“Hale!” “Halele!”
Long before humans settled in the south of Ngazidja, say the elders of Mbadjini, the land of Malé belonged to the djinns. They had their houses there, their invisible fields and their chief, whose name is Mdjonga.
Some tell how they came to be there. In the time of King Souleymane, a djinn had dared to steal the king's ring. Pursued, he fled over the sea and came to hide at the end of the world, in Mbadjini, at Malé. Other djinns joined him, and the place became their kingdom.
When the first humans arrived, they did not make war on the masters of the place. They asked permission to settle, and the djinns granted it. Little by little, the two peoples learned to live side by side. Men married djinn women, djinns married women from the village, and children were born who belonged to both worlds at once.
From these unions, the families of Malé are said to have inherited knowledge that does not belong to ordinary people: reading the stars, knowing the favourable days, divining what is hidden. That is why, it is said, people come from far away to consult the soothsayers and astrologers of Malé.
Those who were here before us deserve respect: you settle in their home by asking permission.
What we know about it
Malé is an old village in Mbadjini, in the south of Grande Comore. Its inhabitants and Comorian journalists report this tradition: a village founded by djinns led by Mdjonga, couples made up of djinns and humans, and a society organised to allow the two worlds to coexist. Malé is known as a village of soothsayers and astrologers.
The tale echoes the myth of Souleymane's ring and shows how the invisible world is woven into the very organisation of society. Read also: The time of the djinns.
Further reading
- Voices of the archipelago Salim Hatubou, Contes et légendes des Comores ou Genèse d'un pays bantu, 2004. reissued as Aux origines du monde : contes et légendes des Comores, Flies France, 2015.
- Voices of the archipelago Ahmed Ali Mroimana et Mohamed Ahmed-Chamanga, Contes comoriens de Ngazidja. Au-delà des mers, 1999. L'Harmattan, Archipel des Comores series.