Earth, rain, storms, sky, and night. When Emit
referred to the Sky God, he was often called Ata
Emit. This was the creator God, not an ordinary,
daily deity. Among the Diola, ancestral spirits,
nature spirits, and various sacred lands and forests
filled with energetic spirits were at the core of the
religious experience.
It is believed that the Diola accepted the power
of the spirits to prevent them from being influ-
enced by Islam or Christianity, as well as to pro-
vide protection for their rice farms and families.
These spirits (Bakin) are found in all places in the
community. One does not have to go far to dis-
cover the Bakin. Actually, the Diola understand
the Ata Emit as being the creator, but the ancestral
and nature spirits are responsible for daily life.
Even the Kajando, an instrument used in rice
farming, is ritualized as a sacred tool in farming.
Because the ancestors are central to the continu-
ation of society for the Diola, the funeral ceremony
is most important. In fact, the Diola believe that the
dead person’s soul cannot go to its final destination
properly unless the funeral is carried out in a res-
pectful manner. For the soul to enter the presence of
the ancestors and the Ata Emit, the family seeks to
ensure that the good life of the deceased is repre-
sented to the ancestors. If a person does not live a
good life, one that is based on character, then that
person is punished and will become an exiled spirit,
lost forever, and separated from the ancestral world.
Molefi Kete AsanteSeealsoBamana; Dogon; Yoruba
Further Readings
Baum, R. (1999).Shrines of the Slave Trade:Diola
Religion and Society in Precolonial Senegambia.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Mark, P. (1992).The Wild Bull and the Sacred Forest:
Form,Meaning and Change in Senegambian
Initiation Masks of the Diola. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press.
DIOULA
The Dioula are a West African people who are
most closely associated with Côte d’Ivoire but
were also common to Mali, Togo, and other parts
of West Africa. The word Dioula, elsewhere
Dyula,Djula, andJuula, has several meanings in
Mande language and dialects. The most common
meaning for the word is “itinerant trader.” At the
same time, the termDioulasignifies “Muslim,”
and in some cases replaced the wordWangara,
which also refers to Mande-speaking Muslims.
The Dioula converted to Islam to strengthen
their relationship with Saharan merchants. As
early as the 11th century, the Dioula were identi-
fied as traders of gold, cloth, and cola nuts in the
western Sudan, but their economic enterprises
extended to the far reaches of the Muslim world
and connected them to the Middle East, Europe,
and beyond because their primary customers for
gold wereKafir, or those who were not Muslims.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the
Dioula, however, is their religion. Like many
Muslims in West Africa, the Dioula practice Sufi
forms of Islam (turuq). The many Sufi orders rep-
resent mystical, esoteric versions of Islam that are
distinct from Sunni Islam or what some refer to as
“orthodox” Islam. Briefly, West African Sufi Islam
differs from Sunni Islam in that Sufism is based on
a leader/disciple hierarchy. A second feature is the
practice of remembrances (dhikr), collective ritual
recitation of prayers, which foster group identity.
Third, Sufi Islam is distinguished by excessive ven-
eration of walis (awliya), that is, Sufis who are
considered to have a special relationship to God.
This veneration includes pilgrimages to their
burial sites. A fourth feature is the most important
in relation to the Dioula. That is to say, West
African Sufism is characterized by extreme rivalry
between religious groups, and the two dominant
Sufi groups are the Qadiriyya and the Tijaniyya.
Usually, these groups stand in opposition to one
another, and that opposition is sometimes violent.
Among the Dioula, however, this rivalry is
absent. To that end, the more conservative
Qadiriyya is the oldest group, tracing its origins to
Abd-al-Qadir al-Jilani, who lived in Bagdad in the
12th century, although it is most associated in
West Africa with Shehu Usuman dan Fodio, the
19th-century founder of the Sokoto Khalifate. In
contrast, the Tijaniyya trace their roots to Ahmad
al-Tijani, who lived in the Maghreb in the 18th
century, although it is also associated with al-Hajj
Umar, who succeeded al-Tijani.204 Dioula