Professional Documents
Culture Documents
James T. Brink
Brooklyn College of the
City University of New York
Abstract: This article argues that an anthropology of art can only be valid
as it integrates the art form and the socio-cultural context, using data
from Bamana (peoples from the region of Bamako in Mali) drama performances.
It is shown how cultural knowledge and social activity is situationally used
to contextualize aesthetic experience.
I.
II.
Although several forms of drama are found among the Mande-speaking peoples
of Africa's Western Sudan (Brink 1973; Dembele 1974: 32-39; Arnoldi 1977), some
based upon manipulation of puppets and others upon organization of actors and
actresses, we have detailed information about performance only for the latter
form as it is practiced by Bamana peoples of the Region of Bamako in present-
day Mali. Referred to by several names kote komo manyage, koteba, koteba
nyogolon, kote-tlon bo, kote-tlon this tradition of farcical comedy consists
of several improvized plays in which various cultural stereotypes are satir-
ically portrayed as moral delinquents of one shade or another (cf. Labouret and
Travele 1928; Meillassoux 1964; Brink 1977, 1978).
Among the sedentary Bamana of the Circle of Kolokani (also known as the
beledugu) in the northern section of the Bamako region, where I conducted
research from 1974 - 1976, the drama is performed at night on the village
public place in dry season months (November to May) by young people organized
into male play-acting groups, male drumming teams and a female chorus. These
performing units are affiliated with the youth ton (kamalenw ton), an age-grade
association cutting across the agnatically organized lineage structure of free
men (horon) and casted persons (nyamakala). Comprising unmarried males and
females of the village roughly between 10 and 30 years of age, the ton
functions chiefly as a collective work group (ngonson ton) and an entertainment
society (koteba ton). When emergent as the latter, its purpose is to provide
musicians for activities of the various cult societies, provide food and
accommodation for visiting entertainers (singers, musicians, acting troupes), or
organize and present the kote-tlon drama for such occasions as the celebration
of a marriage or funeral, renewing ties with neighboring or ancestral villages,
or for no other reason than to fill idle moments with the brand of humor the
comedies afford. Drawn from human and spirit worlds, audiences for the drama
consist for the most part of married persons and uninitiated children, the two
age-grades flanking the youth organization, and bush spirits who, Bamana claim,
attend the comedies to steal ideas for their own dramatic productions played
in the bush.
When viewed in the context of everyday Bamana life these themes are
serious, deadly serious in some cases. When viewed through the theatrical
lens, on the other hand, they assume the character of what Clifford Geertz
calls "deep play," thematic elements possessing the capacity to motivate
interest and involvement by increasing the meaningful depth of the play
experience (1973: A31^34). As Bamana actors express it, only by playing out
these themes as close as possible to "real life" can they be considered
"famous actors" in the community. At the same time, however, these actors
are well aware of the dangers associated with deep play. Disaster stories
abound about actors who were "taken seriously," who in our terms knowingly
or unwittingly stepped outside the theatrical definition of the situation in
their "play" and become theatrical stars. In view of such knowledge it is not
surprising that Bamana interpret moving into dramatic performance as a transi-
tion of sorts. I conceptualized this transition above as one in which a
situation becomes defined in terms of dramatic illusion. Bamana view it
similarly in principle and devote time and effort in every kote-tlon perfor-
mance to its realization in fact.
III.
IV.
So, how do prologue skits transform awareness into one of a theatrical
kind; how, in other words, do Bamana set up a frame for theatrical deep play?
The most frequently mentioned strategy is the acceleration of body tempo.
Bamana interpret a sussun rhythm as slower than everyday tempo while a
£ploba rhythm represents a pace faster than the everyday norm. In the
prologue actors adopt for the most part the goloba movement style, performing
all acts and gestures, say Bamana, "in an instant" without much regard for
control. Equally obvious is the shortness of the skits compared to the
plays, most skits not exceeding fifty seconds in duration. "Everybody
audience and actors," commented one informant, "have in their minds that
the short ones will come first. This happens in every kote-tlon." Besides
short duration the prologue skits exhibit no dialogue among characters, no
thematic development, and no scenes in the sense of definite settings,
situations and problems. As noted above, we have no dramatic situations,
only a series of short, fast-paced presentations consisting of a song and/or
dance sometimes repeated one or two times.
The kaka always initiates the prologue and announces the start of kote^
tlon. Ideally, it is performed by boys 5 to 10 years of age who claim
membership in the nfdomo society, a secretive association organizing cult
activities of uncircumcised boys. In practice, however, the kaka is often
performed by circumcised boys who have left n'domo and become members of the
village youth association. In either case, the time allotted to kaka must be
used to present material having some relationship to nfdomo and if n'domo
children are not available the songs and dances may be performed by boys of
the youth association who owe allegiance to the most recently formed age—set
8
and are in attendance at the performance, This emphasis upon having young
performers present the kaka is important, for Bamana conceptualize youthful
innocence as a means for accomplishing kakafs purpose in the prologue.
As one informant explained it^
The term koreduga is most commonly used to designate a person with a good
sense of humor, one who can tell a joke, act in humorous ways and appreciate
the wit of others. In the portion of the prologue known by the same name
time and space are set aside for performers to formally take on the comedian
role. In the performances I observed, the skit most often used for this
purpose derives its name and performance material from a specialized group
of ritual clowns of the men's kore society who are best known for their
esoteric knowledge, power and comic inversions and reversals of reality.
Twisting the structure and meaning of words and phrases and decked out in
fantastic costumes (cf. Zahan 1960), they always introduce levity, combined
with a degree of seriousness, into everyday life when they appear. In the
context of the koreduga segment, anywhere from 1 to 5 players key these
buffoons by singing of the enormous quantities of food these persons are
reputed to consume in one sitting, dancing their rhythms one by one, and some-
times by greeting the lead drummer with one of their absurd expressions, such
as "Here is the tobacco, no box in it." They tour the public place using
the buffoon character and its songs to levy social criticism. One of these
songs refers to the above-mentioned tension between young men and village
elders:
10
Other songs which may be used criticize libertine behavior of young women,
and old men for taking sexual interests in young women.
Taking on such roles and drawing a connection between their purposes and
the frivolity of communal Varite pounding, women's drama, formalized joking
relationships, ritual clown buffoonery and the state of the destitute, players
of the koreduga align themselves with some of their society's most well-^
known varieties of comic experience. In so doing, players draw upon know-
ledge which, on the one,hand, represents taken^for-granted facts of Bamana
cultural experience and, on the other hand, invokes a mode of experience
closely related to their immediate intentions, the performance of theatrical
11
V.
In summary, Bamana actors utilize the prologue portion of kote-tlon
to construct rhetorical messages which announce, in effect, that what is
occurring is kote-tlon drama and not something else. Taking on the role of
children in the kaka, players symbolically exchange their status as members
of the youth association for that of persons outside the officially recognized
hierarchies of power and authority in political and spiritual life. Moreover,
by assuming various culturally explicit comic roles in the koreduga,
players provide a sense of the theatrical intent of the performance, including
the idea that social satire is an integral feature of the event's definition.
Notes
1. I wish to thank Alan P, Merriam for his thoughtful comments and suggestions
on an earlier draft of this paper prepared for the Central States
Anthropological Society's annual meeting in 1978.
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13
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