and the process is called "la r&colte"of the initiates (pp. 94-95). We witness here most
definitely, not poetry or stylistic adornment in the Western way, but a
direct and unequivocal reference to Man as "grain du monde" within the
cosmic order of the divine Verb. It is interesting to note that some of the
vocabulary used by Camara Laye to describe harvest at Tindican unequivocally suggests human circumcision.
To this point, I have attempted to explore the nature and significance of
the notion of Verb in the Mandenka culture. I hope to have also established
some of the varied forms in which the Verb manifests itself in L'Enfantnoir.
The next and final task is to discuss its function in the verbal fabric of
Camara Laye.
The Verb, as we have seen, is sacred. Along with consciousness, Man has
inherited from god the effective power of the Verb. This inheritance consists of a double privilege: 1. Man can "read"the cosmic message, as Birago
Diop so aptly puts it in Sarzan's words:
Ecoute plus souvent
Les choses que les etres,
La voix du feu s'entend,
Entends la voix de l'eau.
Ecoute dans le vent
Le buisson en sanglot:

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C'est le souffle des ancetres.
Le souffle des ancetres morts
Qui ne sont pas partis,
Qui ne sont pas sous terre,
Qui ne sont pas morts.6 (180)

This is the mythical level; 2. Man can intervene through his verb and his
acts (the Verb being a synthesis of all human activities) to participate as a
partner with the divine realm in the endless process of creation and regeneration. Birago Diop hints also at this partnership, at this great pact, between Man and the cosmic Verb, as the ancestors' voices: ("souffles")
repeat each day through Sarzan's message
Le grand pacte qui lie,
Qui lie Ala loi notre sort;
Aux actes des souffles plus forts
Le sort de nos morts qui ne sont pas morts;
Le lourd pacte qui nous lie Ala vie,
La lourde loi qui nous lie aux actes
Des souffles qui se meurent. (181)
This is the ritual level. It follows that each verbal act that takes the cosmic,
divine Verb as its model partakes of the inherent qualities of this model.
Mircea Eliade's theory of reenactment of cosmogony through verbal and
gestural rite corresponds strikingly to the Mandenka's beliefs and practices.
And Camara Laye, as we shall see, is a firm believer in the power of this
Verb.
Just as the old Soma(master of initiation) had told Sory Camara that each
individual must "faire son soleil," that is "revenir sur les paroles sembes en
lui" and "s'asseoir afin de se voir se levant," the narrator in L'Enfantnoir
follows "le chemin du dedans." It indeed appears that, consciously or instinctively, Camara Laye (for he is hardly distinguishable from the narrator) applies to his quest this intro-retrospective principle which underlies
the Mandenka initiatory process. L'Enfantnoir presents itself, as we shall
see, more as the actualprocessof an initiation than as the mere account of a
past quest.
What is striking indeed, from the very first pages on, is the immediacy of
the author-narrator's experience, although it is narrated in past tenses
(though the present tense appears in the initiation episode). This immediacy is due largely to a constant dialogue between the adult and the child
that he was. Laye switches constantly to and from the perspectives of the
adult and the child:'Que regardaient Avrai dire ces yeux? Je ne sais pas. Les
alentours? Peut-etre! Peut-etre les arbres au loin, le ciel tres loin. Et peutAtrenon! Peut-&treces yeux ne regardaient-ils rien; peut-Stre 6tait-ce de ne
rien regarder de visible, qui les rendait si lointains et comme absents" (56).
I cannot think of any other text, especially in French literature, containing so many questions, so many peut-8tre's.It is as if the narrator called on
the child to enlighten him. As it happens, from our earlier discussion, the

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narrator is searching for "paroles tres anciennes" which had been sown
earlier into the child. In addition, this dialogue structure conforms to the
traditional narrative whereby the auditor is also a secondary narrator. The
narrator asks and the child replies from his own perspective. Bernard Zadi
Zaourou, in Cesaireentre deux cultures,calls this narrative mode the "syntagme rythmique" (180-83).7
Another aspect of Laye's prose which ties it to orality is the large number
of repeated words that pervades the whole text. This stylistic element is
particularly apparent in the many passages that point most directly to the
sacred, i.e. the cosmic-verbal theme. Such passages are symbolically dense
and marked by the rhythm of a chant. Let us analyze one such passage:
QueUesparolesmon pere pouvait-ilbien former?Je ne sais pas;je ne sais pas
exactement:rien ne m'a te communiquede ces paroles.Maisqu'eussent-elles
6te, sinon des incantations?N'6tait-cepas les genies du feu et de l'or,du feu et
du vent, du vent souffleparles tuyeres,du feu ne du vent, de l'ormarieavecle
feu, qu'il invoquait alors; n'6tait-cepas leur aide et leur amitie, et leurs
epousaillesqu'il appelait?Oui, ces genies-la presque certainement,qui sont
parmi les fondamentauxet qui 6taient egalement n6cessairesA la fusion.
noir27)
(L'Enfant
The "mot-accoucheur" of this passage is paroles.Although uttered only
twice, it is modulated by incantations,invoquait,appelait.At any rate on the
next page, Camara Laye resumes his chant, repeating the same words,
stressing the same theme. As for the smith's operation itself, it also refers
to the mythical Verb. In the same way as the germination of a grain is
viewed as its verb, the gold's fusion is a verb. The elements at play, fire,
gold, air and earthen pipes manifest their life; the pipes breathe,gold hisses,
the flame dances,fusion is a marriageand the fire a son of the wind. The
smith thus reenacts the cosmic drama of creation. It will be recalled that the
smith's caress to the totemic black snake is referred to as a conversation.
Laye's rendering of this episode is another chant based on the rhythmic
repetition of verbal terms (repondait,interrogeait,etc.)
Quand il 6tait A port6e, mon pere le caressantavec la main, et le serpent
acceptaitsa caressepar un fr6missementde tout le corps;jamaisje ne vis le
petitserpenttenterde lui fairele moindremal.Cette caresseet le fr6missement
qui y r6pondait-me jetaientchaquefois dans une inexprimableconfusion:je
pensais A je ne sais quelle mysterieuseconversation;la main interrogeait,le
fr6missementr'pondait... Oui, c'6taitcomme une conversation.(20)
Thus around the central term paroles,with its wealth of mythical connotations, other words gravitate, as if around a magnet, for these words (feu,
vent, fusion/mariage, forgeron, genies, etc.) are all direct references to the
cosmic Verbal theme. If Mircea Eliade's principle is true, namely that Man
abolishes time by re-enacting the Gods' primordial acts (and modern psychology tells us that childhood is immersed in this mythical time), then
Camara Laye's L'Enfantnoir takes on the dimension of a long incantation,

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THE MYTHICAL VERB

513

an act of faith in, and a utilization of, the power of the Verb as master of
time.
UNIVERSITYOF IOWA

Notes
1This article was presented as a lecture at Indiana University in December 1986.
Dieterlen claims a common religious substratum that extends even beyond
the Mande (XVII).
3For instance, the legend of Soundjata recounts the origin of the Mali empire and the
conquest of the Bambara by the Mandenka, showing common language, customs and
myths.
4The author is well known for his extensive work on Mandenka oral traditions and
particularly for his work on the griots.
"Jalandingo is a small mask of leaves representing the Sika (the ancestors) and worn by
children.
6The fact that Birago Diop is not of the Mande tradition but is a Wolof shows the
geographical extension of the mythical notion of parole. This notion extends even beyond
West Africa.
7Bernard Zadi Zaourou analyses this model whereby the main narrator expects the active
participation of the listener, who in turn becomes a secondary narrator.
2Germaine

Works Cited
Calame-Griaule, Genevieve. Ethnologieet langage: la parole chez les Dogon. Paris: Gallimard,
1965.
Camara, Laye. L'Enfantnoir. Paris: Plon, 1953.

Camara,Sory. Gens de la parole:essai sur la conditionet le r6le desgriots Malinkis. Paris:

Mouton, 1976.
Parolestris anciennesou le mythede l'accomplissementde l'homme.Grenoble: La Pensbe
Sauvage, 1982.
Cisse, Youssouf. "Notes sur les societes de chasseurs Malinkes." Journal de la Societe des
Africanistes. XXXIV, 2, 1964.
Dieterlen, Germaine. Essai sur la religion bambara.Paris: PUF, 1951.
Diop, Birago. Les Contesd'Amadou Koumba.Paris: Presence Africaine, 1961.
Gassama, Makhili. Kuma: interrogationsur la litt&raturenegro-africaine.Dakar: Les Nouvelles
Editions Africaines, 1978.
Niane, Djibril Tamsir. Soundjataou l'epopeemandingue. Paris: Presence Africaine, 1960.
Sy, Moussa Oumar. "L'Esprit et la matiere dans la metaphysique Manding," Conferenceon
Manding Studies, London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 19Q, 1972.
Zahan, Dominique. La Dialectiquedu verbechez les Bambara. Paris: Mouton, 1963.
Zaourou, Bernard Zadi. Cesaireentredeux cultures.Dakar: Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines,
1978.
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