Musicman 1
This is a Platonic Dialogue about Apodictic
Truth, preserved in the structure of The Gambia's spiritual development from
immemorial antiquity.
It was laid in prehistory; on the banks of the River Gambia and Bintang Bolong
stream. The contribution of each ethnic group may be called "pattern of
prestige" or the composite of what had emerged out of Senegal, Mali, Guinea
Bissau, Guinea Conakry, European & Arabian interferences, and host-settlers.
We do not have any genuine record of a common stock of blue-blooded indigenous
owners of the territory over which The Gambia exercises jurisdiction as a
single entity. The social base is an esprit de corps within which each ethnic
group identifies itself for collective well-being, without the force of law. Under
these circumstances, it was common for the more privileged groups to guard the
exits, either figuratively or literally.
The Gambia is not a "melting pot" in which immigrants of various
racial and cultural back-grounds are assimilated; but one in which relationships
disposed themselves to cooperation for rationalized collective-interest. The shifts
involving tribes was unknown in traditional rural life. Tribalism is the product
of foreign impact in the quest for political power and modernization.
Formerly, all ethnic groups were kin-based traditional-centred units of social
organization rooted in local legends that trace their origin to the beginning
of the world; or belonging to a population subdivision marked by some common
features of family pride. Ethnically (speaking), the five nations (i.e. Gambia,
Senegal, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry) are the same peoples; wanting to
hold their group identities, each cum lacte; as the Romans would say, "with
the mother's milk".
To this end, it is felt that the similitude of spontaneous harmony had
been established in the Gambia long before the European & Arabian
interferences; we have idealized and even romanticized what we know about the
mythology of the Gambia in our time; to preserve true continuity with the past
because some of our cultural values have been lost, some have permeated
modern religions, and some have degenerated. Our approach is to use the
inputs from our griots and oral historians within communities to restore lost
pride, since no nation can manage sovereignty without the full self-conscious
understanding of her arts and culture; passed on cum lacte.
Unfortunately, our native dialects are not literary languages with ontological
terminologies in tandem with scholasticism; nor do they systematize native
logic, philosophy and theology. However, for our purpose, the point of
departure is that Sky-God created life in this world; prehistory is preserved in
myths; and Albert Einstein's (1879-1955) theory would melt in the full blast of
divine incandescence.
Thus, to understand the mythology of the Gambia is not to think in terms of the
"excluded middle" because Sky- God is capable of being both personal
and impersonal in Himself. This was the perspective of our ancient tradition
that tells us that the gods, goddesses, and our cultural heroes are always with
us; to complete the duration of the cosmic cycle for the world to be re-created anew
from the primordial waters of chaos at the end of time; by Sky-God.
In this mythical perspective of primitive and archaic culture, Sky-God's
intervention in our world is a sacred history, or a theophany willed out of chaos
to transcend the profane world of demons and the powers of pestilence. The
deeper significance of this sacred world of human habitation is that the
threshold is guarded by gods, goddesses, and the spirits of our cultural heroes;
after Sky-God withdrew from the world and become remote (dei otiosi). It is on
this threshold that sacrifices from humans are received by the guardian
divinities who facilitates communication with humans, and forbid entrance of
evil spirits, demons, devils, witches; into "our world" of sacred
space.
Thus, a theophany is the ritual construction of a sacred space to reproduce the
work of the gods from the unknown and indeterminate space that surrounds us. In
effect, Sky-God is fully monotheistic, and too self-sufficient to need any cult
or temple or priest. For this reason, the creation story only exposed the
intuitive and existential dimensions of prehistory, and the evolution of
traditional cultures. Howbeit, the sacred had already manifested itself to our
ancestors as something different from the profane. This implies that seekers of
the truth must relie on apodictic truth instead of the history of ordinary time
and the actual creation experienced out of chaos. The lack of the creation
experienced was substituted by our ancestors with the memory of events as they
found them.
This primitive means of memorizing events, marvels, prophecies, and folklores as
they found them; was a way of thinking, because human beings have no words
adequate and accurate enough to disclosed the reality of creation; and human
mind has no right to know the actuality of the spirit of life. Our human sense
receptors cannot process unalloyed reality, because it cannot be
correlated to any psychophysical condition unless our wave lengths can achieved
the condition of superhuman-consciousness and is free from the "knots of
the heart" and the "identification of the flesh".
In this state and condition which humans cannot experienced anyway; the nature
of Sky-God, human soul, and Divine spirits; will be the science of speculation,
in words & ideas, to domesticate the moment set aside, to acquire
orientation in the chaos of homogeneity of space, to "found the world"
and to live in a human sense of Reality & Experience. Consequently, the
ontology that we are dealing with: is the science of being or the branch of
metaphysics dealing with the philosophical theory of reality, including
consideration of the universal and the necessary characteristics of all
existence. Hence, our focus is on the material object of ?all real being?, while
the formal object (i.e. the viewpoint) is about "Being" under its most
universal aspects.
Our ancestors used idols to invoked the "Real Being" of their gods,
goddesses, and ancestral spirits; into existence out of a shattered universe
consisting of an infinite number of neutral places. The idols' existence is
independent of the actual person of the metaphysical "Reality" of an
existible spiritual person that has cognitional existence in the mind of the
human person that rightly knows the fundamental being with a metaphysical
essence and its capability of existing in the physical order, prescinding from
the object's "Actual" existence.
This was what Saint Thomas Aquinas (1224 & 1274) insinuated when he said
that: "everything is an appearance of God, who in the appearance, is ever
revealed and ever hidden". Our ancestors never used their idols to usurped
the supremacy of Sky-God, because they knew that Sky-God's mode of being is
infinite height in the celestial vault that is not immediately accessible to
human beings endowed with understanding and will-power; with the substance of a
person: physically defined "as a creature composed of body &
soul"; and metaphysically defined "as a rational animal".
The "Being" of Sky-God is defined as the Ultimate Reality that is not
contingent, because it is the "only one" produced by its causes as an
actualized being. The idea is that: all other nature & persons are actuated
by Sky-God's Divine power. Therefore, the person of Sky-God is no longer pure
possibility; but the person that is completely perfect and self-sufficing. For
this person, we are speaking of "one'' that is necessary (not contingent),
uncaused (not caused), pure actuality (not effected existence). It must be noted
that we do not positively exclude the differences in nature between the
potential realities of gods, goddesses, demonic spirits and humans; because
there is a being which can cause them to exist in space to be incorporated into
their privileged places of unique quality.
Since "truth" is a transcendental attribute of "being" it is
not confined to a particular category or classification of "being".
The ontological truth has its ultimate foundation in the intellect of Sky-God.
All things that we can conceived of, was created according to Sky-God's
type-ideas; therefore, the parables, myths, symbols, images, and rituals of our
ancestors, were the intensity of experiences associated with Sky-God's Divine
Mind; that transcend the reach of words entirely.
However much, the fact may baffle human-mind, the reflected glory of Sky-God is
open to the conscious, unconscious and subconscious living conditions of the
human brain waves that had produced the seven wonders of the ancient world. We,
in the Gambia, can find our ontological, logical, and moral truths; and put all
the pieces of the puzzle that fit together; from our local Griots & Oral
Historians, and then, process our mythology: intentionally, cognitionally, and
sensibly; for those of us living today, and those who will live in an uncertain
future.
Let us proposed at the outset that the term "Hierophany" is for the
manifestation of the sacred in our places of Ancient Divinity & Objects of
Traditional Deity. Our task must be, to make sense of these ancient art objects
(Hierophanies) from the vantage point of our ancestors, with the addition of
words of semantic sophistication; bearing in mind, that our words are the
transliteration of oral vernacular idioms that barely survived into our time
era, because of their intrinsic values to us; from the true boon-bringers of
ancient cultures & traditions.
This brings us to the 'Efry M'Bye National Television Talk Show, in which
Gambian Griots & Oral Historians were dialating about the "Lost
Continent of Atlantis" and the concept (i.e. demanding perspective); that
the Gambia is the "Center or Novel of the Earth". Their words tended
to be veiled and cryptic, and open to interpretations. The ideas discussed were
from racial memories that may be ridiculed if publicized as bibliography and
subjected to lampooning. For Gambians, it was interesting because there is a
wider angle of vision that unwittingly extrapolated the mystery of creation; the
magnitude of cataclysmic events in the mid-Atlantic Ocean; and the realities of
the Universe, man, and Sky-God.
The irony is the proverbial saying: "can any good thing come out of
Nazareth? (St. John 1:46)". In this context, Ontological Truth was set in
motion by Gambians; for Gambians, in the Gambia. We have reached the point of
integrating psychic elements realized through sensation, perception and racial
memories. The values of this "Talk Show" mentioned briefly, lies in
its power to recall our minds from the octopus dominance of foreign
indoctrination, to the thoughts of the heritage of a parcel of territory with
about 11,300 sq. km., that so readily lends herself to the figurative language
of "The Smiling Coast of Africa"; with the constellation and sign of
the zodiac Virgo. If you don't believed this: Virgin Mary is usually preceded by
"The": also "The Gambia".
Overtly, the Gambia is small in geographical range because of colonial history.
It was the British who established their first settlement at fort James by
Captain R. Holmes in the year 1665, but by the Treaty of Paris in 1814; the
island of Goree was handed-over to Senegal, and the shape of the Gambia became
one of serenity and grace with the "Star of The Sea". Philosophically,
our indigenous settlers, at the time, did not know what was happening around
them; and were apathetic with calmness and quiet courage.
Our local Griots & Oral Historians have inadvertently called attention to
the Mother of the World by philosophic truths that are indirect or rational and
direct or intuitive; with probability of meanings, directed at the Gambian
mind-set. If we had listened attentively to their releases, we would have
debated the issues through their subliminal minds and arrived at a conclusion
that there were some survivors of the Great Flood and great cataclysmic events
of prehistory, in the precincts of the Gambia's Atlantic coastlines; beginning
from Banjul Island to Kartung Village Settlement. This would be the city cosmos
context, in which the Gambia would be in middle of the "orbis terrarum"
or the "Navel of the Earth'". If, the Gambia is the favourite epiphany
of Sky-God, we cannot even consider writing that story here; but to say: that
their veiled oral vernacular is meant to avoid ridicule from outsiders.
Those of us who have read the "Mahabharata" (i.e. sometimes called the
Iliad of ancient India that is over eight times as long as Homer) translated
into English prose by an Indian Scholar, P. Chandra Roy; and also the stately
prophecy from Roman times, of the poet playwright Seneca:
* A single day will see the burial of all mankind,
* All that the long forbearance of fortune has produced,
* All that has been raised to eminence,
* All that is famous and all that is beautiful,
* Great thrones, great nations -
* All will descend into one abyss,
* All will be overthrown in one hour?..
will believe that our local Griots & Oral Historians are gifted with sources
of reference that border on esoteric mysticism. True to their tradition, they
have their own system of teaching and learning reinforced with inherited memory
stream from past generations.
Little wonder, the memory of the ice Ages have been preserved by many tribes,
and we now possess a much broader range of knowledge to know that the spherical
shape of the Earth wobbles on its axis and spins like a giant top with icecaps
that could melt and flood the world. The "Atlantis story cum legend",
allegedly told by the Egyptian priests of Sais to Solon, the Athenium lawgiver,
an ancestor of Plato; meant that; Atlantis was not "invented" by
Plato, on the contrary, it was a shared memory by peoples and tribes on the
littoral of both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The "Efry M'Bye Talk show
Guests" only referred to the same myth retold in less details.
It would appear that the achievements of the ancients are considered along with
myths and legends, but they have demonstrated a level of intelligence and
technological skill that contemporary man has been loath to acknowledge. Careful
checking of Gambia's myths, symbols, parables, and legends would clearly show
that they are strong to stand on their own credible platform. We have cornered
the perspective to discover the possible historical connections in the River
Gambia and her North Bank & South Bank Savannah Land. If our local Griots
& Oral Historians can talk about the submerged continent of Atlantis with so
much confidence and originality for us to listened; who can predict how far back
in time, the Gambia's folk tales can be pushed backward (i.e., if the
enthralling theory of the 9000-year figure for the sinking of
"Atlantis" before the time of Plato is to be believed).
The general view of ancient cultures without written script is that they have no
history, but preliminary evidence to written script is said to have started
about 35,000 years ago. Our prehistoric ancestors had used their symbols,
scratch marks, counting stones, totem, coloured pebbles, leaves formation, stone
circles at Wassu, palm thong designs etc., as methods of communication and
record keeping notations; to be interpreted by the tribe or ethnic group and not
to be translated for foreigners. We, in the Gambia, have not yet done any
independent literary work on the Stone Circles at Wassu, to retain or rediscover
and incorporate its values beyond what have been prepared for us by foreigners;
but we have used foreign values to make them primitive and reduced our emotional
responses relating to the branch of philosophy called Esthetics to near zero.
Even so, we now preferred to use a "second language" for
administration, culture, and trade. Today, it goes without saying; that we
cannot speak or write orthodox phonetic: Mandinka, Wollof, Fula, Jola, Serahuli,
Serer, Tukulor, and Manjago; nor can we developed their vocabulary and standard
College Dictionary. Thus, we have become one of many victims of the linguistic
monument of the Tower of Babel, as a Nation State.
Ironically, our Griots & Oral Historian are telling us what we must do to
survive. We have classical terrestrial knowledge with ancient and modern values
that we can collate into a unified whole. This discourse is aimed at
rediscovering the existential dimensions of our native archaic societies in the
Gambia, because we have swallowed too many dogmas, whiles our intelligentsia
have the processing options of computers in a multi-user environment. Our
Nation's past; down through the ages, have been hidden from us by colonial
history. Our profound unique cultural heritage can be documented. If we take the
task seriously, we will not fail badly.
There is no denying that all ancient nations or tribes or ethnic groups of
prehistory had their own versions of the Tower of Babel & Great Flood
legends for cultural solidarity and a system of moral codes for governance that
history ascribed as the age of 4004 B.C., Civilization. Unfortunately, beyond
"4004 B.C"., date is referred to as prehistoric antiquity, because of
the lack of recognized writers and commentators. We are saying in this write-up
that history has no right to abolished the prehistory of the Gambia; since we
have ownship rights over the uncatalogued remnants of our older culture of
extreme antiquity.
Some nations and tribes have survived the ravages of the Tower of Babel with the
legends assumed by their ancestors, whereas others; like us, in the Gambia; were
losers that were absorbed by victors of warfare and ideology. Since legends were
disseminated by victors in their own language scripts, we have the right not to
treat their insular versions about our history with complete objectivity. Our
Gambian Griots & Oral Historians have demonstrated that they have the urge
to know; the urge to talk, and the urge to tell. Their vernacular is strong and
pure.
They have the mental tools and local integrity required in the philosophic
enterprise. If we can called them philosophers at all; it would seem that they
are at the rung at which the teachers of philosophy can aim to lead others to
the vantage point from where our original ancestors had their vision. Indeed, we
have already started in a small way; by the series of articles that are being
featured in the Daily Observer Newspaper of the Gambia, entitled: "Know
Your Towns and Villages".
In retrospect, we have defined the geographical range of the Gambia (i.e.
adulterated from "Gambra") with caution, because it is within the lost
empires of Songhois, Mali, and Askia; that included the five countries in
the subregion today. It is therefore wrong to suppose that our heritage could be
limited to about half the size of the Kruger National Park (19, 0000 sq. km) in
South Africa. What is perhaps most remarkable is that the Gambia has emerged
from the erudition of Phoenicians & Carthaginians writers, Adventures,
Explorers, and Colonial Administrators; as far back as 600 B.C., to become an
"Improbable Nation" in 1965 AD.
One thing is certain: our History is traceable, but we have to illuminate all
the dark and hidden places. From what we know from colonial history; the
Portuguese have records about the Gambia: Tristan Nunez (1447); Alviso Cadamosto
(1455); Diego Gomez (1460); and Diego Cam (1484).
The British can provide the "Master File Data": William Hawkins &
The Trade Triangle (1562), Exploration of the River Gambia (1587 & 1588);
Fort James (1661); Francis Moore (1735); Major Houghton (1790); Mongo Park (1795
& 1805). In 1816, Major Grant replaced Fort James for the new Capital of
Bathurst now Banjul. The overridden fact was that the River Gambia is the key
that fits the lock to open the door of past ages without vying with the
Mediterranean Sea, Tigris & Euphrates Rivers, and also the Rivers Nile &
Niger. We are inferring that countless numbers of seafaring Nations have sailed
through the River Gambia before 600 B.C., since the Wassu Stone Circles date
back to remote antiquity.
Who would deny that Sky-God made River Gambia beautiful & mythical; whereas,
humans like to destroy good things intentionally to conceal on purpose? How is
the Gambia connected to this rhetorical question? The recorded first visitors to
write about the Gambia were the Phoenicians, who once lived in the coastal
region between present day Lebanon and Israel. Ethnically, they belonged to the
Canaanites branch of the Semitic people of the Eastern Mediterranean Coastland.
They founded the famous ancient city of Carthage which was destroyed by the
Romans in 146 B.C. thus; the Maghrib countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia
& Libya; were once involved in trading with, and through the River Gambia.
The Phoenician & Carthaginian books in ancient Carthage were destroyed by
the Roman Empire, who took advantage of the Carthaginian peace treaty; on
drastically severe terms, to dominate mercantile trade with powerful mercantile
fleet on the ocean side of Gibraltar; where Early Greek Records and the Bible
(cf. 1-kings 10:22; Ezekiel 27:12; KJV = Tharshish or Tarshish) mentioned the
location of Tartessos or Tarshish, and theories were projected that Tartessos
itself was Atlantis. Phoenicians & Carthaginians were reputed to have
visited Tartessos & Atlantis, according to the clues from Minoans &
Greeks which cannot be easily
dismissed. The Minoans were an advanced Bronze Age Civilisation living in Crete.
S. J Quacoo (Snr.)