FARO

Water, speech, order

In the cosmogonic narratives collected in Mali by French ethnographers, Faro intervenes after the initial creation, when the work of Pemba and the wanderings of Musokoroni have introduced disorder and death. Descending from the sky with the rainwater, he purifies the earth, classifies beings and things, sets the prohibitions and reveals articulate speech to humans, of which he remains the master. Androgynous, often figured as a being half human, half aquatic, he dwells in the fresh waters and is identified with the Niger River, whose course traces his mythic body: his head rests at Lake Débo, his right arm forms the Bani River. Guarantor of the fecundity of fields and births alike, he sends the beneficent rain from the seventh heaven and watches over the floods that regenerate the land each year. His cult unfolds in sanctuaries established along the river, the faro tyn, where communities leave offerings and libations before fishing, navigation or sowing. At Kangaba, the sanctuary of the Kamabolon, ritually restored every seven years, preserves wall paintings that symbolically transcribe the essential beings and elements of the world. Twins and certain aquatic species are ritually associated with him, signs of his double nature and of his sovereignty over the waters.