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Site Eugenie Conde

The Red Panther.

In Conakry until 1930's, the legend of the red panther was very popular. A dangerous carnivorous terrorised the people. Its name was in soussou "Barté-Gbéli", a name that was whispered with fright once in Tombo Island. It was known that this predator was especially fond of human flesh, particularly the one of the pubescent girls. Also, exploits of the animal were often evoked to stimulate the courage of girls during ceremonies of initiation. The legend claimed also that this feline was a transformed "man-eating devil". The rumours run that strong militias of Boulbinet cut down the panther. For commemorating the repellent memory of Barté-Gbéli the colonial authorities posted, in 1905, to the entry of the big public garden of Boulbinet, the bronze statue of a panther plating a caiman to soil.

The Fromagers Trees

(fromager = hot region big tree - fam. bombacacées. The fruits of "Ceiba pentandra", tree of Africa, produces the kapok, and its seeds an industrial oil) Ancients tell that some protective spirits have planted the trees on burial shelters and it were sanctuaries of idolatry. They also served as reference marks for navigators. According to É. Tompapa, until 1890, magic rituals of possession, cannibalism, catalepsy were exercised in several sanctuaries, on the island of Conakry. The "favourite spot" was the underground cave of Kakilambé (present site of the water castle) and the sanctuary of Boulbinet (present Office of the Guinea Radio Television). Following traditions, fromagers are considered as the living, mute and sacred beings that no one can take the aberrant liberty to cut down. Thus, the construction of the People's Palace posed such problems that it was necessary to stop works of it and to call on "sacred magicians of Sobané " for advice of the old Bagases of the Kaloum. After three days and three nights of incantation around the fromager trees, after all been exorcised near of the site, work restarted... The story says the planes of the Royal Air Force from 1941 to 1943, acting for the account of Free French Forces of the general de Gaulle, based in Sierra Leone, frequently overflow Conakry in the night. The local government was a recalcitrant vichyste. But the city remained untraceable, according to the oldest Conakrikas because they invoked the protection of geniuses living in big fromagers shelters.

The "Bill of Rights of Kouroukanfouga" or the Constitution of Madingues

(Mandingues or Mandé, generic name used to designate the principal Western Africa linguistics groups or those that speak these languages. This group has developed with empires of Ghana and Mali and is now in all states of West Africa, from Mauritania to Niger, in Guinea and Liberia.) During a meeting of traditionalists mandingues at the local Radio Post of Kankan, in March 1998, were recalled the 44 articles that composed the Mandingue Constitution of the empire of Mali, established to Kangaba in 1236. Nothing can bring back to life this faraway time better than the reminding of the rules and laws that are also a treasure not to be lost and worthy, as some members of this symposium wished, to be taught in schools of Guinea and not only. Here are some of them: The nyamakalas (member of the poet-musician caste, oral tradition depositories, in West Africa) owe the truth to chiefs and defend by the speeches the established rules. All boys and girls been born in the same period of 3 years belong to the same class of ages. The kangbés (class between young and old) must participate to the big decisions; each has right to life and the presentation of his/her physical integrity. All tentative to take off life to his/her/its neighbour is punished of death. It is instituted the fake relationship for joking that permits to place the arguing between groups on a teasing base to stop them from degenerating. The education of children belongs to all: let's address ourselves mutually of condolences. If your woman or your child runs away from home, don't pursue it at the neighbour. Never offend the women, our mothers; women, in addition their daily occupations must be associated to all our governments. Give respect and consideration for the promise; don't mistreat slaves and give them rest one day per week, with cessation of work at the reasonable hours. Don't pursue the wives of chief, féticheur, marabout, friends or partners. The vanity is sign of weakness and the humility of value; don't make mockery of strangers. The dowry is fixed to three bovines: one for the fiancée, the two other for her father and her mother. Help those that have need of it. All found object belongs to the one that found them at the end of 4 years. The fourth stake of a heifer belongs to the guard; an egg on four is the guard's property.  To appease its hunger is not a theft if it doesn't carry away anything. The chief of hunters is put in charge of to preserve the bush and its inhabitants. Before putting fire raise the head in direction of tree summits to see of or comes wind. Respect the relationship, the marriage, and the neighbourhoods. Kill your enemy don't humiliate him. In an assembly tolerate yourselves; Balla Fasseké, the big master of ceremonies is the main mediator; he/it is allowed to joke with all tribes and with the royal family. All those that will violate these rules will be punished and each is assigned to look after their application…

Soundiata or the marriage between history and tradition.

Soundiata, the very real founder of the empire of Mali, is also the hero of an epic who never stopped being sung through centuries, epic that mingles the magic to all details of his life. He is the son of Farako Maghan Kégni or Maghan the Beautiful, king of Niani, and of an extraordinary woman Sogolon Condé. She was the "alter ego" of a sorceress, Dô Camissa - that turns into buffalo to every access of bad mood and destroys all on her passage. Dô Camissa allows to the hunter launched to hunt it, to kill the buffalo, with the condition that he chose as wife the ugliest girl of the assembly, Sogolon - the limping one. As a reward of this he will have with her a child promised to an extraordinary future. But the hunter, precisely, doesn't do that! He returns with Sogolon to Niani, where he meets the king. He predicts to the king, who obviously wants a magnificent son, that if he chooses Sogolon as a second wife, it will give him an heir that "will spread until the saltwater the kingdom bequeathed by forebears and will return forever immortal the name of the Maghan ". Maghan finishes, no without threat by his other wife, to posses Sogolon whom delivers an infirm son! To his father's death this child must escape the vengeance of the first wife, his stepmother, and must undergo a long errand, until the day where miraculously his back straightens itself. From then on his situation reverses: after having succeeded in defeating Soumaoro - the king magician of which he steals the secrets of his magic, he will become the chief of an empire that, one day, will reach the ocean!

How to take advantage of the sexual liberty to all age

An unaccustomed liberty, at the Coniaguis, was once imposed by the old: the young people of two sexes, after the initiation, did not know hopeless restriction to their impulses. On the contrary, a girl did not get married before having had a child. But, before the marriage she was held to appear before this "counsel" and she had to confess how many lovers had and for each of them to give a chicken to this old vicious that compensated by the greed what they could not have anymore by the sex. But at the Bassaris, near parents of the Coniaguis, the old ones had found another more perverse means to torment the youth. In the feasts' villages only young unmarried people were living. The remainder of the population lived in small houses constructed in the middle of fields. Every evening, the youngsters have to come to lie down under the same roofs... but with the absolute interdiction to all to have sexual intercourse. As at the Coniaguis girls had to have made proof of their fertility before the marriage so how did they succeed to "break the rule"? Mystery! All we can say is that was not thanks to their dance's costume, compose of a loincloth in pearls finished by a fringe of bells and many bracelets of metal that were able to remain discreet!