Economics, Oral Tradition, and Realism: The Seeds and Stems of the Suwarian Tradition
During the time of the great West African empires of Ghana, Songhay, and Mali (it is debated exactly when), there lived a Soninke man named Al-Hajj Salim Suwari (or Suware) who successfully articulated and set forth a pacifistic Islamic tradition. This tradition, known as the Suwarian tradition, stressed the importance of piety, learnedness, [1] and religious travel.[2] Not only were these three personal values stressed, but the most crucial value was an interpersonal one: pacifistic neutrality,[3] accessed through the conception of jihad as only justified when defensive.[4], This view of jihad and the neutrality it enabled stood in contrast to numerous other movements that have gone on in West Africa including violent anti-Semitism,[5] Muslims attempting to proselytize,[6] and even anti-colonialism.[7] The Suwarian tradition was strong, resilient, and largely successful in the sense that the areas that Salim Suwari lived became majority Muslim, possibly due to the good example set by followers of the Suwarian tradition.[8] What led Al-Hajj Salim Suwari to formulate such a tradition, and what allowed it to prosper? This paper will argue that there are three main causes: the Soninke’s oral conception of their imperial success, the realism of the Suwarian tradition’s teachings, and the cultivation of mutually beneficial economic relationships.
Understanding Through Oral Tradition
The oral epic of Wagadu, which tells of the rise and fall of the Ghana Empire (known to the Soninke as Wagadu), includes many aspects that seem to allow success for ideas like those articulated by Salim Suwari. The Ghana Empire was quite succesful, so the way that the Soninke in the 19th-21st century (when these epics were written down) remember this empire is notable because it is their understanding of their most successful empire. Firstly, the Soninke remember the founder of their empire, Dinga, as having originated elsewhere.[9] If the Soninke owe the success of their great empire to a foreign man, then it follows that should not be vehemently opposed to being ruled by another group. A foreign founder implies that anyone can cause the Soninke success in their eyes, no matter their religion or origin. The Ghana Empire is known as one that thrived thanks to trade, especially in gold and salt, among other things. In the epic of Wagadu, the abundance of this gold is thanks to an agreement between a serpent named Bida and his human half brother. The human agreed to provide a horse and maiden to the serpent, and the serpent agreed to make gold rain over their land. [10] If the Soninke understanding of their success was based in the supernatural powers of a serpent, then it made sense to tolerate those that believed in other supernatural powers outside of Allah.
The Soninke faith in the serpent’s power doesn’t end in Wagadu’s founding either; the fall of Wagadu equally features the importance of tradition and supernatural non-Islamic powers. As the tradition goes, after a maiden was chosen one year, an admirer of hers refused to see her sacrificed, instead cutting off the seven heads of the serpent. Before the serpent’s last head is cut off, the serpent puts a curse on Wagadu dictating that the gold rain shall end for seven years and the people would have to disperse.[11] The fall of Wagadu ultimately comes then because the Soninke people did not follow tradition. If the Soninke encountered another group praying for prosperity from non-Islamic forces, given this epic, how could the Soninke view them as evil for that? It is not so easy to believe in the immense historical importance of serpent powers and then turn around and commit murder against people because they believe in other non-Islamic powers. I am not implying no Soninke has ever hated a non-Muslim. But, there is a strongly held Soninke belief that their greatest Empire owed its success to maintaining traditions that honored the supernatural powers of a serpent. This belief is sure to have contributed to enabling the respect for non-Islamic tradition that would be necessary to develop and follow the Suwarian tradition.
Reality, Religion, and Easy Travel
Another reason for the success and development of the Suwarian tradition is that is both well-reasoned and realistic. The Suwarian tradition was built for Muslim minorities,[12] and it stressed cooperation with the ruling class. The central theory of the Suwarian tradition is the belief that it is not impious to accept the rule of non-Muslims, so long as Muslims were allowed to practice. Yet, there were contemporaries who disagreed, like Mohamed al-Maghili, who persecuted and massacred Jews in West Africa around the same time. Al-Maghili and his allies believed that jihad meant offensive attacks against non-believers, not merely support for anyone who would allow Muslim practice.[13] Al-Hajj Salim Suwari, slightly younger than al-Maghili, articulated his views in direct opposition. Jihad was not to be an instrument of social or political change, Salim Suwari argued, but rather a last resort measure if Muslims’ ability to practice was threatened. This allowed the stability of Muslims like those in Kumasi, the capital of the empire of the Asante, where there were only roughly 300 Muslims in a city of twenty thousand.[14] The stability of small Muslim communities, Salim Suwari argued, would be essential to their piety. How could they undertake religious travel if there were lands in which they were despised? Furthermore, if trade stops due to offensive jihad, local economies will not be able to welcome Muslims on travel, [15] a key activity to Salim Suwari having undertaken seven Hajj’s himself.[16] This belief in the greater importance of stability than universal Islam, though not always popular, was consistent. The political deference was admirable at times, enabling small Muslim populations to live outside purely Islamic communities, but this same crucial political neutrality also meant that the Suwarians would routinely end up allying themselves against other Muslims and with the ruling power,[17] even if that ruling power was the French.[18]
To be clear though, the Suwarian tradition’s neutrality never got in the way of their ambition. During Salim Suwari’s life, he visited many Muslim communities to talk about the importance of pacifism, especially as a group, arguing that if there were divisions, they could be exploited. Not only that, but their image was fundamentally important, and it could be hurt by practicing non-defensive jihad.[19] Salim Suwari cared about the example set by his adherents. This was in part because he believed that eventually all would be converted to Islam by God, clearly asserting the supposed superiority and inevitability of Islam, but also not actively proselytizing.
Despite being pacifist, the Suwarian tradition also flourished because Salim Suwari’s followers embraced the small yet important role Islam could play in important political issues, a role that rulers also understood. Hidden within this pacifistic Islamic tradition is the simple truth that study cannot be the only thing done by everyone. This truth manifested itself in the Dyula (a group that adhered to the Suwarian tradition) separation of the hereditary clans mory (roughly meaning scholars) and tun tigi (roughly meaning warriors), each with different key roles and expectations. Mory followed traditional Islamic law closely—they refrained from alcohol, prayed five times a day, and had to learn and memorize the Qur’an. Tun tigi, on the other hand, were not expected to live up to these strict rules. [20] They drank (some Muslims even participated in traditional African libations),[21] prayed irregularly, and often forewent fasts during Ramadan.[22] Tun tigi were also required to enter secret societies through initiations that greatly resembled those of their neighbors who practiced African traditional religions; the initiations took place in sacred groves, involved masks that looked close to Senufo masks (a group nearby that practiced African traditional religions), and even practiced blood sacrifice to spirits. But since mory were expected to be so strictly adherent, and politics was to be separate from religion, many key political positions were held by the tun tigi including chief. In fact, one of the reasons chieftaincy was reserved for tun tigi is because there were witchcraft powers held by the chief.[23] This clear role separation held true in other times and places as well. In the empire of Mali, there was an area known as Diakha-Bambukhu where the Suwarian clerics lived. This area was considered so separate from politics that the king could not enter, and only the qadi ruled. Even if a person had killed a prince and hid in Diakha-Bambukhu, they weren’t to be chased by the king.[24]
Economic Ties
In addition to flourishing because of tradition and realism, the Suwarians clearly were helped by a third cause: the economic cooperation of nearby practitioners of African traditional religions. In analyzing the town of Korhogo in the modern-day northern Ivory Coast, we can examine such economic cooperation. Dyula Muslims in the town, followers of the Suwarian tradition, were a minority to the ruling Senufo majority, who followed their traditional religion. These two groups were ethnically, linguistically, and religiously distinct, but they were very economically dependent on one another. Dyula sold cloth, tobacco, salt, and kola nuts[25] to the Senufo in exchange for cultivated food, since the Dyula preferred not to subsistence farm.[26] The Senufo would plant locally, practicing African traditional religions, while the Dyula would partake in long-distance trade, possibly a reason for their Islam to begin with, especially due to the incentivization of Islam via jizya in Islamic states to the north. Since the Dyula preferred not to subsistence farm, and the Senufo didn’t have access to long-distance trade goods like salt, these two groups needed each other. In a place like the Sahel, named after its strategic location as a “shore” of the Sahara, I suspect this relationship between distinct religious and ethnolinguistic groups was quite common. After all, it was not only farmers who were practitioners of African traditional religions—miners were also practitioners of African traditional religions, along with many chiefs.[27]. Not only did chiefs who followed traditional religions buy trade goods, they also employed some Muslims to pray for their success in the economy and in wars.[28] A situation where there exist many Sahelian Muslim minorities dependent on traditionalists is a situation ripe for the development of a pacifistic tradition.
The Suwarian tradition has no doubt been long-lasting, effective, and relevant in West African Islam. But like with any other religious movements, writers and intellectuals must be able to step back from such success and ask themselves why movements flourish when they do, the way that they do, and from whom they originate. For the Suwarian tradition, economics played a major role, incentivizing neutrality through trade of long-distance goods for subsistence goods, or just from being paid for their Islamic religious services. Certain aspects of the Suwarian tradition itself played a role in its success too: its consistency, its willingness to face reality and not solely be a community of strictly adherent clerics, and its understanding of conversion via example, not conversion via coercion all nurtured and preserved the Suwarian tradition. Finally, the way in which the Soninke (the group to which Al-Hajj Salim Suwari himself belonged to) conceptualize their great empire Wagadu (or Ghana)—as a rise thanks to partnerships made with supernatural non-monotheistic powers, and a fall from grace after breaking the traditional partnership—demonstrates their commitment to preserving tradition and recognizing the legitimacy and right to exist of African traditional religions.
*The footnotes: I wanted it to be very clear which pieces of information I got from which sources, so I often put footnotes within sentences to make this clear. It is a common frustration I have reading history that I cannot tell which pieces of information come from where, so I have tried to correct this, but I realize that this formatting is not always popular or conventional.
Bibliography
Belcher, Stephen Paterson. Epic Traditions of Africa. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999.
Launay, Robert. “La Trahison Des Clercs?” In The Cloth of Many Colored Silks, edited by John Hunwick and Nancy Lawler, 297–318. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1996.
———. “Transactional Spheres and Inter-Societal Exchange in Ivory Coast (Sphères de Transactions et Échanges Entre Sociétés En Côte d’Ivoire).” Cahiers d’Études Africaines 18, no. 72 (n.d.): 561–73.
Robinson, David. Muslim Societies in African History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Sanneh, Lamin. The Jakhanke Muslim Clerics. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1989.
Wilks, Ivor. “Al-Hajj Salim Suwari and the Suwarians: A Search for Sources.” Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana 13 (2011): 1–79.
[1] David Robinson, Muslim Societies in African History (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 56.
[2] Ivor Wilks, “Al-Hajj Salim Suwari and the Suwarians: A Search for Sources,” Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana 13 (2011): 24.
[3] Lamin Sanneh, The Jakhanke Muslim Clerics (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1989), 24.
[4] Wilks, “Al-Hajj Salim Suwari,” 47.
[5] Ibid, 6.
[6] Robinson, Muslim Societies, 127.
[7] Robert Launay, “La Trahison Des Clercs?,” in The Cloth of Many Colored Silks, ed. John Hunwick and Nancy Lawler (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1996), 297–318.
[8] Robinson, Muslim Societies, 56.
[9] Stephen Paterson Belcher, Epic Traditions of Africa (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999), 79.
[10] Belcher, Epic Traditions, 80.
[11] Belcher, Epic Traditions, 81
[12] Ibid.
[13] Wilks, “Al-Hajj Salim Suwari,” 5-6.
[14] Robinson, Muslim Societies, 56.
[15] Wilks, “Al-Hajj Salim Suwari,” 46.
[16] Sanneh, The Jakhenke, 23.
[17] Launay, La Trahison, 308.
[18] Sanneh, The Jakhanke, 25.
[19] Ibid, 23.
[20] Launay, La Trahison, 303-306.
[21] Robinson, Muslim Societies, 130.
[22] Launay, La Trahison, 303-306.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Sanneh, The Jakhenke, 31
[25] Launay, La Trahison, 303.
[26] Robert Launay, “Transactional Spheres and Inter-Societal Exchange in Ivory Coast (Sphères de Transactions et Échanges Entre Sociétés En Côte d’Ivoire),” Cahiers d’Études Africaines 18, no. 72 (1978) 566-567.
[27] Wilks, “Al-Hajj Salim Suwari,” 50.
[28] Launay, La Trahison, 303.