Segu Analysis Essay Example

and other sprits to ask for things on the people’s behalf. Islam on the hand was a religion that believed that there was only one God. This one God named Allah had all the powers. He had a prophet named Mohammed.

The religion of Islam believed in the equality of all followers, all Allah’s followers were one and Allah was the only supreme religion. Unlike traditional religions belief that soothsayers could tell the future, Islam preached that there was no one who could tell the future but Allah, there was no one who could predict the future. Islam preached peace and love but along with this came forward the idea of Jihad- the struggle. Islam required that its follower a Muslim would have to exclude itself from all the worldly values, from the worshipping of Idols, to the practice of various fetishes.

In Timbuktu there were several instances where Tiekoro came into conflict with his inner self because of his new beliefs, from not drinking alcohol to abstaining from sexual behavior that he was use to when he lived in Segu. There is a point in which we are given a picture of outsider’s view of the traditional religion, it was that point at which Ayisha- his teacher El- Hadj Baba Abou’s daughter- confronts him about his Bambaric practices. She says to him, “In your country, I’m told, you eat out of gourds instead of earthenware bowls. You sleep on straw mats instead of oxhise beds. The girls go naked. You make human sacrifices to your gods”.

On hearing about Dousika s death, Tiekoro returns to Segu. He decided to stay there

and preach the teachings of Islam and teach other followers of Islam how to read and write Arabic. This action of his created a feeling of anger and hatred in the family. The one member who was particularly affected was his younger brother Malobali, Tiekoro had wished to send the young boy to a koranic school in order to learn about the new religion. However, Malobali had no such intentions, he hated hid brother and his brothers religion because he felt it was because of them that their family had been torn apart (which in many aspects was quite true).

It was from this point on that Malobali had turned into a rebel. He had gone on to join the Ashanti army then. On his return, although Tiekoro was still a Bambara, he dressed like a Muslim- he wore loose robes, had his head cleanly shaven and he didn’t adorn himself with jewelry, jewelry that was quite common among men of Bambara – he no longer desired the physical presence of a woman in his bed and he also stopped practicing the traditional religion of the Bambara. His faith now had only permitted him to believe in one god. He would be considered an infidel if he did not stick to one religion.

He would take off his cowhide sandals and submit and bow down to pray to his God five times a day. He wanted to spread the words of Islam all throughout Segu. He wished to give his people the power to read and write, the power to change their lives and submit to a peaceful religion that didn’t require them

to perform any sinister sacrifices. He did this by opening a koranic school with his own house. Too much surprise, Tieokoro’s Islamic school had a number of pupils, pupils coming from all the rich families of Segu. Even, the Mansa himself decided to send his children to the Koranic school.

This action not only amazed the Bambara people but it also amazed the Traore family who were close to the king. El-Hadj Omar, who at that time was considered as a very holy person who had made numerous visits to Mecca, had decided to visit Segu and meet Tiekoro after hearing so much about Tiekoro’s efforts and about the spread of Islam in Segu. Though the news of his visit did not please the people of Segu, but on the day of his visit there was such a large procession and it was so huge that it overshadowed the procession of a Mansa.

This showed how popular Islam was becoming and how the force of their god Allah was destroying the other traditional Gods whom some of Bambara people had believed and some who continued believing in them. This new god Allah was more powerful than them. After all these tragic events not only in the Traore family but also in Segu there was one thing to be noted that every person had the right to practice his or her own religion and the war that took place between El-Hadj Omar and the Fulanis of Mecina and Segu was not a war of religion but a war to gain personal pride. “War is good because it makes our kings rich.