The following is an extract from The Maldives Islanders. Romero-Frías narrates stories from a variety of sources, mostly from the southern islands, and presents the fast-modernizing country and its younger generation with a glimpse of ancient times of Maldives. Many stories revolve around the supernatural -jinni, fanditha (sorcery), and also of epidemics that wiped away entire island populations during various times – some resettled later, and some left uninhabited.
As my main interest in this text was to get an idea of the “information culture” of earlier times, one of the prominent sections that caught my attention was the story about Rekifutu, the newly returned young scholar, and his plight at the hands of the locals in his attempt to save the people from ignorance.
Extract from Xavier (2003, page 148)
The story goes on to tell how Rekifutu left Addu and went to Male’ and lived among some dubious characters and came back to Addu after some time. And it continues …The main aim of diyōge kuli and other esoteric rituals practiced in the Maldives was to secure special powers for a reduced circle of participants. As we have seen above, within the Tantric context –the Goddess’ explanation to Vaśista – the implication that mere conventional knowledge is not enough is stated in very clear terms. This leads unavoidably to the suggestion that there is an aura of naivety and incompleteness about what can be termed as ‘average learning’, like the following story shows (Told by A. Nasīm I. Dīdī, Nūdalhī, Funādo village, Fua Mulaku).
The Man Who Learned From Two Books
Having completed his education in the continent, a young man called Rekifutu returned to his island in Addu Atoll. He was handsome, from a good family, and was now well versed in the Qurān, Arabic and certain sciences. His parents were very proud of him, for he was their only male child, and his four younger sisters had missed him sorely and were very happy to see him back. The girls kept flattering their brother and fussing about him all the time, and the truth is that he himself could not hide his pride at his achievements.
Soon after arrival, Rekifutu went to the main mosque for the Friday prayers. The island chief was leading the prayers and, in the customary sermon, this cunning man asserted that all islanders had the obligation to be very kind to their island chief and bring him money and presents whenever they could. God didn’t want the island chief to be poor; instead He was pleased to see islanders treat their chief well. The sermon went on for quite a while, with the chief praising himself and bragging about his goodness.
Rekifutu was dismayed to hear these words. As soon as the sermon concluded, knowing that the islanders couldn’t understand Arabic, he rose and directly addressed the boastful chief in that language; saying: “What kind of sermon is this? You use your craftiness and the name of the God to become richer at the expense of people who are quite poor. It is wrong to do that! Surely God is not pleased with your behavior.”
The chief was surprised, but he quickly smiled and replied in not-so-perfect Arabic: “Look here, my son, don’t get angry. These people are like animals, ignorant and stupid. If I can get revenue from them, I will do it. I am the chief of this island and I must be wealthy. I deserve it! It is difficult and boring to rule over them all the time.” Finally, with a wink, he offered: “We can both benefit from this situation. If you are smart and don’t tell any body about this, I shall give you part of my wealth.”
Rekifutu did not reply and the Friday prayer went on. At the end, when everyone was leaving the mosque, the young man stood at the gate of the compound, gathered the people about him and told them that their chief was a deceitful man, who was abusing his authority over them to increase his wealth. He declared: “God never said that chiefs should become rich at the expense of poor people.”
Furiously, the island chief elbowed his way through the crowd, demanding in a very loud voice: “Who is this insolent young man talking to you and insulting me? I have known this Rekifutu since he was a baby. What does he know about life? He went to a foreign country, and already thinks that everything can be done here as foreigners do. Now he has come to our island and has become so arrogant that wants to turn you against me. This impertinent youngster is not interested in the welfare of our island! His only aim is to put me down, I who have been so good to you, so that he may become a tyrannical ruler over you. If you listen to his subversive words, all of you will suffer. Think of me. You know me. I am your chief and I have always been good to you.”
Reacting angrily, the islanders became a blind mob who beat Rekifutu savagely. When they had had enough, they left the poor young man unconscious and bleeding at the gates of the mosque…
Friday came and Rekifutu, impeccably dressed in white, went to the mosque. There the chief gave his usual boastful, greedy and self-serving speech. Rekifutu said nothing and smiled confidently. The Island chief studied him with slight pprehension. But after a while, as Rekifutu just kept smiling, he was pleased. He assumed that the learned young man was now his supporter. Once he had finished his sermon without any unpleasant interruption, the chief thought “good! I gave him a good lesson. He has finally learned to respect his elders.”
At the end of the Friday prayer, Rekifutu very politely requested the chief for permission to speak. The island chief became alarmed and wonderd, “What is he up to now?”
Rekifutu quickly calmed him saying he just intended to make a little speech to tell the islanders how fortunate they were to have such a good leader. As the chief was a very vain man, he felt flattered and gave his permission eagerly.
Rekifutu addressed the crowd praising the chief in the most exaggerated
terms. The unsuspecting island chief, standing beside him, was immensely satisfied. At the conclusion of his speech the young man emphatically assured the islanders that their leader was such a worthy and holy man, that if one of them was lucky enough to get hold of a droplet of his blood, or a pieve of his clothing, or a tuft of his hair, the gates of heaven would be surely open for that person.Suddenly, all the people turned towards the island chief and started to look at him with relish. Calmly detaching himself from the crowd, Rekifutu walked back home without hurry.It is said that the chief didn’t make it to the gates of the mosque. The mob, in the ensuing frenzy, tore him to pieces. Some even used knives. Soon nothing was left of the island chief, not even a single blood droplet in the sand.
Though it is meant to be a light, humorous story, ‘The Man Who Learned From Two
Books’ is actually a cynical illustration of how firmly Maldivians believe that mere religious and scholarly studies –represented by the ‘first book’ –cannot make a man powerful. Accordingly there is a general acceptance among islanders of the fact that a person not possessing ‘special’ esoteric knowledge –the ‘second book’ of the story –will not be successful within the community (p. 149).
Romero-Frías, X. (2003) The Maldive Islanders : a study of the popular culture of an ancient ocean kingdom. (3rd revised ed.). Spain: Nova Ethnographia Indica.
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