Faran Maka the Fisher-Giant
Songhai · demigod · Songhay heroic age; ancestor of the sorko praise singers · Recorded classification
Hero/culture-hero tier entered as demigod: son of a mortal fisherman (Nisile Bote) and a river-spirit (Maka). 'Bote' = fisherman. The sorko priest-bards trace their line to him. Principal scholarship: Stoller (1989); Rouch (1960/1989).
Domains
- fishing river mastery
- magic sorcery
Powers
- to overpower river-spirits with greater magic
- to harpoon hippopotamus in the great river
- wield the strength of a giant
- win mastery of the Niger by defeating Zinkibaru
Relations
- enemy: Lord of the River-SpiritsThe fisher-giant defeats the water-zin who enslaved the river-spirits with his guitar, freeing the Niger's captives.Paul Stoller, Fusion of the Worlds (Chicago 1989) (secondary)
- student: ThunderAfter Dongo's thunder slew his crew, Faran learnt and instituted the first possession rites to appease him; his sorko heirs serve Dongo since.Paul Stoller, Fusion of the Worlds (Chicago 1989) (secondary)
Sources
- Faran Maka Bote is the Songhay culture-hero, a giant born of the fisherman Nisile Bote and the river-spirit Maka, endowed with great magic; he defeated the river-spirit Zinkibaru to win the Niger, submitted to the thunder-god Dongo, and is the ancestor of the sorko praise-singers and harpoon-hunters of the possession cult.: Paul Stoller, Fusion of the Worlds: An Ethnography of Possession among the Songhay of Niger (1989), esp. ch. 4 on sorko descended from Faran Maka Bote (secondary); Jean Rouch, La religion et la magie songhay (1960/1989) (secondary)