{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03225806451612903, 'fraction_numerical': 0.003000750187546887, 'mean_word_length': 4.982062780269058, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
NYAMA AND HEKA: AFRICAN CONCEPTS OF THE WORD

Knowledge of the West African griot epic has advanced enormously in the last fifteen years with the publication of volumes by Thomas Hale, Scribe, Griot, Novelist: Narrative Interpreters of the Songhay Empire1 and Griots and Griottes: Masters of Words and Music,2 Stephen Belcher, Epic Traditions of Africa',3 and Barbara G. Hoffman, Griots At War: Conflict, Conciliation, and Caste in Mande.4 Despite the richness of these studies, the concept of nyama, the Mande word for occult "power" or "means," has remained a secondary concern of African cultural criticism. Fascination with the figure of the griot has tended to overshadow the problem of nyama, or, in some cases, generic considerations have taken precedence over matters of the occult. In the first instance, the critic risks subordinating nyama to a Western idealism, or a Platonic logic, in the second, to an old-fashioned essentialism, or an Aristo telian logic. However, the extent to which nyama may be construed as a force generative of both complexes remains unarticulated. By assuming that nyama flows from the abysmal no-place of the blood-filled receptacle, and not the Platonic simulacrum of the human soul, many hitherto unresolved enigmas about the griot may be resolved. While it is true that the griot must "learn