Professions and specialties. The history of the profession - blacksmith The art of blacksmithing. Benefits of the Blacksmith Profession

Young blacksmith, often converted to Islam, trained modern technicians, can quickly become rich and powerful, especially in most Islamic neighborhoods or villages. He sells plows and spare parts where he makes them, and in all Technique makes him indispensable to farmers, and thanks to money he is freed from all dependence on them: he buys his millet and buys his wife, paying his dowry.

In the past, real blacksmiths21 were engaged in the extraction and smelting of iron ore, which was abundant in the region. The first European observers reported the presence of small, near the richest deposits. According to Heron, 24 were important deposits in Kamun, Negil, Nampossel, Kani, Dun and Kaledugu.

Kamian writes: Before the colonial period and even before last war there was a small laterite mining industry in the vicinity of the Banifing Marigot, a tributary of the Bani, in a minyanke. This exploitation of iron ceased after the war before the competition of European iron produced and sold at better prices.

The villages of Minyanki are also home to older blacksmiths who participated in or attended the mining and casting of the ore. The traditional blast furnace is a brick tower 2 m 50 high, with a base about 2 m in diameter and an opening at the top one meter in diameter. The project was provided with earth nozzles. At the bottom of the hole, the flow of molten iron and the removal of slag were allowed. The kind of sloping plan made it possible to reach over the furnace.

According to Commander Piqué, "The method used is similar to the Catalan method used in the Pyrenees." Coal fire burns from below. Blacksmiths load the furnace from above, followed by layers of ore and charcoal. The slag is removed by hooks through holes in the base. The iron flows into the form of the earth in the form of a tube. We break it with a special axe. Minyanka knew the technique of quenching, and now mining and smelting are completely gone. Blacksmiths work from scrap metal from imported manufactured goods.

The forge is a small mud box. The bellows consists of two piercing ceramic products built into a mound of earth and covered with goatskin. A pipe with forked wood is attached to the holes of this pottery. The stem of the fork ends at the hearth of charcoal. The blacksmith's apprentice alternately activates the skin and creates breath to keep the fireplace going. In the past, an anvil was made of stone and an iron piece was used as a hammer. You had to be at least three to fake.

After the prohibition of the port by the colonial authorities and the possession of weapons, blacksmiths practically stopped producing them. They used to make bows and arrows, axes, knives, spears, sabers. They also made milking implements. Saddles and stirrups for horses, chains and bracelets of slaves were also products of the traditional forge. We will also add hunting traps and fishing harpoons.

Musical instruments and metal parts of religious altars. Tools, mostly various hoes: tasugu - draw the ground like this, yemulugu - plant like that, tuccio and tuuro weeds. Other most common tools are adepts for woodworking27, sickle, knives. T. repair modern agricultural implements such as ploughs, multi-crop and harnessed hoes. Blacksmiths are not the only woodworkers. In some villages there are Kule families who are lumberjacks and carpenters.

This is one of the families that founded the current city of Kutiyala. Kule are mainly distributed in the north of the Miniyanka country on both sides of the Bani. According to Minyanka, they would have come from the country of Bambara, but their origin is obscure and shrouded in mystery. Guisse, they would be "desecrated because they practice incest." Undoubtedly, they are considered unclean. In the Minyanki countries, they mainly specialize in the manufacture and repair of Kalash; they only work in wood if there is no blacksmith in the village.

Elements of cosmology related to the blacksmith

The social roles of the blacksmith and the customs that pertain to the forge are illuminated by the study of minyanki cosmology. The forge theme takes center stage. The information presented here is the result of the first level of knowledge: in Minyanka, as in many societies in West Africa, access to knowledge passes through different stages.

The universe was created by a single God, Kle, from the original vibration. 30 The first man created was a blacksmith. "the first son of the world." According to some mythical stories, 31 his head first appeared, coming out of the ground, and the eagle recommended to all animals to kill this new creature. The animals refused to rip out the heads of the blacksmith's ancestor. The last one went completely off the ground. He held in his hand a bar of the same metal. It was hit him with a stone that he set the bush on fire to clear it before cultivating it.

In another version, the first blacksmith held a hoe in his left hand, and in the other, an iron bar, and striking one against the other, he made fire. Many animals died in the fire, and the survivors regretted that they did not listen to the advice of the eagle, and did not kill the first person.

The latter did not yet know all the secrets of the forge. It was a flaming stone that crossed the sky and fell into a bush, its first owner was a vulture, which bears the same name as the anvil: tumpunnnno. The vulture, one of the most important mythical figures, is the eldest of all animals, and its skull is a symbol of seniority and wisdom, whether in older or younger children. closely associated with knowledge and knowledge of secrets, especially those associated with the forge. This connection established between the forge and the vulture must also take place in the country of Bambara, in Baninko and Bendugu.

In his travel journal, Michel Leiris talks about a visit to the Bla area between Koutiala and Segou: September 6, work in Bla with the blacksmiths. A huge group of forges forming a common workshop. The symbolic figure of the vulture, the first owner of the anvil, is present in all initiatory societies: Kogo, Nya or Wara, Sandongo or Santungu, Manyan.

Beings and things must contain powers that can be freed from their material support, nyama, beneficiary or evil. External or internal influences can introduce imbalance into the human personality and threaten its integrity. The inner face can lead to death. The blacksmith has a very stable nyama that cannot be easily "mixed"; That is why he alone can perform certain rites. He is, for example, responsible for digging graves because he is able to withstand the sometimes dangerous nyam of the dead and because he has a privileged relationship with Chthonic forces.