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Report n°5 : "Water : symbolism and culture"

The role of faiths in the protection of the environment

So we see that myths, faiths and symbols seem to serve another essential cause for the survival of communities: protection of the environment. We shall encounter other examples of the didactic function.

Bara folklore grants the altruistic cloud a privileged position. The god Ndriyananahari is ailing and finds that none of his sons -the sun, the moon, nor the stars- are ready to have their throats cut to save his life, as the magician Tahyu who is tending him, demands. Only the cloud is ready to do so and the god rewards him with the magnificent gift of regeneration: "Cloud, you were ready to die for me.You may hide even the sun, the stars, the evening star, if you so wish and they will disappear.You shall give life and resuscitate the dead."

For the Diola, animists from Basse Casamance in West Africa (also called the Mandingo), the following myth explains the creation of clouds: in the beginning, there was Montogari, god of rain and Amontong, god of aridity.They owned great herds and lived together in harmony. But they quarrelled and came to blows.While they fought, Amontong's wives sent their children away with dried pelts tied to ropes. As the skins were dragged away they raised a great deal of dust. This is how clouds were born. The sound of pelts scraping against the ground was the origin of thunder. So Montogari's children took the dust that was left and made it into rain, and this rain is essential for the Diola who grow rice using extremely technical methods, with dykes and sluice gates to remove excess salt (23).

The Bara and Diola folklore is very wise to give clouds, and therefore water, such distinguished attributes. What would be the fate of the oases, the rice paddies or the shepherds without them? It is a fact that cattle-rearing in the Sahel or East Africa owes nothing to chance. Livestock farming became the norm in areas where erratic rainfall plays havoc with agriculture: yields are too uncertain. However, the short rainy season is sufficient to regenerate grazing grounds and the growth of grass in areas where there is enough sunshine for rapid photosynthesis. Cattle then become an obvious option: they supplie milk, meat, leather and dung for fuel, so that areas which would otherwise be unproductive or even completely inhospitable can be used profitably. When he visited southern Tunisia in 1891, Abbé Bauron was enthusiastic and delighted by what he termed the "magic of the oasis": "A drop of water is worth its weight in gold".This Arab proverb applies in the desert sands.The desert, like an ocean, extends interminably well beyond the limits of the horizon. But, as soon as it rains or a spring wells up, the arid sands turn into fertile soil. Water is the magician of oases and turns a desert into a lovely garden (24)."

In Africa, every kind of water has a special name and, more importantly, a special meaning: rain water, spring water, river water, backwater, water from lakes or collected in the hollow of a baobab trunk...

In the Diola language, the word forabà means, according to the historian Joseph Ki-Zerbo from Burkina-Faso, the African notion of the "commonwealth" (res publica) which proves in his opinion that the management of public good existed in Africa and that this management included, very obviously, water (25). He adds: "... There are esoteric and religious components to earth which is seen as a spirit. As the earth received seeds, it was thought that the earth itself had powers of reproduction. Therefore the land was not merchandise that could be handled indiscriminately. In the same way... the right to water was guaranteed. Portuguese authors tell us that when they arrived in the Congo, between the sea and the royal capital, at intervals there were water containers that were set out by the king for the travellers. This meant that the king undertook the responsibility of providing water for his official guests. Rivers and lakes were the depositories of occult forces. The tradition in Africa of pouring a little water or dolo (traditional kind of beer) on the ground before drinking shows that the earth was seen as an entity that must be served first. It contained forces that linked us to higher authorities."

(23) Jacques Berque, "L'Orient second", Gallimard, Paris, 1970. The author emphasises that the rice was grown solely for food and for ritual purposes and that, as late as 1942, some Diolas traditionally refused to sell their rice.

(24) Abbé Bauron, "De Carthage au Sahara", Mame et Fils, Tours, 1893.

(25) Ref.12