There are two images likely to occur in the repertoire of any accomplished Mende dɔmɛi performer. One is the image of the defiant Yombo, the one developed into the quarreling dɔmɛisia of the last chapter. The other also concerns a defiant protagonist, a male farmer who is the hero of six narrative variants in our collection which I have entitled ‘A Stubborn Man Farms a Forbidden Bush’. There is an invariable conflict within the variant performances of this image: despite the warnings of the community, a man borrows a bush site that has been designated as forbidden and proceeds to clear it for a farm. Throughout each step of the rice-growing cycle, he is mysteriously aided by unknown spirits. When he goes to harvest his bountiful crop, he discovers that his unknown assistants have preceded him, and not a grain of rice remains.

The theme of this image appears strongly conservative, since it suggests that defiance of traditional customs entails harsh retribution. Ethnography confirms this interpretation, for the farmer has grossly violated Mende land and farming traditions in at least three ways: (1) despite the protests of the townspeople, he has borrowed land that has been proscribed; (2) he has not offered a sacrifice prior to the initial brushing of the land; (3) he has farmed in secret, without the assistance of communal labor.

In an article on Mende religious attitudes towards land, Julian Winch singles out this image to demonstrate Mende social conservatism.