Salih Bilali, a Muslim Fulani (Fulbe, or Pulo), hailed from Kianah
on the Niger River near Mopti
where he was born around 1770. Taken by Bambara slave
raiders at about the age of 12, he was sold from Anomabu
on the Gold Coast and taken to the Bahamas. There he was
purchased again and taken to Hopeton plantation in Georgia,
where he bacame a driver around 1816. Bilali was apparently
a very well-trusted servant, who often supervised the plantation doings
on his own. This account is from
a letter written sometime in the late 1830s by Bilali's master, James
Hamilton Couper.
His native town is Kianah, in the district of Temourah, and in
the kingdom of Massina. Kianah is a considerable town, within
half a mile of a great river, nearly a mile wide, which is
called Mayo [the Niger]; and which runs from the setting to
the rising sun, and this, to the north of the town.
To the east of Kianah, this river unites with another
large river [the Bani] which flows into it from the south.
On this southern river, the large towns of Kuna and Jenne
are situated; and he believes the two unite beyond the latter town.
Kuna is situated on the north side of the southern river,
immediately on its banks; and is two days' journey, in a
south-west direction, from Kianah. It is a very large town,
and an extensive market is held, on stated days, on the opposite
bank of the river. Beyond Kianah, up the same river, but on the
south side of it, is Jenne. It lies south-west from Kianah,
and is also about two days' walk from it. It is
a very large town, being a days' ride in circuit, for a
man on horse-back. The head priest resides at Jenne, and is
called Al-mami. He has been frequently at Kuna and
Jenne; and has heard of a large town on the great river,
higher up than Jenne, which is west south-west from Kianah,
and which is called Segu, and is the principal town of the
Kingdom of Bambara. Another great town, the largest in the
country, also lies on the great river, on the north side
of it. It lies north-east from Kianah, and is called
Timbuktu. It is a great distance from Kianah, more than
two hundred miles.
Arab traders, who are nearly white, Mahometans in religion,
and who speak the languages both of the Koran and the country,
trade between Timbuktu, Kuna, Jenne, and Segu. They travel
in large boats, covered with awnings, and propelled by poles.
They are armed, wear turbans, and travel in large parties,
having frequently thirty or forty boats together. They bring
for sale, salt in large thick slabs, blankets, guns, pistols,
cotton cloth, beads, shell money, and sometimes horses.
These
traders differ from the natives in color, hair and dress,
and come from a distant country beyond Timbuktu.
He has never been to Timbuktu. The natives he has seen,
from that town and Jenne, speak a different language
from his own, which is that of the Kingdom of Massina;
but the traders understand both. Mahometanism is the religion
of all. He knows of but one race of negroes, occupying the
country of Timbuktu, Kuna, Jenne and Massina. They vary
somewhat in color. That most prevalent is a yellowish brown,
lighter than his own, which is brownish black. He recollects
no difference in the hair, which is woolly in himself.
I infer from his conversation, that the town of Kianah,
or perhaps the Kingdom of Massina, is a Foulah [Fulbe]
or Fellatah colony, established among the older nations
of the Soudan, and differing from them in language. I can
draw no inference as regards any difference of physical
appearance. He is not aware of any difference of origin.
The houses consist of two kinds. Those occupied by the richer
classes are built of cylindrical bricks, made of
clay mixed with rice chaff and dried in the sun. They
contain two rooms only; one of which is used as a
store-room, and the other as as eating and sleeping
apartment, for the whole family. They are of one story high,
with flat roofs, made of joists, overlaid with strips of
wood, and plastered with a very white clay. The inhabitants
sleep on raised platforms, covered with mats; and during the
cold weather, which occurs about the season of the rice
harvest, blankets of wool made from their own sheep, are
used. The fires are made on the floors, and the smoke escapes
by a hole left in the roof. The poorer classes live in small
conical huts, made of poles, connected at the tops, and covered
with straw.
|
Mosque at Mopti | The churches (mosques) are built of dried bricks, like the best class of houses. They contain a recess, towards the east or rising sun, towards which the Al-Mami turns his face, when he prays--towards Mecca. The houses of the head men do not differ in size from those of the better classes. |
The natives cultivate the soil, and keep large droves of
horses, cows, sheep, goats, and some asses. The great grain
crop is rice. As a preparation for it, the soil is turned
with a sharp pointed hoe. The seed is then sowed broad
cast, and is covered with the same hoe. The ground continues
dry, until the rice is nearly two feet high; when the
river rises, and inundates the country. The water continues up,
until the rice is ripe; and it is harvested in canoes, and
carried to the high ground, to which the inhabitants retire
during the freshets. Besides rice, they cultivate a species of
red maize, millet and Guinea corn. They also grow beans,
pumpkins, okra, tomatoes, cucumbers and cotton. They have
cocoa-nuts, pine-apples and small yellow figs, which grow on
very large trees.
The usual food is rice, milk, butter, fish, beef and mutton. The
domesticated animals are horses, used for riding, asses
and camels for carrying loads; cattle, the bulls of which have lumps
on their shoulders, for milk and meat--sheep, with very long
wool, for food and wool--goats and poultry, and dogs for guards.
They have no hogs.
The wild animals are lions, hyenas, elephants and hippopotami,
called gabou.
The usual dress of the men, is a large pair of cotton trowsers,
and a shirt with a conical straw hat, without a rim. They
manufacture their own cotton cloth; and dye it with a very
fine blue better than any he has seen here. They also wear
blankets, made from the long wool of their sheep.
The hair of the natives is curled and woolly; and both
men and women wear it in long plaits, extending down the sides
of their heads. In war, they use shields and spears,
but not bows and arrows. All the children
are taught to read and write Arabic, by the priests (Maalims).
They repeat from the Koran, and write on a board, which
when filled, is washed off. There are no slaves. Crimes are
punished by fines. The men work in the fields, fish, herd
cattle, and weave. The women spin, and attend to household
duties, but never work in the field.
His father and mother, were persons of considerable property.
When about twelve years old, as he was retuning from Jenne
to Kianah, alone, on horseback, he was seized by a predatory
party and carried to Segu, and was transferred from master
to master, until he reached the coast, at Anomabu. During his
journey, he passed a high range of mountains, on the slopes of
which, he met with a nation of cannibals. After leaving Bambara,
to use his own expression, the people had no religion, until
he came to this country.
[pp. 147-151. See also W.B. Hodgson, Notes on Northern Africa, the Sahara and the Soudan (New York, 1844); Allan Austin, African Muslims in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook (New York, 1984); and Michael Gomez, Exchanging Our Country Marks (Chapel Hill, 1998).]