Women's Songs from West Africa

Contributors

Contributors Brahima Camara is lecturer in the Department of German Language at the Université du Mali, Bamako. He works in Mande hunters’ oral literature and has published articles on the history and representations of tirailleurs, African riflemen who served in the French armed services in Africa. Ariane Deluz (d. 2010) was Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and a member of the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale. She was editor (with Colette Le Cour Grandmaison and Anne RetelLaurentin ) of Vies et paroles de femmes africaines (2001). She was also editor (with Stephen Belcher) of Mande Studies. Bah Diakité is Cabinet Chief in the Malian Ministry of Culture. He is author of the essay “Tradition, Music, and Dance of Mali,” which is included in The Spirit’s Dance in Africa, edited by Esther A. Dagan (1997). Marame Gueye is Assistant Professor of English at Eastern Carolina University. Of gewel origin herself, she studies songs by women in Senegal and is working on a book about how African women negotiate voice and space through verbal art. Thomas A. Hale is Edwin Erle Sparks professor emeritus of African, French, and Comparative Literature at The Pennsylvania State University. He is editor (with Aissata Sidikou) of Women’s Voices from West Africa (Indiana University Press, 2011). His other publications include Griots and Griottes: Masters of Words and Music and Oral Epics from Africa: Vibrant Voices from a Vast Continent, which are also available from Indiana University Press. Jan Jansen is a professor in the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at the University of Leiden. He is author of Epopée, Histoire , Société: Le cas de Soundjata (Mali-Guinée) (2001) and The Griot’s Craft: 340 List of Contributors An Essay on Oral Tradition and Diplomacy (2000). He is co-editor of the book series African Sources for African History. Marloes Janson is a researcher at Zentrum Moderner Orient (Centre for Modern Oriental Studies) in Berlin. She is author of The Best Hand Is the Hand That Always Gives: Griottes and their Profession in Eastern Gambia (2002) and has edited a special issue of Africultures. George Joseph is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. His work has been published in Research in African Literatures, Diagonales, and The American Journal of Semiotics. He contributed an essay to Understanding Contemporary Africa, edited by April A. Gordon and Donald L. Gordon. Kirsten Langeveld is a policy analyst for the city of Amsterdam. She earned her PhD from the University of Utrecht and has published her work in Mande Studies. Beverly B. Mack is Professor of African Studies at the University of Kansas. She is author of Muslim Women Sing: Hausa Popular Song (Indiana University Press, 2004), and (with Jean Boyd) One Woman’s Jihad: Nana Asma#u, Scholar and Scribe (Indiana University Press, 2000). Fatima Mounkaïla is Professor of Comparative Literature at the Université Abdou Moumouni Dioffo in Niamey. She is author of Mythe et Histoire dans la Geste de Zabarkane (1988) and has contributed to Women Writing Africa: West Africa and the Sahel (2005). Nienke Muurling is a junior lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. She is author of Relaties smeden. De rol van een jelimuso (griotte) in Mali (Forging relations: The role of a jelimuso [griotte] in Mali) (2003). Boubé Namaïwa is Professor of Philosophy at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar. He is editor (with Diouldé Laya and Jean-Dominique Penel) of Boubou Hama: un homme de culture nigérien and (with Nicole Moulin, MarieFrance Roy, and Bori Zamo) Lougou et Saraounya (2007). Aissata Niandou is an associate professor of English and Head of the English Department at the Université Abdou Moumouni Dioffo of Niamey. She has List of Contributors 341 served as Director of Higher Education in the Ministry of Secondary and Higher Education, Research and Technology for the Government of Niger. She contributed essays to Camel Tracks: Critical Perspectives on Sahelian Literature and Women Writing Africa: West Africa and the Sahel. Luciana Penna-Diaw is a researcher associated with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique—Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle. Currently, she is also education coordinator at the Cité de la Musique in Paris, where she is in charge of traditional music rooted in the oral tradition. Her research focuses on the music of the Wolof...