Pa Sini Jobu

Max Dashu

The Bosso people are fisherfolk along the Niger River, originally called Soroko (which has now become a generic name for fisherfolk) or Sorkai. Two of their stories about powerful women shamans were recorded by Leo Frobenius, who travelled West Africa gathering the traditions of the griots (oral historians). My commentary below is in italics.

The story of the great tungutu Pa Sini Jobu contains many classic shamanic elements: she dances to powerful music until she ascends into the upper worlds, where she shapeshifts into the form of a bird; then she descends, and like Auset / Isis, uses her wings to infuse life-force into a dead body. (See below for further description of this rite, and of the powers of tungutu—a name that comes from tungu, which means sacred or magical things.) The tradition portrays Pa Sini Jobu as endowed with tremendous vitality (the hair that fell below her hips and the great old age that she attained) and fulfilling the culturally admired imperative of hospitality. It also shows her as a feminist shero who refused marriage, and fearlessly offered her support to a female ruler whose country was being invaded by a neighboring king. The story begins:

Now for the legend of a mighty Shamaness (Tungutu) : Pa Sini Jobu. Once upon a time, and very, very long ago, there lived a Bosso woman, whose name was Pa Sini Jobu. There were only four villages then and no others had been built. Pa Sini Jobu is regarded as the ancestress of a Soroko-Bosso tribe which dwells below Jenne ; she attained to extreme old age, and was a mistress of the most marvellous (magic) powers.

Now, when she arrived at the time when women generally get husbands, she sent all her suitors away. She had no desire towards marriage

Thi story has strong similarities to the Manchu epic Nishan Shaman (who also brings back to life a being that has been dead for days, which is even more dramatically stated in the African story). There are traditional storytelling elements, such as the way she demurs and refuses to put herself forward when the call goes out to find the greatest tungutu. She even helps a man who travels from far away to make the attempt, but he fails. The jackals come when she calls, and cooperate with her requests.

She is able to restore the dead ram even though his liver has been chewed, swallowed, and then retched up in fragments, just as Auset was able to conceive Horus by reviving the dead Ausar/Osiris, whose penis had been eaten by a fish, and using instead a wooden phallus she had fashioned. And like Auset, Pa Sini Jobu accomplished this transformation by shapeshifting, so that her arms became wings. As far as I know, no descriptions survive of Auset trance-dancing to enter into her potentized bird-form, but it is made quite explicit in the story of Pa Sini Jobu:

The Kie played music. They played and sang faster and faster still. Pa Sini Jobu began to get into a frenzy. Her (magic) power was awakened. The Kie played and sang and beat time with ever-increasing quickness. The (magic) power of Pa Sini Jobu grew stronger. Pa Sini Jobu screamed ! The Kie beat time. Pa Sini Jobu rose up. She floated aloft. She floated up to the clouds. She changed her arms while up in the clouds into wings, like the great birds have, and then sank slowly down over the ram.

Pa Sini Jobu rested over the ram for the space of six days. During this time she covered the ram with her outstretched wings. On the seventh day she got up. The ram was alive !

The story goes on to describe how Pa Sini Jobu left her country and travelled around until she came to a country ruled by a woman, queen Na Manj. The queen welcomed her with joy.

Na Manj immediately formed up a stately procession, set forth and met the approaching Tungutu. She greeted her in all friendliness and said : " I have heard of thy great (magic) gifts. Do me the pleasure to stay awhile with me so that I may show how greatly I honour thee." Pa Sini Jobu said : " Thou art very gracious. For a while I will stay with thee."

She made her entry into Na Manj's city. The Queen did all she possibly could to be good to her. All the townspeople came to greet Pa Sini Jobu, to bring her presents and do honour to her.

Na Manj asked her after a few days : " Wilt thou be so friendly as to tell me what thou knowest ? " Pa Sini Jobu said : " All that has happened is known unto me. Ask me, therefore, and I will answer thee gladly." Na Manj said : " I have a petition. Here in my neighbourhood there is a kingdom ruled by a King. His people are constantly fighting with my troops, and always, at whatever the hour or place, the King's warriors gain the victory. I no longer know what is to be done or how to do it. My question, then, is, O Pa Sini Jobu, whether thou canst and wilt help us in our need against this King ? "

Pa Sini Jobu agreed, and her list of what she needed echoes other magical ceremonies described in West African lore: “a black bull, a black ram, a black he-goat, a black tom-cat and a black cock”. The enemy king lived on an island in the Niger, and the river djinns knew she was coming. They tried to dissuade her from helping the queen, telling her:

"Thou art a strange Tungutu, great and mighty — in other places — but here thy powers avail not. Let it be, Pa Sini Jobu."

I think here “strange” probably means “foreign,” not “weird,” but I can’t help but be reminded of the passage in Nishan Shaman where the Manchu woman is called “powerful, strange Nishan Shaman.” She too holds dialogs with spirits who have heard of her powers and know who she is, and makes offerings to them.

Pa Sini Jobu ignores the djinns’ advice not to help the queen, and says, We’ll see about that. She goes ahead with her ceremony, and the djinn reaches out with his enlarged tongue and swallows up the queen and her entire army, leaving only the tungutu. He tells her that her people are fishers and should not get involved in military affairs. Then he takes her under the water [underworld spirit journey] and instructs her in magic, of a type well known in West Africa: spirits in sacred pots which contain charged substances.

Here the little Djin slave said to Pa Sini Jobu : " This was necessary and inevitable. Thus have I done thee much bitter hurt, but thou thyself wouldst have it so. Yet even now will I show thee a little of the magical power and art of the Djins, and disclose unto thee wherein lies the greatness of thy future. Behold now and mark well what I show and shall teach thee."

Having said this, the little Djin slave took up three pots. He said to Pa Sini Jobu : " Thou seest them all three to be quite empty." Then he took three lids and put one on each of the pots. After a [536] little while he lifted the lids off again. Then all three pots were filled, the first with Die (blood), the second with Juguduo (leaves), the third pot with Tungu (sorcerer's charms, the equivalent of the Kirsi among the Bammana). Djinnikin asked : " Dost wis wherefore this is ? " [Do you know why this is?] Pa Sini Jobu said: " Nay, I know it not."

The little Djin slave said : " I will expound. Mark well and nothing forget." Then the little Djin slave told of all the illnesses and all misfortunes and all life on the earth, and explained exactly how this or that thing was to be remedied and how this particular sickness or ill-hap was to be treated. He explained to her that all things which could be useful and helpful to earthly existence in sickness and bad fortune were among the things which these three pots contained.

NEXT: The Nine Sorceresses of Mande

If you want to read more from this oral history of the griots as given
through Leo Frobenius about a century ago, go to: http://www.archive.org/stream/voiceofafricabei02frobuoft/voiceofafricabei02frobuoft_djvu.txt

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