Njeddo Dewal Peul initiation is one of the most extraordinary sacred tales ever transmitted in African tradition. Rich in fantastic adventures, initiatory symbolism and universal wisdom, this tale attributed to Amadou Hampate Ba opens a door onto the Peul cosmogony and the inner quest that every human being is called to accomplish. Before entering the tale itself, a few words on the cosmogony that gives it its roots.

Njeddo Dewal Peul Initiation: The Cosmogony of Gueno and the Primordial Man

Before the creation of the world, before the beginning of all things, there was nothing, except a Being. This Being was a void without name and without limit, but it was a living void, potentially incubating within itself the sum of all possible existences.

Infinite, timeless Time was the home of this Being-One: GUENO, the Eternal, who is for the Peuls the supreme creator God. He wanted to have an interlocutor and created the cosmic egg that contained all the forces, the knowledge of the visible and invisible universe.

Gueno mixed them, then blowing into this mixture a spark of his own fiery breath, he created a new being: NEDDO, the Primordial Man.

Synthesis of all the elements of the universe, the superior as well as the inferior, receptacle of the Supreme Force and confluence of all existing forces, Neddo received as an inheritance a part of the divine creative power, the gift of the Spirit and the Word.

Gueno taught Neddo the laws according to which all the elements of the cosmos were formed and continue to exist. He established him as Guardian and Manager of his universe and charged him with ensuring the maintenance of universal harmony.

The notion of « living void » which appears in the Peul myth is not without evoking notions existing elsewhere like the Tao or the « non-being » in the Far East.

Gueno is an uncreated being, without any corporeality or materiality, but he is at the same time the source and principle of all life. The Peul tradition distinguishes 2 kinds of life: eternal, principled life, specific to Gueno alone, and contingent life, specific to all created beings. The life that comes out of the primordial Egg is a contingent life. As such, it follows the law of cause and effect, the law of Karma.

Note that in Bambara, another African people, the word « fan », which means egg, also means forge. The blacksmith, considered the first son of the earth, transforms matter to create objects. He is therefore the first imitator of the Original Man who works the primordial matter to manifest it in the sense desired by God. His workshop is the reflection of the great cosmic forge, and all the gestures he performs there are ritual.

Here we find the elements of the Holy Trinity: God who manifests himself in the Holy Spirit through his son Jesus Christ, or the body of the Buddha which is triple: Essence, Potentiality and Manifestation.

Neddo, the Primordial Man, engendered Kikala, the first earthly man (Adam), whose wife was Nagara. Kikala engendered Habana-Koel: « Every Man for Himself ». This name alone is enough to make us understand the reason for the fall: egocentrism, the use of divine forces for one’s own satisfaction and no longer in the sense intended by God, that is to say for the general good of humanity and the entire universe. « Every Man for Himself » gave birth to Tcheli: « Fork in the Road ». This name again evokes very clearly the appearance of duality: Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.

Tcheli had 2 children: Gorko-mawdo, the « Old Man », who represented the way of Good, and Dewel-nayewel, the « Little Old Hoary Woman », who represented the way of Evil. Njeddo Dewal is an incarnation of the latter.

As can be seen in the genealogy that descends from Neddo, the Primordial Man, at a certain moment the unity is broken. Two paths appear: that of Good with the « Old Man », and that of Evil, disorder and anarchy with the « Little Old Hoary Woman ». The struggle between Good and Evil is commonplace in the stories of African tradition as in all tales and legends.

Man being the meeting point of all influences, Good and Evil are in him. It is his behavior that will make one or the other appear. Njeddo Dewal Peul initiation consists, precisely, in going back within oneself to each degree of this mythical genealogy in order to reintegrate the state of the primordial Neddo, interlocutor of Gueno the One God and manager of creation, who remains latent in each of us.

Neddo is the pure, ideal man. This notion covers both man and woman, because it is said that Neddo contains within him both the masculine and the feminine, respectively associated with the sky and the earth. To achieve the union of the sky and the earth is to reach the state of Neddakou, the state of perfect humanity.

The Njeddo Dewal Peul Initiation: Two Kinds of Teaching

Among the Peuls, initiation can be understood in two ways which complement each other: there is the initiation received from the outside and that which is accomplished within oneself.

External initiation is « the opening of the eyes », that is to say all the teaching which is given during traditional ceremonies or periods of retreat. But this teaching will then have to be lived, assimilated, and made fruitful by adding one’s personal observations, understanding and experience.

In fact, initiation continues throughout life. A Peul text says: « Initiation begins by entering the park, it ends in the grave. »

The teaching is given through initiatory tales such as Njeddo Dewal, which means the « Seven-year-old Woman ». It is a story presenting an abundance of crazy adventures, fantastic battles, perilous journeys and constantly renewed adventures until the happy final outcome. This tale is the very image of life: the struggle between Good and Evil is always to be resumed, around us as well as within ourselves.

Like all Peul initiatory tales, Njeddo Dewal can be read or heard on several levels. It is first of all a great fantastic and magical story capable of charming and entertaining young and old. It is then an educational tale on the moral, social and traditional levels. Finally, it is a great initiatory text insofar as it illustrates the attitudes to imitate or reject, the traps to discern and the steps to take when one is engaged in the difficult path of conquest and self-fulfillment.

Faced with an almost all-powerful Njeddo Dewal, agent of evil, relying solely on her own powers and the mastery of certain magical forces, characters appear who embody the noblest human qualities and whose true strength will be to trust Providence each time at the risk of their lives.

Let us not forget that myths, tales, legends or children’s games have often constituted, for the wise men of ancient times, a means of transmitting through the centuries, in a more or less veiled manner, through the language of images, knowledge that, received from childhood, will remain engraved in the deep memory of the individual to resurface at the appropriate moment, enlightened by a new meaning.

« If you want to save knowledge and make it travel through time, entrust it to children », said the old Bambara initiates.

Finally, entering inside a tale is a bit like entering inside oneself. A tale is a mirror where each person can discover their own image and which can therefore help each researcher to respond to the injunction made to them: know thyself.

Njeddo Dewal Peul Initiation: The First Cycle and the Quest of Ba-Wam’nde

The tale comprises two cycles. The first retraces the quest of Ba-Wam’nde, grandfather of Bagoumawel.

Ba-Wam’nde is the simple and good man, charitable and benevolent towards all that lives. With his wife Welore, he embodies all human virtues. To prepare for the arrival of his future grandson, who alone will be able to face the formidable Njeddo Dewal, he launches himself in a dangerous quest that will take him to the heart of the territory of the Great Witch, who represents the life principle of this nature, the world of dialectics as opposed to Gueno, the world of statics.

Innocent and trusting soul, Ba-Wam’nde does not care about himself. Also Gueno, the Supreme God, will help him at each of his steps and all of nature will put itself at his service.

Accompanied by a miraculous sheep, Kobbou Nollou, symbol of the divine force manifested in our world, Ba-Wam’nde will first go to deliver Sire, a man of great power held prisoner by Njeddo Dewal: the human being chained to the wheel of incarnations, who has in his heart the sleeping divine spark.

Njeddo Dewal keeps him chained because he knows a secret that could cause her downfall: the divine origin of man. He holds the secret that will remove all effectiveness from the witch’s powers: the rosebud, the spark of Spirit that lies latent in the heart of man.

Ba-Wam’nde arrives at Weli-Weli in front of a door guarded by a triple being: a human head surmounting a tree trunk carried by two ostrich legs. This is the door of our heart guarded by the three living kingdoms, human, plant and animal, which are under the thumb of Njeddo Dewal.

Kobbou Nollou, the sheep, opens this door that no natural force could have broken. A roar of thunder so violent that it made the earth tremble made Ba-Wam’nde faint. It is the sheep who wakes him up, signifying a change of consciousness: the direct connection that is established between the candidate for the mysteries and the Kingdom of the Origin, the awakening of the rose of the heart.

Sire is saved and freed from his bonds by the sacrifice of the sheep devoured by the termites guarding the prison: sacrifice of the light that plunges into the darkness in order to rescue fallen souls.

Sire is cured of his infirmities and regains the use of his senses. The possibility of a conscious connection with the Divine is possible again. He forgives the termites who are forces of this nature and have therefore acted according to this nature.

Then Ba-Wam’nde flies away on a boa: the force of the snake is mastered, the force of the Kundalini of the spinal column.

Sire advises him not to be frightened by the noises he will hear, and especially not to turn around: one cannot serve two masters, one must orient oneself on the goal to be reached with complete confidence and without clinging to what one leaves behind.

At that moment, Njeddo Dewal feels uneasy, she feels this first attack on her power: the light has manifested itself in the microcosm. She launches all her forces against Sire and Ba-Wam’nde. Sire annihilates the seven spirits launched against him by the force of his word, the divine word, then resurrects the sheep Kobbou Nollou, now much larger, the size of a thoroughbred. The rose of the heart has awakened and the divine force in man develops.

Njeddo Dewal tries by all means to destroy Ba-Wam’nde but Sire protects him: the man on the path to rebirth benefits from divine protection. The snake is destroyed and Ba-Wam’nde finds himself riding Kobbou Nollou: a new change of consciousness, he now relies on the strength of the heart.

The trio heads towards a sacred mountain, the border between the visible world of men and the hidden world of the divine. It represents an obstacle to overcome, a test, a symbol of verticality and a direct path to God. It also symbolizes in the seeker the sanctuary of the head, the seat of the mind.

In the middle of this mountain is a huge lake and in the middle of this lake an island where Njeddo Dewal has hidden her fetish that allows her to command the three mineral, plant and animal kingdoms.

The trio confronts the elements of this nature in their journey to recover this fetish: fire, water, wind, earth. They cross the raging waves of passions and emotions that agitate our inner world and that we must learn to know and master. They make this crossing on the back of a turtle, an animal halfway between two worlds, water and earth. Its caution and its slowness evoke the maturation time of initiation.

Our three heroes arrive on the island which is the domain of the Scorpion Queen, the scorpion being related to Pluto and the pelvis. They are swallowed by a giant worm and carried underground, a descent into hell. There they find the gourd containing the spirit Koumbasara, who represents the powerful forces of this nature that lie within us and that are slaves of Njeddo Dewal.

The Scorpion Queen gives them the gourd and thanks to the divine gaze of the sheep, Koumbasara is freed from the hold of the « calamitous » and puts himself at their service. The forces of this world are not bad in themselves, they must be used according to the divine plan. Koumbasara transforms himself into a majestic eagle, symbol of Spirit, and carries them on his back. The force contained in the sanctuary of the basin has been purified by the descent of the light and puts itself at the service of the candidate for the mysteries.

Njeddo Dewal Peul Initiation: The Second Cycle and the Birth of Bagoumawel

The second cycle is that of Bagoumawel himself, the child predestined to miraculous birth, sent by Gueno to triumph over Njeddo Dewal. He embodies nobility, goodness and generosity, served by a malicious intelligence and accompanied by the powers of the predestined. He is the prototype of the initiate. His ways of acting escape human understanding.

He incarnates in the form of a child to come to the aid of the Peul people, the chosen people, that is to say all of humanity, and deliver them from the evil spell that keeps them under the thumb of Njeddo Dewal. Everything he does, he does not by personal will, but in the name of the power and mission received from Gueno, while Njeddo Dewal always acts to satisfy her personal desires.

The story begins with a description of the lost paradise, the Walo, which means floodable, fertile area, in the mythical land of Heli and Yoyo. Everything was found there in abundance, death was rare, illness unknown, learned people numerous in the sense of Gnosis and wisdom. It was a septenary country because 7 large rivers meandered through 7 high mountains while there were 7 large sandy plains: image of the cosmic septenary.

This tale was created to instruct the Fulani, so that they would not forget the distant events that caused the ruin of their ancestors, their emigration into matter and their dispersion across the lands. For a time so long that one could not count the days, the Fulani lived happily in the land of Heli and Yoyo. But in the long run they became proud and lost themselves. Gueno, to punish them, created Njeddo Dewal, the great seven-year-old shrew, mother of calamity.

Through her action, misfortune befell Heli and Yoyo, in particular: « Man will no longer work except for himself, he will always give himself reason, accusing his neighbor of his own faults. Each one will boast by denigrating others, praising his own work, criticizing that of others. »

Njeddo Dewal undertook to build an invisible city: Weli-Weli, which means « All sweet ». There was nothing, in terms of material enjoyment or spiritual lure, that was not present in Weli-Weli. Because man can lose himself in the satisfaction of his desires but also, dazzled by a spiritual phenomenon, he loses sight of the real goal of his quest. In Hinduism, Weli-Weli would be called the country of Maya, of illusion, whose veil we must tear.

Njeddo Dewal had 7 daughters, the 7 chakras, and attracted candidates for marriage to drink their blood. Her daughters knew how to intoxicate them to the point of no longer knowing where they were. With their minds weakened, they stopped reasoning and became slaves to their passion.

Bagoumawel must fight to save his seven uncles, the seven brain cavities, that Njeddo Dewal is trying to trap through her seven daughters, the seven heart cavities. The triple seven-branched candlestick is lit in the man.

Finally, he is directly confronted by Njeddo Dewal, the aural being, who appears in the form of a monster with three eyes and seven ears. He wins thanks to the saltpeter prepared by Ba-Wam’nde.

Njeddo Dewal’s belly is torn open and the insides spill out. At the same time, the deep darkness that had submerged the country dissipates. At sunset, we see the multitude of stars forming a crown around the twelve signs of the zodiac. The whole country is reviving because the bad spell has vanished. The Spirit, like a new sun, shines again in the liberated microcosm and floods the resurrected Soul and Body with light.

Then appeared a new Heaven and a new Earth.

African Initiation and the Universal Teaching Behind Njeddo Dewal

Amadou Hampate Ba said: « When, in Africa, a storyteller dies, it is a library that burns. » In order to preserve this knowledge, he decided to publish these Njeddo Dewal Peul initiation tales.

Amadou Hampate Ba was born in Mali in 1900 and died in 1991. A Muslim, he is said to have been a Sufi Master. The Peuls constitute a population of six million individuals scattered from Senegal to Chad. Their origin is said to be Saharan and white. They undergo an initiation into the pastorate that includes 33 degrees, from birth to the grave. They do not constitute a race but a very homogeneous cultural group of nomadic shepherds, attached to their flocks.

Leopold S. Senghor said: « The black is monotheistic. However far back one goes in his history, Geniuses and ancestors are only emanations of him. »

God appears as the uncreated act, that is to say simultaneously Supreme Force, Creator of all forces, principle of conservation, cohesion and renewal of forces, according to the Diola of Senegal. Religion, among the Wolof of Senegal, is Yon, the path. Initiation means death and rebirth.

Among the Kikuyu of Kenya, a woman from the initiate’s family, preferably his mother, simulates a new childbirth. To be initiated is to have learned, painfully, that passing through death is the very condition of a fertile life. The initiate receives a new name.

More than knowledge, initiation is an act involving the totality of man. He who would have communication of knowledge alone and who would want to be satisfied with it would be deeply mistaken about the scope of what is at stake. In total, knowledge is knowledge of an experience. To withdraw from experience is to no longer know.

Animism is a religion based on the existence of a vital force that underlies all things and is not contradictory with monotheism. It simply expresses the fact that God is present in everyone and in all things.

Zen expresses it by saying that the Nature of Buddha is present as much in each man, even if he is not aware of it, as in the dead branch abandoned at the side of the road.

In Africa, a central character of initiation is the blacksmith, the one who works iron and fire. Iron is related to Mars, blood and the dynamic aspect of man. Fire is the Spirit, stolen by men in African tradition as in the myth of Prometheus. In his forge, the man of art achieves the union of iron and fire, the union of body and Spirit through the intermediary of the Soul, the breath of air.

Among the Bambara of Mali, the blacksmith’s wife is a potter and midwife. She participates in the first birth, the blacksmith in the second birth by the practice of circumcision, the entry into the world of adults. This couple with mysterious powers, after having kneaded the child like clay, breathes the Spirit into it.

Work on the material: without speech, technique remains ineffective. It is the verb that comes in the form of songs, incantations, rhythmic words and secret formulas, specifying an object and giving it its meaning. Because only the verb can act on the network of forces that constitutes the world.

Source: Peul Initiatory Tales, Amadou Hampate Ba, Stock

For further reading on Peul culture and African initiatory traditions: Amadou Hampate Ba, Wikipedia