² In April-June 1979, Sept.-Dec. 1985, Oct.-Dec. 1986, and Feb.-Aug. 1988. The first field trip was undertaken while I held a graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation (Washington, D.C.). The following field trips were financed by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France).

³ Tamari, ‘Les castes’, 37–128, 299–336, 567–653. A book on this subject is in preparation.

⁴ The fullest ethnographic accounts of West African social hierarchies and endogamous occupational groups include: Camara, Sory, Gens de la parole. Essai sur la condition et le rôle des griots dans la société malinké (Paris, 1976)Google Scholar; Diagne, Pathé, Pouvoir politique traditionnel en Afrique occidentale. Essai sur les institutions politiques précoloniales (Paris, 1967)Google Scholar; Diop, Abdoulaye-Bara, La société wolof. Tradition et changement. Les systèmes d'inégalité et de domination (Paris, 1981)Google Scholar; Diop, Majhemout, Histoire des classes sociales dans l'Afrique de l'Ouest. Vol. I: Le Mali. Vol. 2: Le Sénégal (Paris, 1971–1972)Google Scholar; Gardi, Bernhard, Ein Markt wie Mopti. Handwerkerkasten und traditionelle Techniken in Mali (Basel, 1985)Google Scholar; McNaughton, Patrick R., The Mande Blacksmiths: Knowledge, Power and Art in West Africa (Bloomington, 1988)Google Scholar; NʾDiaye, Bokar, Les castes au Mali (Bamako, 1970)Google Scholar; Pollet, Eric and Winter, Grace, La société soninké. Dyahunu (Mali) (Brussels, 1971)Google Scholar; Richter, Dolores, Art, Economics and Change: The Kulebele of Northern Ivory Coast (La Jolla, Ca., 1980)Google Scholar; Wane, Yaya, Les Toucouleur du Fouta Tooro. Stratification sociale et structure familiale (Dakar, 1969).Google Scholar Other important accounts include: Dieterlen, Germaine, ‘Contribution à l'étude des forgerons en Afrique occidentale’, pp. 5–28Google Scholar, in Annuaire de l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, V^e Section: Sciences Religieuses, 1965–6; Diouf, Mamadou, ‘Le problème des castes dans la société wolof’, Revue Sénégalaise d'Histoire, 11 (1981), 25–37Google Scholar; Dupire, Marguerite, ‘A nomadic caste: the Fulani woodcarvers’, Anthropos lxxx (1985), 85–100Google Scholar; Gosselin, Gabriel, ‘Ordres, castes et Etats en pays sérèr (Sénégal): essai d'interprétation d'un système politique en transition’, Can. J. African Studies, VIII (1974), 135–143Google Scholar; Jonckers, Danielle, ‘Notes sur le forgeron, la forge et les métaux en pays minyanka’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, xliv (1979), 103–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Richter, Dolores, ‘Further considerations on caste in West Africa: the Senufo’, Africa, 1 (1980), 37–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zemp, Hugo, ‘Musiciens autochtones et griots malinké chez les Dan de Côte d'Ivoire’, Cah. Et. Afr., xv (1964), 370–82.Google Scholar On the Moors, the Tuareg, and the multi-ethnic society of Timbuktu, see especially: Briggs, Lloyd Cabot, Tribes of the Sahara (Cambridge, Mass., 1960)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Norris, H. T., Shinqiti Folk Literature and Song (Oxford, 1968)Google Scholar; Lhote, Henri, Les Touaregs du Hoggar (Paris, 1944)Google Scholar; Comment campent les Touaregs (Paris, 1947)Google Scholar; Nicolaisen, Johannes, Ecology and Culture of the Pastoral Tuareg, with Particular Reference to the Tuareg of Ahaggar and Ayr (Copenhagen, 1963)Google Scholar; Dupuis-Yakouba, , Industries et principales professions des habitants de la région de Tombouctou (Paris, 1921)Google Scholar; Ibrahima, Mohamane Albassadji, ‘Tombouctou. Etude de géographie humaine, économique et sociale’ (thèse de doctorat de 3^ème cycle, Université de Paris I, 1970).Google Scholar

⁵ See notably Diop, Abdoulaye-Bara, ‘La tenure foncière en milieu rural wolof (Sénégal): historique et actualité’, Notes Africaines, CXVIII (1968), 48–52Google Scholar, and La société wolof, esp. pp. 181–96; Wane, Y., Les Toucouleur, esp. pp. 34–40Google Scholar; Wane, Mamadou, ‘Réflexions sur le droit de la terre toucouleur’, Bulletin de l' Institut Fondamental de l' Afrique Noire, XLII (1980), 86–128.Google Scholar

⁶ Silla, Ousmane, ‘Persistance des castes dans la société wolof contemporaine’, BIFAN, XXVIII (1966), 731–70, especially pp. 755–8Google Scholar; Diop, M., Le Mali, 47Google Scholar; Pollet, and Winter, , La société soninké, 218.Google Scholar

⁷ Fieldwork within a radius of 30 km around Segou (1985, 1986) and in the Arrondissement de Nossombougou (1986, 1988).

⁸ See, e.g. Meillassoux, Claude (ed.), l'Esclavage en Afrique précoloniale (Paris, 1975), 15–18.Google Scholar

⁹ See, e.g. Person, Yves, ‘Un cas de diffusion: les forgerons de Samori et la fonte à la cire perdue’, Revue Française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer, CXCIV–CXCVII (1967), 219–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Richter, , ‘Further Considerations’, 39–40.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Zahan, Dominique, Sociétés d'initiation bambara. Le NʾDomo. Le Korè (Dijon, 1960), 234–6Google Scholar; Luneau, René, Chants de femmes au Mali (Paris, 1981).Google Scholar

¹¹ Fieldwork, regions of Segou (1985, 1986) and Beledougou (1986, 1988); also Bafoulabe area, 1985.

¹² Paulme, Denise, Organisation sociale des Dogon (Paris, 1988), 182Google Scholar; confirmed by Geneviève Calame-Griaule, personal communication, 1984. Soninke: Claude Meillassoux and Yakouba Diagana, personal communications, 1989.

¹³ See notably Paulme, , Organisation sociale, 184–5, 192Google Scholar; Calame-Griaule, Geneviève, Ethnologie et langage. La parole chez les Dogon (Paris, 1987), 397Google Scholar; Pollet, and Winter, , La société soninké, 206–60Google Scholar; Luneau, René, Les chemins de la noce. La femme et le mariage dans la société rurale au Mali (Lille, 1975), 101, 106–11.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Fieldwork, 1985, 1986, 1988.

¹⁵ Diop, Cheikh Anta, l'Afrique noire pré-coloniale (Paris, 1960), 7–18Google Scholar; Diagne, , Pouvoir politique, 71, 73Google Scholar; Diop, M., Le Mali, 47, 57–9Google Scholar; Camara, , Gens de la parole, 57–66.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Doumbia, Paul-Emile-Namoussa, ‘Etude du clan des forgerons’, Bulletin du Comité d'Etudes Historiques et Scientifiques de l' A.O.F., XIX (1937), 334–80, 337Google Scholar; Youssouf Cissé, personal communication.

¹⁷ Pollet, and Winter, , La société soninké, 233.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Luneau, Les chemins de la noce, III; and fieldwork, Segou region, 1985, 1986.

¹⁹ Fieldwork, Segou region, 1985, 1986.

²⁰ NʾDiaye, , Les castes, 73, 85Google Scholar, Pollet, and Winter, , La société soninké, 217–18.Google Scholar

²¹ Dieterlen, Germaine, Essai sur la religion bambara (Brussels, 1988), 166–7Google Scholar; Dieterlen, Germaine and Cissé, Youssouf, Les fondements de la société d' initiation du Komo (Paris, 1972), 30–1Google Scholar; Zahan, Dominique, La dialectique du verbe chez les bambara (Paris, 1963), 144.Google Scholar

²² See, e.g. Silla, , ‘Persistance’, 746–9Google Scholar and Mauny, Raymond, ‘Baobabs-cimetières à griots’, Notes Africaines, LXVII (July 1955), 72–76.Google Scholar

²³ Fieldwork, Arrondissement de Nossombougou, 1986, 1988.

²⁴ Among the best discussions of these groups, one may cite: Wane, Y., Les Toucouleur, 42–50Google Scholar; NʾDiaye, , Les Castes, 55–61Google Scholar; Diop, Boly, ‘Les subalbé. Pêcheurs de la moyenne vallée du fleuve Sénégal’, Brevet du Centre des Hautes Etudes de l' Afrique et de l'Asie Modernes (Paris), 1968Google Scholar; Pageard, Robert, ‘Notes sur les Diawambé ou Diokoramé’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, XXIX (1959), 239–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bazin, Jean, ‘Commerce et prédation: l'Etat bambara de Ségou et ses communautés marka’, International Conference on Manding Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1972.Google ScholarMonteil, Charles, Les Bambara du Ségou et du Kaarta (Paris, 1924)Google Scholar, makes numerous brief references to the Sòmono.

²⁵ Fieldwork, regions of Segou (1985, 1986) and Beledougou (1986, 1988); also Bafoulabe area, 1985.

²⁶ Mahamadou Sissoko, ‘Les castes à Bamako. Essai d'étude sur leur évolution’ (mémoire de fin d' études, D.E.R. de Philosophie, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Bamako). Other important discussions of modernization include Rivière, Claude, ‘uinee: la difficile émergence d'un artisanat casté’, Cah. Et. Afr., XXXVI (1969), 600–25Google Scholar, and Silla, ‘Persistance’.

²⁷ Baṭṭuṭa, Ibn, Tuḥfat al-Nuẓẓār fī Gharāib al-Amṣār wa-ʿAdjāʾib al-Asfār, ed. by Defrémery, C. and Sanguinetti, B. R., (Paris, 1969), IV, 398–410Google Scholar; French translation in Cuoq, Joseph, Recueil des sources arabes concernant IʾAfrique occidentale du VIII^e au XVI^e siècle (Bilād al-Sūdan) (Paris, 1975), 301–10.Google Scholar

²⁸ Al-ʿUmarī, Masālik al-Abṣār fī Mamālik al-Amṣār, Ms. B.N. 5868, 26v, 29r–33r, translation in Cuoq, Recueil, 264, 269–76.

²⁹ Al-Bakrī, , Kitāb al-Masālik wa-'l-Mamīlik, ed. de Slane, William MacGuckin (Paris, 1965). 175–6Google Scholar; Cuoq, , Recueil, 100Google Scholar; al-ldrīsī, , Nuzhat al-Mushtāq fi Ikhtirāq al-Āfāq, ed. Dozy, R. and de Goeje, M. J. (Leiden, 1866), 6Google Scholar; Cuoq, , Recueil, 133–4.Google Scholar

³⁰ Fernandes, Valentim, Description de la côte occidentale d'Afrique (Sénégal au Cap de Monte, Archipels), ed. and translated by Monod, T., da Mota, A. Teixeira and Mauny, R. (Bissau, 1951), 8–11, 44–5.Google Scholar The assimilation of Jews to bards in the early European sources has had one enduring consequence: in Portuguese Creole, bards are called judéus.

³¹ André de Almada, Alvares, Tratado breve dos Rios de Guiné do Cabo Verde, ed. Silveira, Luis (Lisbon, 1945), 23–4.Google Scholar

³² Jannequin, , he voyage de Lybie au royaume de Sénégal, le long du Niger (Geneva, 1980), 173–9Google Scholar; Mollien, , Voyage dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique, aux sources du Sénégal et de la Gambie (Paris, 1820), i, 155–8Google Scholar; Park, , Travels, ed. Miller, Ronald (New York, 1954), 213–14, 150Google Scholar; Barth, , Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (London, 1965), iii, 112–13.Google Scholar

³³ al-Mukhtār, Ibn, Taʿrīkh al-Fattāshfī Akhbār al-Buldān wa-l'-Juyūsh wa-Akābir al-Nās, ed. and translated Houdas, Octave and Delafosse, Maurice (Paris, 1981), 11, 94, 155 (pp. 14, 177 and 276 of the translation).Google Scholar

³⁴ The term has already been discussed by Hunwick, J. O., ‘African language material in Arabic sources—the case of Songhay (Sonrai)’, African Language Review, IX (1970–1971), 69.Google Scholar

³⁵ Al-Saʿdī, , Taʾrīkh al-Sūdān, ed. and translated Houdas, Octave and Benoist, Edmond (Paris, 1981), 102 (p. 168 of the translation).Google Scholar

³⁶ Gaden, Henri, Proverbes et maximes peuls et toucouleurs, traduits, expliqués et annotés (Paris, 1931), 323.Google Scholar

³⁷ Hama, Boubou, L'histoire traditionnelle d'un peuple. Les Zarma-Songhay (Paris, 1967), 119–20Google Scholar; Ahmadou Djibrilla Maiga et Mahamadou Maiga, ‘Le griot en milieu songhay’, mémoire de fin d'études, D.E.R. de Lettres, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Bamako, 1977–8; de Sardan, Jean-Pierre Olivier, Concepts et conceptions songhay-zarma (Paris, 1982), 281–2.Google Scholar

³⁸ Al-Saʿdī, , Taʾrīkh al-Sūdān, 81 (p. 116 of the translation).Google Scholar

³⁹ Soh, Siré-Abbas, Chroniques du Fouta sénégalais, ed. and translated Delafosse, Maurice and Gaden, Henri (Paris, 1913), 148, 225.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ al-Mukhtār, Ibn, Taʿrīkh al-Fattāsh, 65 (pp. 123–4 of the translation).Google Scholar

⁴¹ Ibid. 116, 181–2, 186 (pp. 212, 317, 323–4 of the translation); al-Saʿdī, , Taʾrikh al-Sūdān 143, 147, 157–8, 165 (pp. 223, 229, 243, 253 of the translation).Google Scholar

⁴² Al-Saʿdī, ibid. 122, 140, 210 (pp. 196, 219, 321 of the translation). FRM (to be read Farma) and the final ‘d’ of JawnD (to be read Jawndo) are not vocalized.

⁴³ Levtzion, Nehemia, ‘A seventeenth century chronicle by Ibn al-Mukhtār: a critical study of Taʿríkh al-Fattāsh’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, xxxiv (1971), 571–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Abitbol, Michel, Tombouctou et les Arma. De la conquête marocaine du Soudan nigérien en 1591 à l'hégémonie de l'Empire Peulh du Macina en 1833 (Paris, 1979), 12.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ al-Mukhtār, Ibn, Taʿrīkh al-Sūdān, 31–2, 55–8, 61–2, 64–8, 70–1, 116–17, 119, 123, 140–1, 143–4, 149 (PP. 52–4. 106–13, 118, 121–31, 136–7, 212–15, 218–19, 224–5, 255–6, 258–60, 266–8 of the translation).Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Brown, William, ‘The Caliphate of Hamdullahi ca. 1818–1864: a study in African history and tradition’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin at Madison, 1969), 116, 124, 129.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Most of the Bambara villages of the Beledougou region of Mali do not have resident bards or leatherworkers, only blacksmiths. However, the fact that Beledougou hóiran do not make any leather goods (except water skins) or play any of the musical instruments associated with bards, as well as their familiarity with the word nyàmakala, shows that they operate in terms of the social concepts and structures characteristic of other Manding areas. Beledougou Bambara make use of the services of wandering Malinke, Bambara, Soninke, and even Moorish artisans and bards. (Fieldwork, 1986, 1988).

⁴⁷ Baṭṭūta, Ibn, Tuḥfat, vol. 4, 404–5Google Scholar; Cuoq, , Recueil, 304.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Baṭṭūta, Ibn, Tuḥfat, vol. 4, 385Google Scholar; Cuoq, , Recueil, 294.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ The fullest versions collected include: Niane, Djibril Tamsir, Soundjata ou l'epopée mandingue (Paris, 1960)Google Scholar; Innes, Gordon, Sunjata: Three Mandinka Versions (London, 1974)Google Scholar; Cissé, Youssouf Tata and Kamissoko, Wa, L'empire du Mali, 2 vols. (Paris, 1975, 1976)Google Scholar; La grande geste du Mali, des origines à la fondation de l'empire (Paris, 1988)Google Scholar; Johnson, John William, The Epic of Son-Jara: A West African Tradition (Bloomington, 1986).Google Scholar Johnson provides quite a full bibliography, to which one should add Sory Camara, L'histoire pour les Mandenka, Université de Bordeaux, n.d., and a version included as an annex to Diakité, Drissa, ‘Le Mansaya et la société mandingue’ (thèse de doctorat de 3^éme cycle, Université de Paris I, 1980).Google Scholar

⁵⁰ See especially Khaldūn, Ibn, Kitūb al-ʿIbar wa-Dīwān al-Mubtadūʾ wa-ʿl-Khabar (Beirut, 1956–1961), vol. 4, 413–15Google Scholar; Cuoq, , Recueil, 343–6Google Scholar; and Levtzion, Nehemia, ‘The thirteenth- and fourteenth-century kings of Mali’, Journal of African History, iv (1963), 341–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵¹ Baṭṭūṭa, Ibn, Tuḥfat, vol. 4, 413–14Google Scholar; Cuoq, , Recueil, 307–8.Google Scholar

⁵² This idea, initially developed by Chadwick, H. Munro and Chadwick, N. Kershaw, The Growth of Literature (3 vols., Cambridge, 1932, 1936, 1940)Google Scholar, has been applied to the Manding epics by Johnson, John William, ‘The epic of Sun-Jata: an attempt to define the model for African epic poetry’ (Ph.D. thesis, Folklore Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1978).Google Scholar

⁵³ Thus, I reverse Gordon Innes' argument. According to him: ‘Folklorists have rightly pointed out that there is reason to suspect the historicity of any purportedly historical account when similar accounts are found elsewhere in the literature, either oral or written. […] Hence in the case of the Sunjata epic, which contains so many common motifs, one begins to wonder what, if anything, is based on historical facts. I must confess that if there were no independent historical documentation confirming the existence of Sunjata, I should be inclined to doubt that there had ever been a historical Sunjata’ (Innes, Sunjata, 26).

⁵⁴ The only stringed instrument mentioned in the medieval Arabic sources is the kanībrī (Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Tuḥfat, iv, 406; Cuoq, Recueil, 30s). This Persian word refers to an instrument which normally has only two strings (Mauny, R., Monteil, V., Djenidi, A., Robert, S., Devisse, J., Extraits tirés des voyages d'Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Dakar, 1966, 55, n. 4Google Scholar). Trumpets, drums, and especially the xylophone are the prominent instruments at the Malian court. Cf. Ibn Baṭṭīṭa, Tuḥfat, iv, 405, 412; Cuoq, Recueil, 304, 307; and al-ʿUmarī, Masālik al-abṣār fo. 29V., 31; Cuoq, Recueil, 269–70, 272.

⁵⁵ Niane, , Soundjata, 73–7Google Scholar; Cissé and Kamissoko, L'empire du Mali, i, 359–67; Innes, Sunjata, 200–31, 272–81; Johnson, Epic, 148–50.

⁵⁶ See, e.g. Cline, Walter, Metallurgy in Negro Africa (Menasha, Wisconsin, 1937)Google Scholar and Balandier, Georges, La vie quotidienne au royaume du Kongo du XVI^e au XVIII^e siècle (Paris, 1965).Google Scholar

⁵⁷ See notably Tardits, Claude, he royaume bamoum (Paris, 1980), 512–513, 587, 637–639, 682–693Google Scholar; Perrot, Claude-Hélène, Les Anyi-Ndenye et le pouvoir aux XVIII^e et XIX^e siècles (Abidjan/Paris, 1982), 135–6Google Scholar; Adler, Alfred, La mort est le masque du roi. La royauté sacrée des Moundang du Tchad (Paris, 1982), 291–4, 336–7Google Scholar; Fortier, Joseph, Le couteau de jet sacré. Histoire des Sar et de leurs rois au sud du Tchad (Paris, 1982).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Kouyaté, Namankoumba, ‘Recherches sur la tradition orale au Mali (pays manding)’, Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures, Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Université d'Alger, 1969–1970.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ For a general interpretation of joking relationships, see Tegnaeus, Harry, Blood Brothers: An Ethno-Sociological Study of the Institutions of Blood-Brotherhood with Special Reference to Africa (New York, 1952).Google Scholar About joking relationships in the Manding world and their relationships to traditions of caste origins, see notably Labouret, Henri, ‘La parenté à plaisanteries en Afrique occidental’, Africa, 11 (1929), 244–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Les Manding et leur langue (Paris, 1934), 100–4Google Scholar; Doumbia, ‘Etude’; Paulme, Denise, ‘Parenté à plaisanteries et alliance par le sang en Afrique occidentale’, Africa, XII (1939), 433–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘Pactes de sang, classes d'âge et classes en Afrique noire’, Archives Européennes de Sociologie (1968), 12–33Google Scholar; and Camara, Gens de la parole, 34–40, 228–30.

⁶⁰ See, e.g. Delafosse, Maurice, Haut-Sénégal-Niger (Paris, 1972), iii, 128–33Google Scholar, and Labouret, , Les Manding, 43–9Google Scholar, on the distinction between political and Earth chiefs among the Manding. In contrast to many recent studies (including Cartry, Michel, ‘Resumé des conférénces et travaux’, in Annuaire de l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, V^e Section–Sciences Religieuses, vol. 91 [1982–1983], 85–9Google Scholar, and Izard, Michel, Gens du pouvoir, gens de la terre. Les institutions politiques de l'ancien royaume du Yatenga (Cambridge/Paris, 1985)Google Scholar, I feel that a careful look at the historical evidence shows that certain religious duties are attributed to the earliest or earlier inhabitants, sometimes leading – in areas characterized by several waves of settlement – to the parcelling of religious privileges.

⁶¹ For example, descendants of the Songhay ruler Sonni Ali are still renowned as magicians, and both they and descendants of Mall's Keita dynasty hold periodical gatherings. See, e.g. Rouch, Jean, La religion et la magie songhay (Brussels, 1989)Google Scholar; Dieterlen, Germaine, ‘Mythe et organisation sociale au Soudan français’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, xxv (1955), 39–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar & xxix (1959), 119–38; Meillassoux, Claude, ‘Les cérémonies septennales du Kamablõ de Kaaba (Mali) (5–12 avril 1968)’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, xxxviii (1968), 173–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Sékéné-Mody Cissoko has shown that among the Manding-speaking Khassonké of the Kayes region of Mali, some princely lineages, though permanently excluded from political office, retained considerable prestige and received indemnities and tax exemptions. (‘Les princes exclus du pouvoir royal [mansaya] dans les royaumes du Khasso [XVIII–XIX^e s.]’, BIFAN, xxxv [1973], 46–56, esp. pp. 54–6). In the quite different cultural context of southwestern Chad, Alfred Adler has shown how representatives of the first Moundang dynasty retained a residual role in the court ceremonies of the succeeding dynasty (La Mort, 33–8, 106–9).

⁶² These languages are: Manding, Soninke, Dan, Wolof, Fulfulde, Senufo, Dogon, Minianka, Songhay, Moorish Arabic and Tuareg. Dictionaries consulted include: Manding: Delafosse, Maurice, La langue mandingue et ses dialectes (malinké, bambara, diould), vol. 2: Dictionnaire mandingue-fratiçais (Paris, 1955)Google Scholar; Bailleul, Charles, Petit dictionnaire bambara-français, français-bambara (England, 1981)Google Scholar; Wolof, : Lexique wolof-frattçais, Centre de Linguistique Appliquée de Dakar, 4 vols. (Dakar, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1981)Google Scholar; Fulfulde: Gaden, Henri, Lepoular: dialecte peul du Fouta sénégalais, vol. 2: Lexique poular-français (Paris, 1914)Google Scholar; Zubko, G. V., Dictionnaire peul (Jula)-russe-français d'environ 25,000 mots (Moscou, 1980)Google Scholar; Dogon: Calame-Griaule, Geneviève, Dictionnaire dogon. Dialecte tóro (Paris, 1968)Google Scholar; Minianka: Cauvin, Jean, La'image, la langue et la pensée, vol. 2: Recueil de proverbes de Karangasso (St Augustin, 1980)Google Scholar, which includes a vocabulary; Songhay: Prost, André, La langue sonay et ses dialectes (Dakar, 1956)Google Scholar, ‘Supplément au dictionnaire Sonay-Français (parler de Gao, Mali)’, BIFAN, xxxix (1977), 584–657, Ducroz, Jean-Marie and Charles, Marie-Claire, Lexique sorjey (songay)-français. Parler kaado du Gorouol (Paris, 1978)Google Scholar; Moorish Arabic: Pierret, Roger, Etude du dialecte maure des regions sahariennes et sahéliennes de l'Afrique Occidentale Française (Paris, 1948)Google Scholar; Tuareg: de Foucauld, Charles, Dictionnaire touareg-français. Dialecte de l'Ahaggar, 4 vols. (Paris, 1951)Google Scholar; Nicolas, Francis, La langue berbère de Mauritanie (Dakar, 1953).Google Scholar

The following works also proved particularly helpful: Pollet and Winter, La societe soninké; Olivier de Sardan, Concepts; Zemp, ‘Musiciens autochtones’; and Norris, Shinqiti. All transcriptions and analyses of Senufo terms are due to Pierre Boutin and correspond to the Tyebara dialect (personal communication, 1982).

⁶³ Fùne (also pronounced fina or fino), which designates a caste whose members often specialize in reciting the Koran and singing praises of the Prophet, pilgrims and religious scholars, may in fact be derived from the Arabic root fann, ‘art’, ‘technique’. However, it does not seem to be related to any non-Manding African words.

⁶⁴ Meillassoux, Claude, Doucouré, Lassana and Simagha, Diaowé, Légende de la dispersion des Kusa (Dakar, 1967).Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Fulfulde words are constituted by closed syllables, CV(V)C(C), to which various suffixes may be added. Manding words are typically composed of open syllables, CV(V)(X). (C, consonant; V, vowel; X, nasal).

⁶⁶ According to Gaden (Lexique, 22), buurnaajo comes from a Wolof expression meaning ‘the Buur's man’. This etymology is powerfully supported by the fact that most buurnaaɓe have Wolof clan names. See Wane, Les Toucouleur, 59.

⁶⁷ Càgi may ultimately come from Arabic: classical Arabic sāʿigh, pronounced sāyigh in most North African dialects→cayigi→càgi.

⁶⁸ In the generic form of the base, Senufo nouns present the following tonal schemes: low-low, middle-low, middle-middle, low-middle. The last three schemes are found only in Senufo roots. The tonal scheme -low-low is found both in Senufo roots and in loanwords. The tonal scheme -middle-high is found both in compound words and in loanwords. The tonal schemes low-high and high-high are only found among loanwords (Pierre Boutin, personal communication, 1982).

⁶⁹ Bisilliat, Jeanne and Laya, Dioulde, La tradition orale dans la société songhay-zarma: les zamu ou poèmes sur les noms (Niamey, 1972).Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Calame-Griaule, , Dictionnaire, 122.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Ibid. 130–1.

⁷² Cauvin, Recueil, Jonckers, ‘Notes’.

⁷³ Jonckers, , ‘Notes’, 112.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Maurice Houis and Hugo Zemp attempt to derive the Dan terms from the frequent Manding form yèli, but, for both linguistic and geographical reasons, this is unlikely. The Dan have manifold cultural relations with the Mauka, who use the form y⋯⋯ (Zemp, ‘Musiciens autochtones’, 377–8).

⁷⁵ Bravmann, René A., Islam and Tribal Art in West Africa (London, 1974), 74–80, 83, 87, 95–7, 99, 128, 132.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Turay, A. K., ‘Manding and Susu Loanwords in Temne’, International Conference on Manding Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1972.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ This point has already been made by Norris, H. T., Shinqiti, 53.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Discussions of the meaning of nyàma and the etymology of nyamakala include Cissè, Youssouf, ‘Notes sur les sociétés de chasseurs malinké’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, xxxiv (1964), 175–226, pp. 192–207CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Charles Bird, Martha Kendall and Kalilou Tera, ‘The etymology of Nyamakala’, forthcoming.

⁷⁹ For various hypotheses concerning the origin of Soninke ñaxamala, see Meillassoux, Claude, ‘Notes sur l'étymologie de nyamakala’, Notes Africaines, cxxxix (1973), 79.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Yaya Wane nevertheless provides a Tukulor popular etymology. According to him, this word literally means ‘those who eat from any trough’, Les Toucouleur, 50.

⁸¹ Christiane Seydou provides a good discussion of this question in ‘Aspects de la littérature peule’, in Adamu, Mahdi and Kirk-Greene, A. H. M. (eds.), Pastoralists of the West African Savanna (Manchester, 1986), 101–12.Google Scholar Also, compare Seydou, Christiane, Silâmaka et Poullôri (Paris, 1972)Google Scholar, and La geste de Ham-Bodêdio (Paris, 1976)Google Scholar, to Labatut, Roger, Chants de vie et de beauté, recueillis chez les peuls nomades du Nord-Cameroun (Paris, 1974).Google Scholar

⁸² Gaden, , Proverbes, 323Google Scholar; Gardi, , Ein Markt, 335–7.Google Scholar

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⁸⁴ Pierre Boutin, personal communication, 1982.

⁸⁵ Hama, , Histoire traditionnelle, 119–20Google Scholar; Maigaand Maiga, Legriot; Olivier de Sardan, Concepts, 157, 224–30, 281–2, 310, 330–1, 353–4, 400–1.

⁸⁶ Richter, , ‘Further considerations’, 39Google Scholar, Art, 15–17, 81–2.

⁸⁷ Zemp, ‘Musiciens autochtones, 376.

⁸⁸ Norris, , Shinqiti, 35–6, 53–4, 65–7.Google Scholar

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⁹² Wane, , Les Toucouleur, 50–2, 59–62.Google Scholar

⁹³ Meillassoux, Doucouré and Simagha, Légende.

⁹⁴ Kientz, Albert, ‘Approches de la parenté sénufo’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, xlix (1979), 9–70Google Scholar; xlix (1979), 9–28.

⁹⁵ Clamens, G., ‘Notes d'ethnologie sénoufo’, Notes Africaines, lix (1953), 76–80Google Scholar; Kulaseli, (pseudonym), ‘Une phase de l'initiation à un poro forgeron sénoufo’, Notes Africaines, lxv (1955), 9–14Google Scholar; Bochet, Gilbert, ‘Le poro des Diéli’, BIFAN, xxi (1959), 61–101.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Bravmann, , Islam, 74–80, 83, 87, 95–7, 99, 128, 132.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Richter, , ‘Further considerations’, 46–7Google Scholar, Art, 26–9, 95–7.

⁹⁸ Baṭṭūṭa, Ibn, Tuḥfat, vol. 4, 385Google Scholar; Cuoq, , Recueil, 294Google Scholar; Norris, , Shinqiti, 35–6, 54–5.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁰ Fieldwork, Segou region, 1985, 1986.

¹⁰¹ Doumbia, ‘Etude’; Amselle, Jean-Loup, Les négotiants de la savane: histoire et organisation sociale des Kooroko (Mali) (Paris, 1977).Google Scholar

¹⁰² Appia-Dabit, Béatrice, ‘Les forgerons du Fouta-Djallon’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, xxxv (1965), 317–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁰³ Wane, , Les Toucouleur, 52.Google Scholar

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