The Lion Hunters
by Jean Rouch
color, 68 min, 1964
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Footage for this film was collected over a seven year period during the 1950s and 1960s, among the Fulani herdsmen and Songhay villagers in the Savannah of northern Niger and Mali. The Songhay call this region "the bush which is farther than far the land of nowhere."
The Songhay were the dominant people of a formerly powerful kingdom, destroyed in the sixteenth century, that stretched along the Niger River from the edge of the Sahara to the rain forests in the south. The Songhay today are millet-farmers and are still considered to own the land, on which Fulani herdsmen have rights of pastorage. Songhay also own the land's game, including lions.
Lion-hunting is reserved by tradition to the Gao, a group of Songhay-speaking professional hunters, masters of the techniques and rituals of poison-making. The Gao also possess great knowledge of the bush, and are thought to have a special relationship with the spirits that inhabit its trees and waters. When lions raid Fulani cattle, the Fulani must request that Songhay chiefs send Gao hunters to their aid. The Songhay chiefs are paid by the Fulani in cattle. The Gao receive the lion's skin, skull, and other parts, including the heart which can command up to $1000 in coastal cities where it is used in medicine and ritual.
Lions generally kill only sick or injured cattle, but on occasion they will attack a healthy herd. The Gao are usually able to determine which lion is responsible, for they know the characteristics and habits of individual animals. In the film, for example, the hunters attempt to find "The American," so called because of its strength and cleverness. although lion-hunting is a test of manly courage, the Gao sing the praises not only of the hunters but also the hunted, following a kill. Once trapped and shot with poison arrows, the lion is commanded to die quickly, and to forgive the hunters. Its body is struck three times to liberate the animal's soul, so that it will not drive the hunters mad.
The film follows not only several hunts, including one in which an inexperienced Fulani is seriously wounded by a cornered lion, but also the technology of the hunt. Bows are cut from forest trees, metal arrow points are forged, and poison is made from the seeds of the "poison tree." This tree, also called the "mother of magic," is found in the bush some 300 miles south of the Gao homeland. Every four years the Gao hunters travel to this area, where they prepare the poison within a "magic circle." The seeds are boiled in water while spells are recited. Upon return to Gao country, traps are set with perfume bottles buried under piles of pebbles, for lions, the Gao explain, are like girls, adoring perfume.
The relationships between the Gao, other Songhay-speakers, and the Fulani herdsmen are intriguing. Perhaps, as Rouch suggests, the Gao serve as mediators between an ancient hunting way of life, with its spirits of the bush, and the life and gods of pastoralism and settled agriculture. One may also speculate on the economic, social, and political relationships that are sustained or even created through the lion hunt.
Additional Resources
Jean Rouch Tribute web site
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Conversations with Jean Rouch
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Jean Rouch and His Camera in the Heart of Africa
Jean Rouch - Premier Film, 1947-1991
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Les Maitres Fous (Mad Masters)
Rouch's Gang