I LIBERIA II
6. Method for an inter-lingual translation: from Gouro to English
1.2. The Gouro tale telling process
A Gouro tale may be introduced by:
Chant: The narrator spontaneously breaks into song without prior introduction. Because the culturalknowledge determines the production of a narrative,the audience who constitutes a potential choir of the performance immediately responds with the song. The .chant by itself already symbolically exhibits, in a canonical form, the contents of the story that it supports. The song reveals the story-line. A story may be known to the audience and therefore the reaction is spontaneous when the performer starts singing. When the story is not known, the performer teaches the audience the part they have to play in the performance.
The chant with which the story opens, can be sung many times. New songs can also be added, depending on the nature of the message. Chants in effect are as important in the Gouro storytelling as they are an essential vehicle of the memory of a story. Chants are more easily remembered than the details of a story itself because they are formulaic and rhythmically balanced, and rhythm, balance and formula are mnemonic laws essentially govern memorisation.
A formulaic expression: Gouro tales mostly start with the formulary expression of Anle iiin, and the audience responds e jie. By saying anle tiin, meaning 'my story', a teller makes a wish to tell a story. The response of the audience,
e
jie, meaning 'it is passed' is consistent with the Gourobelief that the time in which the events took place is vague; it is a remote past, ejie. This beginning formulaic expression confers full authorship on a teller who is now free to enter into the past world where all elements interact.
In other words, by saying anle fiin, a teller claims authorship of a story which s/he is going to recreate with his/her individual flavour. S/he may then start by saying: 'long, long ago' rendered by e Ii e Ii.... Other formulaic expressions include wi Ie cle ye (...) man ji fe ca Ie, meaning 'what happened and (this is so and so) I will explain to you'.
Apostrophe: The narrator may 'apostrophize' some members of the audience at random, by enquiring if they know the meaning of this or that.
This is a device used by a performer to establish the extent of ignorance of the audience, regarding the story he wants to tell and to further get them to pay due attention to her/his wisdom.
The ending phrase: The Gouro tales have a stereotype ending formula which is de be Ie vie Ie be yrrrrkpehi, meaning 'if this a lie, let it be', or else de be Ie vie
te,
be Ie mianen Ie go mibe, meaning 'if that is a lie, there is its bird flying over there'. The flying bird here is believed to be the messenger of unreal facts.2. The Gouro tale categories
Gouro tales can be subdivided into many types, some involving human characters, the others involving animal characters, trickster and cannibal characters, or others again a combination of all. The Gouro tale characters personify heroes and villains, good and evil. The performances address various aspects of life from which one may learn. As such, the tales gauge characteristic plots in which the Gouro's perceptions are given a certain meaning. It is the explanatory nature of tales that thus brings about
formulaic expressions of the kind: 'that is the reason why this is so', or 'do you know how that is so?' or else 'what made this or that be like this or like that?', etc. Fundamentally, the plot responds to the why, what, and how, of the culture-based perceptions. Categories with which the Gouro tales can
be identified are as follows:
a) Daily-Routine-dependence tales: The performance of the routine- dependence tales creates a semantic field to justify daily life. These tales feature characters that perform actions which recall the daily behaviour; the dramatic effect of which actions address the social attitude of members. T8 for example tells about the duties of a housewife in a family. The ethos of the routine-dependence tales promotes social and cultural norms to be wisely observed by members. T8 for instance confirms that a housewife is expected to perform her domestic duties such as cooking, making provision of firewood, food, and water,sweeping the homeyard, and taking care of the family members. They translate social-cultural norms and mores, and thus have a social function of control. Such tales would generally be concluded with the formulas as 'This is why one must/must not do this or that', or 'One must not disregard such phenomena,if one does, one will be punished', etc.
b) Concept-dependence tales: Here, a narrator follows a certain logic to establish the rationale of a construct. This has a highly cultural and linguistic function since explanations are embedded in language factors.
Mostly, this is the field where originsof words and the interrelation of sounds and concepts, are explained. Such tales generally start with formulas such as 'do you know the origin of this concept or the meaning of such word?' This category of tales, because of their complex semantic construct which is embedded in the initial language factors,were less sought after by the early European collectors. An instance is the account of why snail is called trogo which means that "mushroom (tro) is out of season (go), therefore
this bloodless ingredient is a substitute for the mushrooms", as a mother told her children.
c) Myth-dependent tales: Are concerned with the supra-human domain of the Gods. They create society's awareness of supernatural forces, which regulate the lives of ordinary beings. They teach humans how dependent their actions are on other forces that are beyond their reach, and are part of cosmological orders. Such tales, mostly about events in nature, involve the sun, the moon, phenomena such as the eclipse, rain, drought, death, etc., as these are events that are beyond common understanding. T10 for example, tells about the origin of death, and how death has come to be an affliction to humans.
d) History-dependent tales: Are about events that took place in the past, for instance the deeds and exploits of the ancestors. They form a frame of historical references to a specific communituy. History-dependent tales are mostly associated with extraordinary deeds that are presented in an exaggerated way, and possibly account for the early history of the Gouro people.
e) Secrecy-dependent tales: they relate to the secret societies whose dwelling places are symbolised by sacred woods, shrines, bush, mountains.
These places are the domains of their gods. Ordinary persons pay due respect to the Gods through rites of initiation in order to be introduced to the world of the gods. The initiate learns the language of the gods (very archaic words), through stories. The secrecy is in line with the fact that the glory related to such stories remain paramount in their lives, and everyone claims pride from such empowering belief. Such is, for example, the secret knowledge of theje, 10, jeen among the Gouro. Stories that relate to these secret societies are reserved exclusively reserved to male initiates. In order
to keep the memory of such secrecy, it is passed from generation to generation in the form of tales, songs,praises.
3. The narrative themes.
The Gouro narrative themes are of various orders. They address issues that the Gouro people perceive to be important in life. They include issues such as occurrences in daily life (T10), natural calamities such as famine caused by severe droughts (T4, 5), disruption of social unity by the erratic behaviour of some members such as intolerance, selfishness, greed, and power abuse, segregation, jealousy, and so on (T5, 7,8), breach of trust (T3), need for wisdom in human society (T1, 6), marital issues (T8), supernatural manifestations (T9), metaphysical manifestations such as witchcraft, magic powers (T9), and well other thematic concerns judged important to the preservation of their social harmony.
4. Functions of the Gouro tales.
Storytelling performance among the Gouro performs various functions:
"'Didactic: It is no doubt that storytelling among the Gouro has always performed in the first place a didactic function. Entertainment may be the means, but instruction is the end. A Gouro story performance remains an anonymous court where social characters and their actions are assessed, and where individual conscience orgroup behaviours are judged. Of special interest is the use of animal characters and other elements to understand social behaviour. Children are introducedto that storehouse of knowledge of the past transmitted though the generations. They learn about general attitude and principles of harmonious social life. They learn to interpret the actions and apply or relate them to their everyday life. Gouro tales are meant to explain, and thus validate for the children a system which is
traditionally appreciated and treasured in Gouro society. If the tales are performed at night time, it is to allow a conscience to sleep on it. E. Foster once stated that "there is nothing that commends a story to memory more effectively than that chaste compactness which precludes psychological analysis. And the more natural the process by which the storyteller forgoes psychological shading, the greater becomes the story's claim to a place in the memory of the listener, the more completely it is integrated into the memory of the listener, the greater will be his inclination to repeat it to someone else some day, sooner or later".(2000: 49). Before being an event which simply brings together and amuses community members after their daily activities, storytelling, more importantly, sees to the institution of their ancestrally determined truth. It is therefore an important tool of education among the Gouro.
It is of importance to note that with the advent of formal schooling of the modern times, less attention is being paid to storytelling among the Gouro.
In villages, schools have almost exclusively replaced that traditional form of child learning. Evenings have become quieter and quieter in homesteads since the introduction of the first schools in rural areas because the youngsters were henceforth too busy learning their class lessons away from their parents. It is no more common occurrence to see gatherings in homesteads for traditional storytelling. The situation becomes even worse in urban areas where during their spare times, families prefer to gather in front of a television set to watch western movies and soapies. At times in these new mediums of communication, attempts have been made (by the Ivorian government) to incorporate traditional storytelling. In schools for example, storytelling manuals such as Le conte du grand pere voila pourquoi, were introduced in the early 80s with the intention to combine both the traditional and the modern ways of learning. The outcome has been a failure because the learners,during school classes, only read in books in a foreign language (French) during broad daylight what had only the tradition of being
performed in at night time in their mother tongues. Notwithstanding that the introduction of the traditional storytelling in formal schooling was not to train storytellers in the modern sense. Television recorded performances could not impose themselves either, not even to tale lovers, because the performances would always happen on the other side of the screen with no audience interaction. So, among the Gouro today (among other peoples of the Ivory Coast too) less attention is being paid to the traditional stories and their meaning simply because western schools are now substituted to the primary function of education of traditional tale telling.
*Social control: The gathering of members of a family or of the community to listen to stories enhances social harmony and cohesion in the community. During storytelling events that witness a bigger gathering, . members socialise before the performance starts. They ask about each others' news, talk about current issues that affect the community, ask each others clarifications on social issues they have missed, share jokes, the ones haranguing those they have not seen for too long, etc.
Storytelling among the Gouro also contributes to the validation their customs. A performance is a form of an internalised check on behaviour.
As William Bascom puts it, tales are "...used to express social approval of those who conform to accepted socialconventions and criticism or ridicule of those who deviate .... Their intrinsic value lies in two qualities: they are an inheritance from their ancestors incorporating the experience of the tribe, and they serve as instruments both for self-control and for the control of others." (Bascom in Dundes 1965:294). Indeed, storytelling among the Gouro is an important instrument for maintaining the stability of their culture.
In Dundes' words,
It is used to inculcate the customs and ethical standards in the young, and as an adult to reward him with praise when he conforms, to punish him with ridicule or criticism when he deviates, to provide him with rationalizations when the institutions and conventions are challenged, to suggest that he be content with things as they are, and to provide him with a
compensatory escape from the hardships, the inequalities, the injustices of everyday life."(Dundes 1965: 298)
* Recreation: Storytelling among the Gouro is also a popular form of recreation for people of different ages. If in the first place education and social control are the end, entertainment is the means for ensuring the effectiveness of these first two functions. The event brings together children and adults, and all are free to listen to each other, to share jokes, and to laugh. Storytelling is always an event during which creative imagination takes free flight with metaphoric characters and their funny actions. During a performance songs are sung and dance may be performed to the delight of the audience. The audience participation to a performance without any restriction of gender or age makes storytelling the most popular form of amusement among the Gouro.