Singing with the Dogon Prophet

Inbunden, Engelska, 2022

AvWalter E.A. van Beek,Oumarou S. Ongoiba,Atimè D. Saye

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In the Dogon funeral proceedings, a major song cycle called baja ni is performed in a session of at least seven hours. The texts of the chants are attributed to a legendary figure called Abir?, who as a blind singer in the nineteenth century roamed the heartland of the Dogon. The baja ni songs have escaped scholarly attention thus far. Singing with the Dogon Prophet by Walter E.A. van Beek, Oumarou S. Ongoiba, and Atimε D. Saye provides their first publication in English as well as an analysis of these songs. These texts deal with the relations between man and woman, man’s ambivalent dependency on the otherworld, and with life and death; the whole night performance is one of the high points of the funeral. Additionally, Abir? is a prophet, and during his life has uttered a great number of prophecies on a wide range of topics, from local issues to the relation of the Dogon with the Fulbe herdsmen, and from the arrival of the colonials to ecological transformation. This book examines how these prophecies with these songs offer an inside view of the way the Dogon construct the present in a continuous dialogue with their past and their projected future.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2022-04-25
Mått160 x 229 x 19 mm
Vikt526 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor262
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN9781793654250

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This fine book does two things. First, it takes us deeply into the philosophical underpinnings of Dogon mortuary rituals. Second, by covering the sequence of songs performed in a single long night as experienced by the lead author, enhanced by excellent photos and drawings, it gives the reader a feeling of having been physically present there. This duality is rare in academic writing. The many comparisons between Dogon and Abrahamic religion make the book as accessible to a general Judeo-Christian readership as to anthropologists.