Dara, Mali a festival of remembrance and a celebration of community.

Every seven years, the village of Dara in Mali holds a festival to commemorate the founding of the village and the heroism of a young girl from the founder's family who gave her life to ensure the prosperity and continuity of this community. During the festival in March 2003, events included an evening masquerade performance, followed the next morning by a sacrifice at the Kote sanctuary, culminating with a dance where every woman who had been married or engaged over the past seven years danced with her husband or fiance

The century-old festival of Dara is one example of the rich cultural patrimony extant in Mall. Its performance includes a wealth of both material and intangible elements. The festival pays homage to the memory of the young girl who was sacrificed at the founding of the village. It also pays respect to the women of the village and reaffirms the bonds between husbands and wives. These rites work to create a sense of community around a collective memory and a shared past, present, and future.

The Village and Its History (1)

Dara is a Bamana village located 35km (22 miles) southeast of Bamako. It was founded circa 1900 by the Doumbia family, who are blacksmiths. Today, the village numbers about 2000 residents and it includes the Doumbia, Samake, Traore, Kamara, and Diabate families. WhiLe the villagers are primarily agriculturalists, the blacksmith families in Dara are still actively engaged in wood carving, producing objects on commission for local use and for sale in Mall's tourist markets.

On the village's northern border there is a large pond that supplies water for citrus orchards and gardens, which are important for the village economy. To the west of the village is a small woods, which houses the Kotedjo sanctuary. The sanctuary belongs to the Koteton, the men's power association. To the east of the village corn and millet fields separate Dara from its nearest neighbors several kilometers away. The village is also home to a mosque and a primary school.

The name Dara comes from the Malinke word dala, which means 'pond'. It is both a reference to the present village's location on a pond and a reminder of the Doumbia family's village of origin. The original Dara was located to the southeast in the present-day region of Koulikoro between the Djitoumou and Banico rivers. The original village, like the present-day Dara, was also bordered by a large pond.

Sometime in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Doumbia family fled from their original village in order to escape Almamy Samory Toure, the ruler of the Wassalu. Throughout this period villages in this zone were constantly being threatened by warfare and pillage by Samory's armies. (2) The Doumbia first migrated to Dara-tomo, then to Dara-bouganfie, and finally settled in Sala, a village located between Koulikoro and Bamako. A diviner advised the Doumbia to move northeast across the Niger River, where they would be delivered from Samory's rule and beyond his army's reach. Indeed, the diviner's prediction proved to be true.

After Samory's capture by the French in 1898, the three Doumbia brothers decided to return home. They left Sala with their families and began to move south. When they reached Mountugoula, rather than continue their journey, they asked the villagers for land on which to settle. The villagers showed them a piece of land bordered by a large pond, but warned the brothers that this land was the property of the djinn, genies. Despite the warnings, the brothers decided to settle there because the land invoked strong memories of their village of origin. However, cohabiting with the djinn brought them no peace, and the new immigrants suffered death, sickness, and the continual collapse of their house walls, among other disasters. Finally the brothers consulted a diviner, who told them that propitiating the djinn would require a very difficult sacrifice, but he refused to elaborate. Only after the third consultation did the diviner tell them that they would have to undertake a human sacrifice of a young woman, one who would have to be a member of their very own family.

The Sacrifice

Following the diviner's declaration, the three brothers adjourned to discuss the sacrifice and the choice fell upon the only child of Benjamin Doumbia. When she was approached, the young girl accepted with dignity the will of her family and she agreed to be sacrificed in order to appease the djinn, bring good fortune to the community, and ensure the growth and prosperity of the Doumbia clan.

Following the acceptance of her fate, the young girl was taken to the place of sacrifice and placed in the center of a circle of stones, where she was buried alive by fresh earth in four stages. These four stages correspond to the dalakan, the four vows or promises that she demanded of the community.

1. The first declaration: Burial up to her knees. When the earth had reached the young girl's knees, she asked that they stop so that she might speak. "I ask that following my death, every seven years you celebrate this event with a festival." The people agreed and continued the burial.

2. The second declaration: Burial up to her waist When the earth had reached her waist, she again asked them to stop and declared, "Since I will never have the opportunity to marry, or to have children, I ask you to promise that during each seven-year festival, every married man gives his wife new clothes, a hen and a rooster, salt and kola nuts--that is, those gifts that would correspond to those given to me by my future husband at my marriage." The people agreed and the burial continued.

3. The third declaration: Burial up to her chest. When the earth reached her chest, the young girl once again asked them to stop and she said, "Any of the men of Dara who refuse to participate in this festival for any reason will be cursed." The people promised her that they would never abandon the festival.

4. The final declaration. Burial up to her throat. When the earth reached her throat, the young girl spoke for the last time. "If the husbands and fiances go back on these promises then the same calamities that have plagued the village before my sacrifice will be revisited on the community."

The people accepted her words and the young girl was buried alive. With her sacrifice the djinn ceased their hostilities toward the community and moved away from the place, permitting the villagers to live in peace and to prosper.

This essay was translated from the French and edited by Mary Jo Arnoldi, Smithsonian Institution.

(1.) There are a number of versions of the origin of the festival. This version is based on interviews that Mara conducted in March 2003 with Karim Traore, a 50-year-old farmer, and Nanta Alima Koita, 74-year-old housewife, both of whom are natives of Dara.

(2.) Almamy Samory Toure was a Muslim imam warrior who established an empire in the late nineteenth century across much of modern day eastern Guinea, southern Mali, and northern Cote d'Ivoire. In 1898 he was captured by the French and sent into exile in Gabon. On one hand Malians admire him for his military genius and diplomatic skills, while in the region of the Wassalou, where the Doumbia family had once lived, he is remembered as a cruel despot.

Photographs by CHEICK OMAR MARA

translated from the French by MARY JO ARNOLDI