Page 89 - Empires of Medieval West Africa

E m p i r E s o f m E d i E v a l w E s t a f r i c a

In TheIr Own wOrds

The King’s Tomb

although al-Bakri said no one was allowed dig a ditch around it until the mound can
to see the king’s burial and tomb, he heard be reached at only one place.
some details about it. this form of royal burial is sometimes

When their king dies they construct over the considered to be evidence that the people
place where his tomb will be an enormous believed their kings were also gods.
dome of saj wood. Then they bring him Excavations at two mounds in the inland delta
on a bed covered with a few carpets and region of the Niger river revealed tombs with
cushions and place him inside the dome. burial rooms. in each grave there were two
At his side they place his ornaments, his
weapons, and the vessels from which he human skeletons with weapons, ornaments,
used to eat and drink, filled with various and beads. the tomb also contained other
kinds of food and beverages. They place human skeletons and animal bones.
there too the men who used to serve his
meals. They close the door of the dome (source: levtzion, Nehemia, and J. f. p. Hopkins,
and cover it with mats and furnishings. editors. Corpus of Early Arabic Sources
Then the people assemble, who heap earth for West African History. cambridge, U.K.:
upon it until it becomes like a big hill and cambridge University press, 1981.)

Mystery and secrecy are very important in traditional religion, and
some of the sacred ritual objects are not supposed to be seen by ordi-
nary people. Others are seen only by people who are members of special
societies. It is believed that terrible consequences can be suffered by
people who violate these rules.
Al-Bakri mentioned that people were sometimes imprisoned in
the sacred grove and never heard from again. This way of doing away
with criminals would add frightening power and mystery to the rules
associated with the sacred site. Contributing to the mystery of the
sacred grove and the spiritual practices centered there was the prac-
tice of locating the kings’ tombs within the mysterious circle of trees.
Much of what is known about the traditional religions in sub-Saha-
ran Africa was written by Muslim Arabs and, later, Christian Europe-
ans. Their descriptions reflected the prejudices of foreigners toward a
traditional religion they did not understand or care to learn anything
about.