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Contes mossi actuels: Étude ethno-linguistique by G. CanuReview by: Thomas H. PetersonAfrica: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 41, No. 4 (Oct., 1971), pp. 347-348Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1158939 .
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REVIEWS OF BOOKS 347 Le Thgdtre en Afrique noire et d Madagascar. Par R. CORNEVIN. Paris: Le Livre Africain, 1970.
In-8, Pp. 335. BIEN que le titre de ce volume soit 'le theatre en Afrique noire ', l'auteur s'attache a retracer l'evolution de cet art dans les pays francophones, a l'exclusion des autres, mais cependant en y incorporant l'lthiopie! II mentionne sur le meme plan le theatre des marion- nettes (bien connu d'Africanistes comme Delafosse ou Labouret, p. 22 ss.), les representa- tions scolaires, puis les essais d'ecrivains autochtones s'inspirant de legendes locales et de themes folkloriques. M. Cornevin traite ensuite du probleme des acteurs noirs en Europe, des spectacles plus ou moins influences par l'Afrique, mentionnant meme un auteur libanais (p. I47). Mais pourquoi inclure les Antillais ? On sent l'auteur moins a l'aise pour parler de Madagascar. Nous n'incluons pas, comme lui, les hain-teny dans le theatre; d'autre part, il semble ignorer le voyage fait par Jacques Copeau en 1939. Malgre ces quelques reserves, ce volume rendra service par son index, vrai repertoire d'auteurs et de pieces, et par les nom- breuses references a des articles de journaux souvent difficiles a retrouver.
MARCELLE URBAIN-FAUBLEE
Chopi Musicians: their Music, Poetry and Instruments. By HUGH TRACEY. [Reprint with new introduction, Ist edn. 1948.] London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1970. Pp. 193, I5 p1s., 7 diagr., II pp. of music. ?2-25.
THIS is a reprint-but with a vital difference. Dr. Hugh Tracey's well-known book was first published in 1948. That book is here reproduced as it stood, together with an additional short introduction, and a useful list on page I64 of recordings of Timbila music. This is all to the good: the text remains sound and informative and indeed is the standard work on Chopi xylophone orchestras, songs, and dances.
But-and here is the new vital contribution-the original musical transcriptions in Appen- dix V have been replaced by a new set of transcriptions made by Hugh Tracey's son Andrew. Your reviewer has always regarded the original transcriptions with suspicion. They might have been right but they did not look right. The new music is an eye-opener: Andrew Tracey himself plays the Chopi xylophones and has consulted the musicians themselves at great length on the music as he has transcribed it. We now have eleven pages of music which breathes authenticity. And what is more, it shows the manner of orchestral playing to be essentially the same remarkable interlocking technique used by the Baganda as revealed by Gerhard Kubik in, for instance, 'African Music', Journal of the African Music Society, vol. 2, no. 3, 1960: to this technique the Chopi frequently add another-the playing of 'three-against-two ' which again has a partial interlocking effect. Andrew Tracey is to be congratulated on this music and we much hope that his father's projected apparatus for visibly recording this complicated music will soon be a reality. We shall then know un- equivocally what exactly each instrument is playing.
Librarians please take note: so important an advance is contained by these transcriptions that the new edition entirely supersedes the old and it most certainly should find a place on library shelves. A. M. JONES
Contes mossi actuels: 1ttude ethno-linguistique. By G. CANU. Dakar: IFAN, I969. Pp. 361, bibl., map. F. 81.
THIS work contains three parts: a phonological sketch, a collection of twenty-five folk-tales (Moore texts recorded and transcribed by the author with both a word-for-word and a free
REVIEWS OF BOOKS 347 Le Thgdtre en Afrique noire et d Madagascar. Par R. CORNEVIN. Paris: Le Livre Africain, 1970.
In-8, Pp. 335. BIEN que le titre de ce volume soit 'le theatre en Afrique noire ', l'auteur s'attache a retracer l'evolution de cet art dans les pays francophones, a l'exclusion des autres, mais cependant en y incorporant l'lthiopie! II mentionne sur le meme plan le theatre des marion- nettes (bien connu d'Africanistes comme Delafosse ou Labouret, p. 22 ss.), les representa- tions scolaires, puis les essais d'ecrivains autochtones s'inspirant de legendes locales et de themes folkloriques. M. Cornevin traite ensuite du probleme des acteurs noirs en Europe, des spectacles plus ou moins influences par l'Afrique, mentionnant meme un auteur libanais (p. I47). Mais pourquoi inclure les Antillais ? On sent l'auteur moins a l'aise pour parler de Madagascar. Nous n'incluons pas, comme lui, les hain-teny dans le theatre; d'autre part, il semble ignorer le voyage fait par Jacques Copeau en 1939. Malgre ces quelques reserves, ce volume rendra service par son index, vrai repertoire d'auteurs et de pieces, et par les nom- breuses references a des articles de journaux souvent difficiles a retrouver.
MARCELLE URBAIN-FAUBLEE
Chopi Musicians: their Music, Poetry and Instruments. By HUGH TRACEY. [Reprint with new introduction, Ist edn. 1948.] London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1970. Pp. 193, I5 p1s., 7 diagr., II pp. of music. ?2-25.
THIS is a reprint-but with a vital difference. Dr. Hugh Tracey's well-known book was first published in 1948. That book is here reproduced as it stood, together with an additional short introduction, and a useful list on page I64 of recordings of Timbila music. This is all to the good: the text remains sound and informative and indeed is the standard work on Chopi xylophone orchestras, songs, and dances.
But-and here is the new vital contribution-the original musical transcriptions in Appen- dix V have been replaced by a new set of transcriptions made by Hugh Tracey's son Andrew. Your reviewer has always regarded the original transcriptions with suspicion. They might have been right but they did not look right. The new music is an eye-opener: Andrew Tracey himself plays the Chopi xylophones and has consulted the musicians themselves at great length on the music as he has transcribed it. We now have eleven pages of music which breathes authenticity. And what is more, it shows the manner of orchestral playing to be essentially the same remarkable interlocking technique used by the Baganda as revealed by Gerhard Kubik in, for instance, 'African Music', Journal of the African Music Society, vol. 2, no. 3, 1960: to this technique the Chopi frequently add another-the playing of 'three-against-two ' which again has a partial interlocking effect. Andrew Tracey is to be congratulated on this music and we much hope that his father's projected apparatus for visibly recording this complicated music will soon be a reality. We shall then know un- equivocally what exactly each instrument is playing.
Librarians please take note: so important an advance is contained by these transcriptions that the new edition entirely supersedes the old and it most certainly should find a place on library shelves. A. M. JONES
Contes mossi actuels: 1ttude ethno-linguistique. By G. CANU. Dakar: IFAN, I969. Pp. 361, bibl., map. F. 81.
THIS work contains three parts: a phonological sketch, a collection of twenty-five folk-tales (Moore texts recorded and transcribed by the author with both a word-for-word and a free
REVIEWS OF BOOKS 347 Le Thgdtre en Afrique noire et d Madagascar. Par R. CORNEVIN. Paris: Le Livre Africain, 1970.
In-8, Pp. 335. BIEN que le titre de ce volume soit 'le theatre en Afrique noire ', l'auteur s'attache a retracer l'evolution de cet art dans les pays francophones, a l'exclusion des autres, mais cependant en y incorporant l'lthiopie! II mentionne sur le meme plan le theatre des marion- nettes (bien connu d'Africanistes comme Delafosse ou Labouret, p. 22 ss.), les representa- tions scolaires, puis les essais d'ecrivains autochtones s'inspirant de legendes locales et de themes folkloriques. M. Cornevin traite ensuite du probleme des acteurs noirs en Europe, des spectacles plus ou moins influences par l'Afrique, mentionnant meme un auteur libanais (p. I47). Mais pourquoi inclure les Antillais ? On sent l'auteur moins a l'aise pour parler de Madagascar. Nous n'incluons pas, comme lui, les hain-teny dans le theatre; d'autre part, il semble ignorer le voyage fait par Jacques Copeau en 1939. Malgre ces quelques reserves, ce volume rendra service par son index, vrai repertoire d'auteurs et de pieces, et par les nom- breuses references a des articles de journaux souvent difficiles a retrouver.
MARCELLE URBAIN-FAUBLEE
Chopi Musicians: their Music, Poetry and Instruments. By HUGH TRACEY. [Reprint with new introduction, Ist edn. 1948.] London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1970. Pp. 193, I5 p1s., 7 diagr., II pp. of music. ?2-25.
THIS is a reprint-but with a vital difference. Dr. Hugh Tracey's well-known book was first published in 1948. That book is here reproduced as it stood, together with an additional short introduction, and a useful list on page I64 of recordings of Timbila music. This is all to the good: the text remains sound and informative and indeed is the standard work on Chopi xylophone orchestras, songs, and dances.
But-and here is the new vital contribution-the original musical transcriptions in Appen- dix V have been replaced by a new set of transcriptions made by Hugh Tracey's son Andrew. Your reviewer has always regarded the original transcriptions with suspicion. They might have been right but they did not look right. The new music is an eye-opener: Andrew Tracey himself plays the Chopi xylophones and has consulted the musicians themselves at great length on the music as he has transcribed it. We now have eleven pages of music which breathes authenticity. And what is more, it shows the manner of orchestral playing to be essentially the same remarkable interlocking technique used by the Baganda as revealed by Gerhard Kubik in, for instance, 'African Music', Journal of the African Music Society, vol. 2, no. 3, 1960: to this technique the Chopi frequently add another-the playing of 'three-against-two ' which again has a partial interlocking effect. Andrew Tracey is to be congratulated on this music and we much hope that his father's projected apparatus for visibly recording this complicated music will soon be a reality. We shall then know un- equivocally what exactly each instrument is playing.
Librarians please take note: so important an advance is contained by these transcriptions that the new edition entirely supersedes the old and it most certainly should find a place on library shelves. A. M. JONES
Contes mossi actuels: 1ttude ethno-linguistique. By G. CANU. Dakar: IFAN, I969. Pp. 361, bibl., map. F. 81.
THIS work contains three parts: a phonological sketch, a collection of twenty-five folk-tales (Moore texts recorded and transcribed by the author with both a word-for-word and a free
This content downloaded from 62.122.73.17 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 05:05:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
translation in French for each tale), and an ethnological analysis of the tales. A major portion of the book (250 pages) is taken up by the texts.
The phonological sketch, presented from a strict structuralist point of view, consists of a list of the phonemes of Moore along with some minimal pairs and the mention of a few morphophonemic changes. This is basically just a repetition of material already presented in more detail by R. P. Alexandre (La Langue moro, Dakar, 1953) and M. Houis (' Principes d'orthographe du m6re', Notes africaines, lxxxvi, 1960); there are no new questions raised or new insights provided. Canu devotes only three pages to the tone system. He makes the claim that there are three distinctive tones at the phonemic level: high, mid, low. In one sentence he dismisses the possibility that Moore has a 'terraced level' system (cf. W. Welmers, ' Tonemics, Morphotonemics, and Tonal Morphemes', General Linguistics, iv, 1959), in spite of the fact that he describes all the characteristics of such a system. (This reviewer has found Moore to have a terraced level system, which, by use of a generative model, can be analysed as possessing two phonemic tones, high and low, plus a predictable surface 'mid' tone-cf. T. H. Peterson, 'Remarques sur le principe du systeme tonal du more ', Notes et documents voltaiques, i. 3, I968.
The twenty-five tales presented in the middle section of the book plus 225 others solicited in writing (in French) from Mossi secondary school students form the corpus for the ethno- logical analysis. The approach is essentially non-historical. Although there are important precedents in the synchronic analysis of folk-tales (cf. Alan Dundes, 'From etic to emic Units in the Structural Study of Folktales ', Journal of American Folklore, lxxv, 1962) begin- ning with Vladimir Propp's classic Morphology of the Folktale (I928), Canu, making no men- tion of these, chooses what might be termed an informal literary stance. His analysis consists of a loose classification into three basic types: morality tales, tales for amusement, and etiological tales; each of these is further subdivided. There is also a separate classification of character types, e.g. human, animal, etc. Some interesting points are raised, such as the use of certain satirical tales and character types as a comment on Mossi society, but they are never developed. After pointing out the generally harsh and uncomplimentary portrayal of women and then suggesting that this may result from the fact that these tales are composed by men for men, Canu leaves us with the following unenlightened (and unsupported) conclusion (p. 32): '. . . c'est donc la une reaction masculine fort comprehensible contre l'emprise occulte, inavouee mais reelle qu'exercent les femmes et les jeunes filles sur l'ele- ment male, chez les Mosi et ailleurs! ' (No doubt Women's Liberation will have something to say to that.)
A particularly annoying feature of this book is the repeated offer of meaningless statistics. The reader is treated to numerous tables showing the distribution of each tale type according to the informant's religion (Moslem, Christian, or Undetermined-based solely on what the individual's given name is), sex, and class in school. Nowhere are we told what the signi- ficance of these figures is nor are they ever employed to sustain a point. This work fails to make a significant contribution in either the field of linguistics or that of ethnology.
THOMAS H. PETERSON
Kamus na Hausa-Rashanci. Edited by D. A. OLDEROGGE. Moscow: State Publishing House for Foreign and National Dictionaries, I963. Pp. 458.
Lenin: takaitaccen tarihin rayuwarsa. Trans. ADO GWADABE. Moscow, I968. Pp. I26.
Seryoja. By VERA PANOVA, trans. ADO GWADABE. Moscow, n.d. Pp. 149. Talifi a kan malam na farko. By CINGIZ AITMATOV, trans. ADO GWADABE. Moscow, n.d.
Pp. 104.
translation in French for each tale), and an ethnological analysis of the tales. A major portion of the book (250 pages) is taken up by the texts.
The phonological sketch, presented from a strict structuralist point of view, consists of a list of the phonemes of Moore along with some minimal pairs and the mention of a few morphophonemic changes. This is basically just a repetition of material already presented in more detail by R. P. Alexandre (La Langue moro, Dakar, 1953) and M. Houis (' Principes d'orthographe du m6re', Notes africaines, lxxxvi, 1960); there are no new questions raised or new insights provided. Canu devotes only three pages to the tone system. He makes the claim that there are three distinctive tones at the phonemic level: high, mid, low. In one sentence he dismisses the possibility that Moore has a 'terraced level' system (cf. W. Welmers, ' Tonemics, Morphotonemics, and Tonal Morphemes', General Linguistics, iv, 1959), in spite of the fact that he describes all the characteristics of such a system. (This reviewer has found Moore to have a terraced level system, which, by use of a generative model, can be analysed as possessing two phonemic tones, high and low, plus a predictable surface 'mid' tone-cf. T. H. Peterson, 'Remarques sur le principe du systeme tonal du more ', Notes et documents voltaiques, i. 3, I968.
The twenty-five tales presented in the middle section of the book plus 225 others solicited in writing (in French) from Mossi secondary school students form the corpus for the ethno- logical analysis. The approach is essentially non-historical. Although there are important precedents in the synchronic analysis of folk-tales (cf. Alan Dundes, 'From etic to emic Units in the Structural Study of Folktales ', Journal of American Folklore, lxxv, 1962) begin- ning with Vladimir Propp's classic Morphology of the Folktale (I928), Canu, making no men- tion of these, chooses what might be termed an informal literary stance. His analysis consists of a loose classification into three basic types: morality tales, tales for amusement, and etiological tales; each of these is further subdivided. There is also a separate classification of character types, e.g. human, animal, etc. Some interesting points are raised, such as the use of certain satirical tales and character types as a comment on Mossi society, but they are never developed. After pointing out the generally harsh and uncomplimentary portrayal of women and then suggesting that this may result from the fact that these tales are composed by men for men, Canu leaves us with the following unenlightened (and unsupported) conclusion (p. 32): '. . . c'est donc la une reaction masculine fort comprehensible contre l'emprise occulte, inavouee mais reelle qu'exercent les femmes et les jeunes filles sur l'ele- ment male, chez les Mosi et ailleurs! ' (No doubt Women's Liberation will have something to say to that.)
A particularly annoying feature of this book is the repeated offer of meaningless statistics. The reader is treated to numerous tables showing the distribution of each tale type according to the informant's religion (Moslem, Christian, or Undetermined-based solely on what the individual's given name is), sex, and class in school. Nowhere are we told what the signi- ficance of these figures is nor are they ever employed to sustain a point. This work fails to make a significant contribution in either the field of linguistics or that of ethnology.
THOMAS H. PETERSON
Kamus na Hausa-Rashanci. Edited by D. A. OLDEROGGE. Moscow: State Publishing House for Foreign and National Dictionaries, I963. Pp. 458.
Lenin: takaitaccen tarihin rayuwarsa. Trans. ADO GWADABE. Moscow, I968. Pp. I26.
Seryoja. By VERA PANOVA, trans. ADO GWADABE. Moscow, n.d. Pp. 149. Talifi a kan malam na farko. By CINGIZ AITMATOV, trans. ADO GWADABE. Moscow, n.d.
Pp. 104.
348 348 REVIEWS OF BOOKS REVIEWS OF BOOKS
This content downloaded from 62.122.73.17 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 05:05:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
