Lewis 1
Justin Lewis
Final Paper
Dr. Rebecca Jones
December 6th 2006
Nyamakalaw of Mande : A Comparative Rhetoric Revealed
In 1998, George Kennedy, well known for his analysis of classical rhetoric in such works as The Art of Persuasion in Greece (1963), The Art of Rhetoric in the Roman World, 300 B.C.-A.D. 300 (1972) and Classical Rhetoric and its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times (1980) embarked on a discipline changing mission to redefine the limits of rhetoric in contemporary Western university research. His book, Comparative Rhetoric: An Historical and Cross-Cultural Introduction initiated an inquiry into the cross-cultural rhetorical elements that exist in spoken and written discourses trans-globally. While Kennedy’s prior scholarship had concentrated on a rhetorical analysis of classic Greek, Roman and Christian works, the effects of a changing, global world politic increased his awareness of the importance of cross-cultural communication and enhanced his desire to begin an inquiry into the pragmatics of cross-cultural communication.
In his groundbreaking study, Kennedy defined four justifications for the creation of a discipline of Comparative Rhetoric. First, Kennedy sought to discover what is “universal and what is distinctive about any one rhetorical tradition in comparison to others” (Kennedy 1). Next, the author stated that comparative rhetoric would seek to “formulate a General Theory of Rhetoric that will apply in all societies” (1). Third, Kennedy posited that to discover these cross-cultural elements, researchers must “develop and test structures and terminology . . . to describe rhetorical practices cross-culturally” and finally, scholarship must “apply what has been learned from comparative study to contemporary cross-cultural communication” (1). It is my intention to continue Kennedy’s call to cross-cultural rhetorical inquiry in West African Mande societies in order to develop a theoretical analysis of Mande social structures to reveal the universal rhetorical implements at work before the age of colonialism in the Sahel and in today’s postcolonial, postmodern highly polemicized West African world. By utilizing the rhetorical theories of Bakhtin, Foucault and others, this paper expands segments of a heretofore undeveloped comprehensive theory of universal, cross-cultural discourse. It is not my intention to create a universal framework for comparative rhetorical analysis; rather, I wish to contribute to the elements of rhetorical universality by highlighting power structures and speech acts inherent in Mande culture in an effort to link them to ecumenical rhetorical frameworks that underlie all rhetorical realms. To quote Kennedy, the founder of this comparative rhetorical inquiry, “I argue. . . that rhetoric is a natural phenomenon”; hence, certain rhetorical strategies buttress the basis of all communication. An identification of universal rhetorical implements will encourage a global discourse that must occur in order for humanity to effectively communicate beyond the contemporary discriminative conversations about geopolitics and global terrorism.
The History and Social Structure of West African Mande Society
History
In order to begin an inquiry into the specific and universal aspects of Mande rhetoric, an investigation into the history and anthropology of peoples of West African society will be beneficial. West African Mande society is organized based on what many scholars have deemed a “caste system.”[1] Though the power structures inherent in Mande culture seem to contradict this claim, outsiders have long oversimplified the social organization in terms of codified “castes.” The first recorded mention of the stratification in wealth and vocation in West African societies was transcribed by the noted Arab traveler Ibn Battuta. He noted, while traveling through the Sahelian region in the fourteenth century that the kings of the region always spoke through an interpreter; in addition, the court musicians and noble intermediaries were also classed under the same linguistic sign: djeli[2]. The first Europeans to record a hierarchy in the social structures of the Senegalese were the Portuguese explorers of the fifteenth century. Further elaborations on the differences between West African “castes” were recorded with increasing frequency with the onset of the Age of Discovery. Valentim Ferdenand, a Portuguese explorer, observed that sixteenth century Senegalese of noble birth never left their home without the accompaniment of a musician-interpreter. Cape Verde merchant Andre Alvares de Almada in 1590 observed a “severe social segregation” between the nobles and the artisans (Talmari 233). Mainstream European cognizance of a class of musician-bards did not occur until the publishing of Le Baron J.F. Roger’s Fables Senegalaises Recueillies de L’ouoloImitees en Vers Francais in 1820 (Finnegan 23). Though the imposition of Colonialism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries sought to destroy most of the existing social paradigms of African life, the social “caste” system that embraced a class sponsored social differentiation between nobles and musician/bards exists unto this day in the majority of sub-Saharan West African nations.
Evidence of Social Stratification
There are over 50 endogmatic[3] West African societies that practice some sort of social differentiation based on profession and heredity; therefore, it is necessary to focus our inquiry on a specific ethnic group of West Africa – the Mande[4]. Noted West African scholar Nicholas Hopkins refers to the Mande cultural area as “an area which covers western and southern Mali, northeastern Guinea, and some parts of Cote-d’Ivoire, Senegal and neighboring countries” (44). Despite the imposition of ethnically/culturally artificial borders during the French colonial period, the modern Mande ethnic areatoday extends over a vast portion of West Africa roughly the size of Alaska.
Mande society is based on patrilineal decent. There are extensive local and regional clans. Marriage inside the clan is forbidden; hence, this taboo creates a tribal interdependence that helps sustain the existence of the Mande group by hedging warring impulses through intertribal familial kinship. Mande societies also practice a division of labor based not on gender, but heredity[5]. The Mande social structure is segregated into the following three hereditarily inherited divisions:
1.Horon – The Horon are the noble, warrior and farmer class and form an overwhelming majority of society[6]. The Horon are free to hold office, marry into any class (though this practice is not always smiled upon) and accrue great amounts of wealth.
2.Wuloso – The Wuloso are the slaves. The members of this class are usually captured through warfare. The Wuloso are not considered human beings and can be traded as a commodity. Though slavery is not permitted in Mande countries today, the existence of the Wuloso class certainly remains.
3.Nyamakala – The Nyamakala are the artisans. The members of this class are believed to wield a power not available to the other classes. Members of this caste are griots[7] (djeli’s)[8], smiths (Numu) and leatherworkers (Garanke). While the members of this class actually hold more ephemeral power than any of the other classes, they are unable to intermarry; additionally, the Nyamakala must live in segregated portions of the village unit to ensure that they do not taint the Horon with their magical powers. The Numu are granted the important task of preparing cultural items from raw materials. The ability of the Numu to transform raw materials into culturally important constructs imbues power in their transformative abilities and creates fear among the Horon. The Numu are the subject of Camara Laye’s masterpiece The Dark Child. The Garanke operate in much the same fashion as the Numu. In terms of a rhetorical inquiry, we are primarily concerned with the function of the djeli.
The Mande Djeli – West Africa’s Heteroglossic, Polyphonic Meaning Maker
I am a griot. It is I, Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate, son of Bintou Kouyate and Djeli Kedian Kouyate, master in the art of eloquence. Since time immemorial the Kouyates have been in the service of the Keita princes of Mali; we are vessels of speech, we are the repositories which harbor secrets many centuries old. The art of eloquence has no secrets for us; without us the names of kings would vanish into oblivion, we are the memory of mankind; by the spoken word we bring to life the deeds and exploits of kings for younger generations.
Niane 1
Thus begins Sundiata, the cultural creation myth of the Mande in West Africa. West African djeli, or the plural djeliya, are representative of a socially constructed subset of society that “traffics” in the power of the linguistic sign. Before the spread of Islam to West Africa, the oral traditions of the Mande people were encapsulated by the djeli to determine meaning and reality. Walter Ong notes that “[O]ral peoples commonly, and probably universally, consider words to have great power” and nowhere is this notion more profound than in the inherent power of the word in Mande society (Ong 32). In Mande culture, djeli are responsible for creating meaning through the recitation of oral epic poetry and through praise singing. The most obvious example of the djeli’s ability to create meaning and shape reality is revealed in the aforementioned oral epic, Sundiata; however, praise singing and other forms of communicative intermediation provide the djeli in Mande culture the ability to shape the discourse and opinion of the entire culture.[9] Though the bardic function appears fairly straightforward, when one considers the social stature of Nyamakala in general, and djeli in particular, in Mande society, one questions from what authority the griots draw their agency and ability to Signify.
Bakhtin best describes the mechanism that enables djeli to enact authority in a society that constantly reinforces their caste-bound inferior social status. In The Problem of Speech Genres, Bakhtin describes the speaker in a conversation as:
[N]ot, after all, the first speaker, the one who disturbs the eternal silence of the universe. [H]e presupposes not only the existence of the language system he is using, but also the existence of preceding utterances—his own and others’—with which his given utterance enters into one kind of relation or another. . . . Any utterance is a link in a very complexly organized chain of other utterances. (69)
Obviously, immediate connections can be drawn between Bakhtin’s ideal description of the function of an interlocutor and the arrival of the participant in the Burkian parlor. Burke’s discourse metaphor, and the authorial dynamics implicit in Bakhtin’s description of the role of the interlocutor, adequately describe the ephemeral constant from which djeliya in Mande society draw their impetus to agency. In the passage that began this section, Mamoudou Kouyate, the djeli from whom Niane draws his transcription of the Sundiata epic, references both his father Bintou Kouyate and grandfather Kedian Kouyate as a starting point from wince to continue his utterance. While the social structure of Mande culture does not simply allow for the “others’” Bakhtin describes, the authority established by referencing other members of the culturally constructed “caste” entrusted in Mande society with the manipulation of the power of words provides Mamoudou with the linguistic warrant to further explore the Nyamakala-bound jurisdiction of orally recitedhistory. As society reinforces class structures that prevent djeliya from ascending or descending social class, they also place the onus of authority on the djeliya to traffic in the modes of meaning. The polyphony that Mamoudou Kouyate depends on for the authority of his utterance is a part of Bakhtin’s endless flow of utterances that are “preceded by the utterance of others, and . . . followed by the responsive utterances of others” (71).
In Discourse in the Novel, Bakhtin notes that “The processes of centralization and decentralization. . . intersect in the utterance” (668). While Bakhtin’s notion of polyphony provides an apt descriptor for the authorial agency provided Nyamakala in Mande society, his concepts of the centripetal and centrifugal nature of utterances suitably describe the role of the griot as intermediary between the Mansa, or king and his subjects. Since the time of Sundiata[10], the djeli functioned as the public mouthpiece of the Mande aristocracy. In social situations[11]the djeli served as the oral representation of the Mansa.[12] To fully understand the stabilizing-destabilizing dialectic that exists in the utterance of the djeli, one must consider the etymology of the word nyamakala itself.
Etymologically speaking, the word Nyamakala can be broken down into two distinct parts: Nyama and kala. Nyama is understood, in Mande societies, to mean “natural force” while kala means “stick,” “twig,” or “straw”(Conrad and Frank 28). Further Mande shadesin thecomplexion of “natural force” in the word nyama include: “evil or satanic. . . dangerous. . . polluting. . . [and] necessary for action” (28); furthermore, “possible meanings for kala. . . . [include] powerful agent. . . antidote or remedy” (29). McNaughton further explores the “power” involved in Mande Nyamakalaw societies thusly, “At sorcery’s base lies a phenomenon that generates its own fair share of ambivalence and disquiet among the Mande. It is perceived as the world’s basic energy. . . . It is the force the Mande call nyama. . . and which most Westerners would call the supernatural” (McNaughton 15-16). While the nature of the term differs somewhat between various ethnic groups of the Mande cultural assemblage, the term nyamakala could be understood, etymologically, as the “powerful agent that manipulates natural force.” As the term is used to describe a caste bound minority, the meaning of the word itself implicitly acknowledges the role of the djeliya in Mande society to act as manipulators of an ephemeral, raw force that exists in nature. The power to manipulate raw materials such as the spoken word to achieve predetermined goals essentially marginalizes a portion of Mande society because they are ostracized for their ability to regulate and dispense unrefined organic force. The “natural force” employed by the djeliya in Mande culture is representative of an internal dialogism in the utterance in which the centrifugal pressures that arise from the djeli’sposition as a moral barometer conflict with the centrifugal pressures of the dominant discourse of the horon, thereby creating a “double voice” in any nyamakala speech act.
Bonnie Wright, in The Power of Articulation, notes that many griots purposefully act “loud, mischievous and provocative” when in the presence of horon (Wright 52). Further, Barbara Hoffman has argued that djeli “openly criticize nobles in public as well as in private” and observed “young noblewomen in Bamako being publicly rebuked by their griot elders for overstepping the bounds of nobility (horonya) by dancing too much like griots” (Hoffman 37). In these cases, the djeliya of Mande society are privileged to a similar position of the Medieval European court jester[13]. In Hoffman’s case, the djeliya’s first voice acts in the interest of the stabilizing force of utterance (Bakhtin’s centrifugal) by admonishing the noblewomen’s inappropriate behavior, thereby maintaining the status quo; however, the djeliya’s second, or double voice, implicitly questions the dominant discourse and related class structure by providing the voice to critique horon by caste-bound, oppressed nyamakala (Bakhtin’s centripetal).
It is clear that the concept of nyama and its manipulation in sub-Saharan West African culture provides a model of discourse that depends of polyphonic, heteroglossic elements for its recitation and agency; however, the underlying power structures that buttress horon dominated Mande society appear to rely upon a double-voiced discourse that operates in a system wherein the oppressed utterances of the nyamakala provide the motivation for action and social function of society as a whole. Michel Foucault discusses, in The Discourse on Language, an aspect of discourse that I would liken to the concept of nyama and the subsequent fear of the horon concerning it. Foucault claims:
[I]t seems to me, a certain fear hides behind this apparent supremacy accorded, this apparent logophilia. It is as though these taboos, these barriers, thresholds and limits were deliberately disposed in order, at least partly, to master and control the great proliferation of discourse, in such a way as to relieve its richness of its most dangerous elements; to organize its disorder so as to skate round its most uncontrollable aspects. (158)
Power to the Oppressed: The Nyamakala’s Rhetorical Authentication of the HoronCaste
There is undoubtedly in our society, and I would not be surprised to see it in others, though taking different forms and modes, a profound logophobia, a sort of dumb fear of these events, of this mass of spoken things, of everything that could be violent, discontinuous, querulous, disordered even perilous in it, of the incessant, disorderly buzzing of discourse. (Foucault 158)
Extending our discussion of Bakhtin’s centrifugal/centripetal inner dialogic of the utterance into Foucault’s realm of disciplining discourses will reveal the curious social power relations of West African Mande society wherein the powerful, centripetal leaning, discourse fearing,horon caste oppresses the discourse creating, centrifugal celebrating, nyamakala.