SFB 268
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La culture Dagara entre la colonisation et le christianisme: quelle "authenticité" aujourd’hui?
(1996)
Au nombre de 500.000 environ les Dagara du Burkina Faso occupent une région relativement importante du sud-ouest du pays. Cette région se trouve encadrée entre le 9°48 et légèrement au-dessus de 11°14 de latitude nord et entre le 2°40 et le 3°12 de longitude ouest. La convention du 14 juin 1898 entre la France et la Grande-Bretagne les a séparés de leurs frères du Nord Ghana (ancienne Gold Coast) d'où ils ont émigré par vagues successives. Ces deux puissances "aux systèmes coloniaux sensiblement différents" ont fait irruption dans la culture et la philosophie de ce peuple de telle sorte qu'il n'est plus tellement possible de lire de façon linéaire et homogène leur histoire; on en vient alors à parler de Dagara du Burkina et de Dagara du Ghana. Et si l'on peut admettre toujours aujourd'hui que la partie ghanéenne de ce peuple conserve relativement encore "l'essentiel d'une certaine authenticité culturelle", l'on doit reconnaître que la partie burkinabé par contre a vu ce fonds culturel s'ébranler et se perturber si profondément que la question "quelle authenticité aujourd'hui?" revêt tout d'un désarroi. Parler d'authenticité d'aujourd'hui suppose une authenticité d'hier. Quelle était-elle et pourquoi et comment a-t-elle été si ébranlée?
In the inundation area - the basin of the former larger Lake Chad - a special type of sorghum is grown on the clay soils (firgi). This dry-season guinea corn is also called dwarf sorghum or masakwa. In Kanuri, the dominant language in the region, sorghum is called ngawuli. The dry-season types are called ngawuli firgibe (lit. translated: sorghum of the firgi). During the dry season when the natural vegetation becomes dry and yellow, masakwa fields appear in prominent green covering large areas of the clay plains. The most important natural factor for this specialized dry season cropping is the presence of soils with a high clay content. For a better understanding of masakwa and its related issues, a multidisciplinary sub-project (G1) has been established within the SFB 268 (Joint Research Project: History of Culture and Language in the Natural Environment of the West-African Savannah). This project in which all disciplines participate is entitled: "Natural basis for masakwa cultivation and its meaning for the settlement history of the clay plains (firgi) in the Chad basin".
The area around the Lake Chad is characterized as an example for a region where ethnic changes abundantly took place and still do. For example some Kanuri districts, or the leaders of those districts, are (unofficially) named after other ethnic names (e.g. Margi, Shuwa) or Kanuri clan names are identical with ethnic names of other groups, eg. Tera, Bade. Both people speak a Chadic language and live in the south and west of the Kanuri respectively. These are indications that the Kanuri formerly absorbed and integrated these peoples. These processes are not only a phenomenon of the past. In the case of the neighbouring Gamergu people an ongoing process of ethnic change towards a Kanuri identity is observed until present. The research projects1 have revealed that the concept of "ethnic units" is far from being static which the term may suggest. This especially applies to the German Stamm, which implies a static concept of ethnicity. However, in Borno the dynamics of ethnic and linguistic change are prevailing. Therefore Ronald Cohen rejected the term "ethnic unit", or even "tribe" for the Kanuri and preferred "nation" instead. Umara Bulakarima argued along the same line but used "ethnic group" for Kanuri subunits, e.g. Manga, Mowar, Suwurti. There is no doubt that the Kanuri played a dominant part in the history of the Lake Chad area during the past centuries. Therefore the "Kanurization" process may not surprise. However, in the following it will be revealed that the processes of contact and resulting adaptations and delimitations are not necessarily unidirectional from Kanuri to other groups. At least in some cases they may go into the opposite direction, e.g. from Gamergu to Kanuri.
In Nigeria terrace agriculture can mainly be found in the so called "Middle Belt Economy" as FORDE (1946)1 coined this type which lies between the grain economy of males in the north and tuber cultivation of females in the south. The people - lacking a hierarchically social and territorial organisation - are called acephalous or segmentary societies. From the geographical point of view the Middle Belt is seen as a zone of transition. Because of the variability of the climate (sometimes it is too wet for grains, sometimes too dry for tubers) a strategy of mixed cropping enables the farmers to overcome these hazards. Their strategy can be seen in the frame of the game theory. A low population density and a lack of sufficient accessibility limited the innovation of cash crops at that time. The papers on the Tangale-Waja Region will reveal manifold facets of the culture and agriculture. In a first step we learn by the research of J. Heinrich that the natural environment is - from the genetic point of view - a prerequisite for the establishing of terraces, but it is still today an important provision to the modern farmers in their resettlement areas.