#bida

Our second dragon is Bida from the mythology of the Soninke people of West Africa. According to the legend, the people of Wagadu sacrificed ten girls to it every year. In exchange, the snake made Gold rain from the sky.

One year, they decided to sacrifice a girl called Sia, the most beautiful girl among the Soninke. But her lover, Mamadi, didn't want to lose her and decided to kill Bida. He sharpened his sword until it could cut a grain of millet and followed the procession to Bidas well.

Every time the snake got its sacrifice, it came out of the well three times, before it grabbed the girl. But this time, when it came out the third time, Mamadi chopped off its head with one blow. While falling, the head cursed Wagadu to remain without its rain of gold for seven years, seven months and seven days.

When they heard the curse, the people of Wagadu became angry with Mamadi. He quickly snatched Sia and rode away with her to Sama-Markala, where his mother lived. They sent his uncle Wagana Sako, who had the fastest horse in town, after him, but Mamadis mother owned another horse that was nearly as fast. Three times Wagana Sako caught up to Mamadi before he could reach Sama-Markala, and all three times, he decided to spare his nephew and lied to the people about having missed him.

Mamadi and Sia didn't get a happy end, but that's a story for another day.

I think it's interesting that this one has a similar structure to other tales of the St. George type, but instead of celebrating the hero, the people try to kill him because the dragon, while demanding sacrifice, also brought wealth to the town. The reason for this is probably the fact that pythons are seen as symbol of prosperity in Soninke culture.

Sources:

3. Der Kampf mit dem Bida-Drachen in Leo Frobenius (1921), Spielmanns-geschichten der Sahel, Diederichs, pp. 64-72

David C. Conrad, Humphrey J. Fisher (1983), The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. II. The Local Oral Sources*, History in Africa , Volume 10 , pp. 53-78, https://doi.org/10.2307/3171690, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171690

S.A. Minton Jr., M.R. Minton (1973), Giant Reptiles, scribners, ISBN 9780684132679

This orature legend of the birth of the Soninke bardic art chronicles the fall of Wagadou, the Soninke/Mande empire more popularly known as Ghana (not present day Ghana the country, which is named after this historical Mauritanian-Senegalese-Malian region empire).

Follow Gassire the warrior prince, who turns away from nobility to become his people's first diari (griot: bard).

Here is a song named for the Soninke

https://open.spotify.com/track/55YdtD6BbmJ7NsDW4Z1Dpo?si=2Ogi-U2QQkuHoSZef_-PXw

Wagadou rose between the 1st-3rd century and fell in the 13th century, after being conquered by Sosso and submitting to the later Malian empire. Wagadou was preceded by Dhar Tichitt (1600 BC) and Djenne-Djenno, the ruins of which can be seen today. It was followed by Mali and Songhay, 2 of the most powerful kingdoms in the old Sahel.

Ghana means "warrior chief," and Wagadou (the Soninke name) could be named for the Wague (name for the nobility of the region) or named after the Soninke goddess. Legend says that when the 2 sons of the Kaya Maghan (king of gold, 800 Dinga Cisse, princes Khine and Dyabe fought over who should take the throne. Khine was victorious, continuing the Cisse Tounkara dynasty. However, Dyabe in humiliation, made a deal with the seven headed snake Bida, who promised victory over his brother in exchange for sacrificing a beautiful virgin every year. It was believed that the prosperity and gold that granted that prosperity was a result of these sacrifices, and so they continued until the brave fiance Maadi of the beauty Sia Yatabere was the first to rebel, slaying the snake and cutting its heads. Bida cursed Wagadu to drought and ruin, and sure enough, Wagadou fell, and the Soninke had to migrate southwards to find fertile land.

The now rare film Sia, Le Réve du Python, is based on this legend.

The capital of Ghana/Wagadou is believed to be Koumbi-Saleh. Here is an ambient instrumental piece paying homage to this ancient city:

https://open.spotify.com/track/4SRL7gOHRxrSb4TyvrBnvq?si=sNF5NePgQYqGOIsCbsdSCg

Vintage video of Soninke girls singing and flute player

https://youtu.be/bQm2aIVHakw?si=Rf3oYrcOsGnEAXTS

Soninke traditional drum dance

https://youtu.be/8FmiE_kdda0?si=7PQPVdYE0gNAJ4et

Behold, my lesbians. Bida (blue) and Susurri (yellow) now have proper Cyber City forms! They are both Magic Cookie programs, and ran away to Cyber City to join the circus Illustrious Illusion Brightstart (dark blue), stage magician extraordinaire, as his assistants. Bida is an aerial acrobat (her programming lets her mess with her personal gravity), while Susurri provides lights and special effects with the flick of a wrist! Bida also has a specially-made stage prosthetic that lights up with the music used during the show!

The first pic is a bit wonky pose-wise, but Illusion is 7'6" without his hat so...yeah. It's giving me great practice with working on height differences! (He is technically a magic program, not a magic cookie, meaning he is very powerful, but he doesn't want the work that comes with that so he passes himself off as a strangely-tall magic cookie so he can just have fun with magic). They've made friends with the unfortunate Mason (owned by the lovely @rosy_matchmaker), who works with Arc at the library, and are trying to help him make friends and succeed in his love life.