cameroon 1975-1976

Sometime in 1974, after completing coursework at the University of Cologne, I was trying to find a suitable fieldsite for my doctoral research. Cameroon emerged as a candidate because I had earlier taken a course in Fulfulde, one of the languages spoken in the northern part of the country, and because with the exception of a number of musical traditions in the South, no major study of music had ever been undertaken in this Central African nation. (As it turns out, this state of affairs has remained fairly unchanged until the present day.) By the time I arrived in the capital city Yaoundé the country had been an independent nation for merely 15 years. France and Britain, the colonial powers, had left behind a power structure in which the South dominated the country economically, while the North wielded considerable political power. In parts of the country an emergent middle-class had formed an alliance with the more traditional elites in governing the country.

Once arrived in Northern Cameroon, I set up base in Maroua, then a city of 60,000 and an important center of Ful'be culture. The traditional ruler or laamii'do of Maroua was the descendant of a dynasty of Ful'be rulers who had gained power in the early nineteenth century in the wake of the jihad led by the founder of the Sokoto caliphate, Uthman dan Fodio. Politically and culturally the area ruled by the laamii'do has always been in a state of flux, with the Ful'be majority absorbing many elements from the surrounding cultures of the Kanuri, Mandara, and further afield, Hausa. Praise-singing is central to this pre-colonial tradition.

This more court-oriented, urban culture contrasted with the traditional culture of the rural Ful'be many of whom were engaged in a mix of farming and cattle breeding. Some of their traditions had much in common with those of Ful'be elsewhere in West Africa, but in the musical field these were most prominent in two vocal traditions: mbooku, historical epics, and daacol, praise-poetry for herders.

My research in the Maroua area in which I was assisted by Souleymane Adama (depicted on the left sitting next to me with his little nephew Yaya) resulted in four major publications: a book-length monograph on praise-singers (Die Macht des Wortes, Munich 1979); a collection of mbooku texts in the original Fulfulde text and German translation (Mbooku, 1982); an article on daacol and the daacoo'be; and an album of music recorded in the field (Music from Cameroon. The Fulani of the North, Lyrichord).

For more details on these projects click on the links below or visit the webpages under the tab Publications.