User:Mark Dingemanse/research

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Contents 1 Kanga 1.1 History 1.2 The kanga as a vehicle of communication 1.3 Sources 2 Kenzi-Dongolawi 3 Nobiin 3.1 Vocabulary 3.2 Refs 4 Ewe people 5 Doctrina Christiana 6 Ephraim Amu

[edit] Kanga

• Kanga (African garment) (is that a good title?)
• It's cheap
• Always sold in pairs (Yahya-Othman 1997:137)
• 'Women buy kangas'with the same enthusiasm that they buy other garments, often and with great care, but because kangas cost much less than, for instance, a dress, some women can afford to buy many more, and often do so 'for a rainy day'. Kangas are often exchanged as presents between women, and men may give women kangas, but very rarely the reverse.' (Yahya-Othman 1997:137)

[edit] History

• Hassan O. Ali says that Kanga's originated on the Swahili coast in the mid 19th century. However, he also notes that there are various versions of the history of the Kanga, citing the Australian journalist Troughear who doesn't think that the Kanga originated in Zanzibar. In fact, one of the most thoroughgoing studies of the Kanga, Hongoke (1993) holds that the kanga was brought to the East African coast by Indian and Arab traders around 1860. Yahya-Othman largely passes by the question of the origin, although she notes that 'the kanga was in the past confined to the coastal communities, but is now worn throughout Tanzania (1997:137).

[edit] The kanga as a vehicle of communication

• The seminal study is Hongoke (1993), which investigates over a thousand kanga messages collected over a period of time, along with over five hundred interviews with both men and women, in five regions of Tanzania. According to Yahya-Othman, Hongoke (1993) focuses predominantly on the negative role of KNs, as a source of conflict and the degradation of women (1997:141).
• Yahya-Othman 1997:138: 'The utteranceship of KNs [kanga names, md] is also demonstrated in the occasional response issuing from onlookers, as evidenced in several cases I observed where other women said (after reading the KN aloud):

Na kweli! [True indeed!]

Hapo umesema! [Now your're talking!]

Usinambie! [Don't tell me!]

Wala si uongo! [You lie not!]

• Yahya-Othman invokes Brown & Levinson's (1978) theories of indirectness and politeness, noting that the communicative act in this case is essentially and indirect one. As she says, 'the politness of KNs does not lie in the content of the message, which can be extremely blunt, aggressive and even obscene, but rather in the redressive action that the addresser takes in providing herself, and consequently her addressee as well, with an out. She has always the option of denying that she intended the KN for any particular person, and thereby save embarrassment not only to herself, but to her supposed addressee as well.' (1997:140).

[edit] Sources

• Hongoke, Christine J. (1993) The effects of Khanga inscription as a communication vehicle in Tanzania, Research report, 19. Dar es Salaam: Women's Research and Documentation Project.

  The 'khanga' (or 'kanga') is a rectangular piece of cotton cloth about one and a half metres long and one metre wide, normally printed with bold designs in bright colours. It was brought to the East African coast by Indian and Arab traders around AD 1860. Since then it has become the most popular form of dress for women in Tanzania and other parts of East Africa. The purpose of this study is to look at the 'khanga' as a vehicle of communication, that is messages are printed on the 'khanga', which have been produced in Tanzania itself since 1950. This study considers over a thousand 'khanga' messages collected over a period of time, and is also the fruit of over five hundred interviews with both men and women, in five regions of Tanzania. The analysis of discourse focuses on popular themes or issues in the society, and looks at the use or misuse to which the 'khanga' may be put. This study also led to the recordings of some of the legends and stories referred to on 'khanga', which have never before been written down, only passed on orally. 'Khanga' have proved to be powerful tools for transmitting messages, for correcting social ills, and for educating people about popular issues. They can even be a tool for maintaining peace and social stability, but they can have the opposite effect as well.

• Yahya-Othman, Saida (1997) 'If the cap fits: 'kanga' names and women's voice in Swahili society', Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere, 51, 135-149.

  The messages that appear on 'kangas' (pieces of printed cotton fabric, worn by women in East and parts of Central Africa) are viewed as a uniquely female form of communication, and women in Zanzibar, the area covered by this study, have been making increasingly use of them as an additional strategy which allows them to make strong statements about their concerns, while at the same time avoiding any direct conflict which may arise from their individual actions. Kanga messages (often in the form of riddles or proverbs) play a significant role in the marital sphere; they allow (married) women to make their feelings known to both specific individuals (their husbands) and the wider public. This paper examines the significance of kanga inscriptions or names as manifestations of both resistance and indirectness within the lives of Swahili women. Questionnaires were administered to 36 women in Zanzibar town, asking them about the importance of kanga names as a method of communication, and why they preferred these indirect routes.

• Linnebuhr, E. (1992) 'Kanga: popular cloths with messages', Matatu, 9, 81-90

  Kanga' are colourful, message-bearing cloths worn by women in many parts of East Africa. The messages, which are in Swahili, the lingua franca, touch on important spheres of life: social and ethical norms, sex, religion and politics. Despite changing fashions, 'kanga' have retained their form since the 19th century. They are rectangular-shaped and measure about 150 cm in length and 110 cm in width. This article discusses the different ways of making use of the 'kanga', the sayings which are preferred, depending on social status and the occasion, and the themes of the message-bearing cloths. In order to explain the flourishing of 'kanga' clothing, the article considers the spread of cotton fabrics in East Africa in the 19th century. It also describes the design and production of 'kanga' and their emergence in Zanzibar. Since the mid-1980s the tradition of the 'kanga' culture has been threatened by competition from secondhand clothes from Europe. They are disappearing from the public sphere and, with them, an important means of communication.

• Beck, Rose-Marie (2001) 'Ambiguous signs: the role of the 'kanga' as a medium of communication', Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere, 68, 157-169.

  The 'kanga' is a printed cotton cloth frequently used as a dress by women all over East Africa. The cloth measures about 110 cm in height and 150 cm in length. It is defined by a border ('pindo') and a central field ('mji') and usually contains on the lower third a printed, proverbial inscription ('jinja'). This article deals with the communicative uses of the 'kanga'. Starting from the hypothesis that the 'kanga' indeed has communicative potential, communication is understood as social interaction, whereby the focus is not solely on meaning in a pragmatic or semantic sense, but rather on social meaning, i.e. the negotiation of relationships between the interactants in an area of tension between individual, social and cultural interests. This is shown in the first part of the analysis. The second part of the analysis describes and explains the role of the medium 'kanga' within this process of ambiguity. The article is based on material collected during two fieldwork periods in 1994/1995 and 1996 in Mombasa (Kenya) and, from 1995 onwards, in various archives in the Netherlands and Switzerland.

• Perani, Judith M. & Norma Hackleman Wolff (1999) Cloth, Dress and Art Patronage in Africa. Oxford/New York: Berg Publishers.

  Don't have much on the kanga, but cite Hilger 1995.

• Hilger, J. (1995) 'The Kanga: An examples of East African textile design', in J. Picton (ed.), The Art of African Textiles: Technology, Tradition and Lurex. London: Barbican Art Gallery, Lund Humphries Publishers, 44-5.

  Women ... treasure their kanga. They are often given as gifts (in some regions the husband has to buy his wife four kanga every four months) and are usually kept in chests, some of them only to be worn on special occasions. Women might go out together wearing the same kanga in order to signal their frinedship and aknga have also been used as a currency. At times of financial crisis they may be pawned by the women, but only by women, since although kanga are paid for mby men they constitute part of a woman's wealth.' (p. 44)

[edit] Kenzi-Dongolawi

Some material in Nobiin language (classification, history).

• Spaulding, Jay (1975) 'Introduction to Arcangelo Carradori's Dictionary of 17th Century Kenzi Nubian'. Occasional Paper of the Historisk Institutt, Universitetet i Bergen, Norway. online version
• Arcangelo Carradori's Dictionary of 17th Century Kenzi Nubian: tables and supplements
• Arcangelo Carradori's Dictionary of 17th Century Kenzi Nubian at yourdictionary.com.
• Hofmann, Inge (1986) Nubisches Wörterverzeichnis. Nubisch-deutsches und deutsch-nubisches Wörterverzeichnis nach dem Kenzi-Material des Samuêl Alî Hisên(1863-1927). Collectanea Instituti Anthropos, 35. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.

[edit] Nobiin

To do: writing system, vocabulary, a little more on classification, and some sociolinguistics

Abstract of a recent talk by Hashim [1]

Abstract of a recent talk by Claude Rilly [2]

[edit] Vocabulary

Nobiin kadiis

[edit] Refs

• Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne (1984)

• Spaulding, Jay (1990) 'The old Shaiqi language in historical perspective', History in Africa, 17, 283-292. He claims that 'Despite claims of Arabic origin and their acceptance by some Orientalists, the Old Shaiqi language was a form of Nubian closely related to Classical Nubian and the modern Nobiin speech found in the Kerma area of the northern Sudan. Shaiqiya was located in the heartland of the medieval Christian kingdom of Makuria, where vestiges of earlier Nubian culture survived. Even after the Egyptian conquest of 1820, part of the Shaiqiya community, as well as the language, survived on Echo Island in the Nile, as 19th-century documents attest. From there the Nidayfab prospered as merchants, organized into their own caliphate.' Based on Sudanese National Records Office documents; 20 notes.
• Shinnie, P.L. (1978) 'The Ancient Languages of the Northern Sudan', Occasional Papers in Linguistics and Language Learning, 5, Aug, 82-96. Presented are some hypotheses concerning the languages that were spoken in the northern Sudan before the arrival of the Arabs. Two modern langs - Beja & Nubian - show evidence of having been spoken in the region for a long period.

[edit] Ewe people

Circumcision

Bryk 2001: 'Jakob Spieth gives a detailed description of circumcision among the Ewe tribes, which (according to Zeller) is performed without ceremonies, but still to be condered a substitute for initiation. "The custiom of circumcision prevails among the greater part of the Ewe-speaking peoples. The only exceptions are the Peki and the inhabitants of the mountains of Avatime and Logba."

• Bryk, Felix (2001) Circumcision in Man and Woman: Its History, Psychology and Ethnology. Hawai: University Press of the Pacific.
• Spieth, J. (1906) I Die Ewestaemme. Berlin.
• Spieth, J. (1911) II Die Religion d. Eweer in Sud-Togo. Leipzig: Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung.

Greetings

See Dzameshie's 'Greetings among the Ewes' in the 3D festschrift.

• Dzameshie, Alex K. (2002) 'Greetings among the Ewes', in Ameka & Kweku Osam (eds.) New Directions in Ghanaian Linguistics, Accra: Advent Press, pp. 381-408.

[edit] Doctrina Christiana

The Gbe language the document is written is is confirmed to be Gen by Delafosse. Labouret & Rivet's study includes a word list and an interlinear translation of part of the DC, as well as the full edition in Spanish and 'Arda'. They note that "la langue ge avait été souvent torturée par les religieux espagnols et leaurs informateurs pour composer la Doctrina Christiana" (p. 39).

• Labouret, Henir and Paul Rivet (1929) Le Royaume d'Arda et son Évangélisation au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Institut d'Ethnologie.

[edit] Ephraim Amu

See ee:Ephraim Amu...

Ephraim Amu (13 September 1899 - 1995) was a Ghanaian composer, musicologist and teacher.

A male child was born on Wednesday 13 September, 1899 at Peki-Avetile also called Abenase in the Peki traditional area of the Volta Region . As a Ghanaian born on Wednesday, he was called Kɔku. His father was Stephen Amuyaa, a wood carver and popularly called Papa Stefano. His mother was Sarah Akoram Ama. Ephraim Kɔku Amu was baptised by the Rev. Rudolf Mallet on 22nd October, 1899. Kɔku Ephraim went to school in May 1906. At about age 12, Tata Amu enterred the Peki-Blengo E.P. Boarding Middle School. Kɔku Ephraim showed much interest and love for music and agriculture. According to him, he enjoyed the music teacher, Mr Karl Ntem's music during church collections when he plays soul moving renditions on the organ. Amu and his music teacher Karl Ntem struck a mutual agreement. Ephraim Amu requested to be taught the skills of organ playing and in return Mr Karl Theodore Ntem asked Amu to work on his farm on Saturdays. In 1915, amu passed the standard 7 school leaving certificate examination and also passed the Abetifi teachers Seminary Examination. In 1916 amu and two other colleagues had to walk 150 miles from Peki to Abetifi with their boxes on their heads to start teacher training education. Along their journey, Amu and his colleagues had to rest at several points including Koforidua, Nkawkaw, Asubone and Obomen. Amu joined other 25 newcomers at the college. While at the college, amu realised that some of the students including his classmates owned steel bicyces so he set himself the task to build his own bicycle from wood. He carved this from a wood slab in the bush near the college. Students who discovered his handiwork brought it into the open and named it Amu. It is on record that even the son of the Swiss Principal, Stern, enjoyed many rides on the Amu wooden cycle. Amu also used his ingenuity and creativity to carve wooden balls for the school games. These repalced the imported balls used at the time at the seminary. Amu completed his four-year teacher-catechist training in 1919. Newly graduating teacher-catechist Ephraim Amu was one of the two preachers selected to mount the pulpit on behalf of their fellow mates as was customary to preach and to express their appreciation to their tutors and townsfolk. The sermon also served as an assessment of the quality of theological training offered and learnt by the students. Amu chose the sermon text from Matthew 25:40 on this occasion. Amu's theme was “ the Lord will thank you for all the good you have done for his little ones”. Amu used both Twi and Ewe in his short sermon. By the time Amu completed his training, motor vehicles were more common so he could travel from Abetifi to Osino and travel by train to Koforidua then took a motor vehicle to Frankadua. He made the remaining journey on foot from Frankadua to Peki, a distance of 18 miles. From 1st January, 1920 Amu started work as a teacher at Peki-Blengo E.P. Middle Boarding School . On taking his appointment, Mr Amu taught songs and was keen on making his pupils able to read music well. He went to Koforidua to buy a five octave Henry Riley folding organ for the school. He faced the problem of carrying the organ to Peki. After succesfully reaching Frankadua by a motor vehicle, he had to carry the organ on his head and walk the distance all-night and arrived at Peki the following morning. Eager to master his skilss in music, Amu took music lessons with Rev. Allotey-Pappoe who was a Methodist Minister stationed at Peki Avetile.

Amu composed several musical pieces. Some of these are: i. Fare thee well ii. Mawɔ dɔ na Yesu iii. Nkwagye Dwom iv. Dwonto v.Yetu Osa vi. Israel Hene vii. Onipa da wo ho so viii. Yaanom Abibirimma ix. Yen Ara Asase Ni

Of these, Yen ara Asase Ni has become a nationally acclaimed patriotic song performed at national functions. From 1926 Ephraim Kɔku Amu was transferred on promotion to Presbyterian Mission Seminary at Akropong on the recommendation of the Synod Committee of the Eʋe Presbyteria Hame . At Akropong, Amu was seen in his actions and ideas as unorthodox. As a tutor in charge of gardening he requested students to use night soil to manure the college farm. The students found this unpleasant since it was a taboo for an educated man to carry human excreta. To prove that example was better than precept he would carry the excreta to the college farm himself ahead of the unwilling students. Dr. Ephraim Amu employed no one to sweep his rooms, wash his plates or run errands for him. No manual work was too menial or hard for him. He believed in using African cultural artefacts and good African technological and social inventions. Dr, Amu preferred the title Owura to 'mister' as a prefix to his name . Dr Kɔku Ephraim Amu selected Twi African names for the four new college dormitories which were completed in 1929. Upon request from Mr Ferguson, the Principal of Akropong Training college, Dr Amu came out with a solfa and notation of the street song “Yaa Amponsa” set to his own chaste words. His students enjoyed the new song, melody and the new words. 'The street ballard Yaa Amponsa had new clothes ' and was popular with great appeal and appreciation.

Dr Amu learnt to speak correct Akuapem Twi from members of his singing band. The Akropong Church singing Band specialised in Amu's type of African music during the period he led and taught the group. In 1927, inspired by the contents of the WASU magazine, Amu decided that he would wear African dress with pride. Amu decided not to wear warm unsuitable European clothes in tropical Africa. Amu made efforts to make christian church worship more meaningful to African worshipers who were ashamed of their African clothing, language, music and even their African names. Amu as part of his ingenuity and creativity introduced bamboo lutes- odurogyaba, odurogya and atɛtɛnbɛn. In 1965 Ephraim Kɔku Amu was awarded the honorary doctorate degree. In 1931 after Amu preached wearing his African attire on Sunday, he was summoned to appear before the church court. The Rev. Peter Hall told Amu, ' we were taken aback to see you conduct Sunday service in a native cloth. We hope you will not do this again.' Amu therefore in his polite manner took leave of the church session but decided in his heart to continue to work in the church as a catechist and music teacher rather than to become a minister of the Gospel to accept wearing unsuitable European dress. In June 1942, Dr Amu married Beatrice Yao . Dr Amu presented a wooden box made of the finest wood instead of an imported steel trunk to his bride. Dr Amu married at the ripe age of 43 on 3rd September, 1942. On Saturday, 27 March, 1965 the University of Ghana conferred the degree of Doctor of Music on Ephraim Kɔku Amu at the University of Ghana, Legon.