the negotiation of Songhay space:

phenomenology in the heart of darkness

PAUL STOLLER-West Chester State College

A well-known, senior anthropologist who has been studying the Songhay-speaking

peoples of the Republic of Niger for more than 35 years once told me about an error in his
perception of Songhay spatial patterns. Despite his great knowledge of the Songhay, he
had only recently realized that Songhay roads do not intersect, but rather end in a fork with
two new roads going off in different directions. “I was so used to viewing the world from
my European perspective,” he said, “that I saw intersections rather than forks.” As we
later agreed, the road-as-a-fork is a significant symbol in Songhay cosmology. If it took a
truly perceptive anthropologist almost 30 years to discover what Whitehead (1969) calls the
“delusion” of his perception, what can one say about other anthropologists whose
generalizations about social life are based upon 1, 2, or 10 years of fieldwork? Do most an-
thropological analyses suffer from significant omissions generated from the ”delusion” of
the anthropologist’s perception?Are most anthropological theories based upon misconcep-
tions stemming from the inability of the anthropologist to perceive something his or her in-
formant takes for granted? These are haunting questions for anthropologists who in the
course of fieldwork must struggle to comprehend systems of symbolic and social relations
that are, for the most part, outside the scope of their experience.

The observation of symbolic space can often be an exercise in perceptual

”delusion,” in which the anthropologist observes something that does not
correspond to the reality of the people he or she is studying. One of the
sources of perceptual “delusion” is the static orientation to (social)
science, the ongoing legacy of post-SocraticCreek philosophy to occiden-
tal (social] scientific analysis. One solution to this significant
epistemological problem, as my own Songhay case illustrates, is to adopt
a more eidetic or phenomenological approach to space in society. In this
eidetic approach to the observation of spatial patterns, the analyst con-
siders space as a dynamic conceptual force which can be used in
sociopolitical arenas rather than as a static, immutable entity which i s
“given” and “out there.” By analyzing space from a critical
phenomenological perspective, anthropologists are more likely to pro-
duce descriptions which correspond to the experience of the
ethnographic other. [ethnology, phenomenology, political anthropology,
West Africa, symbolism]

Copyright 0 1980 by the American Anthropological Association

00944496/80/030419-13S1 .80/1

negotlatlon of Songhay space 419

 This paper is an exploration in eidetic anthropology in which the scholar must not only
make use of keen observational skills, but must reflect critically on his or her own philo-
sophicocultural biases so as to guard against seeing or writing about something which does
not exist. More specifically, I argue that the deep-seated influence of post-Socratic Greek
philosophy has rendered anthropology, not to mention psychology and sociology, a social
science engaged in the search for the static universals of social life. This search for static
universals, I suggest, can often delude the perception of the anthropologist engaged in
field study. Thus, the anthropologist sees something, dictated by his or her own theoretical
disposition, which has no importance or meaning to the people he or she is studying. As I
demonstrate, the static anthropological approach to space, in which spatial patterns are
considered to be reifications of the social order, conditioned my false, first perception of
Songhay space. As I adopted a more critically reflective, phenomenological approach to
the observation of Songhay space, I was able to understand the process through which the
Songhay constitute space as a dynamic conceptual force which can have significant
political implications for Songhay society.
The paper i s divided into three sections. In the first section I present my initial analysis of
the political use of space in Songhay society; I describe the Songhay social order and the
manner in which it is reified by the allocation of space. Using the technique of critical
reflection, I next probe the epistemological rationale for the inadequacies of my initial
analysis. In the final section, I argue that the results of a more phenomenological analysis
of space correspond more closely with a Songhay conception of spatial relationships.

space, politics and Songhay soclety

The Songhay people of the Republics of Mali and Niger trace their origins to the 7th cen-
tury when the legendary Aliaman Dia, reputedly a Lempta Berber, came from the east to
conquer the peoples living along the banks of the Niger River in the present-day region of
Gao (Republic of Mali). This conquering Berber established the Dia (or Za, depending upon
the dialect of the Songhay language) dynasty of Songhay. Despite vassalage to the empires
of Ghana and Mali, the Dia dynasty remained intact until the latter part of the 13th century
when A l i Kolen temporarily freed the Songhay from the hegemony of the Mansas of Mali.
A l i Kolen and his descendants took the title of Si, rather than Dia, and considered
themselves to be a new Songhay dynasty. Independence from Mali, however, was short-
lived. It was only with the ascendance of the 18th and last Si, Sonni Ali Ber. that the
Songhay gained total independence from Mali. While Sonni Ali Ber (1463-92) expanded
considerably the hegemony of the Songhay, the empire reached the zenith of its power dur-
ing the Askiad (1493-1 591). the third and last Songhay dynasty, founded by Mohammed
Toure when his army defeated the forces of S i Baru, the rightful heir to Sonni Ali Ber’s
throne (see Hunwick 1966,1972; Rouch 1953; Hama 1968; Konar6 Ba 1977).
There are many vestiges of the imperial and precolonial past in contemporary Songhay
social organization, especially in the westernmost regions of the Republic of Niger where
the ethnographic research for this paper was conducted. As in the past, Songhay society i s
marked by three major social groupings: free Songhay, former slaves, and foreigners. The
free Songhay consist of three subgroups: Si hamey, the patrilineal descendants of Sonni Ali
Ber; Mamar hamey, the patrilineal descendants of Askia Mohammed Tour&; and Songhay
sorkey, the patrilineal descendants of Faran Maka Bota, a legendary fisherman who lived
along the banks of the Niger River in the 10th century. Of these three subgroups, the Mamar
hamey, who constitute the nobility of contemporary Songhay society, have the greatest

420 amerlcan ethnologist

sociopolitical importance; they continue today as the traditional chiefs of the Songhay
districts in the Republic of Niger.
The former slaves, by contrast, have shallow genealogies. Few former slaves, benya
(benyey, PI.), can trace their descent to a specific apical ancestor. It is common knowledge,
however, that the ancestors of former slaves had been prisoners of imperial or precolonial
wars. During precolonial times, a noble could sell his prisoner-slave. The offspring of the
prisoner-slave, however, could not be sold. These offspring, called horso in Songhay, were
assimilated into Songhay society and culture. The assimilated horso became the skilled
client of a noble family. Many weavers, bards, blacksmiths and musicians are still the
clients of noble patrons. Slavery, the foundation of the precolonial social order, was of-
ficially abolished by the French in 1898.But the psychological residue of slavery has impor-
tant sociological implications in contemporary Songhay society (see Olivier de Sardan
1969,1975).
From the imperial past to the present there have been distinct groups of foreigners,
yeoey, who have lived in Songhay country. Some of these groups (Zerma, Wogo, Kurtey,
Korombe) have been more or less assimilated into Songhay culture; other groups (Hausa,
Peuhl, Tuareg-Bella) have coexisted with the Songhay while maintaining their cultural and
linguistic diversity.
The most striking aspect of past and present Songhay social organization i s the social ex-
clusivity of the nobles vis-a-vis the former slaves and the foreigners. This exclusivity i s
reflected in preferred marriage patterns and in normative behavioral expectations. In mar-
riage, for example, the daughter of a noble should never marry the son of a former slave or
a foreigner, for the offspring of such a match, following the principle of patrilineal descent,
would be considered former slaves or foreigners. The preferred first marriage for the son of
a noble would be with the daughter of a closely related noble family, most preferably one's
patrilateral parallel cousin. This marriage insures that the firstborn son, a potential chief,
has received noble blood from both his father and his mother. In second and third mar-
riages, nobles might marry the daughters of nonnoble, free Songhay, former slaves, or
foreigners. Despite the nonnobility of the mother in these latter marriages, the offspring
would nonetheless be considered to be nobles by virtue of the father's blood. Still
prevalent today, these marriage patterns have helped to maintain the social exclusivity of
the Songhay nobles.
The social exclusivity of the nobles has also been reinforced by a complementary set of
normative behavioral expectations which have created ideal standards of behavior for
nobles and for former slaves and foreigners. Nobles are expected to dress in white
robes-the sartorial sign of a man who does not work with his hands-and t o carry wooden
canes-the symbol of chiefly authority. Moreover, nobles are expected to be laconic in
their communicative interactions, speaking hardly at all in public contexts. Laconicity
among the Songhay is a mark of dignity and prestige. If one is a noble, following the ideal
Songhay formula, he should have a spokesperson during public encounters (Stoller 1978).
Finally, nobles should be generous to their clients, giving away their wealth even during
times of scarcity. Former slaves and foreigners, by contrast, might wear any kind of
clothing. They are expected to be skilled orators, if not loquacious, and can even be
outrageous in their demands of a noble. Rather than being regarded as independent and
controlled, foreigners and former slaves are considered dependent and childlike.
The social exclusivity of the nobles has also played a major role in the legitimation of the
rule of the chief in Songhay political relations. The Songhay believe that only someone of
noble descent has the predisposition to govern. Chosen from among noble families, the
Songhay chief becomes the bankwano.' Like baraka, mana, or the Nuer term kwoth,
bankwano i s a polysemic term for the concept which seems to underlie the dynamics of the

negotiation of Songhay space 421

Songhay political system (see Geertz 1968;Evans-Pritchard 1956).In Songhay, bankwano
can refer to the chief himself, to the state of the chieftaincy, to sacredness, to good luck,
and to the Prophet Mohammed. Some of my informants have likened bankwano to a cloud
in which exists the sacred powers of lakkal, the wisdom of governance, and fula, the hat of
inner strength and determination.’ These are the sacred powers which enable the Songhay
chief to govern effectively. When the noble is selected as chief, he i s said to ”enter into
bankwano.” Once in bankwano, he i s imbued with fula and lakkal, and becomes trans-
formed from a noble to the chief; he thereby becomes the manifestation of the sacred on
earth
The focal point of Songhay politics has been the chief, bankwano. As the recipient of the
sacred powers of fula and lakkal, which are believed to be passed down from Allah through
the Prophet, the chief of Songhay society has maintained his power and legitimacy over the
polity by (1)reinforcing the collective belief in his sacredness and (2) demonstrating his
sociopolitical effectiveness through the skillful deployment and use of clients organized in
diffuse political networks.
The legitimacy of the bankwano, therefore, has derived from his social exclusivity as a
noble, and his proximity to the sacred as chief. The important legitimating themes of social
exclusivity and proximity to the sacred, moreover, appear to be reified in the spatial alloca-
tion of the fields and compounds in Songhay communities. The nobles in Mehanna, for ex-
ample, occupy fields along the same road (see Figure 1). Descendants of slaves, many of
whom are s t i l l clients to noble families, have their fields along those roads closest to that of
the nobles. The foreigners, some of whom have become wealthy merchants, have their
fields along the roads most distant from that of the nobles. The reason for this allotment of
fields, according to my most knowledgeable informants, has been purely political. Such an
allotment, which was in precolonial times enforced by Songhay law, has maintained the
practice that only those Songhay with a genealogical connection to Askia Mohammed
Tour&-including, of course, the bankwano-could have fields along the noble road.
Nobles, then, have had fields in close proximity to the field(s) of the bankwano, the
Songhay social identity who has been considered to be the manifestation of the sacred on
earth. Theoretically, foreigners and descendants of slaves could neither have fields along
the noble road nor have compounds in the noble section of a town, which itself i s situated
next to the site of the Friday mosque, the most sacred space in a Songhay community. In
general, the patterns found in the field allotments have been replicated, for the same
political reasons, in the allotment of compounds (see Figure 21.’
There has been, then, an inequity of access to sacred space, or to space which is at least
proximate to the sacred. This inequity of access has underscored a central theme in
Songhay sociopolitical relations-the basic inequality of social life, which itself highlights
the social exclusivity of the nobles. Social inequality was the cement of the Songhay im-
perial order, and i t s continuation has been the foundation of the ongoing political
legitimacy of the Songhay nobles (see Olivier de Sardan 1975).As the Songhay proverb
states: Boro kon go mayga windo ra, nga no mayga no. (The person who lives in [or near] the
noble’s compound becomes [like a] noble.) The person who has had holdings close to those
of the nobles-or better, close to those of the bankwano himself-has shared in the fruits
of being close to the sacred. Proximity to the space of the nobles is believed to insure
divine salvation, for proximity to the sacred has always insured a person‘s ascension to
heaven and the bounty of social effectiveness on earth.
Such continuous referencing of sociopolitical themes has made space a powerful
political tool. Each time the descendant of slaves, for example, walks to his field, which i s
close to but not on the the noble road, he i s reminded of his social and political positon in
Songhay society. When he returns home, the location of his compound vis-A-vis those of

422 amorican othnologbt

 I: NOBLES'
FIELDS
2: FORMERSLAVES' FIELDS
3: FOREIGNERS'
FIELDS

Fig. 1. Distribution of fields in Mehanna

the nobles i s a strong reminder of his social position. As this routine activity is repeated,
day after day, from childhood through the various stages of the life cycle, this descendant
of slaves, as Schutz (1962) would suggest, takes space for granted. Space and the arrange-
ment of objects in it becomes, for this descendant of slaves, part of the fabric of the every-
day world; it becomes intertwined with his set of beliefs about the Songhay social order, a
system in which social inequality is seen as part of the natural order of things. What better
way for the Songhay nobles t o have reinforced their political legitimacy over the genera-
tions.

exceptions as noise: a critlcai reexamination of Songhay space

My initial analysis of the political use of Songhay space leads us to believe that the
Songhay nobles are firmly in control of the political system. From imperial times to the
present, the nobles seem to have developed a set of symbolic media which have
legitimated their authority. More specifically, I suggest that space has been one of the
nobles' most powerful tools; they have used the medium of space to reinforce the collec-
tive belief that only a noble has the predisposition t o govern.
Such was the gist of my initial analysis of Songhay space, which fit nicely into a more
complicated web of Songhay political relations that I had been trying to explain (Stoller
1978). One thorny problem remained, however. I had uncovered a number of exceptions to

negotlatlon of Songhay space 423

 2

NIGER RIVER

I : NOBLES’COMPOUNDS
2 : FORMER SLAVES’ COMPOUNDS
3: MERCHANTS’ COMPOUNDS
4 : FOREIGNERS’COMPOUNDS

Fig. 2. Distribution of compounds in Mehanna.

the normative pattern of Songhay spatial distribution (see Figure 3). Despite the fact that all
the nobles had fields along one road, I discovered that merchants X and 5, both of whom
were of foreign origin, had taken fields next to those of the nobles. In the same vein, a
former slave who was highly respected in Mehanna, Mr. Y, had moved his compound from
the former slave quarter to that of the merchants. Moreover, the wealthiest merchant in
Mehanna. Mr. Z, had moved his compound from the merchant neighborhood, i t s ap-
propriate space. to the very outskirts of town (space R), an area designated for the poorest
people of foreign origin.
Since these exceptions were so few in number, my immediate inclination was to treat
them as though they were noise in a communication system. Noise occurs in every system
of communication (and in every theory), but the presence of it in the communication chan-
nel in no way alters the meaning of a message being transmitted from a sender t o a
receiver. If I treated these exceptions as noise, I could either explain them away or ignore
them, and the validity of my theory of the political use of Songhay space would only be
slightly diminished.
Treating my exceptions as noise was hardly iconoclastic; this epistemological practice is
evident in some of the major theoretical orientations of anthropology. French struc-
turalists, for example, have often been criticized for the lack of importance they give to
those ethnographic examples which violate the fixed rules they hold to be universal. In
discussing the Yanomamo Indians, Duvignaud (1969:452) writes:

One is struck by the liberty demonstrated by the Indians in regard to the “elementary structures
of kinship,” these laws which regulate or should regulate the exchange of women between groups
They teach us that the fixed and irrepressible structures, which, according to contemporary ethnol-
ogists, regulate the members of the community. do not correspond to the complex reality of experi-
ence

424 amwlcan ethnologist

 I: NOBLES’
HOLDINGS
2: FORMER
SLAVES’ HOLDINGS
31 MERCHANTS’
HOLDINGS
Ho L DI NG s
4: FOREIGNERS’

Fig. 3. Exceptions to the normative distribution of Songhay space

In ethno-Marxism, moreover, the exception to the theory can be explained away as

“fetishism,” something that masks the underlying truths of the social system. For an ethno-
Marxist like Codelier (1978). primitive society can be reduced first by kinship relations and
then, most fundamentally, to the relations of production. Sahlins (1972) and Lizot (1971),
however, have demonstrated, to the exception of ethno-Marxist theory, that the domestic
mode of production is antiproductive; it operates below the level of i t s productive capaci-
ty. I s this “fetishism”? The presence of these kinds of exceptions, however, has not altered
the basic principles of structuralism or ethno-Marxism.
Treating my exceptions as noise, despite the commonality of the practice, turned out to
be only a partial solution to the epistemological dilemma I faced. Why had I blindly ac-
cepted the notion of (Songhay) space a5 the reification of the social order? And was this
view an accurate one?

negotlation of Songhay space 425

 One of the most fundamental reasons for my initial perception of Songhay space was
that it has been common practice for anthropologists to consider space as the static reifica-
tion of the social and/or symbolic order. In his assessment of the sociocultural meaning of
space, Sjoberg (1961) focuses upon, in part, the concrete relationships between the urban
distribution of space and social organization. For Sjoberg there i s a direct relationship in
the preindustrial city between spatial distribution and social class, the center of the city be-
ing more prestigious than the periphery. Indeed, the elite of the preindustrial city situate
themselves in the central area near the government and religious edifices which dominate,
physically and symbolically, the urban scene. As one proceeds to the outlying areas, he or
she encounters members of less prestigious social classes; and when one reaches the
suburbs, he or she comes upon the outcasts of the preindustrial urban area (Sjoberg
1961:96-97). Similar space-class relationships, which depict space as a reification of the
social order, have been reported in studies of cities and towns in Europe, Latin America,
and Africa (Miner 1966; Hull 1976; Gilmore 1977).
The anthropological literature on space also suggests a static relationship between the
array of spatial patterns and beliefs about the cosmos-space as the reification of the
cosmological order. It has been suggested by Levi-Strauss (1967:128-159) that the spatial
patterns found in the form of Bororo villages reflect the dual organization of the sociosym-
bolic order of that society. Similar kinds of assumptions are found in Griaule and Dieterlen
(1954). in which spatial patterns of Dogon compounds and fields are said to reify themes of
Dogon cosmology. In writing of African towns, Hull (1976:45) suggests that “community
layouts mirrored the laws of nature and the forces of philosophic thought. So humane were
African towns and cities that they were regarded by their inhabitants as the concrete ex-
pression of their inner thoughts about man, nature and the cosmos.”
Anthropologists have therefore tended to take a static approach to space and its
sociocultural ramifications. In the literature, space is assumed to be “given” and ”out
there ” While space can reify a social and/or cosmological order, it i s nonetheless thought
to be a relatively static, immutable phenomenon.
This anthropological orientation to space has methodological consequences. If space i s
”out there,” then one must observe it using strictly inductive procedures. Accordingly, I
conducted a door-to-door census in a number of Songhay towns, and drew an extensive
map of field allotments. In studying these observed data, a pattern began to emerge sug-
gesting that the apportionment of space reified the Songhay social and symbolic order.
The source of this conceptual and methodological approach to space, I soon realized,
had deeper roots than structuralism, ethno-Marxism, or functionalism. As one critically
traces the history of (social) science back to i t s origins, he or she i s struck by the ongoing in-
fluence of post-Socratic Greek philosophy. Whitehead (1969:53) underscores this point
when he suggests that ”the safest general characterization of the European philosophical
tradition i s that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” Indeed, the post-Socratics,of
whom Plato was the first, attempted to abstract from the flux of experience, by deductive
(Plato) or inductive (Aristotle) means, a set of invariant principles which might explain
observable natural phenomena (see Clapp, Philipson, and Rosenthal 1964). This
epistemological tendency, which mirrored my own methodological and conceptual ap-
proach to Songhay space, means that knowledge becomes idealized and removed from ex-
perience.
Given the pervasive influence of the post-Socratics, it was not surprising to discover that
the static approach to the analysis of space had its source in the work of Aristotle (1961
[ca. 335 B.C.1:65-66), who defines space as topos, a motionless boundary that contains an en-
tity. To define the space of an entity, the analyst must relate it to a frame of reference-
another entity or entities. Topos, then, delimits various spatial units in a perceptual field, and

426 rmorlcrn othnologlrt

the study of space becomes elevated to a geometric exercise (Curwitsch 1978:80-81).Perhaps
one can say that the anthropological analysis of space in society has consisted of a series of
footnotes to Aristotle.

towards a phenomenological analysis of Songhay space

Tempels (1949) long ago suggested that if scholars wanted to understand the nuances of
“primitive” society they would have to cast aside their European [post-Socratic) scientific
dispositions and attempt to enter the world of the other from the other’s perspective. M y
eidetic descent to the level of post-Socratic Greek philosophy convinced me that Songhay
space was something other than the static reification of the social order, and that I could
no longer treat exceptions to the normative distribution of Songhay space as noise in a
theoretical system.
To attempt to understand space from a more Songhay perspective. I needed to adopt a
more phenomenological approach. From the phenomenological vantage, the scholar
“ought not to think like an external man, the psycho-physical subject who i s in time, in
space, or in society” (Merleau-Ponty 1964:47, emphasis in original). On the contrary, the
scholar should attempt, through the critical reflection of the epoche, to transform the
automatic conditioning of external stimuli into the conscious conditioning of a rational
thinking subject [Husserl 1960). Given critical eidetic observation, the scholar ceases to
think of data only as external objects of analysis, but rather as objects, the perception of
which i s linked dynamically to his or her consciousness. Using this practice, scholars
become aware of the philosophicocultural biases of their socialization, and attempt to
observe ethnographic reality from the perspective of the ethnographic other. Such has
been the conceptual-perceptual problem to be mastered by the Songhay ethnographer who
sees roads which intersect, while his informant see roads which end in forks.
In the phenomenological approach to spatial patterns, observers and/or social actors are
no longer in space, but constitute it through the dynamic actions of their consciousness.
For Merleau-Ponty (1962:243-244), space is a universal force used by the constituting mind.

Space i s not the setting (real or logical) in which things are arranged, but the means whereby the
positing of things becomes possible. This means that instead of imagining it as a sort of ether in
which all things float, or conceiving it abstractly as a characteristic they have in common, we must
think of it as the universal power enabling them to be connected.. . . Is it not true that we are faced
with the alternative either of perceiving things in space, or conceiving space as the indivisible
system governing acts of unification performed by the constituting mind?
If space is constituted by subjects living in their social worlds. what are i t s dynamic
sociological implications? Schutz (1962)would argue that the answer lies in the relationship
between space and a person’s “biographically determined situation.” For Schutz, a person’s
apprehension of space-and i t s sociocultural implications-would be an outgrowth of his
or her ”biographically determined situation” in space-time, Put another way, the apprehen-
sion of space and the determination of i t s social meaning depends directly upon a person’s
potentially alterable position in the social world. Therefore, there can be, according to
Schutz, “multiple realities” of space.
This “multiple realities” approach in which space is constituted, rather than “given,”
placed the spatial exceptions I had uncovered into a meaningful context. If space could be
a conceptual tool with important political implications for the Songhay. then the people
who had moved their holdings into inappropriate areas might well have consciously con-
stituted space differently from the normative pattern-a politically competitive concep
tion of space.

negotlatlon of Songhay 8pace 427

 The “multiple realities” approach to space also allowed me to comprehend more clearly
the recent activities of the merchants of foreign origin. While the social influence of the
merchants had increased recently in Songhay country. I had previously believed that this
had had little impact upon the overall politicospatial situation. I began to reassess my ini-
tial position.
Before money was introduced as a medium of exchange in Songhay country, social,
economic and political concerns were intertwined in a web of patron-client relationships.
Former slaves and foreigners provided the nobles with skilled services; in return, the nobles
would pay them in kind. When money was introduced into the more rural regions of
Songhay country just 40 years ago, Songhay of foreign origin began to assert themselves in
the new commercial sector, a sector which was, and continues to be, denigrated by the
Songhay nobles.‘ Gradually, the merchants of foreign origin have gained control over the
flow of money in Songhay country, and have established for themselves large networks of
clients who now depend upon them for their livelihood. In contemporary times, the mer-
chants’ control of money seems almost complete, and the nobles are now in the embarrass-
ing position of having to borrow money from the wealthier merchants in order to maintain
their dwindling client networks and such symbolic requisites of office as lavish gift giving.
The overall impact of the money economy seems to have altered the “biographically
determined situation” of the Songhay merchants and the younger descendants of slaves.
Given the increasing importance of money, the merchants, despite their inability to claim
the sacred genealogy of the nobles, seem to be asserting their changing sociopolitical
status by constituting space in a manner different from that of the nobles. While not all the
merchants of Songhay communities are politically active, those who are younger (ages 35
to 40) and of foreign origin (especially Hausas who have migrated recently into Songhay
country from the eastern and central regions of Niger) appear to constitute space as a
powerful political force. Using this concept of space, the politically active merchants, the
very people responsible for the spatial exceptions, are attempting to rearrange the allot-
ment of Songhay fields and compounds to disrupt the intricate and delicate web of themes
which have in the past legitimized the rule of the Songhay nobles.
There i s not, therefore, one static perception of Songhay space as the reification of the
social order, but two coexisting conceptions of Songhay space, both of which have been
constituted and then objectified. If one i s a Songhay noble, he or she, regardless of age.
continues to conceive of space as the reification of the precolonial social order. The
“biographically determined situation” of the nobles blinds them, as theories often blind an-
thropologists, from seeing otherwise. The strategic actions of the politically active mer-
chants to rearrange space are viewed by the nobles as ludicrous activity. In responding to a
question about this phenomenon, one noble said: Lomba tondi a si boro tey iaana. (A person
cannot change a lomba stone into a jaanah.) While the lomba stone and the jaanah, a small
marine animal, are both found in the Niger River and resemble one another, there i s
nothing a person can do to change this stone into a living object. Just as one cannot tamper
with the predetermined natural order of things, according to the noble view, one cannot
alter the predestined social order of life in which only the nobles have the predisposition to
govern. A similar view i s held by older people who are either of foreign origin or descen-
dants of slaves. They, too, continue to constitute space as the reification of the precolonial
order of bankwano.
For those Songhay foreigners and former slaves under 40 years of age, all of whom were
born after the introduction of money into the Songhay economy, the actions of the
politically active merchants have had a profound social impact. These younger people not
only perceive the changes taking place in Songhay spatial apportionment, but are begin-
ning to participate themselves in ongoing sociopolitical changes. In precolonial and colonial

428 amerlcan ethnologlrt

times, younger (former) slaves and foreigners would have attached themselves as clients to
a noble family. Today, these younger people place themselves in the client networks of
wealthy merchants. This expansion of the merchants’ network of clients has enabled many
of them to expand their operations from the village to the regional level.
The merchants’ attempt t o rearrange space, according t o my informants, i s part of their
general challenge to the legitimacy of the Songhay nobles. Given the merchants’ concep-
tion of space as a dynamic political tool, the movement of their fields and compounds to
inappropriate areas is designed to transmit messages to the polity which asserts (1) that
space is not sacrosanct and immutable, but rather a negotiable entity, and (2) that despite
the fact that they cannot share in the sacredness of bankwano, the merchants have
nonetheless gained enough power to manage large networks of clients to their economic
and social advantage, and to attempt t o manipulate the nature of space itself
This attempt to rearrange Songhay space also corresponds to changes in the symbolic
behaviors of many of the politically active merchants and former slaves. They now carry
canes and often dress in white robes, as do the nobles. Their communicative behavior has.
become more indirect, preferring, as do the nobles, to use intermediaries to communicate
to other people or to conduct business. In short, they are using a variety of communicative
media to challenge the legitimacy of the nobles.

conclusions

It has been suggested that Songhay space is constituted rather than ”given” and ”out
there.” As a constituted conceptual force, space has been used politically by both the
Songhay nobles and the politically active merchants. For the nobles, space has been con-
stituted and objectified to reinforce the collective belief that only the nobles have the
predisposition to govern. For the merchants, space has been constituted and partially ob-
jectified to challenge the political and social exclusivity of the nobles.
While the politically active merchant has not yet replaced the bankwano as the political
leader of the rural areas of Songhay country in the Republic of Niger, his conscious tamper-
ing with Songhay spatial patterns is partly responsible for his increasing sociopolitical in-
fluence among younger, former slaves and younger Songhay of foreign origin. There i s little
doubt that the merchants would like to invert the existing social order and trade places
with the Songhay nobles. Perhaps they plan to constitute and objectify a new spatial order
which would reinforce newly established themes of political legitimacy based upon
economic rather than genealogical criteria.
It could be argued that the merchants do not conceive space as a dynamic conceptual
force, but rather as a static reification of the social order. Do they not want to establish a
new static spatial order which i s advantageous to their political interests?The point of my
analysis has not been to deny the very real political aspirations of the Songhay merchants,
but rather to underscore the fact that they know how to constitute space to their political
advantage. Space becomes, therefore, a force which the merchant can constitute in his at-
tempt to reverse the social order. The merchants have already created an alternative con-
ception of Songhay space; and their ultimate political success may be achieved when the
Songhay polity accepts the sociopolitical consequences of such an alternative conception.
Indeed, one cannot tamper with space if he or she perceives it passively as a static, im-
mutable phenomenon.
My eidetic quest for a valid and reliable description of Songhay space, from a more
Songhay-like perspective, has also been a critical examination of the anthropological
enterprise, the epistemology of which derives in large part from post-Socratic Greek

negotlatlon 01 Songhay space 429

philosophy. Noncritical adoption of the methodologies and theoretical assumptions of
social science can, as it did in my own case, blind the anthropologist to many of the
realities of the field situation. One solution to this pervasive epistemological problem, at
least for the study of symbolic space in society, is for the anthropologist to engage in the
eidetic observation of phenomenological analysis. Phenomenological analysts engaged i n
ethnographic research will not be able to see exactly what the ethnographic other sees, but
they will be able to produce analyses that correspond more closely to the experience of the
ethnographic other. Critical, phenomenological analysis can help anthropologists over-
come the blindness that can result from their post-Socratic dispositions, so that they are
able to see forks as well as intersections along the road.

Acknowledgments. The research upon which the present paper is based was conducted in the sub-
prefecture of Tera in the Republic of Niger from August 1976 to August 1977 The research was made
possible by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship (GOO-76436591 and by a
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Grant-in-Aid. I thank both institutions for their
generous support. I would also like to thank S. E. Colonel Seyni Kountche, president of the Republic of
Niger, for granting me an authorization to conduct ethnographic research in Niger.
An earlier version of this paper was read at the 77th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological
Association held in Los Angeles, California, November 14-18, 1978. I thank Robert Fernea, Cheryl
Olkes and the anonymous reviewers of this journal for their comments on other drafts of this paper

' Bankwano can also be realized as bankano or bankwoni, depending upon the dialect of the
Songhay language.
Lakkal and fula, like bankwano, are polysemic lexemes. In addition to referring to the "wisdom of
governance," lakkal can refer to "awareness." "intelligence," and/or "personal experience." Likewise,
fula, besides referring to the "hat of inner strength and determination," can also signify a simple hat
I found the same spatial pattern in all the Songhay towns I visited during my stay in Songhay
country.
' The Songhay nobles continue to believe that it is beneath their dignity to engage directly in com-
mercial activities, activities that in the past had been allocated to slaves or people in other stigmatized
social categories

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Submitted 15 March 1979

Received by current editor 15 April 1979
Revised version received 29 February 1980
Accepted 12 March 1980
Final revisions received 28 April 1980

negotiation of Songhay space 431