OLAC Record: Documentation of Baga Mandori (Atlantic, NIger-Congo) (ISO 639-3:bmd)

OLAC Record
oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1033962

Metadata

Title: The bride is taken from her home

wedding

Documentation of Baga Mandori (Atlantic, NIger-Congo) (ISO 639-3:bmd)

Contributor (recorder): Frank

Contributor (speaker): p053

p025

p029

p047

p030

p037

p022

p026

p023

p024

p027

p048

p049

p051

Coverage: Guinea

Date: 2014-03-28

Description: The first speaker p026, p053 and p048 might be the same person. I have to check when back in the field.

This project delivers the first in-depth linguistic documentation of any of the Baga languages spoken in the Basse-Côte region of Guinea-Conakry, West Africa. Baga Mandori (also Baga Ma(n)duri), the focus of this project, belongs to the Atlantic (Niger-Congo phylum) group of languages and is part of the Mel cluster. Baga Mandori represents one of the two linguistic communities – the other being Baga Sitemu – that still use a Baga variety in intra-communal communication to some degree. The language is, however, under pressure by Soso, a Mande language and the dominant lingua franca of the region. This project will employ an immersive research approach, which aims to deliver a diverse and integrated multimedia documentary archive that will combine linguistic documentation with community training and participation. Linguistic documentation will be in the form of a trilingual dictionary (Baga Mandori-English-French), an extensive grammatical outline, an orthography, and annotated and transcribed audio-visual material from a variety of linguistic genres.

p001 is the main researcher in this project which he runs from the University of Florida. He is emplyed as a Visiting Research Scholar at the Center for African Studies. This is his second language documentation project. In the first documentation project he documented the Atlantic language Nalu (naj) spoken in close proximity to Baga Mandori (bmd).

This might be the Identity of the woman who is walking in the film. I have to check this, which then would be identical with woman001.

We established that he was about 15 years old when Sekou Touré took power (his fourth young brother was born then), which puts his age at around 73. He is the Imam that preaches at Difiare. He got his title of Fode at Boffa. He has been Imam 17 years at Difiare, before that he had been Imam at Bitonko for about 3 years. He leads (with p051) the Koranic School at Bitonko with currently about 10 students. Even though they run the school together, the students are divided between them. The 10 are the students attributed to his household. p051 was his student. He took over from his father 2 or three years before Sekou Touré died. He played soccer, but was never paid for it. He is not part of a Séré but of the Islamic League. He is not initiated. He does not remember the last initiation, the religious center was apparantly at Dobali. He claims that nothing was done at Bitonko. He does not move around much, but if he goes he goes to Boké, Kamsar, Kanfarandé for personal affiairs. He lived 3 years at Difiare.

He says that he was born during the second year after the opening of the military camp in 1972 (as given by p031) close to Bitonko. He goes to Kamsar maybe five times during a year to stay for a week or a month. He also goes to Conakry, or Guinea-Bissau to sell some of his produce.

He is p002 of the Nalu project deposit at ELAR (deposit: 0249). See description and notes there.

He says he is 40 years old. This is a good estimate given that he says that he did not have any children but was already married dwhen Lansana Conté took power. Although I would add 10 years, because of that. He is part of the Sèrè "Group Kalala". For mutual support or help the village, if financial need arrives. He has been a member for 3 years. He is not initiated. According to him e does not move around very much. He sometimes goes to Boké or Kolaboui, because some of his children go to school there.

He said that he is 35 years old, but then we established that it was long before Lansana Conté took power that he was born. He already had 2 children at that time. He also said that he was born durng the reign of Sekou Touré By estimating that he was about 22 years old at that time, we arrive at an age of 54. He studied to be a mason and builder with a local mason at Dobali. He says that he has been doing this for 8 years. He is not a member of a Sèrè. He is not initiated. He does not move around very often and goes to Kamsar maybe once a year, he says. He says he moves around in the immediate region around Dobali.

He is part of the Sèrè, that is he just founded a Sèrè with about 25 or 30 people, that does not have a name yet. The Sèrè is for mutual support. He is the leader of the Sèrè. He also part of another association that does not have a name, it is also for mutual support. Nowadays he mostly stays at Kakrunt, and moves around to go to Kamsar, Boké, or Conakry. He can leave about 3-4 times to visit relatives in those places.

We established that he was about had his first child around the time when Sekou Touré took power, which makes me think he is around 65. He gave his age as 70 years. He stays mainly in Bitonko, but he can go for a short time to Kamsar, if necessary. He said that a family father can only leave for two reasons: sickness or the necessitsy to manage some personal affairs. For the latter one takes about 2-3 days, in the former case that can be of longer duration.

This is the woman carrying the calabash to at the beginning of the video 20140329_wedding.mpg. There was no time to collect data on her. This will have to be done later.

His name is Karim Camara and he appears in two clips related to the wedding ceremony recorded. I could not get his data or explicit consent recorded, because he lived in a village further away. It is interesting that he could not speak Baga Mandori, yet he is related to the family, as I was told.

As a note on the nickname in "Nom de terrain": Women are often identified by locality or family in my interviews. When asked interviewees did not provide nicknames as readily as men. The age is also unsure. As orientation she indicated that she was already married when Sekou Touré took power. Let's say she was 20 in 1958, that would give an age around 76. She used to farm the most common crops of this area: grounduts, rice, millet, fonio. She says that in case of the groundnuts, it was her who cultivated them and then her husband went to sell them at the market. She says that she gets a little bit of money for her mid-wife services (this includes female excision). She is not part of a Sèrè at the moment. That is for younger people, but she used to be part of a Séré, called /makissa/ for a few years. She said that she is not initiated. In the interview she used an interesting phrase (in translation from p002) Baga d'ici to differentiate from the other Baga people. She is the mother of p029 and lives with her second husband. Both husbands were Baga from Bitonko (Cherif Camara (Kandoma, near Kolaboui, is where he studied), Soriba Camara.) She is currently limited to Bitonko, but when her husband lived she often went to Kandoma.

p026 spent a substantial part of his life outside the village. He says he worked in Conkary, Nzérékoré, Koundara. He worked for TP (Travaux publiques) at first from 55' to 60', then he worked as a French Mining Company for '61 to 63', then he was a teacher at Nzèrèkorè until '66 (2 years at Nzéékoré, and 2 years at Bintonko), then he says he worked in a storage facility (Magazin générale) for the state at Koundara (Commerce d'état) for 6 years. After that he came back to stay in Boké around 1975 (he says he did not work, and relied on his children ever since then), he only came back to live in the village 2 years ago. He says that his children work the fields for him (groundnuts, rice). He says it is for subsistence. He says that he once travelled to Senegal with goods that he had bought in Koundara to sell there. He never fished. He never was involved in Palm Oil production. He is not part of a Sèrè. He says he has not been initiated here.

He said that he is 80 years old. However, we established that he was born around the time when Sekou Touré took power, which puts his age at around 55. In the interview he made an interesting comment claiming that his father only knew Baga, which is then countered by his claim that his father had married a Susu wife. His mother was from Boffa. He stays mostly in Bitonko during the year. He sometimes goes to Boke, Kamsar, Conakry, Fria to visit relatives. He moves around alot in the region (Kamsar and Boke, is where he sells his goods (groundnuts). Each month he leaves Bitonko maybe 2-3 times to move around in the region. He also goes to Bissau to visit relatives (he visits the capital and/or villages/cities close to the border). He says that there are no Baga villages in Bissau, but some familymembers went to reside with the Nalu and Balanta.

Format: video/mp4

audio/x-wav

Identifier: oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1033962

PD-50029-13

Identifier (URI): https://lat1.lis.soas.ac.uk/ds/asv?openpath=MPI1033962%23

Publisher: Frank Seidel

University of Florida

Type: Video

Audio

OLAC Info

Archive: Endangered Languages Archive

Description: http://www.language-archives.org/archive/soas.ac.uk

GetRecord: OAI-PMH request for OLAC format

GetRecord: Pre-generated XML file

OAI Info

OaiIdentifier: oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1033962

DateStamp: 2016-11-05

GetRecord: OAI-PMH request for simple DC format

Search Info
Citation: Frank (recorder); p053 (speaker); p025 (speaker); p029 (speaker); p047 (speaker); p030 (speaker); p037 (speaker); p022 (speaker); p026 (speaker); p023 (speaker); p024 (speaker); p027 (speaker); p048 (speaker); p049 (speaker); p051 (speaker). 2014-03-28. Frank Seidel.

http://www.language-archives.org/item.php/oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1033962
Up-to-date as of: Mon Oct 18 16:12:29 EDT 2021

Metadata
Title:		The bride is taken from her home
		wedding
		Documentation of Baga Mandori (Atlantic, NIger-Congo) (ISO 639-3:bmd)
Contributor (recorder):		Frank
Contributor (speaker):		p053
		p025
		p029
		p047
		p030
		p037
		p022
		p026
		p023
		p024
		p027
		p048
		p049
		p051
Coverage:		Guinea
Date:		2014-03-28
Description:		The first speaker p026, p053 and p048 might be the same person. I have to check when back in the field.
		This project delivers the first in-depth linguistic documentation of any of the Baga languages spoken in the Basse-Côte region of Guinea-Conakry, West Africa. Baga Mandori (also Baga Ma(n)duri), the focus of this project, belongs to the Atlantic (Niger-Congo phylum) group of languages and is part of the Mel cluster. Baga Mandori represents one of the two linguistic communities – the other being Baga Sitemu – that still use a Baga variety in intra-communal communication to some degree. The language is, however, under pressure by Soso, a Mande language and the dominant lingua franca of the region. This project will employ an immersive research approach, which aims to deliver a diverse and integrated multimedia documentary archive that will combine linguistic documentation with community training and participation. Linguistic documentation will be in the form of a trilingual dictionary (Baga Mandori-English-French), an extensive grammatical outline, an orthography, and annotated and transcribed audio-visual material from a variety of linguistic genres.
		p001 is the main researcher in this project which he runs from the University of Florida. He is emplyed as a Visiting Research Scholar at the Center for African Studies. This is his second language documentation project. In the first documentation project he documented the Atlantic language Nalu (naj) spoken in close proximity to Baga Mandori (bmd).
		This might be the Identity of the woman who is walking in the film. I have to check this, which then would be identical with woman001.
		We established that he was about 15 years old when Sekou Touré took power (his fourth young brother was born then), which puts his age at around 73. He is the Imam that preaches at Difiare. He got his title of Fode at Boffa. He has been Imam 17 years at Difiare, before that he had been Imam at Bitonko for about 3 years. He leads (with p051) the Koranic School at Bitonko with currently about 10 students. Even though they run the school together, the students are divided between them. The 10 are the students attributed to his household. p051 was his student. He took over from his father 2 or three years before Sekou Touré died. He played soccer, but was never paid for it. He is not part of a Séré but of the Islamic League. He is not initiated. He does not remember the last initiation, the religious center was apparantly at Dobali. He claims that nothing was done at Bitonko. He does not move around much, but if he goes he goes to Boké, Kamsar, Kanfarandé for personal affiairs. He lived 3 years at Difiare.
		He says that he was born during the second year after the opening of the military camp in 1972 (as given by p031) close to Bitonko. He goes to Kamsar maybe five times during a year to stay for a week or a month. He also goes to Conakry, or Guinea-Bissau to sell some of his produce.
		He is p002 of the Nalu project deposit at ELAR (deposit: 0249). See description and notes there.
		He says he is 40 years old. This is a good estimate given that he says that he did not have any children but was already married dwhen Lansana Conté took power. Although I would add 10 years, because of that. He is part of the Sèrè "Group Kalala". For mutual support or help the village, if financial need arrives. He has been a member for 3 years. He is not initiated. According to him e does not move around very much. He sometimes goes to Boké or Kolaboui, because some of his children go to school there.
		He said that he is 35 years old, but then we established that it was long before Lansana Conté took power that he was born. He already had 2 children at that time. He also said that he was born durng the reign of Sekou Touré By estimating that he was about 22 years old at that time, we arrive at an age of 54. He studied to be a mason and builder with a local mason at Dobali. He says that he has been doing this for 8 years. He is not a member of a Sèrè. He is not initiated. He does not move around very often and goes to Kamsar maybe once a year, he says. He says he moves around in the immediate region around Dobali.
		He is part of the Sèrè, that is he just founded a Sèrè with about 25 or 30 people, that does not have a name yet. The Sèrè is for mutual support. He is the leader of the Sèrè. He also part of another association that does not have a name, it is also for mutual support. Nowadays he mostly stays at Kakrunt, and moves around to go to Kamsar, Boké, or Conakry. He can leave about 3-4 times to visit relatives in those places.
		We established that he was about had his first child around the time when Sekou Touré took power, which makes me think he is around 65. He gave his age as 70 years. He stays mainly in Bitonko, but he can go for a short time to Kamsar, if necessary. He said that a family father can only leave for two reasons: sickness or the necessitsy to manage some personal affairs. For the latter one takes about 2-3 days, in the former case that can be of longer duration.
		This is the woman carrying the calabash to at the beginning of the video 20140329_wedding.mpg. There was no time to collect data on her. This will have to be done later.
		His name is Karim Camara and he appears in two clips related to the wedding ceremony recorded. I could not get his data or explicit consent recorded, because he lived in a village further away. It is interesting that he could not speak Baga Mandori, yet he is related to the family, as I was told.
		As a note on the nickname in "Nom de terrain": Women are often identified by locality or family in my interviews. When asked interviewees did not provide nicknames as readily as men. The age is also unsure. As orientation she indicated that she was already married when Sekou Touré took power. Let's say she was 20 in 1958, that would give an age around 76. She used to farm the most common crops of this area: grounduts, rice, millet, fonio. She says that in case of the groundnuts, it was her who cultivated them and then her husband went to sell them at the market. She says that she gets a little bit of money for her mid-wife services (this includes female excision). She is not part of a Sèrè at the moment. That is for younger people, but she used to be part of a Séré, called /makissa/ for a few years. She said that she is not initiated. In the interview she used an interesting phrase (in translation from p002) Baga d'ici to differentiate from the other Baga people. She is the mother of p029 and lives with her second husband. Both husbands were Baga from Bitonko (Cherif Camara (Kandoma, near Kolaboui, is where he studied), Soriba Camara.) She is currently limited to Bitonko, but when her husband lived she often went to Kandoma.
		p026 spent a substantial part of his life outside the village. He says he worked in Conkary, Nzérékoré, Koundara. He worked for TP (Travaux publiques) at first from 55' to 60', then he worked as a French Mining Company for '61 to 63', then he was a teacher at Nzèrèkorè until '66 (2 years at Nzéékoré, and 2 years at Bintonko), then he says he worked in a storage facility (Magazin générale) for the state at Koundara (Commerce d'état) for 6 years. After that he came back to stay in Boké around 1975 (he says he did not work, and relied on his children ever since then), he only came back to live in the village 2 years ago. He says that his children work the fields for him (groundnuts, rice). He says it is for subsistence. He says that he once travelled to Senegal with goods that he had bought in Koundara to sell there. He never fished. He never was involved in Palm Oil production. He is not part of a Sèrè. He says he has not been initiated here.
		He said that he is 80 years old. However, we established that he was born around the time when Sekou Touré took power, which puts his age at around 55. In the interview he made an interesting comment claiming that his father only knew Baga, which is then countered by his claim that his father had married a Susu wife. His mother was from Boffa. He stays mostly in Bitonko during the year. He sometimes goes to Boke, Kamsar, Conakry, Fria to visit relatives. He moves around alot in the region (Kamsar and Boke, is where he sells his goods (groundnuts). Each month he leaves Bitonko maybe 2-3 times to move around in the region. He also goes to Bissau to visit relatives (he visits the capital and/or villages/cities close to the border). He says that there are no Baga villages in Bissau, but some familymembers went to reside with the Nalu and Balanta.
Format:		video/mp4
Format:		audio/x-wav
Identifier:		oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1033962
Identifier:		PD-50029-13
Identifier (URI):		https://lat1.lis.soas.ac.uk/ds/asv?openpath=MPI1033962%23
Publisher:		Frank Seidel
Publisher:		University of Florida
Type:		Video
Type:		Audio
OLAC Info
Archive:		Endangered Languages Archive
Description:		http://www.language-archives.org/archive/soas.ac.uk
GetRecord:		OAI-PMH request for OLAC format
GetRecord:		Pre-generated XML file
OAI Info
OaiIdentifier:		oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1033962
DateStamp:		2016-11-05
GetRecord:		OAI-PMH request for simple DC format
Search Info
Citation:		Frank (recorder); p053 (speaker); p025 (speaker); p029 (speaker); p047 (speaker); p030 (speaker); p037 (speaker); p022 (speaker); p026 (speaker); p023 (speaker); p024 (speaker); p027 (speaker); p048 (speaker); p049 (speaker); p051 (speaker). 2014-03-28. Frank Seidel.