“Hale!” “Halele!”
In the days when the sultanates of Ngazidja were at war with one another, a town's honour was measured by the courage of its men. In Ikoni, the old capital of Bambao, epic songs bring two names back to life: Hammadi wa Bako and Djumbamba.
One day, so the story goes, a great coalition of sultanates marched against Bambao. The brave men of Ikoni went out to meet it and found it at Tsidjé, at the gates of Moroni. The enemy was far more numerous. The elders advised retreat: they would fight another day.
Hammadi wa Bako and Djumbamba refused. To retreat, they said, would be to sully the name of their lineage, and the shame would last longer than life. They stayed with their companions and fought a last battle, before the eyes of their enemies.
The story does not say that they won the battle. It says that they did not flee. And that is why, in Ikoni, when the warriors of old are sung, their names come back: not as those of victors, but as those of men who chose honour over life.
What we know about it
This story belongs to the epic tradition of Grande Comore, that of the rival sultanates that fought over the island until the end of the 19th century and whose wars inspired songs celebrating courage and honour. The honour of a family and of a town is still a central value on Ngazidja today.
The names of Hammadi wa Bako and Djumbamba, and the battle of Tsidjé, were reported to us as coming from this tradition, to be compared with Moussa Saïd Ahmed's work on the warriors and poets of oral literature. We have not been able to verify them in accessible sources: neither the date nor the course of the battle is established, and the story is given with reservations. Read also: The women of Iconi.
Further reading
- Voices of the archipelago Moussa Saïd Ahmed, Guerriers, princes et poètes aux Comores dans la littérature orale. L'Harmattan, Archipel des Comores series.
- Voices of the archipelago Sultan Chouzour, Le pouvoir de l'honneur. Tradition et contestation en Grande Comore, 1994. L'Harmattan.
- Outside view Jean Martin, Comores : quatre îles entre pirates et planteurs (2 tomes), 1983 – 1984. L'Harmattan.