Performing Displacements and Rephrasing Attachments
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FACUTEIT VAN DE LETTEREN EN WIJSBEGEERTE Vakgroep Afrikaanse Talen en Culturen Academiejaar 2004-2005 Performing displacements and rephrasing attachments Ethnographic explorations of mobility in art, ritual, media, and politics Karel Arnaut Volume 1 Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor (Ph.D.) in African Languages and Cultures Proefschrift voorgelegd tot het behalen van de graad van doctor in de Afrikaanse Talen en Culturen Promotor: Prof. Dr. Jan Blommaert 1 Contents Preface 1 Introduction Toward an anthropology of mobilities 9 I. Glocal openings Chapter 1 36 Formulating the ‘Sakrobundi’ and ‘Bedu’ masquerades: artefacts, authorities, and labels Chapter 2 115 ‘Sakaraboutou is a Bondoukou custom’: an investigation into ritual spaces and performative positions II. National closures Chapter 3 202 Autochthony and the postnational imagination in Côte d’Ivoire (1901-2003) Chapter 4 265 ‘Out of the race’: History and the poiesis of genocide in three newspaper articles Chapter 5 315 Re-generating the nation: youth, revolution, and the politics of history 2 Preface This doctoral thesis is the outcome of a long trajectory that began at the Department of Anthropology (Seminarie voor Antropologie) of Rik Pinxten, and ended at the Department of African Languages and Cultures of Jan Blommaert, located a couple of yards further down the same corridor at Ghent University. In between these two places, I made a number of stops that were mainly located outside Ghent and Belgium. Two of the most important halting places were Oxford and Bondoukou. At the University of Oxford, I worked under the supervision of Howard Morphy at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and later of Wendy James at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology. In the Bondoukou region of Côte d’Ivoire I worked with many people but most intensively with Ali Ouattara from Sorobango and Sadji Ouattara from Sanjo Kupo (Boroponko). It will not suffice to merely acknowledge them for having escorted me on some stretch of my academic journey so far. They not only accompanied me, but also showed me new routes to travel by, led me into new directions, and helped me reaching destinations I thought I would never attain. One of these is this doctoral dissertation. They therefore deserve more in the sense of recognition and gratitude than just having their names mentioned in a long list. Back in the 1980s, Rik Pinxten initiated me into anthropology and encouraged me to work on the subjects of ritual and dance – forms of artistic and religious mobility that have retained my attention ever since. The same artistic feeling, which I appreciated in Rik Pinxten I found in Howard Morphy in Oxford. Howard Morphy opened the way to come to Oxford for me and made my stay there both intellectually challenging and socially agreeable – and I never found the occasion to properly thank him for this. As much as Howard Morphy made me enthusiastic about the anthropological study of aesthetics, Wendy James motivated me to resume my doctoral project. If I finally have decided to submit this dissertation at Ghent University, she should not interpret this as a failure on her part but as a minor victory: without her inspiring comments this thesis would not have materialised at all. The same goes for the two people I shared much time with during my many visits to the Bondoukou region. I met Ali Ouattara very early on in my field research, during my first trip to Sorobango where he had been appointed as my – I should say ‘our’ because Erwin Keustermans was then visiting me – guide and interpreter. Unlike other official spokespersons, he behaved in a rather informal way and was at times jocular and inquisitive. Ali Ouattara attributed his nickname ‘technicien’ (technician) to his outstanding rhetorical qualities. More than an excellent orator, I found in Ali a 2 perfect ‘arrangeur’, a broker and a networker. Although at times he was willing to efface himself for the cause of ‘science’ or simply because I asked him, Ali was never slimy or obedient: he valued his independence, he never stopped launching novel ideas or provocative interpretations and continuously interrogated my way of handling research and my emerging points of view. Because of this rare combination of empathy and critical attitude, in more than one sense, I consider him as a brother. More so perhaps than Sadji Ouattara whom I would rather qualify as a friend and a colleague. Sadji Ouattara is the complete opposite of Ali: he is generally soft- spoken, cautious and discrete, and respected in the village of Sanjo Kupo because of his level of schooling and his familiarity with ‘government’ – that is the local and regional authorities and administration. Contrary to Ali Ouattara who chose people because of their specific status or special knowledge, Sadji Ouattara brought me into contact with people of all sorts and conditions – most of them as unassuming and sharp-witted as he is. After having passed through Oxford and Bondoukou, I regained Ghent University where this doctoral thesis eventually materialised – and if there is one person who can take much of the credit for this, it is Jan Blommaert. Joining Jan Blommaert at the Department of African Languages and Cultures in 1998 was one in a long series of reunions, which began back in the late 1980s. Since then our academic and personal paths have crossed many times. One of the motivations behind the writing of this dissertation is that it allowed me to be part of the kind of intellectual force field that Jan Blommaert constitutes and that has kept empowering me throughout the writing process. I end this series of academic or research-related expressions of gratitude on a personal note, by taking the occasion to bring homage to Pika Blommaert whose genuine concern over what is becoming of me, I have always greatly (but so far never explicitly) appreciated. While the above-mentioned people, each in their own way have co-conducted me to where I am now (sitting behind my computer, writing the preface of my doctoral thesis), others have helped constructing the many roads I took. In keeping with the general theme of this dissertation, I will split this large group of compagnons de route into subgroups defined along geographical lines. Starting ‘at home’, I would like to thank everyone in and around the Department of African Languages and Cultures not only for having put up with me, but for having shown genuine interest in my work or helping me to execute it: Ngo Semzara Kabuta, Michael Meeuwis, Inge Brinkman, Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, Cécile Vigouroux, Meryem Kanmaz , Katrijn Maryns, Annelies Verdoolaege, Stephen Neke, Marga Peters, Jacques Boucneau, Sarah Hillewaert, Gerda Van Daele, Joris Baeyens, and, last but not least, Nicole Vermaete. Beyond the department, 3 several people deserve a word of gratitude because of their active concern and help: Elze Bruyninx, An van Dienderen, Gwenda Vander Steene, Koen Vlassenroot, Anne Walraet and Danny Bouckaert. I take this occasion to also thank the many hundreds of students with whom I worked over the last six years and whose questions and comments have urged me to develop and explicate my thoughts. Spread around Belgium and not necessarily connected to the department are a number of people whom I thank for all sorts of different reasons, which I cannot easily explain here: Erwin Keustermans, Filip Erkens, Raymond Dakoua, Hein Vanhee, Boris Wastiau, Paul Kerstens, Sarah Verhees, Jo Verhoeven, ‘père’ Jolibois, Koen Ross, and Soualiho Ouattara. Special thanks are in order for Bambi Ceuppens, not only because she was willing to copy-edit this thesis under difficult circumstances, but also for sharing ideological stances and social commitment with me. Moving on to Oxford and the UK, some people have played an important part in my coming of age as an anthropologist and a person. Above all, I want to thank Jeremy and Julia Coote who are among the most loving and committed people I have met so far in my life. I met Jeremy in London when I made my first academic trip outside Ghent in the company of Rik Pinxten; Jeremy introduced me to Howard Morphy, and later discussed my (difficult) case with Wendy James. What Ali Ouattara accomplished in the Bondoukou region, Jeremy Coote did in Oxford and beyond, as a fellow and a comrade. My gratitude towards Marie-Bénédicte Dembour is of the same order as that for the Cootes – to paraphrase the words of an important British playwright: she is a friend, faithful and just to me. Others who accompanied and supported me when I took my first steps in anthropology at Oxford were Mwango Kasengele, Ed Carter, David Zeitlyn and Marcus Banks. Also in the United Kingdom, and mainly in the zone of ethnographic museums, there were many people who showed interest in my research and encouraged me by including me in their projects of refashioning their collections and rethinking the anthropology of art. Among them, I especially want to thank Malcolm McLeod, John Mack, Nigel Barley and Elisabeth Dell, as well as Anthony Shelton and Nicky Levell. Among the people in and around Bondoukou who most contributed to the realisation of my research where those who acted as hosts, interpreters, mediators and supportive interlocutors. I cannot list all of them, but mentioning the following names is important both to me and, I think, to them. At Bondoukou: Koffi Amoha (†), Oba Joseph (†), Laurent and Nicolas, Baba Djéna, Laurent and Marianne Barbier, Masace, Billey Kouamé Celestin alias Alpha, Maizan, Kouadjo Kossonou Germain alias ‘Bill Koss Bi’, and Ferdinand. At Sorobango: Kofi Mouroufie and Kouakou Kra, the sculptor Dabila Ouattara and his son Idrissa, Anzomana Ouattara and Braïma 4 Ouattara, Mori Ouattara and Sina Ouattara.