“Hale!” “Halele!”
A very long time ago, before Islam came to Ndzuwani, families settled in the north-east of the island, on a fertile plain that sloped down to the sea. They called the place Basra. It is the town known today as Ouani.
But the families soon realised that something was wrong: one misfortune followed another. Worried, they went to consult a mwalimu, a learned man who knew hidden things. He listened to them for a long time, then he said: “You have built your houses on land that belongs to the djinns. They were here before you, and you did not ask their permission.”
This offence had to be put right. Two men were chosen to speak on behalf of the humans: Mwé Beja Trandri and Mwé Combo Sele. They went to find the invisible masters of the place and negotiated with them. A pact was made: the djinns agreed that the families could stay in Basra; in exchange, every three years, the humans would hold a great festival at which the two communities would dance and eat together, in joy.
And so the nkoma was born. During the festival, people play with koma, coconuts so young that their kernel has not yet formed, which are used as balls. And as long as the festival is celebrated, it is said, the peace between the two peoples of Ouani holds.
You do not settle in someone else's home without asking: a promise made to the first occupants must be kept.
What we know about it
The nkoma is an agrarian festival celebrated every three years in Ouani, in north-east Anjouan. Its name comes from the word koma, a coconut whose kernel has not yet formed. According to oral tradition, it was instituted by the town's two founding families, the Bejani and the Komboni, to honour the contract made with the djinns, the first inhabitants of the place. People also ask the ancestors to protect the children and to grant good harvests.
Described as early as 1960 by J.-C. Hébert, then studied by the Comorian historian Abderemane Bourhane among the pre-Islamic rites of Anjouan, the festival is now in danger of disappearing. Read also: Malé, the village of the djinns, a related tradition on Grande Comore.
Further reading
- Voices of the archipelago Abderemane Bourhane, Les rites pré-islamiques à Anjouan. Contribution à une étude culturelle des Comores, 2017. doctoral thesis, Inalco.
- Voices of the archipelago Masiwa (revue comorienne), Le nkoma, une tradition en voie de disparition.
- Outside view J.-C. Hébert, Fêtes agraires dans l'île d'Anjouan (archipel des Comores), 1960. Journal de la Société des africanistes, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 101–116.