Joking relationship

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In ethnology, the joking relationship is a fixed mocking relationship between tribes, neighboring communities, professional groups, men and women, and the like. The synonyms are also cousinage , joke relationship , joke relationship and joke alliance .

It expresses itself in fixed customs such as mutual mocking songs at festivals (often in sub-Saharan Africa). The tolerance towards roughness is usually greater than when no such relationship is established and mockery is then perceived as an insult ( cf. Mitchell 1956).

Joke alliances in the Sahel

Joke relationships are called Sanankouya - or Mangu among the Dogon people - in western Africa . There they form a traditional system of solidarity that is still widespread. Some ethnologists refer to these relationships as a general joke kinship or joke cousinage . However, they are not always based on real kinship between allies as opposed to the also occurring real "joke kinship" where such relationships exist between people who are actually related.

The population of the Sahel consists of over 60 ethnic groups. Only a few ethnic groups have ancestral fixed habitats . The country offers little income for livelihoods and is also exposed to frequent plagues of locusts . The arable land is becoming increasingly scarce due to the expansion of the desert and the decreasing water supply. The potential for conflict between the ethnic groups is therefore increasing. In this situation, traditional methods of conflict resolution play an important role.

The most notable demonstration of the sanankouya is the joke relationship between allies. The often insulting remarks that are exchanged between the partners at every opportunity have no negative consequences. In such a ritual mob it can happen, for example, that a member of the Bissa insults a member of the semi-nomadic Peulh as a notorious cattle thief and the latter replies that the Bissa is only a "spider eater". On the contrary, beyond this playful aspect, the alliance establishes a duty of assistance under certain circumstances, which also extends to conflicts that a partner has with third parties.

Numerous studies devoted to this typical phenomenon of African western societies have led to different interpretations of its origins and meanings. Marcel Griaule and V. Easter interpreted it as a “ cathartic alliance with a purifying function”, which begins with an oath that seals this fraternization pact. Another explanation refers to the syncretistically open Islam widespread in the Sahel zone , under whose wide-ranging religious roof the art of reviling arose.

The alliance entered into obliges the partners and their descendants. It connects groups that have different family names, belong to different ethnic groups or live in different countries in West Africa. You can z. B. the alliances Diarra - Traoré , Keïta - Coulibaly , Touré - Cissé - Diaby , Bathily - Soumaré .

The Sanankouya (called Mangu among the Dogon), can have an inter-ethnic character ( Mandingue - Peulh , Bamanan -Peulh, Sonrhai -Dogon, Dogon- Bozo , Minianka - Sénoufo ), but it can also combine ethnic groups or castes. It also happens that areas with homogeneous ethnicities are connected in this way.

The Sanankouya of West Africans makes it possible to fraternize on first contact and to weaken situations that would lead to open conflicts elsewhere. In Mali , Sanankouya is a kind of therapy that helps regulate social relationships on a daily basis. The jokes that the allies exchange help to relax the atmosphere and maintain the basic trust necessary for dialogue. The writer Sory Camara described it as follows: The point is to defuse the war, to play it in order not to wage it.

The practices and expressions of joking relationships in Niger were included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2014.

Occurrence in Germany

Remnants can also be found in Germany, for example in the mutual stealing of the maypole by the youth in the neighboring village, in football at the Revierderby , but also as the occasional ridicule e.g. B. between Baden and Swabia / Württemberg (this is particularly evident in the Badnerlied ) or in the popular addition of the Frankenlied ; Franconians complain about old Bavaria with a wink . Also between Cologne and Düsseldorf , Frankfurt am Main and Offenbach as well as near Mainz and Wiesbaden .

See also

swell

  • J. Clyde Mitchell : The Kalela dance . Aspects of social relationships among urban Africans in Northern Rhodesia . Manchester University Press, Manchester 1956.
  • Publik-Forum No. 12 v. June 22, 2007.
  • Les fondements endogènes d'une culture de la paix au Mali: Les mécanismes traditionnels de prévention et de résolution des conflits; [1]

literature

  • Parentés, plaisanteries et politique . In: Cahiers d'études africaines . tape 184 . EHESS, Paris 2006.
  • Marie-Aude Fouéré: Les relations à plaisanteries en Afrique (Tanzanie): discours savants et pratiques locales . L'Harmattan, Paris 2008.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Practices and expressions of joking relationships in Niger - intangible heritage - Culture Sector - UNESCO. Retrieved June 10, 2017 (English).