Resumé of the Senegambian World View

A summary of Peace is Everything: World View of Muslims in the Senegambia by David Maranz 1993 (International Museum of Cultures Publications, No 28) as found in Appendix 4 of the same book.

A summary formulation of all Senegambian world view themes is given below:

The universe is one unit. All created and uncreated beings, forces, and objects are part of that living, functioning, interdependent unit All these beings, forces, and objects have established purposes and roles they are destined to fill.

Man exists as part of the universe. For him to realize his destiny and live a full life he must properly relate to the other elements of the universe, thus filling his prescribed role. Man's well-being is tied to his fulfillment of this destiny.

Man is in essence a spiritual being. That is, the universe is above all a spiritual unity, and man's nature is to be in communion and harmony with its component parts. African man seeks spiritual knowledge and spiritual sentiments as the highest values.

Transcendent peace is the highest value and state that man can achieve. It comes from a proper balance being established in relationships:

It is achieved through paying due respect to transempirical beings, living a moral life, living in harmonious community with fellow man, and living in appreciation of nature.

Man has been assigned a central role in the established cosmic order He is the ceremonial center, and his actions can cause imbalance or serve to initiate the reestablishment of balance. Man's destiny is to live in symbiosis with all the cosmic order.

Black-African man longs for balance, participation goodness, happiness, and fulfillment, by fulfilling his ascribed role and by knowing he is accepted by his so as a worthy participant by his society and also by the wider, world society.

When the established order is out of balance, as it is now and has been since the arrival of Arab and European peoples and especially of Western secular values, there is a profound sense of imbalance. misunderstanding, injustice, and lostness.

A deep sense of confusion of values, a serious loss of identity and self-esteem, and a certain crippling social and personal dysfunction may be the final result of the imbalance that now prevails.

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