Today, I went to see "Tierno Bokar"
, a play by a French production. It was the play adapted from the non fiction written by Amadou Hampate Ba, "Vie et enseignement de Tierno Bokar", which tells an extraordinair life of Tierno Bokar, a master of Sufi
that is a branch of Islam, who lived in Mali when France was colonizing Africa. Honestly, it was the best play I have ever seen in my life! For the first time, for the theatre play, I clapped my hands until the end of the third curtain call because of my urge to do so, not because of my habitual politeness. I praised actors, music (one of two players was Japanese!),
and message the play had. Above all, I liked the pleast atmosphere, the play created. What I often dislike in theatre play is eagerness of actors to make audiences understand by continuous shouting and stupid jokes. In this play, actors rarely shouted, and jokes were always simple. It was the art of my kind.
Story
As long as I understood, the story is about the high spirit existed in Africa since before the arrival of French comandants.
Tierno Bokar was one of the spiritual leaders, who could bring peace of mind to followers in their village.
Amadou Hapate Ba, the original writer of the story, was the enthusiastic student of Tierno Bokar. Because of him, the words of Tierno Bokar could survive to this day, despite of the fact that teachings were aural, and never literated by Tierno Bokar himself. Difficulty in life of Tierno Bokar begun when a young man called
Cherif Hamallah appears as the leader of the time. Bokar and Hamallah had one difference in their teaching. While Bokar taught that they should pray twelve times, Hamallah taught that they should pray eleven times. As the influence of Hamallah rises, followers of Bokar started to be trembled between two teachings: twelve times or eleven times. Bokar finally decides to visit Hamallah to ask questions about difference in their rituals. They exchanged dialogues, and Bokar was convinced that the prayer is to be eleven times. He was renewed his authority by the hand of Hamallah. However, it led him to the solitude from his followers, largely because of the political act taken by those who are against changing the ritual. At the end, he died in poverty.
Probably because I am too preoccupied by the issue of intellectual at the moment, to me, it seemed that the life of Tierno Bokar overlaps with the life of intellectual. He provides his truth as a segment of the whole truth. He is not afraid of criticising himself. He can change his view if convinced to another. However, what Steve Fuller does not really mention in his book "Intellectual" or his aural teachings is that he can die in solitude as the consequence of being truthful to his thought. Is it too bad, for it is him who lost in his political game? Of course, Fuller says that intellectual should never risk his life (both physical and social life) for his opinion. But is it really possible? To do this, perhaps the intellectual should have a double life. Oh yes, Tierno Bokar had two wives,so, he was not in the complete solitude!
Besides, it is impossible to know the truth of life, just as it is impossible to know what God is.
"Qu'est-ce que Dieu?" (What is God?)
"Dieu est la confusion de le esprit du humain." (God is the confusion of human mind)
In confusion, we still try to seek for the truth. But to obtain the truth, we need others, because what each of us see as the truth is only a segment of the whole truth.
"Il y a troi verites; ma verite, ta verite, et la verite".
(There are three kinds of truth: my truth, your truth and the truth.)
