Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T00:09:32.610Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social interaction and the management of Songhay socio-political change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Paul Stoller
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Kwaara banda daarey, hala ga kano, yeow s'a gar. The stranger (no matter how long he/she has lived in a town) will never possess the choicest fruit of the daarey tree behind the village.

The daarey tree (Ziziphus jujuba) is found in and around Songhay towns in the Republic of Niger. Since its sweet red fruit is coveted, the whereabouts of the finest daarey are never divulged to foreigners, lest they steal from the Songhay that which is most delicious in their communities. The proverb underscores just how careful the Songhay are in protecting from non-Songhay that which is their own. It also suggests that just as non-Songhay will never possess the choicest daarey fruits, so too they will neither marry the most beautiful Songhay maidens nor become influential in community affairs. The most beautiful maidens, like the best daarey trees, are kept from the sight of non-Songhay; the sociocultural knowledge which enables a person to be perceived as influential is never taught directly to those who have migrated to the lands of the Songhay.

Résumé

L'interaction sociale et les modalités du changement socio-politique chez les Songaïs

Le présent article passe en revue le rôle de l'interaction sociale et de son assise, l'entretien familier, dans les processus dynamiques qui transforment le cadre socio-politique des Songaïs. A l'époque coloniale et précoloniale, les descendants patrilinéaires du roi Songaï, Askia Mohammed Touré (1493-1528), étaient les chefs de la société Songaï. Faisant appel à tout une gamme de stratagèmes symboliques, parmi lesquels l'entretien familier (fakarey) est l'un des plus importants, ces fils d'Askia Mohammed (maiga, pluriel: maigey), ont tenté de maintenir leur influence à travers notre ère moderne en dépit de L'évolution technologique rapide dont les effets se font sentir de plus en plus dans la République du Niger. On suggère cependant ici que les maigey sont en train de perdre cette influence qui leur est chère au profit d'un groupe de négociants que ne sont pas tous d'origine Songaï. On suggère également qu'en raison de leur force économique, ces négociants qui ne sont pas d'appartenance Songaï, amènent d'importants changements socio-politiques en “manipulant” la signification des rencontres sociales publiques afin de satisfaire aux objectifs de leur politique ambitieuse.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , July 1981 , pp. 765 - 780
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berger, Peter and Luckmann, Thomas 1967. The Social Construction of Reality. New York: Anchor BooksGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Anthony 1977 ‘For a political ethnography of everyday life: Sketches from Whalsay.’ Ethnos 13(3-4), 180–205CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Anthony and ComarofF, John 1976 ‘The management of meaning; on the phenomenology of political transactions,’ in Kapferer, B. (ed.). Transaction and Meaning. Philadelphia: ISHI, 87–107Google Scholar
Crowder, Michael 1968 West Africa under colonial rule. Evanston, III.: Northwestern University PressGoogle Scholar
Foucault, Michel 1975 The Birth of the Clinic. New York: Pantheon BooksGoogle Scholar
Garfinkle, Harold 1967 Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliff, N. J.: Prentice-HallGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving 1971 Relations in Public. New York: Harper Colophon BooksGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving 1974 Frame analysis. New York: Harper Colophon BooksGoogle Scholar
Hama, Boubou 1968 Histoire des Songhay. Paris: Presence AfricaineGoogle Scholar
Hunwick, J. O. 1966 ‘Religion and State in the Songhay Empire,’ in Lewis, I. M. (ed.) Islam in Tropical Africa. London: Oxford University Press for the International Africa Institute, 296–316.Google Scholar
Hunwick, J. O 1972. ‘Songhay, Bornu and Hausaland in the 16th century,’ in Ajayi, J. F. A. and Crowder, M. (eds.) The History of West Africa, Vol I. New York: Columbia University Press, 202–240.Google Scholar
Konare Ba, Adam 1977 Sonni Ali Ber (Etudes Nigériennes N 40.) Niamey, Niger: Institut de Recherches en Sciences HumainesGoogle Scholar
Olivier de Sardin, Jean-Pierre 1975. ‘Captifs ruraux et esclaves impériaux de Songhai,’ in Meillassoux, C. (ed.) L'Esclavageen Afrique précoloniale. Paris: Maspero, 99–135.Google Scholar
Olivier de Sardin, Jean-Pierre 1976. Quand pères etaient captifs. Paris: NubiaGoogle Scholar
Rouch, Jean 1953. Contribution à I'histoire des Songhay. Mémoire N 29. Dakar: L'Institut Français de l'Afrique Noire.Google Scholar
Schutz, Alfred 1962. Collected Papers I: the Problem of Social Reality. The Hague: Marcus NijhoffGoogle Scholar
Stoller, Paul A 1977 ‘Ritual and personal insults in Songrai Sonni.’ Anthropology 2(1), 31–37.Google Scholar
Stoller, Paul A 1978 The dynamics of Bankwano: communication and political legitimacy among the Songhay (Republic of Niger). University of Texas, Austin. Ph.D dissertationGoogle Scholar
Stoller, Paul A 1980 ‘The negotiation of Songhay space: phenomenology in the heart of darkness’ American Ethnologist 7(3), 419–431CrossRefGoogle Scholar