Silê Sadio (also Soulé, a diminutive of Souleymane/Solomon) is the archetypal first silatigi, the pastoral master-initiate of Fulani tradition. In the Koumen text, transmitted by the initiation-master Arɗo Dembo of Ndilli in the Ferlo of Senegal, he progresses through twelve successive 'clearings' of knowledge under the guidance of the bearded dwarf bush-spirit Koumen and his companion Foroforondou, learning the structure of the elements, of space and of time. His journey furnishes the paradigmatic pattern for every subsequent initiation of the herders.
Domains
pastoral initiation
Powers
to pass through the twelve clearings of pastoral knowledge
Amadou Hampâté Bâ & Germaine Dieterlen, Koumen: Texte initiatique des pasteurs peul, Cahiers de l'Homme, Mouton & Cie, Paris, 1961.
C. Edward Hopen, review of 'Koumen: Texte initiatique des Pasteurs Peul' by A. Hampaté Bâ and G. Dieterlen, American Anthropologist, vol. 64, no. 4, 1962, pp. 872–873.