The «Simb» or the «Faux-Lion» has at its origin a possession ritual. It's symbolics and performative dimensions are very telling about senegalese cultural identity. The regeneration process of the «Simb» throughout the times is also important to understand this cultural marker.
According to a brochure from an exhibition of photographs of Laurent Gudin, entitled "Suñu Cosaan" (Our Tradition), in Dak'Art 2012, the «Simb» is more developed in the Walo than in the other regions. Because "it's the Walo-Walo" that continue to be the masters of litanies (jat, in wolof) permitting to master the lion". In fact I have come across with people that affirm to be capable of mastering a lion solely through words. To avoid the lion or to take something from him, the mastering of the lion is a symbol of man taming the animal forces present in the bush, evoking a time where the bush was indeed a place of wilderness.
In Senegambia and in the Mandé, and not exclusively in Senegal, to hunt has always meant to tame the wild. But to balance the forces and make retributions, the hunter has also mastered mystical knowledge, never forgetting that to take without giving something back is stealing. And stealing from the wild is calling strong powers to be onto you. So, the hunter goes hunting with many mystical protections, the fetish.
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6 окт 2013
