Constitutionalism in African oral tradition; from the Mandé Charter to Kouroukan Fouga

Edited and translated by Roland Ngam

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Introduction

The Mandé Charter, or Kouroukan-Fouga Charter, is a set of ancestral values and rules that attest to the very serious organised nature of Mandingo society. It was drawn up the day after Soundiata Keita and his companions won the battle of Kirina in 1236. Beyond social organisation, these values and rules could and should have constituted legal norms that would later inspire the drafting of our post-colonial Constitutions. Now, or once again, in the news after UNESCO declared it an intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2009, this text is the subject of denigration and contestation due to the oral transmission of Mandé knowledge, traditions, customs and societal values. To ignore this oral tradition is to ignore the existence values of the Mandingo community. To understand this Standard, we need to analyze its history and its legal value, linked to the oral transmission of Mandingo society.

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Historical background to the Charte du Mandé or Charte de Kouroukan-Fouga

The Mandé Charter or Kouroukan-Fouga Charter is considered to be one of the world's earliest legislative and regulatory texts of constitutional value. It came into being a few years (1236) after the British Magna Carta Charter (1215). In 1235, a fierce battle took place in Kirina between Soundiada Keita, Emperor of the Mandingo Kingdom and Soumaoro Kante, Emperor of the Sosso Kingdom. Emperor Keita's main objective was to liberate the territories of his ancestors, occupied by the Emperor of Sosso following the first four battles (Tabon, Niany, Nèguèboria, Kanfignè), won by the latter who wished to strengthen his domination. The Mandé people were subjected to humiliating and degrading treatment. The battle ended in a bloody defeat for the Emperor of Sosso and his troops.

With the help of numerous clan and war chiefs, Soundiata Keita took the initiative in the final victory over Soumaoro KANTE, founding the Empire that would become known as the Mandé (Mandingo) Empire (present-day Mali). After founding this Empire, he organised it to improve the way his people lived. In 1236, appointed King, Soundiata Keita proclaimed a text known as the Kouroukan-Fouga. It was inspired by the “Mandé Kalikan”, also known as the Mandé Oath (Seven Articles), which was the work of the Huntsmen. It was Soundiata KEITA's loyal allies who formed the group of drafters. They were Kanmandian CAMARA, Tiramagan TRAORE, Fakoly KOROMA, Gassim GUINDO, Farawan CONDE, Serrakoman KONATE, Mandé BOUARI, Sidimanba KOITA, Daman DIAWARA, Môlia Maghan MAGASSOUBA, Samary BOBO. Today, the Mandé Empire encompasses Mali, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Burkina Fasso, Senegal, Mauritania and Côte d'Ivoire.

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Controvery around oral tradition

Because of the transmission of ancestral values from generation to generation through oral tradition, this magnificent text is the subject of enormous hostility without serious foundation. Is African oral tradition, and Mandingo tradition in particular, synonymous with the non-existence of social values?

Like all other Mandingo knowledge, the Kouroukan-Fouga Charter was passed down by word of mouth. It was not written down, but its content was passed down from generation to generation by and through the Griots, traditional communicators, great orators recognised and authorised to report and tell everything without risk of sanction. This form of transmission of knowledge, traditions and customs was an integral part of the Community of the Mandé Sages. It was only recently (1998) that the Charter was transcribed by the Centre d'étude linguistique historique et de tradition orale to prevent it from disappearing forever and ever.

Today, the Mandé people are very proud of the Kouroukan-Fouga Charter and try to integrate some of its precepts in their daily lives. These include Sinankounya, the significant role played by griots in resolving conflicts in the Mandingo community. Sinankounya helps to prevent conflicts between clans, for example between blacksmiths and Peulhs. In the unfortunate event of conflict, the griots are there to play their role as mediators and conciliators. Even today, these human, humanitarian, societal and ancestral values help to avoid considerable disagreements, or even destroy them.

In spite of all these values, it is common practice, through articles and comments, to try, without serious reasoning, to call into question the life of this text, on the grounds that Africa didn't have writing. True, parts of the African continent didn't have writing, but we mustn't forget the power of orality and ethnic diversity. Each people lives according to its own values and rules.

In the legal systems of societies with a so-called written tradition, oral value is recognised in the conclusion of contracts, so why not systematically deny the legal value of such contracts? The US Supreme Court judges uses a lot of originalism in their work. originalism is often not written text, but rather inferences from writing and oral tradition into how the founding fathers would have ruled on certain matters.

Orality is part of the Mandingo civilization, and civilization is not systematically and solely synonymous with writing. If oral contracts have legal value in written law systems, so too does the Charte du Mandé or Charte de Kouroukan-Fouga. To deny this text constitutional value therefore seems to deny precedent in human Civilizations.

That said, modern transcribers organised the Kouroukan Fouga into forty-four provisions. This neat organisation which mirrors other modern texts is the source of controversy for some. However, it is more important to focus on the spirit of the document, l’esprit des lois if you will. Arab and Berber writers like Ibn Battuta and Ibn Kaldun mentioned Sundiata and his constitution in their work, so clearly it existed.  

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Looking forward: the role of African tradition in African constitutionalism

Today, one of the causes, if not the main cause, of the disconnect between the African citizens and their legal system is the non-recognition of this text in the drafting of laws in Mandingo countries.

In Africa, legislation should take into account, as far as possible, the socio-cultural values of peoples. Instead of importing systems from elsewhere that take no account of African civilization, it would be interesting to codify our socio-cultural values inspired by home-grown precedent, because law is nothing more than a society's codification of its own rules of life. Those from whom we copy and paste have only considered and codified their values, which they are strongly attached to.

There is no common world civilization, nor is there a more superior civilization. There are civilizations all over the world, whose unity and complementarity make up Humanity.

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