Travelling hierarchies: roads in and out of slave status in a Central Malian Fulbe network Pelckmans, L. Citation Pelckmans, L. (2011). Travelling hierarchies: roads in and out of slave status in a Central Malian Fulbe network. Leiden: African Studies Centre. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/17911 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown) License: Leiden University Non-exclusive license Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/17911 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). Travelling hierarchies African Studies Centre African Studies Collection, Vol. 34 Travelling hierarchies Roads in and out of slave status in a Central Malian Fulɓe network Lotte Pelckmans African Studies Centre P.O. Box 9555 2300 RB Leiden The Netherlands [email protected] http://www.ascleiden.nl Cover design: Heike Slingerland Cover photo: Humoristic painting about the difficulties on the road, handpainted by Bamako- based artist L. Kante Photographs: Lotte Pelckmans Maps drawn by Nel de Vink Printed by Ipskamp Drukkers, Enschede ISSN: 1876-018X ISBN: 978-90-5448-105-8 © Lotte Pelckmans, 2011 Contents List of maps, photos, images, tables and figures viii Acknowledgments: Some words of thanks and belonging x Notes on transliteration and orthography xv INTRODUCTION 1 Setting the scene 1 Questions and eyebrows raised 3 Emic notions guiding the research problematic 7 The Road: Trajectories in and out of the cultural field of hierarchy 14 Methodological considerations 16 The Rope, the Head and the Road in anthropological debates 18 Zooming in: An overview of the chapters 30 1. PRESENT(-ED) PASTS 33 A disturbing past 33 The formation of hierarchies in the Haayre region 35 Contested histories 49 Conclusions: Presenting the past over time 63 2. MAPPING HIERARCHIES 67 Reading hierarchies from the Haayre landscape 69 The interrelationship between social and spatial organization in the Haayre 80 Walking the village of Dalla 83 Wuro Mango 89 Conclusions: Dalla puts everyone into place 100 3. RELATING TO OTHER SOCIAL STATUS GROUPS 101 Getting married 101 Different marriage styles in the Kau and Dicko families 105 Endogamy 109 Legal hypergamy: Concubine marriage 112 Slave concubines’ semi-freeborn children 117 Breaking away from one’s past position 118 Conclusions: Reshaping the cultural field of hierarchy through marriage 123 v 4. EXPECTATIONS OF STEREO STYLES IN THE CULTURAL FIELD OF HIERARCHY 125 Assisting in style 125 Stereostyling’ the cultural field of hierarchy: The internalization of belonging in Fulɓe society 127 The cultural field of hierarchy as performed in ‘stereo styles’ 131 The patriarchal style 132 The loyalty style 135 Applying stereo styles to the family networks in Dalla 137 Sanctioning not knowing one’s head 137 Affective mobility within stereo styles 141 Affective stretches in ‘link-ups’ between the freeborn Dicko and slave-descending Kau families 142 Chief of slave descendants 145 Social promotion through geographical and relational mobility 148 Matching stereo styles: Maintaining, abandoning or multiplying alliances 148 Conclusions: Reconfiguring individual versus intergenerational mobilities 151 5. LEGAL PARADOXES OF THE CULTURAL FIELD OF HIERARCHY 153 Contradictory understandings of freedom 153 Interpretations of slavery in (Malikite) Islamic jurisprudence 156 Legal pluralism: Islamic customary versus secular State Law 159 Multiple claims to legal status in Dalla 163 Instrumentalizing legal pluralism by slaves and masters 164 Power and authority of Islamic scholars in the legal realm 166 Obtaining social promotion in Islamic Customary Law 166 Documenting (self-)manumission in the Haayre region 171 Cutting the rope from round one’s neck 177 The plurality of reality: Evaluating (self-)manumissions 180 Conclusions: Legal pluralism (en-)countering social stigma 182 6. ‘HAVING A ROAD’ TO MOBILITY: OPTIONS TO MASTER ONE’S OWN MOBILITY 185 Contextualizing mobility: Histories of control over mobility in a stratified Fulɓe network 187 ‘Having a road’ from independence onwards 189 Increased mobilities after independence 192 The njaatigiya principle: Moving towards hosts 195 Roads to mobility for the Kau and Dicko families 197 vi Conclusions: To be or not to be … elsewhere 201 7. PLACING THE CULTURAL FIELD OF HIERARCHY IN URBAN BAMAKO 205 I Bismila! Welcome to Bamako city 205 Where Kau and Dicko immigrants settle 209 How you move affects who you become 213 Dependent mobility of domestic workers 217 Conclusions: Mastering mobilities as ‘memoryscapes’ of slavery 220 8. TRAVELLING CULTURAL FIELDS OF HIERARCHY IN URBAN INTERACTIONS 221 A donkey among princes? 221 ‘Moving on’: Travelling hierarchies and villagization in an urban context 225 ‘Moving back’ into stereo styles in Bamako 233 ‘Moving up’: Social promotion in the urban context 243 ‘Moving against’: Slave descendants against their position in the cultural field of hierarchy 246 ‘Moving out’: Opting out through exit mobility 247 Conclusion: Options to move in, out, on, up, or against slave status? 249 9. RETURNING HOME: HAVING WEIGHT VERSUS BELONGING 253 Bamako, 10 March 2006 253 Roads between the urban and the rural 254 Remittances and social remittances in the Dicko-Kau network 256 Once back home: Returnees from Bamako in their home villages 263 Back home in Dalla 263 Back home in Douentza 267 Back home in Booni 269 Conclusions: Back home: Return as deception? 270 Epilogue: The case of Saajo Tambura 273 CONCLUSIONS 278 ‘Shortcuts’ as silent social change in the cultural field of hierarchy 280 Travelling hierarcies: Did Roads reconfigure heads and ropes? 281 Of ties that bind: Power as hegemony through invisible ropes and ancestral heads 283 Of ropes untied: Power as ideologies on the road 284 Exit mobility and other preconditions for ‘having a road’ 286 Glossary 287 References 293 vii List of maps, photos, images, tables and figures Maps 1 Fulfulde speakers in West Africa xvii 2 Mali: Douentza as an administrative zone 4 3 Haayre region and Gourma region 24 4 The Gandamia plateau of Dalla and its direct surroundings 35 5 The official territory of the municipality (“commune rurale”) of Dalla 76 6 Subdivision of the village of Dalla in three main and various subwards 84 7 Subdivision of the capital city of Bamako in wards 208 8 The subdivision of Douentza province in rural municipalities 261 9 Subdivision of the capital city of Bamako in wards 208 Photos 1 Dogon staircase, here as a symbol for upward social mobility 2 2 Colonial officers with Hamadoun Dicko 34 3 The village of Dalla and the surrounding Haayre rocks 66 4 Slaughtering a goat as part of the marriage (nafaayi) gifts 102 5 Female assistance to household labour 124 6 Coranic verses on a wooden writing surface 154 7 Humoristic painting about the difficulties on the road, handpainted by Bamako based artist L. Kante 186 8 Roadsign, direction Bamako 204 9 Youngsters from Douentza region working as petty traders in Bamako 222 10 Roadsign ‘Bienvenue a Dalla (PSP)’ 252 Images 1 Scan from excerpt from Bradt travel guide to Mali 74 2 Manumission document I - Musa Issiaka 173 3 Manumission document II - Diougal Allayidi 174 4 Censored translation of both manumission documents 175 5 Baptism - Detail of gifts as registered during a 2003 baptism in Dicko family 230 6 Spatial organisation during a baptism in a Dicko family in Bamako 232 viii Tables 1 Overview of different stages and names of marriage ceremonies, by status group 109 2 Redistribution of gifts in personal administrative notes by young mothers Assi and Thiom 231 3 Subdivision of slave descendants as noted in the personal administration of baptisms of child Ina (mother Assi) and child Dioro (mother Thiomo) 231 Figures 1 Specific branch of domestic slave descendants formerly belonging to the Dicko family in Dalla (genealogy) 95 2 Specific branch of royal Dicko family in Dalla (genealogy) 96 3 Schematic overview of Saajo Tambura’s case (genealogy) 274 ix Acknowledgments: Some words of thanks and belonging This study is a journey based on interactions and relational dialogues. Although writing a thesis is a very individual and sometimes lonely trip, the words of thanks here bear witness to connections. Being a traveller and longing for discovery, this PhD project made me realize how important feelings of rootedness in friendships and family and collegial relations are. Many people contributed to my sense of belonging – be it by discussing, commenting, singing, emailing, skyping, drinking or dancing together – in spite of or maybe because of my endless journeys. Looking back on all these shared adventures makes me feel a rich person. It is all those who cared, got in touch with me and enriched my travels who I wish to thank here. My journey began with a yearlong stay with a rich second-generation Lebanese migrant family in Brazil in 1997-1998. This trip aroused my curiosity in cultural differ- ences, which I decided to nourish in the Netherlands at the Department of Anthropology at Leiden University (1998-2003). People like Sabine Luning, Jan Jansen, Jose van Santen and Peter Geschiere inspired me with their teaching and passion for both Africa and anthropology. Mirjam de Bruijn’s inspiring course on nomads in the Sahel in 2003 prompted me to do my MA research in the Malian Sahel, which allowed me to explore my already existing passion for Malian music. Anneke Breedveld gave me some lan- guage courses in Fulfulde before I left and Mirjam and Jan Jansen helped me with the writing up of my thesis and facilitated introductions for me in Bamako in 2001. And in 2007 Jan generously received my sister and mother on a festive occasion in the Malian Mande hills: ini che! Institutionally I benefitted from a bursary from the CNWS graduate school in Leiden and a grant from WOTRO (NWO) that was allocated to the African Studies Centre in Leiden. When I started, I was one of the first PHD students working there, and there are now at least 20: times are changing! Among the ASC staff, my deep thanks go to Marieke van Winden for all the assistance she provided from bringing back wallets and books to logistical back-up during conferences and cooperation with the Dutch Society for African Studies (NVAS).