All Is Vanity

In his memoir Amkoullel, l’enfant peul, Amadou Hampâté Bâ told of an experience that profoundly affected him. As a teenager he was traveling with other boys by boat to his home town of Bandiagara (in Mali) for summer vacation after school. They were shocked to see on the boat a native young man who was dressed like white men and treated like royalty by them. He was clearly extremely rich, and Bâ learned that this young man was Ben Daoud Mademba Sy, the son of the king of Sansanding. He was traveling home to be with his father who had long before been set up as a king in the region by the French. On the voyage, Ben Daoud made friends with Bâ and invited him to come into his first-class cabin, and they spent several days together. Bâ recorded, “Le quelques jours que dura notre voyage furent merveilleux pour moi.” (“The few days that our trip lasted were wonderful for me.”) They soon arrived at Sansanding, and Bâ was amazed at the way the king there, the father of Ben Daoud, was treated. As their steamship approached, they had to stop and wait in the early morning hours because the king was not yet awake—it was not permitted that the sound of their steam ship wake the king. And, in fact, the whole city waited anxiously the word that the king had woken up so they could start their business and make noise. Bâ also described the incredible palace where the king lived and told how the place around it was so well guarded that after a certain time any person who was found coming too close was cruelly whipped. The king, along with his son, was treated like deity. As his friend departed the boat, Bâ described, “En partant, Ben Daoud se retourna vers moi et me fit un petit signe de la main. Je lui répondis avec tristesse, persuadé que je ne le reverrais jamais.” (“As he left, Ben Daoud turned to me and gave me a little wave. I waved back sadly, convinced that I would never see him again.”)

               But Bâ did see Ben Daoud again, twenty-eight years later, and the experience was a decisive moment in his life. Traveling in the area for another reason, he took the chance to go back to Sansanding in the hopes of seeing Ben Daoud. When his river boat arrived at the city, he was astounded. He wrote, “Je ne pouvais en croire mes yeux. Toute la rive était dégradée. Le palais en ruine semblait avoir été avalé par le sol. La belle place de sable fin, que l’on ne devait jadis nettoyer qu’à la main, n’était plus qu’un terrain à l’abandon où se tenait un misérable petit marche de village aux hangars boiteux, non entretenus, souvent à moitié renverses par le vent du nord.” (“I couldn’t believe my eyes. The entire riverbank was degraded. The ruined palace seemed to have been swallowed by the earth. The beautiful square of fine sand, which once had to be cleaned only by hand, was now nothing more than an abandoned field where stood a miserable little village market with rickety, unkempt sheds, often half blown over by the north wind.”) All the glory of the former city and king was gone. He found out that Ben Daoud was indeed still alive and there in the city, and someone took Bâ to him. He described the demure of this former prince: “Au fond de la cour, l’habitation elle-même consistait en une seule case minuscule, presque une cellule. Les murs, décrépits, étaient ronges par les intempéries.” (“At the back of the courtyard, the dwelling itself consisted of a single, tiny hut, almost a cell. The walls, decrepit, were eaten away by the weather.”) Bâ introduced himself to his friend from nearly three decades before, and Ben Daoud remembered him. But Bâ was shocked at his appearance. He wrote, “Je ne pus en croire mes yeux. Il était vêtu d’un vieux forkiya, sorte de longue blouse ample qui avait dû être blanche mais qui, pour l’heure, semblait avoir été trempée dans une teinture de boue rougeâtre. La large échancrure de son forkiya laissait à nu sa poitrine amaigrie. Son pantalon était fait de morceaux d’étoffes dépareillées. A ses pieds trainaient des sandales taillées dans de vieux pneus.” (“I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was wearing an old forkiya, a sort of long, loose-fitting blouse that must have been white but, for the moment, looked like it had been dipped in a reddish mud dye. The wide neckline of his forkiya exposed his emaciated chest. His trousers were made of mismatched pieces of fabric. At his feet trailed sandals cut from old tires.”) All the worldly glory of this old prince was gone, and he now lived in complete poverty.  

               But Ben Daoud was not bitter about his situation. He described to Bâ how their family had been ruined due to supposed political affiliations. Ben Daoud related, “Tous mes biens ont été confisqués. Sans travail et sans fortune, il ne me reste plus rien pour vivre. Mais, Dieu merci, je ne suis misérable que matériellement. Mon moral, ma dignité et ma fierté ne sont pas touchés…. Certes, mon aspect est miséreux, mais je ne suis pas aussi malheureux que mon apparence pourrait le laisser croire. Je suis en accord avec moi-même car ma conscience ne me reproche rien. La preuve en est que je dors paisiblement. Quand je trouve de la nourriture, je mange avec appétit, et quand je n’en trouve pas, je supporte la faim. Je ne quémande pas. Je lis beaucoup, je médite et réfléchis.” (“All my possessions have been confiscated. Without work and without money, I have nothing left to live on. But, thank God, I am only materially miserable. My morale, my dignity, and my pride are not affected…. Certainly, my appearance is miserable, but I am not as unhappy as my appearance might lead one to believe. I am at peace with myself because my conscience does not reproach me for anything. The proof is that I sleep peacefully. When I find food, I eat with appetite, and when I don't, I endure hunger. I do not beg. I read a lot, I meditate and reflect.”)  Bâ described his feelings at seeing and hearing his old friend, “Il acceptait son sort avec sérénité. Dans son dénuement, il me parut infiniment plus grand que le prince de jadis.” (“He accepted his fate with serenity. In his destitution, he seemed to me infinitely greater than the prince of old.”)

               Before leaving the city, Bâ visited the tomb of the king and his other son (the brother of Ben Daoud). As he stood there looking at their graves, Bâ said to them, “Alors vous êtes là, tous les deux, couchés dans votre tombe, alors que tout Sansanding traverse votre concession pour aller au marché, cette concession que, jadis, il fallait contourner avec crainte et respect ! Toute votre splendeur, toute votre gloire, tout cela a disparu, s’est évanoui comme un mirage passager ? Eh bien, si c’est cela la vie de ce monde, elle n’est vraiment, comme dit le Coran, qu’une jouissance éphémère et trompeuse, et l’Ecclésiaste de la Bible a bien raison quand il s’écrie : Tout est vanité et poursuite du vent !” (“So here you are, both of you, lying in your graves, while all of Sansanding crosses your compound on their way to market, this compound that, once upon a time, one had to skirt around with fear and respect! All your splendor, all your glory, all that has disappeared, vanished like a passing mirage? Well, if this is the life of this world, it is truly, as the Koran says, only a fleeting and deceptive enjoyment, and the Ecclesiastes of the Bible is quite right when he cries: All is vanity and a striving after wind!”) Bâ then described the effect that this experience had on him: “Ce jour-là, en cet instant, j’ai divorcé d’avec le monde and pris la ferme résolution de me conformer, tout le reste de ma vie, au conseil de mon maitre : servir, servir toujours, mais ne jamais chercher ni les honneurs, ni le pouvoir, ni le commandement.” (“That day, at that moment, I divorced myself from the world and made the firm resolution to conform, for the rest of my life, to the advice of my master: to serve, always to serve, but never to seek honors, power, or command.”)

               To me this is a powerful lesson for all of us. As the adversary continues “tempting [us] to seek for power, and authority, and riches, and the vain things of the world” we must hold fast to what really matters as taught by the Savior (3 Nephi 6:15). He questioned, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Our goal is not to gain the world; it is to gain eternal life. But often our actions point more to the former than the latter. The Savior lived His life devoted to God and serving His children without seeking the honors or riches of men, and as His disciples we should strive to do the same. The advice of Bâ’s master would be the same as ours: to serve, always to serve. Greatness comes not in amassing the things of the world but in loving our fellow man as He did: “But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28).