“Hale!” “Halele!”
In the Hambuu region, west of the village of Singani, lie fields called Mwarangoma. In the past, the inhabitants say, peasants coming home late would hear the sound of drums rising from these fields: festive rhythms, songs, hand-clapping. Yet there was no one there.
The elders explained that the place was the public square, the bangwe, of the djinns. It was there that, in the presence of their chief, they gathered for their ceremonies and dances, just as people do on the village square. The place is said to take its name from these ghostly drums.
Even today, people come to Mwarangoma from all over the archipelago, especially before the end of Ramadan. They ask for protection against misfortune, for a marriage to be blessed or for the birth of a child.
What we know about it
The tale associates a specific place with the social life of the djinns, organised like that of humans: a chief, a public square, festivals. This is a common feature of Comorian beliefs, in which the invisible world mirrors the visible one. These sites are the object of discreet pilgrimages, which Comorian journalists and researchers have documented.
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.