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17 1 The Public Space of Palabre what is palabre? Not just an exchange of words, but also a social drama, a procedure , and a series of human interactions. Palabre is therefore an act of staging [mise en scène], ordering, and putting into speech. The Space of Palabre The palabre is not held just anywhere, and since choosing a place is the object of a miniature palabre in its own right, the space of palabre becomes highly symbolic. The space of palabre marks the transformation of extension in space. by virtue of its continuity, extension presents a “substance which, once informed and transformed by humans, becomes space, i.e., form, suited for the purpose of signification by virtue of its articulations.”6 an ordinary place is thus built up into a signifying space, converted into an arena where the same and the other, the here and the beyond, confront each other through and by means of human beings. a place signified in space is truly polemical, insofar as it allows the sacred to be distinguished by opposition to the profane , and the private as counterpart to the public. in palabre, signification first passes through space: for space is what expresses the relations between the subject, the law, and what is forbidden, or between culture and nature. Relation to the Law in certain cases, a palabre is held in the chief’s house or at the home of the eldest person in the highest age class, or, finally, at the home of the eldest member of the lineage. 18 | La Palabre among the beti of cameroon and the fang, the palabre takes place in the abââ (the large house for men, which serves both as living room and as courtroom) and never in or in front of a kitchen. The site of the palabre obeys the law of the father and indicates in a nutshell the preeminence of patriarchal ideology. in all these societies, filiation is patrilineal and the father is the true symbolic figure representing the law. The palabre could not take place under feminine symbols and auspices without raising a juridical problem. according to the laws of exogamy, the wife does not live with her own clan, the land she cultivates does not belong to her, and consequently she is not an owner of space. Since the masters of space are men, it is “normal” that palabre should unfold in the abââ under male leadership. This raises two problems: on the one hand, that of the very masculine character of the juries in a palabre, and on the other, that of women’s access to landed property in traditional africa. Relation to the Forbidden: The Limit and Space The palabre often unfolds in a border region between two ethnic groups (this is so among the odjukru of ivory coast, for example). This site is strategic. it expresses a certain neutrality, but also a certain contradiction, insofar as, belonging to neither one side nor the other, it allows each to engage with the other. This figure of the border symbolizes law itself in its double function of forbidding (a breach of the limit) and of authorizing (the exercise of action within a certain frame). The Subject and Nature Palabres often take place under a tree (especially in west africa). “if trees are so frequently part of the judicial décor, this is because they attract divine charisma and transmit it to the magistrates . . . seated in their shade. . . . in israel, the book of Judges (4:5) evokes justice delivered under a palm tree.”7 The tree symbolizes rootedness , and extends a symbol of collective life over the conflict. relations interior to this space must be developed in the larger context of a study of the proxémie of judicial space in africa.8 The Time of Mediation The form of mediation instituted by palabre follows a well-established procedure, varying according to each society.9 often overlooked by observers, the procedure’s initial moment is very important because it establishes relations between speech, the subject, techniques for domesticating violence, and above all, the precautions subjects must follow to present their demands in public. Yielding to procedure is a detour signifying the subject’s submission to the symbolic, and this is what distinguishes palabre from a simple, spontaneously convened debate. The public space of discussion created by palabre presupposes this structured detour. Palabre does not organize a visual confrontation between parties but establishes a symbolic mediation with many entry points. with...

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