Performing Africa PDF
Preview Performing Africa
P E R F O R M I N G A F R I C A This page intentionally left blank P A U L L A A . E B R O N Performing Africa PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD Copyright©2002byPrincetonUniversityPress PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WIlliamStreet,Princeton,NewJersey08540 IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,3MarketPlace,Woodstock, OxfordshireOX201SY AllRightsReserved LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Ebron,PaullaA.,1953– PerformingAfrica/PaullaA.Ebron. p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-691-07488-7(alk.paper)—ISBN0-691-07489-5(pbk.:alk.paper) 1.Griots—Gambia—Music—Historyandcriticism.2.Mandingo(Africanpeople)— Gambia—Music—Historyandcriticism.3.Music—Gambia—Historyandcriticism. 4.Gambia—Sociallifeandcustoms.5.Folklore—Gambia—Performance.I.Title. ML3760.E272002 781.62'96345—dc21 2001055408 BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable ThisbookhasbeencomposedinSabon Printedonacid-freepaper∞ www.pup.princeton.edu PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 C O N T E N T S O V E R T U R E Where and When I Enter vii I N T R O D U C T I O N Performing Africa 1 P A R T O N E Representations/Performances 29 C H A P T E R O N E Music: Europe and Africa 33 C H A P T E R T W O Performances 53 P A R T T W O Professional Dreams 73 C H A P T E R T H R E E Curators of Tradition 81 C H A P T E R F O U R Personalistic Economy 114 C H A P T E R F I VE Interview Encounters: The Performance of Profession 134 P A R T T H R E E Culture as Commodity 163 C H A P T E R S I X Travel Stories 167 C H A P T E R S E V E N Tourists as Pilgrims 189 C O D A 213 N O T E S 217 B I B L I O G R A P H Y 225 I N D E X 237 v This page intentionally left blank O V E R T U R E Where and When I Enter A convention has marked the opening of ethnographic accounts of the field: the arrival story. More often than not, these stories have posited stable identities for both a Western ethnographer and the “natives” he finds;thisdifferencebetweentheWestanditsOtherprovidesthewindow ofinsightforarrival.Yetmyarrivalstoryfocusesonamutualfiguringof thefieldandtheidentitiesofthosewhomakethemomentsofencounter.1 Here a degree of negotiation over culture and difference takes place. Moreover,thiswasnotmyarrival. Inthesummerof1989IhadbeeninTheGambiaforseveralmonths, absorbed in the everyday lives of the people in the compound where I lived.Ihadgonetheretolearnmoreaboutahereditarygroupofartisans knowninalocallanguage,Mandinka,asjali.Jalifillanumberofprofes- sional roles, including orator, praisesinger, arbiter, political negotiator, matchmaker, genealogist, historian, ceremonial officiator, and entrepre- neur.Jaliperformancesofmusic,however,oftenassumeprimacyincur- rent transnational encounters. I had come to The Gambia to study the trainingjaliwereexpectedtoundergotopracticetheirprofession,jaliya. (GriotisaFrenchtermforpraiseingers,includingjali.) Ashortvisitin1984helpedmeestablishtheconnectionsthatwould set the context of the collaborative aspects of my work. Now, five years hence, I had embarked upon a much lengthier stay. Already in the first fewmonthsofmyresearch,Ihadbeguntounderstandsocialinteractions ina societycomplicated byage, gender,class, ethnicity,and castediffer- ences.Thesecrosscutting,complexsociallocationswerewelldocumented intheliteratureontheSenegambianregion.Yetlivingtherechangedmy appreciation of the significance of the ways these social categories in- formed everyday interactions; these categories were no longer mere ab- stractions that I had encountered in social science accounts, but experi- ences informing the lives of the people I knew. A few months into my fieldwork I was acutely aware of the difference between the social com- plexitythereandwhatIwasfamiliarwithintheUnitedStates. IntheUnitedStates,racemoreoftenthannottakesprecedenceover other categories in social interactions. Age, gender, class, and national background follow in the wake of the major divide between black and white.2 This everyday prominence of racial status in the United States vii viii Overture contrastedsharplywiththemultiplicityofsocialstatuses,identities,and languagesIfoundinTheGambia.Furthermore,intheUnitedStatesIhad becomeusedtobeingperceivedasaracialembodimentofsubalternsta- tus; strikingly, in Africa, I carried the privilege of status and mobility of my U.S. nationality. To many Gambians, I was an American; to others, my otherness appeared as a complicated mystery. Some people assumed I was from southern Africa. This association was commonly made be- causeofthepresenceofrefugeesfromNamibia,otherOtherswithwhom I could easily be categorized. Strikingly, at this time, African Americans were not asfamiliar to many of thepeople I met aswould later become thecase.3 Amongthemanythingsthatfieldworkaccomplishesisitsproviding anoccasiontoreadjustoursenseofwhoweareaswelearntounderstand differentcontextsandotherwaysofconstructingpersonhood.YetIonly appreciatedhowmuchmyperspectivehadbeguntochangewhenIcame face-to-facewithAfricanAmericanvisitorswhoremindedmeoftheideas andassumptionsheldbymanyAfricanAmericansaboutAfricaandour relationshiptoit.Theirarrivalstoryprovidedmymomentofinsight. I had gone along with a friend to the airport in Dakar to meet a visitor.Thewaittookseveralhours.Wesatinthearrivalareawhere,even in the earliest hours of the morning, people milled about. The sun cast raysofdustylightthroughthewindowshighabovefloorlevel.Thisgave thewaitingareatheappearanceofanairporthangar:anexpansivecave ofdimlightsandsmokyshadows.Duringthisextendedperiodofwaiting mymindwanderedasIstaredoutatthepassersby;amongthethingsthat movedthroughmyconsciousnesswasthequestionofhomeandcultural differences. Sittingdownatanairportcafe´,Isoonfoundmyselfinconversation withthreeAfricanAmericanmenwhohadcometoSenegalastouristsa few weeks earlier, but Africa was not simply a vacation destination for them. The men introduced themselves as “businessmen,” not affiliated withaparticularcompanybutindependentscoutshopingtodevelopan as-yet-undeterminedfinancialventurewithSenegaleseentrepreneurs.Ini- tially, I was thrilled to see people from “home.” Our conversation was warm and engaging. Slowly, however, I became acutely aware that we weretalkingpasteachother,sharingfamiliarfeelingsabout“home,”but not common assumptionsabout Africa. I realized thatmy thoughts and theirthoughtsaboutAfricadifferedenormously. They spoke of Africa and the people they had met with a distant awe,areverence.Africawasthelandofthenoblestpeople.TheSenega- lesetheyhadonlyrecentlymetwerejustamazing,abovemortalstatus. TheteachingsofU.S.Afrocentricphilosophersprovidedarefraininmy mind that echoed the chorus of praises set off against an Other: “Afri- WhereandWhenIEnter ix cans are a spiritual people; Europeans are a materialistic people.” In- deed, the travelers expressed their worry that Africa unfortunately laggedbehindinmaterialways.Luckily,theyhadasolutiontotheconti- nent’s“problems.”Asbusinessmen,withaconsciousnessofcourse,they woulddevelopAfrica. Ilistenedhalfheartedly,franklydubiousoftheirclaims.Intheprevi- ousfewmonthsIhadsomehowmutedmyawarenessofwhatcomingto Africa meant for many African Americans: that juxtaposition between the humble need to learn and connect, a personal quest, and the self- assureddesiretobeofsomeassistance,howevervague,thoughseemingly altruistic,thatpurposefulnessmightbe.Ontheonehand,AfricanAmeri- cansknowAfricathroughtheimageryofunderdevelopment.Likeother Americans,we grewup withvariousaid campaignsdirected towardAf- rica. The advertisements of international donor agencies such as CARE andSavetheChildrenframedoursenseofAfrica. On the other hand, the continent represented more for Africans in diaspora. This “homeland,” largely an imagined Africa, created a seem- ingly timeless sense of connection for many of its long displaced kin. WhenconfrontedwithcontemporaryAfrica,acompressionoftimeand space occurs where the lives of present-day Africans are blocked out by the overwhelming desire to search for lost kinship ties and belonging. ConnectionwithAfrica,itishoped,willhealthephysicalandpsychologi- calriftcreatedbyourdeparturecenturiesago.4FormanyAfricanAmeri- cans, Africa was imagined as a potently mythic space of meaning that couldembodyafullnessabsentinthepresent.Butthislongingoftenhad littlespaceinwhichtotakeintheexpanseofpresentdayAfricainallits complexities. Mysenseofthis“Africa”hadbeenreworkedbymyinteractionswith Gambianinterlocutors.SomeoftheGambiansImetweresympatheticto diasporicyearnings,whileothers,asIsuggestedearlier,hadnonotionof the transatlantic slave trade or even of the existence of “African Ameri- cans.”5Stillothersexpressedhostilesentiments:“AfricanAmericanswere nothingbuttheslavesofAfricans,”quippedoneGambian.Inthissetting, I could not naturalize African American dreams; they suddenly seemed quiteexotic. In our brief conversation, the tourists/entrepreneurs were impressed bymyrelativelylongstayinTheGambia,whichseemedtothemtoindi- cate deepcommitment onmy part, particularlywhen comparedto their visit of a few weeks. Yet when they asked me about my work, I sat ner- vously preparing my defenses. Given my own immersion in the debates about anthropology’s history, I thought they would be horrified to hear thatIwasananthropologist.Fromwithinthediscipline,everythingabout anthropologyseemedwrappedupinanintenseidentitycrisis.Mytrain-
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