Living a Kulango Life: Examples of Socialization under the Shadow of the Laasagyo

Authors

  • Ilaria Micheli Università di Trieste

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/1825-263X/1877

Keywords:

Anthropological linguistics, West Africa, Kulango, Gur languages

Abstract

The Kulango of Nassian, a Gur people living mainly in the North-Eastern territory of modern Ivory Coast, with a few villages scattered along the border in Ghana, are sedentary horticulturalists, whose relationships with the plant-kingdom they live in, share many characteristics with those typical of the Abron-Akan groups, but also of some Gur/Voltaic communities they live in contact with. Aim of this paper is to provide some examples of how these bi-dimensional cultural influences melted together giving life to the present day Kulango cultural identity.

The discussion is divided into three different parts.

Paragraph 2. contains an overview of the two most important ceremonial events of the Kulango agricultural calendar: a) the typically Akan yam feast and b) the typically Gur pearl-millet feast.

In paragraph 3. the focus moves towards the peculiar role of a tree, which the Kulango call the laasagyo and of two other vegetal elements which are still very important in the modern Kulango social world: a) palm wine, or taŋa in Kulango, and b) the kola nut, or pɛsɛ in Kulango.

Paragraph 4. will be devoted to an ethnolinguistic study of the conceptualizations of what is a plant and what is a mushroom according to the Kulango Weltanschaauung.

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Author Biography

Ilaria Micheli, Università di Trieste

Ilaria Micheli, PhD in African Studies (Naples, L’Orientale, 2005), is an expert in anthropological linguistics and in the documentation of African unwritten languages and traditional cultures. Her major areas of interest are the Kulango (Gur) of Ivory Coast and the Ogiek (Kalenjin) of Kenya. At present she is TDA researcher of African Languages and Cultures at the University of Trieste and she is principal investigator and scientific coordinator of the three-year project ATRA “Linguistic and Cultural Areas of Transition in Africa” funded by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research.

References

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Published

2016-12-08

Issue

No. 20 (2016)

Section

Movement 4: Triple E: EconomicsEcologyExplorations / EEE: EconomiEcologiEsplorazioni

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