Kervan. International Journal of African and Asian Studies

Towards a linguistic analysis of conative animal calls in Babanki and Bum (Grassfields languages of Cameroon)

Alexander Andrason, Pius Akumbu — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 13:09:26 +0100

This article offers a systematic analysis of conative animal calls (CACs) in Babanki and Bum—two Central Ring Grassfields Bantu languages of North-West Cameroon. The authors analyze the semantics, phonetics, morphology, ecolinguistics, and cognancy of 39 Babanki and 20 Bum CACs and conclude the following: (a) in both languages CACs largely instantiate the prototype of a CAC with regard to semantics, phonetics, and morphology; (b) several linguistic properties exhibited by CACs have their source in the ecosystems inhabited by the respective communities of speakers; (c) the similarity of the CACs in Babanki and Bum is low and their cognancy minimal despite the two languages being closely related.

Catholic missionaries and lexicography among the Sidaama, Ethiopia: The Sidamo-English dictionary

Erik Egeland — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 13:09:44 +0100

This article focuses on mission linguistic practices conducted by Catholic missionaries among the Sidaama, Ethiopia. The paper especially addresses mission linguistic practices found in the bilingual Sidamo-English dictionary published in 1983 (Gasparini 1983). First, the paper will provide a short introduction to mission linguistics. Next, it will provide information about the historical context of the Catholic mission among the Sidaama. The main content covers the period from 1964 to 1983. In 1964, Catholic missionaries from the Comboni order started mission work among the Sidaama. The article will analyse entries in the dictionary and discuss examples of linguistic practices applied when translating religious concepts from the Sidaama religious worldview such as the reuse of concepts, extension of meaning, and loan words. The paper will discuss how the composition of the dictionary had both practical and ideological concerns. It will discuss examples concerning the interpretation of central concepts such as the concept of God, attributes of God, and spiritual being (s). A closer analysis of the translation of central Sidaama religious concepts shows how the translation of Sidaama beliefs and practices were interpreted and evaluated within a Christian framework.

“Of madness and sagacity:" An intercultural dialogue between masks in Luigi Pirandello‘s and Penina Muhando’s plays (Part Two)

Cristina Nicolini — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 13:10:03 +0100

This paper stems from the challenge of translating Pirandello’s plays into Swahili and is aimed to open up a polylogue between Italian and Swahili literature. Therefore, in searching for connections between Luigi Pirandello’s and Penina Muhando’s plays, this paper will explore multiple masks engaged in a reciprocal dialogue among the following six selected plays: Enrico IV (‘Henry IV,’ Pirandello 1921); Così è, Se vi pare (‘It is so, if you think so!’ Pirandello 1917); Il Berretto a Sonagli (‘Cap and bells,’ Pirandello 1916); Pambo (‘Decoration,’ Muhando 1975); Nguzo mama (‘The Mother Pillar,’ Muhando 1982); and Lina ubani (‘An Antidote to Rot,’ Muhando 1984). In conclusion, this study will illustrate how different forms of sociohistorical alienation, which encircle the twentieth century, are stylistically represented in these plays through the characters who wear the masks of madness, or ‘sage-madness.’ To allow an in-depth analysis of the plays this study will be divided into two parts. Part one will examine Enrico IV (‘Henry IV,’ Pirandello 1921) and Pambo (‘Decoration,’ Muhando 1975). Part Two will examine Così è, Se vi pare (‘It is so, if you think so!’ Pirandello 1917); Nguzo mama (‘The Mother Pillar,’ Muhando 1982); Il Berretto a Sonagli (‘Cap and bells,’ Pirandello 1916); and Lina ubani (‘An Antidote to Rot,’ Muhando 1984).

Gender politics and politics in gender in Iringa District (Tanzania)

Cecilia Mignanti — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:24:46 +0100

The paper deals with gender politics in Tanzania through a social, historical and literary perspective. This analysis is the result of a two months fieldwork based in the rural area of the Iringa region, where I collected data related to gender-based issues expressed by women and girls of several ages and generations thanks to the collaboration with two NGO’s that operate in the area, namely the Tanzanian PSBF and the Italian CEFA. Through a historical analysis, this paper sheds the light on the women’s active participation in the liberation movements since pre-colonial time in Tanganyika and then Tanzania, presenting the path of several women’s struggles that contributed to the ideation of the gender politics of today.

Nowadays, patriarchal oppression is strictly bounded to globalization and cash-based economy. These topics are analysed in the Swahili literal repertoire and discussed by the contemporary African feminist movements that will be presented above.

Legal systems of the people of Dagbon: Continuities and discontinuities

Michael Nimoh, Gafar Abubakar, Samuel Adu-Gyamfi — Sat, 16 Mar 2024 17:37:17 +0100

This article uses a qualitative approach to examine the pre-colonial legal systems of the people of Dagbon and how they have evolved in contemporary practices. The laws in the early societies were to regulate the behavior and conduct of people. The pre-colonial legal systems in Africa, the Gold Coast, and specifically the Dagbon went through several transformations due to the arrival of the Europeans. During the pre-colonial period, the settlement of disputes among the indigenous people of Africa was done through the use of the traditional court of arbitration. The local chiefs were the custodians of the customary laws and administered justice using traditional institutions. The core customary laws of pre-colonial Dagbon were based on marriage, criminal justice, inheritance, and land laws among others. The embedding of the British and German legal systems and institutions in the Northern territories marked a change in the customary legal systems of the people of Dagbon. The postcolonial era saw another modification in the legal systems: legal pluralism (concurrent use of customary and British laws). The central finding of the article is that the pre-colonial legal systems in Dagbon were built on the customs and norms of the land. Besides the already mentioned, it was also found that customary laws remain crucial in the adjudication of cases while playing an important role in the hybrid partnerships with contemporary liberal court systems. This has brought many interesting dynamics regarding the place of customary law in hybrid governance which has further implications for the legal space in Sub-Saharan Africa and the global south context even in contemporary times.

Of Sufis, fascists and bananas: Hagiography and the perception of Italian occupants in Ethiopia

Michele Petrone — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:04:11 +0100

Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1936-41) has been described mainly from the point of view of Italian documentary sources and of the Amharic local sources. The point of view of local Muslim Oromo communities has remained largely ignored. This paper proposed a close reading of the hagiography of Aḥmad b. ʻUmar (d. 1953), especially of the passages narrating the latter’s interactions with Fascist occupants. The aim of this study is first to present a fresh perspective on the years of Italian presence in Ethiopia, namely the one of Muslims. It also aims at proposing the use of Ethiopian hagiographies in Arabic as a source for local history.

A variationist approach to NP genitive alternatives in Arabic

Sat, 16 Mar 2024 17:37:36 +0100

This study aims to investigate the sociolinguistic variation of Noun Phrase (NP) genitive alternatives in Jordanian Arabic (JA) as spoken in Amman. It attempts to examine the role of certain linguistic factors i.e., animacy, definiteness, alienability, complexity, and grammatical function as well as social factors, i.e., age, gender, education, and region which may constrain the choice of using free state nominals (FSN) or construct state nominals (CS) in JA structure. Drawing on Labov’s variationist approach (1972), for the current study's objectives, a corpus of spontaneous speech data is created. The corpus includes 32 sociolinguistic interviews of 32 speakers of JA (all reside in Amman). Using GOLDVARB X (Sankoff, Tagliamonte, and Smith, 2005), distributional analysis, multivariate analysis, and cross-tabulation approach are employed to analyze the data. An overall distribution of 1319 tokens indicates that CS is evidently more frequent than FSN in JA. Multivariate analysis is used to ascertain the statistical significance of factor groups. Region and four linguistic factors i.e., alienability, animacy, definiteness, and grammatical function are found to be statistically significant regarding constraining the variant choice. An interpretation of the effect of these factors on the observed linguistic phenomenon is offered.

Qur‘anic temporospatial allusive references in English translations on the basis of Leppihalme’s taxonomy

Mahmoud Afrouz — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:03:49 +0100

The present study aimed at identifying strategies used by the English translators in rendering the allusive references of The Holy Qur’an, specifying their distribution, and revealing whether the general inclination of the translators was towards domesticating or foreignizing strategies. To this end, Leppihalme’s (1997) taxonomy, as the only model exclusively dealing with allusive references in literary texts, was selected as the model of the study. The data were extracted from 28 English translations of The Holy Qur’an. The paper exclusively concentrated on the temporospatial allusive references. Leppihalme’s model included the strategies of retention (with or without informative notes), replacement of the source-language name by another name (from either the source- or the target-language), and omission of the name. The findings revealed that all these three strategies were adopted by all translators. The strategy of replacement had the highest frequency (77.10%) while the strategy of omission was adopted only in rendering 1.00% percent of the names. Retention (by 21.90%) was found to be the second most frequent strategy adopted by English translators of Qur’anic allusive names. Additionally, it was found that 77.9% of the strategies inclined towards domestication, while only 22.10% showed tendency towards foreignization strategies.

Writing on history and framing the evolution of Jewish figures in Egyptian novels: Ṣālat ʾUrfānīllī (ʻʻOrfanelli’s Hallʼʼ) by Ašraf al-‘Ašmāwī

Naglaa Waly — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 12:14:49 +0100

Since his debut in 2010, the Egyptian writer Ašraf al-‘Ašmāwī (b. 1966) has been distinguished by two features: setting novels in historical contexts and paying considerable attention to minorities and marginalised classes in Egyptian society. The focus of this article is on Ṣālat ʾUrfānīllī' (“Orfanelli’s Hall,” 2021), one of his most recent novels. In this novel, a-'Ašmāwī addresses the presence and the life of the Jewish community in Egypt in the period between 1911 and 1972. The novelist highlights the historical issues of Jews, in parallel with the political and social changes in Egypt over several decades of the 20^th century. In addressing political and economic issues related to this period, he questions and subverts the official, exclusionary versions of history. Against this backdrop, Ṣālat ʾUrfānīllī offers a case study with two aims: firstly, to discuss recourse to historical context and its connection with political and socio-cultural concerns and secondly, to point out the evolution of Jewish characters in post-2011 Egyptian narratives.

Three cases of critical engagement of Sufis with modern Islamic trends

Francesco Alfonso Leccese — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:10:46 +0100

This article focuses on the topic of Sufi intellectual resistance through some emblematic case studies of Sufi authors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. First, it analyses Fitna al-Wahhabiyya, a treatise that was written by Aḥmad Zaynī Daḥlān (1817–1886) in 1878, which proved to be a seminal work for later Sufi authors, and shows that some of the issues addressed in this text are recurrent ones in anti-Wahhabi polemics. Indeed, the cultural resistance of Sufism from the 19th century to the present day has been primarily directed against the doctrines of Wahhabism, the first current of Islamic thought to be structurally anti-Sufi. The fact that Aḥmad Zaynī Daḥlān was the Mufti of Mecca and a recognised scholar shows that these polemics were fully integrated into the scholarly religious debate of official Islam, in which Sufism and its doctrines occupied a prominent position. Furthermore, some Sufi masters set themselves the goal of refuting the theories of materialism and rationalism that were in vogue in the Islamic world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The work of the Egyptian Sufi master Sīdī Salāma ar-Rāḍī (1866-1939) entitled al-Insāniyya, published in 1938, is a polemical treatise against materialism, atheism and spiritualism that probably reflects the influence of René Guénon. The third case study examined is that of the Sudanese master Muḥammad ʿUṯmān ʿAbduhu al-Burhānī (1904-1983). The latter is an exemplary case of Sufi resistance in the second half of the 20th century, both in the face of censorship and in the face of the attempt to bring Sufi brotherhoods under government control.

Uncompromising accommodation: Remarks on modern Iranian Shiʿi Sufism’s attitude to resistance

Alessandro Cancian — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 13:21:36 +0100

Starting from the report of an incident occurred in Tehran in 2018, which triggered a wave of repression and resistance involving members of a popular Iranian Sufi order, the Neʿmatollāhī-Gonābādī, this article explores the ways and forms in which modern Shi‘i Sufism articulates its identity at the social and political level and vis-à-vis the authorities of the Islamic Republic if Iran. In doing so, this essay tackles the ways in which this identity is voiced and how individual members of the mystical order manifest their proximity to some areas of the reformist camp. This political vitality and outspokenness, along with forms of resistance adopted by the members of the brotherhood in the face of the increasingly pronounced aggressiveness of the Islamic Republic towards Sufism, testifies the complexity of the nature of the order’s relationship with the political sphere. The analysis of the texts and the praxis of the order’s notables and their disiples shows that the oft-repeated declaration of distance from politics are genuine but far from simplistic, a far cry from unconditional political quietism Sufism is often accused of. By addressing this complexity, in this article the author sets out to address the many paradoxes inherent in this clash and the battle for the appropriation of the legacy of mysticism in contemporary Iranian Twelver Shi'ism, which is grafted onto a broader discourse on political authority in Shiʿism and revolutionary Iran.

“The bitter wine of my life:” Bitterness and tragicality in "The Blind Owl"

Mehrdad Bidgoli — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 13:18:55 +0100

Sadegh Hedayat’s masterpiece The Blind Owl (1936) is repeatedly called the greatest Iranian modern novel and one of the best literary productions of the Twentieth century. Its contemporary modernist movements such as surrealism, symbolism and expressionism are the ones Hedayat had been familiar with and they become the medium via which his anonymous narrator communicates his story. Drawing upon Zhao Feng’s recent essay on surrealism and soteriological desire, this intervention suggests that surrealism for Hedayat in The Blind Owl does not play a soteriological role as it does for many surrealists, Andre Breton chief among them. Hedayat’s version seems much more extreme, cynical and tragic, delicately flavored with a persistent existential sense of bitterness which pervades the text.

Political and social dynamics of class in revolutionary Urdu poems by Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Habib Jalib

Farkhanda Shahid Khan — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 13:18:38 +0100

Revolutionary poetry is considered the most concentrated verbal expression and literary mode practically suited to provoke political uprisings and revolts in a society. This article explores the intricacies of class on political and social grounds in the revolutionary Urdu poems of Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911–1984) and Habib Jalib (1928–1993). Given the pace of social progress in Pakistan, the writings of these poets have played a radical role in shaping people’s ideology by educating them about freedom of expression and provoking them to speak out against imperialism and other exploitative systems of the status quo. The power dynamics in the devastating system of capitalism in Pakistan led to the exploitation of workers and the suppression of their rights. Against the background of these problems, through close reading, this article analyses selected poems by progressive writers—Faiz and Jalib, under the guidelines of Marx on class, Gramsci’s hegemony, and Louis Althusser’s ideological and repressive state apparatuses. This article concludes that the revolutionary poetry of these two poets aims to transform the social and political fabric of Pakistani society.

The sleep of the good: Meditation on buddho in the Sudattasutta and its aṭṭhakathā

Giuliano Giustarini — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:17:04 +0100

This paper addresses the Sudattasutta of the Pāli Yakkhasaṃyutta and its direct commentary (aṭṭhakathā), both extremely significant in outlining meditative techniques that entail the figure of the Buddha as their object in order to arouse and cultivate wholesome factors of the path to liberation, such as faith and joy. These practices, applied to a variety of meditative techniques, have become popular in contemporary South-East Asia and, to some extent, in contemporary Theravāda worldwide. The examination of the Sudattasutta and its aṭṭhakathā— with the original translation of the latter—will shed light upon the dawn of this contemplative practice and of the cultural background behind it.

Buddhist and Christian diplomacies pursuing peace amidst the Second World War: Official communications between Thailand and the Vatican

Claudio Cicuzza — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 13:06:44 +0100

This article discloses and analyses a selection of letters, reports, and official missives exchanged between the Holy See and the governments of Thailand during the Second World War. The collected documents are kept in the Archives of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, in Rome, and contain evidence of the attempts made by the two diplomacies, one Christian and the other Buddhist, to establish a dialogue and find a solution to the pressing problems that were complicating the country’s already difficult situation during the world conflict. A beneficial solution to these problems was found by Thai diplomacy, based on a considered interpretation of Buddhist teachings and their fundamental tolerance, and by the Vatican, which not only recognised the value of this different religious thought but also Thailand’s complex position within the balance of powers in Southeast Asia in the mid-20th century.

Ancestral monumentalization: Considerations on the keyhole-shaped tumuli in Korea

Andrea De Benedittis — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:03:28 +0100

This study examines the key-hole tumuli discovered in the Yŏngsan River basin, focusing on their significance within the historical context. Notably, this region garnered attention for its jar coffins and haniwa-like artifacts, previously undocumented in the Korean peninsula. Although key-hole tumuli, a burial tradition typical of Japan, are infrequently found in this area, so far fourteen have been unearthed. Typically located on plains or hills near coastal or river areas, their placement suggests a connection between the burying community and maritime trade routes.

While some scholars propose that these monuments were constructed for Wa immigrants unable to return to Kyūshū due to local unrest, I contend that they represent an effort by the Wa people or a closely associated community to establish a symbolic and ideological connection with the Chŏlla territory, thereby gaining control over its resources. After discussing various aspects of the burial customs in Korea and examining the theories proposed by Korean and Japanese researchers, this article aims to interpret the trend as a brief, but intentional, effort by a new group to establish their importance in the Yŏngsan River basin by constructing elaborate burial structures.

Legal fictions in East Asia: Recovering a forgotten mode of judge-centered jurisprudence

Jason Morgan — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 12:15:08 +0100

In much of Western legal historical scholarship, legal fictions are understood to be devices for maintaining the integrity of text-based legal codes in the face of social change. However, while legal fictions as such were not a topic of scholarly inquiry in East Asia prior to the introduction of the concept from the West, East Asia is nevertheless rich in examples of another kind of legal fiction: jurisprudential legal fictions, or legal fictions effected by judges and rooted in culture (often including religion). The mythical, moral xiezhi beast in ancient China, and judge-centered moral reasoning in pre-modern Japan, point to legal fictions beyond the traditional categories of such in much of Western scholarship, as well as to legal fictions within the West now largely forgotten after the advent of Enlightenment thinking on textual law.

Colour nomenclatures across African languages: A study review with a focus on Hausa and Swahili

Tatjana Chirichella — Sat, 16 Mar 2024 17:49:04 +0100

This review article aims to provide an overview of the works published in the last decades on colour terminology and categorisation in some African languages^[1], and Hausa and Swahili in particular. It gives information about different African languages (Ndebele, Setswana, Xhosa, Chichewa, Egyptian-Coptic, Himba and Chakali), then it traces the main works covering the area of Hausa and Swahili language, from the earliest papers until now. Even though these languages have a rich tradition of studies, the amount of works devoted to colour naming is fairly limited. The theoretical approaches of the studies that have appeared in the last few decades are rather heterogeneous, and include perspectives from lexical semantics, cognitive semantics and sociolinguistics.

^[1] These languages are just a small sampling chosen on the availability of studies related only to colour nomenclature and categorization.

Bat symbolism in Idrīs Bidlīsī’s Hašt Bihišt VI

Mustafa Dehqan — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 13:14:42 +0100

Cultural and social set of beliefs of all communities have normally been closely related to animals, which are symbolized in literature and history. Cultural and social definitions of animals as ‘good’ or ‘evil’ have persisted throughout the history of humankind. In the Iranian environment, bats are mostly perceived as symbols of darkness and ignorance. Here, we briefly review the role that bats play in Idrīs Bidlīsī’s unpublished Hašt Bihišt (Book VI) and its symbolisms associated with bats. We present shortly Idrīs’ highlighted Arabic verse in reference to the symbolized darkness and ignorance of bats.

Eight texts in Šrūgi Arabic

Qasim Hassan — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 13:26:39 +0100

“Le spose della città non leggono i giornali" (Nagarvadhueṁ akhbār nahīṁ paḍhtīṁ)

Edoardo Elia Avio — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 13:30:11 +0100

“On the efficacy of lies” (嘘の効用) by Suehiro Izutarō (末弘厳太郎)

Jason Morgan — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 12:15:24 +0100

Serena Talento, Framing Texts/Framing Social Spaces: Conceptualising Literary Translation in Three Centuries of Swahili Literature. 2021.

Flavia Aiello — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 13:17:54 +0100

Michael M. Kretzer and Russell H. Kaschula (eds.). Handbook of Language Policy and Education in Countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) . 2022.

Mauro Tosco — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 13:18:14 +0100

Simone Bettega and Luca D’Anna. Gender and Number Agreement in Arabic. 2023.

Eugenio Goria — Sat, 16 Mar 2024 11:13:32 +0100

Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych. The Cooing of the Dove and the Cawing of the Crow. Late ʿAbbāsid Poetics in Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s Saqṭ al-Zand and Luzūm Mā Lā Yalzam. 2022.

Ewa A. Łukaszyk — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 13:10:35 +0100

Mehrdad Vasheghani Farahani. Writer-reader Interaction by Meta Discourse Features: English-Persian Translation in Legal and Political Texts. 2022.

Sukmawati Tono Palangngan, Syauqiyah Awaliyah Alfiani Nur, Asia Masita Haidir — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 13:38:37 +0100

Kathryn Hansen (editor and translator), Somnath Gupt (author). The Parsi Theatre: Its Origins and Development. 2023.

Erika Caranti — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 12:19:14 +0100

Esterino Adami. Language, Style and Variation in Contemporary Indian English Literary Texts. 2022.

Husnul Khatimah Nur, Mufidah Yasrah, Madani Madani — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 13:43:08 +0100

Ali Fuad Selvi and Bedrettin Yazan. Language Teacher Education for Global Englishes: A Practical Resource Book. 2021.

Ali Ajam, Awaludin Rizal, Mamnunah Mamnunah — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 13:47:09 +0100