In the Senegal groups your probably talking about "Nyamo" which is spiritual int ernal power similar to the

Chinese concept of chi..but much older..wrestlers and manding warriors bath in water infested with crocodiles to gain nyamo and be mo re powerful.." Muslim kingdom whose population followed the traditional Manding religion. One o f the main features of this religion was the conviction that everyone possesses a secret force or energy, the nyamo, which can be controlled through what in Wes tern thought is called with its negative connotation sorcery. For the Manding, a s for many other peoples, sorcery in itself is neutral, hence the use of the Eng lish word in this context is inadequate. Still, it will be used here in the abse nce of a closer equivalent. The Manding recognize good sorcery done for the bene?t of the community, and neg ative sorcery turned against it. The men with the highest concentration of nyamo and occult skills are the hunters, the blacksmiths, the sorcerers and the ruler s; and, speci?cally in Kaabu, the nyancho, a hereditary warrior aristocracy. The men said to possess this force operate in the occult world by manipulating the energy, and by creating protective and offensive amulets. The blacksmiths make t he korte and the somo sama, magical powders used to hurt at a distance through m alediction. Some also work in the physical world by using herbs and plants to cu re or protect. The relation of the Manding to the occult has been well described by Patrick R. McNaughton: The Mande consider knowledge of all kinds to be important and powerful, but the instrumental knowledge of sorcery stands at the pinnacle of potency. The great epic poems that celebrate hunters, heroes, and the founding of states all devote major portions of the texts to sorcerers exploits. In fact, epics stress t he occult strategies and preparations that pre?gure major events, such as military campaigns, rather than the events themselves. And, as reflection of real life, t he epics emphasize the need of leaders to have access to sorcery, as a vital component of their capacity to solve problems, address crises, subdue antagonists, and satisfy their ambitions.

The most famous Manding epic is without a doubt that of Sunjata. According to tr adition, his father, Maghan Frako Kegni, belonged to a lineage of hunter-kings, men well versed in magic; and his mother, Songolo Conde, was a magician herself. Sunjata, who mixed Islam and traditional Manding beliefs, has remained famous f or his enormous occult powers, and his epic is replete with supernatural acts. H is victory over the sorcerer-king of the Susu, Sumahuru Kante, the powerful blacksmith, is explained in magical terms. Once in the Americas, the Manding were confronted by an unknown, hostile, evil a nd mysterious world that they needed to understand and control. It became necess ary for physical, mental and psychological survival to keep the slaveholders beha viour and power in check. In addition, the enslavers had plans and spies; and th e enslaved had traitors who had to be uncovered. In the Americas, some of the ea rly concrete expressions of Manding opposition and resistance can be found in th e creation of and participation in maroon communities. In the sixteenth century, for example, Antonio Mandinga was at the head of a group of 300 maroons in Pana ma, and Mariano Mandinga was aleader of a maroon palenque (settlement of escaped slaves) in Cuba. However, it is their use of occult weapons that made the Manding famous. Accordi ng to Manding custom, the men who can master invisible forces and divination hav

e the responsibility to come to the rescue of their community. They must use phy sical weapons, certainly, but also occult ones, which are considered equally pot ent, if not more $0.23 In Kaabu, Muslims were not allowed to ?ght in the army be cause, even if they were good with physical weapons, they did not have the occul t knowledge necessary to control the nyamo, nor did they belong to the secret so cieties, the Komo and Nama, that regulated power through the use of magic. The neologism mandinga, as devil and wicked, reveals that these early Manding us ed their occult knowledge to counteract their enslavers actions and toattack them . Their impact on white society s imagination may be due to the fact that they res orted to the occult more often than other communities, and/or their skills may h ave been thought to be exceptionally ef?cient. Evidently they were call-ed devil s, sorcerers and malevolent by their intended victims; but it is likely that the Manding themselves considered they were engaged in positive sorcery since it wa s done for the bene?t of their community. Nevertheless, they were also involved in the negative type. The existence in French Creole of the word subawu suggests that the subakha, men who use sorcery for evil purposes, continued to practise this occult art throughout the Caribbean. Some, who are bo rn sorcerers, are said to kill through the symbolic eating of one s organs; others make traps composed of invisible force ?elds activated by kilisi secret sp eech that are supposed to result in death. - Manding In The Americas pg. 144 and 145