Amama and Naomi Doumbia The Way of the Elders : West African Spirituality and Traditions (St Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publishers, 2004, 193pp.). A husband and wife team, — the husband a Senegalese drummer, the wife an American with a PhD in comparative philosophy and religion— have written an idealized picture of Mande philosophy and its relation to the cycle of life. The Mande are a large group with many sub-groups found in Senegal, Mali, and Guinea. Since these areas were all part of the French colonial empire, most of the ethnographic work has been written by French ethnographers and, more recently, in French by Africans usually trained in France. Thus it is useful to have an introduction in English. Most of the works in English cover specific aspects of Mande life such as Sarah Brett-Smith’s The Making of Mande Sculpture ,Eric Charry’s Mande Music and Patrick McNaughton’s The Mande Blacksmiths. The Mande are nearly all Muslims and have been for a long time, so that it is difficult to separate what are pre-Islamic beliefs and practices from current patterns. The wearing of a talisman to bring good fortune is wide spread and found among non-Islamic peoples. West African talismans often have a verse of the Koran written on paper wrapped into the talisman, being obviously an Islamic introduction. Likewise, the spirit world is filled with spirits and ancestors found in non-Islamic groups in West Africa, but popular Islam has always had jinns – nature spirits. As the Doumbias note “Few truly understand the purpose of spirit or divinities in African life, and the great reverence of the One Spirit. Little is known about the important function of the energy of Spirit, or nyama, and its crucial role in the very fabric of daily existence…Nyama is the energy that emanates from Spirit and flows throughout the universe. It is the life force that links all of existence together; humans, animals, plants, and minerals. The power of creation and destruction, nyama commands everything from bountiful harvests to droughts and plagues; it directs the twinkling stars and the rippling tides. This energy of the universe shapes nature into its many forms and yields to our handling of its power.” One of the reasons that few truly understand is that such knowledge is held by the old, by people in societies such as healers or members of caste groups such as the blacksmith who know how the spirit works for the transformation of metal. Such knowledge is rarely passed on to those outside the sub-group or caste. Otherwise, all that a person sees are practices with the person doing the act having only a vague idea of its meaning or making one up to please the questioner. Very often, the best one can do is to transpose the meaning of a similar act in an other tribal group which has been studied in greater detail. One hopes that similar practices have similar meaning, but one is never sure. Thus the bibliography lists the writings of Germaine Dieteerlen and Marcel Griaule on the Dogon of Mali which they and their coworkers studied over decades. However, the Dogon are a “refugee people” who moved into diffcult mountain areas to escape the advance of the Mande and other Islamic groups. The Dogon then stressed their philosophy and practices to avoid being assimilated by the farmore-numerous Islamic populations. Thus, there has probably been little cross borrowing of ideas and practices. The Doumbias set out their aims clearly: “We do not attempt to offer pure versions of the ancient sacred teachings of the ancestors as passed down from the beginnings of time; colonization and globalization have left their influence and impact on every facet of the culture. This book is rather an attempt to record some of the prevalent existing spiritual

beliefs and practices found throughout West Africa. We hope that by providing this written record of these sacred traditions we will promote more awareness, more respect, and more appreciation for the beauty of Africa’s gifts to all of us.” The second half of the book “Sacred Living” follows a cycle of life approach which is useful as practices are most often structured to the cycle of life — birth, the coming of manhood, marriage, old age, death. The image of village life is ideal and not always factually correct. “We do not use law to enforce ethical behaviour; we live with the knowledge that our actions are visible to the realm of Spirit. We understand that our ancestors are watching, and harmful, our community, and our environment.” In fact, there is a great deal of traditional law, much of which has been written up, though none are cited in the bibliography. A good part of a village chief’s time is spent in trying to settle arguments about law and the interaction between traditional law and modern state law. Likewise the harmful effects of “female circumcision “ — more often now called female genital mutilation — here linked in a short section with male circumcision — are passed over. The analysis of polygamy – the marriage of a man to two or more wives – is superficial as is all the analysis of the tensions within family life. The Doumbias give a vision of the goals of life. “Ultimately, our goal is self-mastery. Those who possess self-mastery are those who experience internal peace and balance; they are the ones who are not attached to things in this life. Detachment from possessions brings us closer to Spirit. Those among us who are not talkative but contemplative, those who are not impulsive but reserved, are those who become the masters of Self.” This may be true for some, but if one spends time in West African markets, one is not struck by the detachment from material things. The Doumbias have written a pleasant book which will create an interest to look at more detailed ethnographic studies. Rene Wadlow