Sanen and Kontron: The Ancestors of Hunters

Sanen and Kontron, the ancestors of hunters, have no homeland; their home is the bush, that is, wherever there is game. They belong to no clan and no race.

Sanen was not born of anyone and had sexual relations with no being. Yet she conceived and gave birth to Kontron, whom she initiated into the visible and invisible things of the bush.

Kontron is the archetype of the hunter, able to bring down every kind of game, known and unknown to humans; he is even said to have killed spirits. He was chaste and thus kept his faculties and his original purity intact. The men who later imitated Kontron became his children. Every hunter is a “child” of Sanen and Kontron and a brother to the other hunters, with whom he must feel solidarity.

In the popular imagination, Sanen and Kontron are the symbol of the victory of life over death, of friendship over hatred, of foresight and reason over chance and violence. They are also the expression of eternal loyalty and gratitude.

Image: Mandinka hunter with his game

Image source: http://www.photo-festival.org/fr/legendes-donso-soma-agnes-pataux/

Source text: Cultural and tourist guide to the Manden