The Adulterous Devil Dancer: the History of Bouan Houe

This history was related to me (through animated translation from Yakouba to French, filled in with English) by the village sage of Bouan Houe (and representatives from the community) on May 8, 2013.

Bouan Houe, a village of 1000 or so people, is located at the base of Mt. Nimba in Cote d’Ivoire. Bouan Houe is, and always has been, part of a larger area known locally as the Sekoume. The king of Bouan Houe rules over all of the Sekoume. The king is the keeper of sacred items that have been passed down from king to king. The king alone inherits these sacred belongings, and he alone can use them. These items are collectively referred to as the Sekoume. One of the sacred items in the Sakoume is a sacred chair. Once the king sits in this sacred chair, he becomes the king, and he too is called Sekoume. In fact, everything associated with the king is called Sekoume. In Yakouba, the language of the Yakouba people who inhabit this region, Sekoume stems from the words “se” meaning earth, and “koume” meaning boundary.

The Sekoume is surrounded by dense tropical rainforest, the rainiest forest in the world, and is inhabited by a dancing devil. This mischievous masked devil primarily makes his appearances during ceremonial feasting periods. The devil dancer is the head of the feast, and he makes his rounds of the Sekoume in the mornings, demanding homage and tributes from the people. Everybody must obey his demands, because you cannot disobey the orders of an idol… it would bring bad luck. Even today this is true. The devil dancer is under the spell of the devil, and everybody must obey him.

Today the Sekoume is tranquil, and the village of Bouan Houe is a peaceful village, but it was not always peaceful...  And Bouan Houe was not always located where it is located today. The story of Bouan Houe’s migration is wrapped up with the story of its unrest, much of which was caused by the sekoume’s dancing devil. Following is the story of this displacement, which relates how the Bouan Houe of today came to be.

Long ago, before the period of French colonialism, the village of Bouan Houe was located in a place called Neun-Leun, deep in the heart of a dense tropical forest. The people hunted and gathered things from the forest. They also cultivated tree plantations within the forest, so that they could produce an abundance of the forest products they found most valuable... they cultivated things like Kola nuts, which were exchanged as treasured gifts. From the site of Neun-Leun, the people of present day Bouan Houe moved to the top of a mountain that they called Bouan. They on top of the mountain Bouan for a while, before moving to a new mountain, which they called Gane. On the mountain of Gane the people formed a new settlement which they called Ganetu. The village of Ganetu, on the mountain of Gane, was partially ruled by a family composed of six brothers. The oldest of these six brothers was the most powerful brother, and he was named Bwoah. He lived during the period of colonization.

The story begins as Bwoah discovers that his wife has been adulterous. After discovering that his wife had been violated by none other than the dancing devil, Bwoah became furious. He could not even stand to look at the symbols associated with the devil without becoming enraged. So he sat and thought about how he could exact vengeance upon the devil. Bwoah deliberated for a long time. He thought very carefully about what he could do that would cause the most disruption. His first idea was to split the village apart, and to disperse the people far and wide, which would make it difficult for the devil to collect his tributes. To accomplish this dispersal, Bwoah left the village of Ganetu, knowing that his supporters would follow him, and they did. Other people did not agree with the adultery that had happened, but feared the devil, and were unsure if they should follow Bwoah, so instead they simply left Ganetu for other villages. This is why even today you can find people spread throughout the Mt. Nimba region who share customs and taboos with the people of Bouan Houe. For example, many people do not eat Bush Yam. These people share a history with the people of Bouan Houe, and they all come from the same place. Were it not for this displacement, they would still be united as one people.

To continue with the story: as the residents of Ganetu fled to villages across the mountain, they travelled into what is present day Liberia or Guinee, but Bwoah and his family made their way to the base of Mt. Nimba in present day Cote d’Ivoire. At first Bwoah intended to settle on the top of the mountain, but he did not make it to the top. Instead he settled at the base of the mountain, at a place which is known as Bwoah’s resting place.

All this movement did not deter the dancing devil. In fact, at the next ceremony, the devil and his entourage danced all the way to Bwoah’s resting place to demand a tribute from residents living there. Bwoah, hearing of the devil’s movement, was furious. He consulted with his brother and with his father, and decided not to flee, but to lay in wait for this adulterous devil. As he waited, Bwoah prepared a lance, which he painted red, the color of blood. Soon the Devil and his entourage arrived at Bwoah’s resting place. When they knocked at his door, Bwoah calmly answered. The Devil demanded kola nuts. Bwoah told the devil that he did not have any kola nuts, but that he had a sheep to give to him instead. “It is a delicious sheep. Wait here while I go and get it” said Bwoah. He then closed his door, which was made of bamboo. The devil, anticipating a delicious meal, sat down, cross legged, to wait. Behind the door, Bwoah prepared his lance. As the devil sat cross-legged  waiting for le mutton, Bwoah suddenly opened the bamboo door and threw the spear into his face, instantly killing him. Immediatement!

Members of the devil’s entourage were stunned. Such a thing had never happened before. Unsure of how to respond, they took the head of the devil, and ran into the forest where they began to spread word of what Bwoah had done. Bwoah had sacrilegiously killed an idol. They repeated their tragedy to any sympathizers they could find, and word spread all over the mountain. Meanwhile, residents of Bwoah’s resting place began to fear that their village was no longer a safe place. What kind of fate would befall a village in which an idol had been killed? Surely bad luck would be coming. Rather than risk this bad luck, residents began to pack their things and leave. Many residents of Bwoah’s resting place relocated to what is present day Bouan Houe. Bwoah and his family stayed behind, but tensions rose, and over the next 4-5 years, word continued to spread.  During these years, there was no devil, and no feasting ceremonies, as the devil dancer had been slain. This caused great unrest among the Sekoume. As unrest grew, more and more people left Bwoah’s resting place for other villages, including Bouan Houe.

Eventually, word of the tension spread all the way to Liberia, where Boh Boh, a nephew of the founders of Bouan Houe, was living. Hearing of the unrest, he decided to make the journey to Bouan Houe, to help ameliorate the situation. Under the advisement of Boh Boh, the villages of Bouan Houe and Bwoah’s resting place decided to resurrect the devil. They did this by revealing the identity of the slain devil dancer, putting him to rest, and selecting a new devil dancer. The new devil dancer took the clothes, tools, and symbols of the original dancer. The resurrected devil was revealed to the greater Sekoume at a grand ceremony. Once the grand ceremony had happened, the devil began to exact tributes from the people.

Of the villages that had gathered for the grand ceremony, conversations ensued. Some resisted this new devil, and still blamed the people of Bouan Houe and Bwoah’s resting place for killing the original devil dancer. The people of Bouan Houe responded by explaining that they had, in fact, not killed the devil, because the devil had been resurrected in the flesh and blood. If the devil had truly been killed, this would not be possible, the devil would still be dead. But everybody could see that the devil had been resurrected, and was once again making his rounds in the Sekoume. The people from the village of Wooreh were not satisfied with this explanation, and were not in agreement that they should pay tributes to this new devil dancer. They informed the people of Bouan Houe and Bwoah’s resting place that they had, in fact, killed the devil, and in doing so disrespected the traditions of the Sekoume. They then returned to Wooreh to prepare a vengeance against Bowah's resting place and Bouan Houe, who they held responsible for the killing.

The people of Wooreh exacted their vengeance by preparing an elaborate yellow boubou (a traditional muslim robe), in which surreptitiously put Lepe, a local poison that causes leprosy. After soaking the roaps in lepe, a delegation of people from Wooreh carried these yellow robes to the king of Bouan Houe, who they found working outside of the village in his fields. The king asked for their mission, and the emissaries from Wooreh explained that they had come to greet him, and presented him with the yellow robes as a tribute. The king seemed pleased, seeing this, the Wooreh delegation asked him to wear the robes back into the village, as a sign of friendship. So the king donned the vibrant yellow robes, and they set out together for Bouan Houe. By the time they arrived at the village, the Wooreh vengeance seekers felt confident that the poison had been absorbed, so they fled, lest they be discovered.

Within the day, the people of Bouan Houe realized that a disease was attacking the flesh of their king, and that he had leprosy. They soon connected this disease to the yellow robes he had been given by the delegation from Wooreh. But it was too late. The king died, and to this day it is still considered disrespectful to wear yellow clothes when meeting the king. 

After the king died, word spread through the mountain passes, all the way to Nio, Guinee. The people of the Sekoume, and all throughout Mt. Nimba, waited to see what would happen. But soon it became evident that the trouble had passed. It seemed that the killing of the king, who had been king when the dancing devil was killed, appeased the people of Wooreh who were upset that he had allowed the devil dancer to be killed. Because the people of Bouan Houe and Bwoah's resting place had already killed the devil dancer, there was no more need for vengeance, as vengeance had been had on all sides. Instead, a peace ensued, and the new devil dancer continued to head festivals. In this new period of peace, the people of the Sekoume finally felt that they could travel freely, for the first time since the adulterous devil had violated Bwoah's wife. So people began to move around, and settle where they wished. In particular, the people from Bwoah’s resting place left to rejoined their people, now living at Bouan Houe. And so finally the two villages were once again reunited. And that is the history of how Bouan Houe came to be.

(If you are wondering, occasionally the devil dancer still makes an appearance, but he is relegated mostly to the sacred forest. Also, the words in French for poison "le poison" and fish "le poisson" are very similar, and created a lot of confusion, but amusement for all when the confusion was discovered.)