The selection of the Cierno Wan-Wanve is done by a select group of wise men from the village of Mboumba. The selection criteria are based on a number of factors including Wisdom, Character, Knowledge, Contribution to the Community, Social Rank and Age. This tradition has been long honored in the Wan Family and other families in West - Africa, including Senegal, Mali, Mauritania and The Gambia. The ceremony, which last up to two weeks was performed in a dignified and formal manner. Before the ceremony, a special individual from another known family whose function is to organize the inauguration of the Cierno is selected. The ceremony is witnessed by the whole community and by responsible authority figures. The Cierno is seated on a specially made carpet with his two hands on the Quran. He is dressed in a special gown with his head wrapped in a white ample and heavy turban symbolizing Responsibility, Honesty and Justice. The Cierno, personifies all that is noble, good, and wise in the Fulani People. His functions, he is still dutifully performing are vast and varied. All individuals from the Wan Family, their affiliates and all the notables and prominent families can call on him for advice, weddings and naming ceremonies, conflict mediation and special blessings. He will keep the title of Cierno Wan-Wanve for Life. It is important to note that there are also such titles elsewhere in Fuuta Tooro for example Cierno Barove. See Picture

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...

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 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...

....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.

By Amadou Hampâté Bâ
ENDNOTES
For a more detailed discussion of the creation myth, see Bâ, Amadou Hampâté. 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.