Women's Songs from West Africa

10 - Drummed Poems by Songhay-Zarma Women of Niger

10 j Drummed Poems by SonghayZarma Women of niger Fatima Mounkaïla inTroduCTion In the preface to his book L’Essence du verbe (1988), a collection of sayings by Songhay-Zarma women, the late Boubou Hama, one of the most respected and knowledgeable analysts of African traditions in Niger, observed that the knot that always hangs at the end of the ribbon or belt around a woman’s cotton wrapper was both the place of gestation and the site of maturation for the wellturned words that they often recited. But in a society that places high value on restraint and the concept of shame for anything related to the expression of intimate thoughts, one finds that oral art—for example, sayings, mottos, songs, and stories—offers the only medium for people, and especially women, to openly compose and express feelings. These may include love, admiration, disdain, or exasperation toward people in their entourage—sons, daughters, families, clans, co-wives, and other adversaries who are part of their world. Even when they are not the original composers of the words that they speak or sing, women transmit their views as part of the education that they provide for their children. The texts convey in polished form the values that these women contribute at the privileged sites of female expression. There, women compose and declaim poems called zamu as well as drummed mottos or sayings which convey in short, concentrated form the ideals of their society. These zamu poems, voiced and drummed, allow the women to praise and formulate portraits of individuals or groups through the medium of names that the subjects share with other, often more famous, people. Thus, these women Drummed Poems by Songhay-Zarma Women of Niger 161 poets draw on an unlimited repertory that they can use to link a son, a daughter, or a brother to the local leader, the winner of a sports competition, or someone else who incarnates the ideals of their society. As a form of “inside” poetry expressed in private spaces limited to mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and friends, the poem conveys the shape of individual success in the domestic context. When it takes the form of “outside” poetry performed in public spaces, one hears women singing songs about political figures as well as champion farmers and athletes who incarnate individual perfection . That is how zamu, or poems about names declaimed by Songhay-Zarma women in their courtyards or as an accompaniment to their dances at “tamtam ” parties, contribute to the shaping of heroes representing the social ideal. The corpus that will serve as evidence for the analysis here comes from three sources: Les Zamu ou poèmes sur les noms (Bisilliat and Laya 1972); recordings by the Nigerien Committee for the Women Writing Africa project (SutherlandAddy and Diaw 2005); and a selection of dance texts from the collection recorded by Aïssa Ganda Mahamadou (2003) for her master’s thesis. Together, the texts are remarkable not simply because of the spontaneous character of the performances but also because of the way the women choose their subjects and prepare listeners to adhere to ideals that are also conveyed by the much longer oral epics heard on the radio or at a variety of events—weddings, naming ceremonies , and installations of chiefs. Not everyone can be an epic hero or heroine such as Mamar Kassai, the well-documented Songhay ruler known as Askia Mohammed, who governed from 1493 to 1528, Issa Korombe, the nineteenth-century warrior known as Wangunya, or mother of the science of war, or even Fatoumata Bi Dâni, the nineteenth-century Fulbe heroine who stood up to the bravest warriors of her time in the Macina region of present-day Mali. But the recitation of these poems about names in the courtyards of homes or in the drumming party space makes everyone dream that he or she can be one of these famous figures, and perhaps even surpass their deeds! But the values transmitted in these poems are often seen as obsolete or at least no longer appropriate in the economic, social, and political circumstances of today. The behavior of these historic figures may seem totally irrational for those who see things in more “practical” terms when framed in the context of modern Nigerien life. How, then, can one explain the fact that the values conveyed in these texts live on today? How is it that at the same time that the epic, the primary vehicle for those values, appears to...