Contes des Bakas (Sud-Est Cameroun)
Le cycle de Waito
Author: Christa Kilian-Hatz. Series edited by: Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig †.
Series: WK Verbal Art and Documentary Literature in African Languages Volume 16
200210 pp. Roman, 543 pp.
1 map, 2 illustrations, 39 drawings, 2 tables
Text language(s): French
Format: 160 x 240 mm
870 g
Paperback
€ 59.80
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The book presents a collection of 22 narrations of the Baka, the largest of the three pygmy ethnic groups in the south of Cameroon with about 30,000 members. Their language belongs to the Adamawa-Ubangi languages. In the form of songs, proverbs and stories, oral tradition holds a prominent place in the spiritual world as well as the daily life of this hunter-gatherer ethnic group.
The content of the narrations usually is of an instructive or mythical nature. They are told on ritual occasions, e.g. during wakes, the hunting ceremony or the dances in honour of the forest spirits, but are also used in more mundane areas, like the education of children or during the general evening entertainment.
The stories concerning mythological characters form a special sub-set in the oral literature of the Baka, including the story cycle of Waito. In Baka society, Waito is a culture hero whose stories and actions explain the origin of social norms and values, taboos and rituals. Waito is characterised by being gluttonous, egoistic, brutal, and with a profound lack of morals and respect. Thus, he embodies the anti-type of an individual conforming to the social values of the Baka.
The actual text collection is preceeded by an exhaustive introduction dealing with the language of the Baka and their oral tradition. Each of the texts is given in the Baka original with an interlinear morpheme translation, followed by a French translation, annotations and an interpretation.
Under these links you will find similar text collections and analyses of African oral literature and publications of the author:
Accompanying material:
- “When War came the Cattle slept”
(ISBN 978-3-89645-049-4 ) - Animal Husbands, Magic Horns and Water Spirits
(ISBN 978-3-89645-221-4 ) - Contes et textes documentaires kwa de Côte d’Ivoire
(ISBN 978-3-89645-267-2 ) - Erzählte Kultur und Erzählkultur bei den Mwera in Südost-Tansania
(ISBN 978-3-89645-268-9 ) - Finding Female Voice
(ISBN 978-3-89645-282-5 ) - Imagination und Realität in westafrikanischen Erzählungen
(ISBN 978-3-89645-201-6 ) - Le jeu et le sérieux
(ISBN 978-3-89645-208-5 ) - Lexikon der afrikanistischen Erzählforschung
(ISBN 978-3-927620-64-3 ) - Mandinka Spoken Art
(ISBN 978-3-927620-63-6 ) - Narrations of the Kavango
(ISBN 978-3-89645-279-5 ) - Nyagalen Mugan Tarawele
(ISBN 978-3-89645-263-4 ) - Sprache und Musik in Mandinka-Erzählungen
(ISBN 978-3-89645-265-8 ) - The Voice of the Elders
(ISBN 978-3-89645-278-8 ) - Vodun Stories of the Fon (Benin)
(ISBN 978-3-89645-734-9 )
Cross-reference:
- A Grammar of Modern Khwe (Central Khoisan)
(ISBN 978-3-89645-863-6 ) - Folktales of the Kxoe in the West Caprivi
(ISBN 978-3-89645-081-4 ) - Khwe Dictionary
(ISBN 978-3-89645-083-8 )
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