Journey of Song: Public Life and Morality in Cameroon

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Journey of Song Clare A. Ignatowski Public Life and Morality in Cameroon Ignatowski Journey of Song INDIANA African Studies • Popular Culture http://iupress.indiana.edu 1-800-842-6796 During the long dry season, Tupuri men and women in northern Cameroon gather in gurna camps outside their villages to learn the songs that will be performed at widely attended celebrations to honor the year’s dead. The gurna provides a space for them to join together in solidarity to care for their cattle, fatten their bodies, and share local stories. But why does the gurna remain meaningful in the modern nationstate of Cameroon? In Journey of Song, Clare A. Ignatowski explores the vitality of gurna ritual in the context of village life and urban neighborhoods. She shows how Tupuri songs borrow from political discourse on democracy in Cameroon and make light of human foibles, publicize scandals, promote the prestige of dancers, and provide an arena for powerful social commentary on the challenges of modern life. In the context of broad social change in Africa, Ignatowski explores the creative and communal process by which local livelihoods and identities are validated in dance and song. CLARE A. IGNATOWSKI is a visiting scholar at the African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania. She currently works for the United States Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C. African Expressive Cultures —Patrick McNaughton, editor Cover photograph by the author Journey of Song African Expressive Cultures Patrick McNaughton, editor Associate editors Catherine M. Cole Barbara G. Hoffman Eileen Julien Kassim Koné D. A. Masolo Elisha Renne Zoë Strother Journey of Song PUBLIC LIFE AND MORALITY IN CAMEROON Clare A. Ignatowski INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bloomington and Indianapolis This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA http://iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail iuporder@indiana.edu Portions of chapter 9 previously appeared in Cultural Anthropology: The Journal of the Society for Cultural Anthropology 19(2), published by the American Anthropological Association and the University of California Press. 䊚 2006 by Clare A. Ignatowski All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ignatowski, Clare A. Journey of song : public life and morality in Cameroon / Clare A. Ignatowski. p. cm. — (African expressive cultures) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-253-34646-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-253-21794-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Tupuri (African people)—Cameroon—Social life and customs. 2. Cameroon—Social conditions—1960– I. Title. II. Series. HN819.A8I385 2006 305.896'361—dc22 2005022441 1 2 3 4 5 11 10 09 08 07 06 To my parents, Elizabeth Kinzie and Albert Ignatowski, whose sensibilities as an artist and a scientist shaped my world. The point is not that culture is a “complex” “thing” but rather that it cannot be gotten “right” . . . It is not an end, or a blueprint for thinking or acting, but a constant beginning again—a search, an argument, an unfinished longing. Kathleen Stewart, A Space on the Side of the Road ...