WAYS OF KNOWING DONSOYA: ENVIRONMENT, EMBODIMENT AND PERCEPTION AMONG THE HUNTERS OF BURKINA FASO A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of PhD in the Faculty of Humanities 2014 Lorenzo Ferrarini School of Social Sciences Contents ABSTRACT 5 DECLARATION 6 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 8 NOTE ON LANGUAGE 10 INTRODUCTION 11 RESEARCH FOCUS AND OUTLINE OF THE WORK 12 Concepts of knowledge 15 Outline of the work 20 THE MANDE 24 A history of exchanges 26 Fluid ethnicity and society 30 PART ONE - APPROACHING DONSOYA 37 CHAPTER 1 - THE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT DONSOYA 38 Donsoya and its cosmology 42 The constitution of modern hunting associations 54 2 CHAPTER 2 - ACCESSING THE FIELD, ACCESSING DONSOYA 61 The initiation 66 The Dankun network 70 Exploring Adama's network 77 Between individualism and connectivity 83 PART 2 - THE HUNTER AND HIS ENVIRONMENT 89 CHAPTER 3 - THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF THE BUSH 90 Cotton and cows 91 Hunting and illegality 95 Donsoya facing environmental change 103 CHAPTER 4 - CONCEPTIONS OF THE ENVIRONMENT 112 The village and the bush 113 Blurring the boundaries 121 Enacting an environment 125 PART 3 - RESEARCHING SENSORY EXPERIENCE 133 CHAPTER 5 - THE EXPERIENCE OF THE BUSH 134 Learning to hunt 136 Anthropology and perception 140 An Ecological approach to perception 144 Noise and sound 149 Frustrated visions 153 Perceiving in the darkness 156 Researching experience 159 3 CHAPTER 6 - REPRESENTING THE APPRENTICESHIP 164 Representing the sensory aspects of hunting 167 Collaboration and enactment 174 Enactive poetics 179 PART 4 - FROM EMBODIMENT TO ECOLOGY 184 CHAPTER 7 - THE EMBODIMENT OF DONSOYA 185 Embodied knowledge 187 Embodying donsoya 193 Kinds of knowledge 200 CHAPTER 8 - CONNECTING KNOWLEDGE, BODY AND ENVIRONMENT 207 The materiality of knowledge 207 Fetishes 213 Beyond the semiotic 217 A donso and his fetish, a donso as a fetish 221 The ecological embodiment of knowledge 226 REFERENCES 231 4 Abstract Ways of Knowing Donsoya: Environment, Embodiment and Perception among the Hunters of Burkina Faso. Lorenzo Ferrarini PhD thesis, University of Manchester This thesis is centred on a group of initiated donso hunters in Burkina Faso. It proposes an ecological approach to their knowledge to make sense of the presence of donso hunters across a diversity of languages, ethnic groups and ecological transformations. I suggest that the knowledge of donso hunters is made of a set of specific relationships with their environment, which differentiate them from other villagers and from uninitiated hunters. Central to my approach is the assumption that knowledge is not just a set of notions but is enacted in an ecological system that encompasses a non- dualistic individual and his environment - in its human and non-human aspects. This way donsoya encompasses procedural and propositional knowledge, materiality and meaning, enskilment and initiatory knowledge. I have looked at all these dimensions through the lens of apprenticeship, as a focal interest and as a methodological device, through my own initiation and practice of hunting. The film Kalanda - The Knowledge of the Bush, which accompanies and constitutes part of this thesis, is an audiovisual counterpart to the dissertation. It narrates the apprenticeship providing an overview of the multifaceted knowledge of donsoya, in a collaborative work that involved the filmmaker in the role of student and the hunters in the roles of teachers. I recommend watching the film before approaching the written text. 5 Declaration No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. 6 Copyright Statement I. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. II. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. III. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trade marks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. IV. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/medialibrary/policies/intellect ual- property.pdf), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see http://www.manchester.ac.uk/library/aboutus/regulations) and in The University’s policy on presentation of Theses. 7 Acknowledgements My research has been funded by the University of Manchester - Department of Social Anthropology. The completion of my dissertation has been supported by the Royal Anthropological Institute - Sutasoma Award. I would like to thank my supervisors Rupert Cox, Ian Fairweather and Petra Tjitske Kalshoven for their guidance, useful suggestions and careful review. I also received useful advice from Paul Henley and Richard Werbner at the University of Manchester, and from Nicola Scaldaferri at the University of Milano. Agnès Kedzierska-Manzon, Theodore Konkouris and Patrick Royer shared with me their knowledge on donso hunters and on the Sambla, helping my research a great deal. I am forever indebted to the hunters who welcomed me as one of them, shared their knowledge and helped me to realise this dissertation. In particular, Lasseni Traoré has helped me for a whole year, as a guide, hunting companion, fellow student and friend. I also have to remember how his extended family made it possible for him to spend so much time with me, taking up extra work to compensate for his absence in the fields, during the farming season. The hunters of the Association des Chasseurs du Département de Karankasso Sambla, and especially their president donsoba Go-Fo Traoré, vice Go-Fatogoma Traoré and secretary Si-Lamoussa Traoré, first welcomed me and initiated me as a donso. Adama Sogo Traoré became my teacher in donsoya and disclosed to me a world of knowledge and intellectual curiosity. His brother Lacole and sons Diakalia and Dramane also contributed to my apprenticeship. Bakari "Taximan" Sanou shared his knowledge and point of view of experienced donsoba. In Karankasso Sambla I was equally welcomed by my host, Sa-Yacouba Traoré, and by Kadija Traoré, who took up the role of mother for me for a whole year. Her son Abdoullay Traoré provided my first, indispensible contact with donsoya and the Sambla. The authorities in Karankasso greatly facilitated my research: I want to thank the mayor, the village chief, the 8 prefect and the Waters and Forests officers. I also wish to thank Bakari Ouattara, Madou Barou, Go-Lamine Traoré, Togo-Omar Traoré, Adama Woni, Moussa Demé, Si-Moussa Traoré, Go-Seydou Traoré, Fie-Maurice Traoré, Fie-Seydou Traoré, Si-Moussa and Go-Abou Traoré, Mam and Rosalie Traoré, Sa-Sibiri Traoré, Luc "Sap" Traoré, Sa-Nestor Traoré, Pennegué-Fo Traoré, the Konaté and Traoré ka families, Oumar and Karim Sanou, André Sanou, Nafali Koné, Kounoumba Traoré, Nouma Diakité, Brahima Traoré, Fie-Cenku Traoré, Sa-Doto Traoré, all the women of the Traoré family in Samogogwan, Vivien Boro, Zoumana Ouattara, Kader "Dondo" Ouedraogo , Ahmed Traoré, Sidiki Traoré, Drissa and Moumouni Bambara, Nacé Traoré, Dr. Jean Diallo, Col. Sibiri Traoré. Finally, I wish to thank my parents, who supported and encouraged me throughout the course of the research. 9 Note on Language In the course of this thesis I transcribe from two African languages, Jula and Seenku, respectively the trade language of the area where I worked and the language of the Sambla, the people among which I lived throughout the research. At the moment there is no standardised transcription convention for these two languages. In Burkina Faso for example a variety of spellings are used for toponyms, and one can read different versions of the same name on signs, maps or official documents. Where a use is established I preserved the common spelling, often influenced by French - for example for the town Bobo Dioulasso. In other cases, if an alternative spelling has become common in the literature I have privileged that form - as in Jula. I left the names of the persons I mention in this work as they appear on their IDs, even though incoherences abound also in this case. I transcribed Jula and Seenku terms using a simplified convention, so è and ò appear instead of the phonetic ɛ and ɔ, ng and ny appear instead of ŋ and ɲ and c instead of tʃ. I use double letters to indicate long vowels and do not mark tones (Jula has two, Seenku has three). Jula determines the use of the plural form - the suffix written -w and pronounced u - depending on such factors as opposition to singular, definite versus indefinite or reference to a countable quantity (Dumestre 2003: 137–138; Hellweg 2011: xi). For clarity, in this work I simply use the marker -w to indicate that a noun refers to a plural quantity (as for example in McNaughton 1988a).