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Tribe Snapshots Djenné |
| Location: |
On the Niger River in central Mali |
| Population: |
n/a |
| Language: |
Fulfulde, Bamana, Jula |
| Neighboring
Peoples: |
n/a |
| Types
of Art: |
n/a |
| History: |
Djenné is the oldest known city in sub-Saharan
Africa. Founded between 850 and 1200 A.D. by Soninke
merchants, Djenn served as a trading post between
the traders from the western and central Sudan
and those from Guinea and was directly linked
to the important trading city of Timbuktu, located
400 kilometers downstream on the Niger river.
It was captured by the Songhai emperor Sonni 'Ali
in 1468. Historically, Djenn was known as a center
of Islamic learning, attracting students from
all over the region who were followers of the
Moslem faith. A very large number of terracotta
sculptures have been found in the Inland Delta
of the Niger River area of Mali, which date from
the last centuries of the first millennium A.D.
through the 15th century. The style is often referred
to as the "Djenné" style, named after
a city that rose to prominence in this area in
approximately 500 A.D. and experienced great prosperity
until the end of the 15th century. |
| Economy: |
Susan and Roderick McIntosh have divided the
occupation of ancient Djenné into four important
phases. During phase I (ca. 250 B.C - 50 A.D.),
occupants of the site seem to have lived in temporary
shelters made of grass or brush, to have smelted
iron, eaten fish and some domesticated cattle
and to have made pottery with sand temper of the
type associated with desert peoples to the north.
During Phase II (ca. 50-400 A.D.), the people
of ancient Djenné grew rice and lived in permanent
adobe homes, and the site increased in size. During
Phase III (ca. 400-900 A.D.), many more homes
were built and were occupied in some cases for
centuries. The McIntoshes excavated four inhumation
burials and nine urn burials in a crowded urban
cemetery that provides evidence of the growth
of population and density. It is in such burials
that most of the figurative ceramics have been
found. Throughout these periods population growth
was probably stimulated by trade in iron, copper,
fish, rice, gold, and salt between the desert
and the Sahel (McIntosh and McIntosh 1981:20).
The city probably reached its greatest size late
in Phase III/early Phase IV. By 1468 A.D. the
site had been completely abandoned and was being
garrisoned by troops of the Songhai conqueror
Sonni Ali during the siege of the new city of
Djenné (McIntosh and McIntosh 1981:15-17). The
McIntoshes have no evidence of the reasons for
decline and abandonment, but speculate that the
site was the abandoned because it was associate
with ancient "pagan" religious practices,
and that the increasingly Muslim population wished
to move to a new site more suitable for the construction
of Muslim holy places, including the great mosque
of Djenné. |
| Political
Systems: |
n/a |
| Religion: |
Oral histories have been examined, including
the story of Wagadu Bida, the founder of the Wagadu,
or Ghana Empire. The myth tells of the birth of
a serpent from the first marriage of Dinga, the
leader of the Soninké clan. The serpent, named
Wagadu Bida, was the source of fertility and well
being. Each year a virgin had to be sacrificed
to secure the blessings of the serpent. One year,
a young Soninké man, distraught that the girl
he loved was to be sacrificed, slaughtered the
serpent. The devastating drought that followed
resulted in the dispersal of the Soninké and the
founding of the Djenné culture. It is possible
that the images of figures covered with serpents
that were created in great numbers by the artists
of ancient Djenné illustrate this myth and a subsequent
cult of serpents. The numerous figures that show
evidence of disease may represent supplicants
who prayed to the spirit embodied in the shrine
for healing. |
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