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Manimory and the Aesthetics of Mimesis: Forest, Islam and State in Ivoirian Dozoya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Joseph Hellweg
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Abstract

This article explores the hunting aesthetics of initiated Jula hunters of Côte d'Ivoire who call themselves dozos. It explains how their hunting aesthetic structures their relationship to Islam and the Ivoirian state. Although many Africans approach Islam in the context of tensions between local ritual traditions and modernizing Muslim reform, dozos approach Islam the way they approach the forests where they hunt, assimilating to both in order to tame them. They organize their hunting activities around an aesthetic centred on notions of sweetness and fullness; their contraries, difficulty and emptiness; and the process of mimetic transformation (shape-shifting) that mediates between these extremes. With these categories dozos assimilate themselves to and appropriate power from the forest to kill game. They also link themselves to pre-Qur'anic Muslim figures to legitimize themselves as Muslims. More recently, they tried to assimilate to the Ivoirian state to become a parallel police force. Stories of their tutelary spirit, Manimory, and the texts of their hunting songs, incantations, and epics encode diverse ways for dozos to relate to Islam, leaving room for dozos to eschew it as well. Their texts reveal a dynamic sense of history that defies classification in terms of tradition, modernity or postmodernity.

Résumé

Cet article examine l'esthétique de la chasse chez les chasseurs initiés julas de Côte d'Ivoire, qui se donnent le nom de dozos. Il explique comme leur esthétique de chasse structure leur rapport à l'islametà l'État ivoirien. Alors que de nombreux Africains abordent l'islam dans le contexte de tensions entre traditions rituelles locales et réforme musulmane modernisatrice, les dozos abordent l'islam de la même manière qu'ils abordent les forêts dans lesquelles ils chassent, s'assimilant aux deux pour les maîtriser. Ils organisent leurs activités de chasse autour d'une esthétique centrée sur des notions de douceur et de plénitude, des notions contraires de difficulté et de vide, ainsi que sur le processus de transformation mimétique (métamorphose) qui assure la médiation entre ces extrêmes. Avec ces catégories, les dozos s'assimilent à laforêt et s'en approprient les pouvoirs pour tuer le gibier. Ils s'associent également à des figures musulmanes pré-coraniques pour se justifier en tant que musulmans. Plus récemment, ils ont essayé de s'assimilerà l'état ivoirien pour devenir une force de police parallèle. Les récits de leur esprit tutélaire, Manimory, ainsi que les textes de leurs chants de chasse, incantations et récits épiques codifient les différentes manières qu'ont les dozos de se situer par rapport à l'islam et qui leur laissent également latitude pour l'éviter. Leurs textes révèlent un sens dynamique de l'histoire qui défie la classification en termes de tradition, de modernité ou de postmodernité.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 76 , Issue 4 , November 2006 , pp. 461 - 484
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2006

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