"Kum Buba Yali Kum Buba Tambe, Ameen, Ameen, Ameen": Did Some Flying Africans Bow to Allah?

Black lady fell down on the ground
Come booba yalle, come booba tambee
Threw her body all around
Come konka yalle, come konka tambee

Solomon and Ryna Belali Shalut
Yaruba Medina Muhammet too.
Nestor Kalina Saraka cake.
Twenty-one children, the last one Jake!

—Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

Aunt Habiba's most popular tale, which she narrated on special occasions only, was about "The Woman With Wings," who could fly away from the courtyard whenever she wanted to. Every time Aunt Habiba told the story, the women in the courtyard would tuck their caftans into their belts, and dance with their arms spread wide as if they were about to fly.

—Fatima Mernissi, Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harlem Girlhood

Theresa wuz caught too an dey wuz brought tuh dis country. Attuh dey bin yuh a wile, duh mothuh git to weah she caahn stan it an she wannuh go back tuh Africa. . . . Theresa tun round—so . . . She stretch uh ahms out—so—an rise up an fly right back to Africa.

—Rosa Grant, interviewee, Drums and Shadows

Aching to discover his ancestry, Milkman Dead, born on the shores of Lake Superior in Michigan, retraces his aunt Pilate's steps as she was a child in the South and, stopping in Virginia, listens to the children's "song of Solomon," parts of which he understood, while others did not make sense to him. "Belali . . . Shalut . . . Yaruba?" ponders Milkman. "If Solomon and Ryna were names of people, the others might be also." They are indeed the names of Africans, and one can even specify they are the names of Muslim Africans who lived in Sapelo Island off the coast of Georgia, although Morrison took some poetic liberty as she wrote the novel Song of Solomon, transplanting Belali Mohomet and his descendants to Virginia and fusing their history with that of the Ibos, to recreate the collective history of the U.S. South's Afrodiasporans.

"Bowin' to the Sun"

Decades before Morrison published Song of Solomon, the descendants of Belali Mohomet were interviewed over a three year period (between 1936 and 1939), by the Savannah, Georgia, unit of the Federal Writers' Project. ¹ Despite the self-censorship they undoubtedly engaged in, as former slaves being interviewed by Southern whites, they clearly recall their ancestors following Muslim religious traditions, even if those traditions are never named, never identified as such. Among those interviewed by the Georgia Writers Project is Katie Brown, whose grandmother, Margaret, was a daughter of Belali Mohomet. Asked if she knew anything about her ancestor, Katie answered:

"Belali Mohomet? Yes, I knows bout Belali. He wife Phoebe. He hab plenty daughtuhs, Magret, Bentoo, Chaalut, Medina, Yaruba, Fatima, an Hestuh. . . Belali an he wife Phoebe pray on duh bead. Dey wuz bery puhticluh bout duh time dey pray an dey bery regluh bout duh hour. Wen duh sun come up, wen it straight obuh head and wen it set, das duh time dey pray. Dey bow tuh duh sun an hab lill mat tuh kneel on. Duh beads is on a long string. Belali he pull bead and he say, "Belambi, Hakabara, Mahamadu." Phoebe she say, "Ameen, Ameen." ( Drums and Shadows 161)

[Belali Mohomet? Yes, I know about Belali. His wife was Phoebe. He had plenty of daughters, Margaret, Bentoo, Chaalut, Yaruba, Fatima, and Hester. . . Belali and his wife Phoebe prayed on the bead [rosary]. They were very particular about the time they prayed and very regular about the hour. When the sun came up, when it was straight overhead, and when it set, that's the time they prayed. They bowed to the sun and had a little mat to kneel on. The beads are on a long string. Belali pulled the beads and said: "Belambi, Hakabara, Mahamadu." Phoebe said: "Ameen, Ameen."]

It is hard not to notice the confluence of names in Katie Brown's...