How Bamiléké Music-Makers Create Culture in ... - SIL International

UNIVERISITY OF CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles
How Bamiléké Music-Makers Create Culture in Cameroon
A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy
in Ethnomusicology
by
Brian Edward Schrag
2005

© Copyright by
Brian Schrag
2005

Dedicated to my outstanding wife, Barb, and
our upstanding children, Mindy, Austin, and Lydia.
We're all still standing.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures viii
List of Photographs xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Vita xvi
Publications and Presentations xvii
Abstract of the Dissertation xix
Chapter 1 Investigating Music in Ngiemb!!n Communication 1
The Research Process 3
First Steps 4
"Ngiemb!!n" as a Valid Research Category 6
Research Personality 8
The Grand, Multi-sited Conversation 14
Activities, Analyses, and a Model 18
Analyses 19
The Model 24
Research and Publication Review 35
Overview of Music Research in Cameroon 35
Literature on Bamiléké Topics 38
Significance of the Study and Description of Chapters 41
Chapter 2 Ngiemb!!n Communicators 44
First Roads Home 46
Emigration, Troubles, and Development of the Cameroonian Nation 51
The Ngiemb!!n Language 55
Physical Environment 60
Social and Religious Organization 61
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Economic Organization 66
Temporal Organization 68
Events With Temporal Regularity 68
Events Without Temporal Regularity 72
Competition in Solidarity 73
Summary and Reflection 74
Chapter 3 Musical Communication at Home 76
Preliminaries 78
Music Without Locational or Temporal Regularity 80
Lefemé 80
Salient Life Events: Birth, Marriage, and Death 85
Individually Performed Music 97
Sundry 101
Music with Locational and Temporal Regularity 102
Location 106
Communicators 108
Social Infrastructure 109
Musical Infrastructure 116
Messages 125
Summary and Reflection 128
Chapter 4 DAKASBA 130
Overview of the Group 135
DAKASBA Communicators 138
Social Infrastructure 142
Initiating and Maintaining Membership 142
Internal Organization 147
Performance Contexts 149
Ka"n!"!n 161
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Navigating Authenticity and Modernization 163
A Road to Nkem Legwé in Batcham 166
Summary and Reflection 175
Chapter 5 Communication Through Musically Structured Space 177
Methodologies 179
Theoretical Considerations 183
A Musical Event 185
Overview 185
Movement 188
Rhythm Infrastructure 190
Underlying pulse 195
Nd#"$ 196
Tse%tsa%’ 197
Mu! nka" 198
Ma& nka" 199
K'i’ fu"! or Nzeme mmo% 200
Occasionally Sounded Instruments 202
General Comments on Rhythm 204
Song Infrastructure 205
One Song 206
Song Form 213
Melody 217
Tempo 221
Pitch Shift 222
Vocal Techniques 222
Improvisation 223
Harmony 223
Song Texts 224
Summary and Reflection 229
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Chapter 6 Roads Home and Back 231
Music and Ngiemb!!n Communication 232
Insights 234
Future Research: Language, Shapes, and Music 237
Groundings and Scholarly Connections 241
Intersecting Horizons and Social Agency 244
Tune and Tarmac as Communicational Infrastructure 249
Appendices 252
A Dance Associations in the Kingdom of Balessing 252
B History of the Ka"n!"!n Dance 262
C Ngiemb!!n Instruments 265
D Village Association Questionnaire 276
E Description of Corpus of DAKASBA Songs 284
References 298
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LIST OF FIGURES
1.1 "Sa'a Ka"n!"!n" Lyrics 1
1.2 Map of Bamiléké and Ngiemb!!n Home Regions in Cameroon 2
1.3 Ndongo's Model of Reciprocal Communication (Simplified) 25
1.4 Modeling Ngiemb!!n Musical Communication Events 28
1.5 View Hierarchy Based on Locational Scope 29
2.1 Map of Movements of the Ngiemb!!n 46
2.2 Map of Kingdoms in Ngiemb!!n Home Region 49
2.3 Succession of Batcham Kings 50
2.4 Succession of Balessing Kings 50
2.5 Ngiemb!!n Orthographic Conventions for Consonants and Vowels 57
2.6 Variants of the Phoneme /g/ 58
2.7 Ngiemb!!n Orthographic Conventions for Tone 59
2.8 Time Divisions in a Day 69
2.9 Eight Days of the Traditional Week 69
2.10 Ngiemb!!n Names for Days of the Modern Week 70
2.11 Page from a Ngiemb!!n Calendar 71
2.12 Months of the Year 72
3.1 Map of Village Research Locations 79
3.2 Lefemé Pattern in Time Unit Box System Notation 84
3.3 Text of a Lek'ile Mefág Song 85
3.4 Excerpt from Gya Mú! Greeting Sequence 87
3.5 Excerpt from Gya Mú! Song 87
3.6 Excerpt from a L!%!n Nda% Song 89
3.7 Entering the Mourners' Compound 92
3.8 Excerpt from a Song Marking the Arrival of Visitors to Mourners' House 92
3.9 Dances Performed at Nkem Legwé for Maurice Tagoundjou Tsasse, January
10, 2004 96
3.10 Map of Detail of Balessing Neighborhoods 107
3.11 Association Objectives by Theme 110
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3.12 Summary of Balessing Dance Association Meeting Times 115
3.13 Dance Genres in Balessing 117
3.14 Geometric Description of Musical Influences Acknowledged by Women's
Groups 121
3.15 Tabular Description of Musical Influences Acknowledged by Women's
Groups 122
3.16 Nza() Tuning 125
3.17 The Perlocutionary Force of Dance Association Songs 127
4.1 Map of Yaoundé, With DAKASBA Related Neighborhoods in Bold 131
4.2 DAKASBA Member Information Card 139
4.3 Birth Years of DAKASBA Members 140
4.4 Birth Places of DAKASBA Members 141
4.5 Yaoundé Residences of DAKASBA Members 142
4.6 DAKASBA Non-rehearsal Performance Events 150
4.7 Distribution of DAKASBA Non-Rehearsal Performance Contexts 157
4.8 DAKASBA's Hierarchical Structure Compared to That in the Homeland 165
4.9 Front and Back Pages of Invitation to Nkem Legwé of Tagoundjou Tsasse
Maurice 168
4.10 Inside Pages (Two and Three) of the Invitation to Nkem Legwé of
Tagoundjou Tsasse Maurice 169
4.11 Traveling to a Nkem Legwé as a Temporospatial Musical Event 171
4.12 Dances Performed at Nkem Legwé for Maurice Tagoundjou Tsasse,
January 10, 2004 174
5.1 Recording Event Parameters 180
5.2 Sample Analysis of a Recording Event 183
5.3 A DAKASBA Performance Event, July 8, 2002, Yaounde% 188
5.4 Division of Space at a Ka"n!"!n Performance 189
5.5 Genetic Relationships of Recordings Used for Musical Analyses 193
5.6 Simple Dance Steps 195
5.7 Basic Time Span 195
5.8 Nd#"$ Pattern 196
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5.9 Tse%tsa%’ Pattern 198
5.10 Mu! nka" Pattern 199
5.11 Ma& nka Pattern 200
5.12 K'i' fu"! Pattern 201
5.13 Composite View of Instrument Patterns 202
5.14 Coincident Bell Pattern 205
5.15 Transcription of Melody of Song 12 (“Ngw! goon mba !% ju%”) 208
5.16 Text Excerpt from Song 12 (“Ngw! goon mba !% ju%”) 213
5.17 Form of Song 3 ("Yi)e le% kwo mbo)o") 214
5.18 Form of Song 12 (“Ngw! g!!n mba ! ju”) 215
5.19 Proverbs in Counseling Section of Song 12 216
5.20 Rhythmic Organization of Call and Response Groupings 218
5.21 Tonal Inventory of Song 1 221
5.22 Muntu Addressed in DAKASBA Songs 225
5.23 Themes and Proverbs in DAKASBA Songs 228
6.1 Depiction of the Importance of Roads in Cameroon 232
6.2 Examples of Infrastructures in Terms of their Plasticity 233
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CHAPTER 2
LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS
King Fouamene of Balessing 45
Along the Road from Balessing to Batcham 60
Jonas Tchoffo, Workshop Director 66
CHAPTER 3
Lefemé 80
Mme. Régine Kemene Playing the Lefemé 81
Nde"nd#%m 83
"Ambicat" Ambrose Chinda 98
Ndeenge 99
Étienne Nota Enjoying Playing a Drum Alone 100
Brian Schrag Videotaping in Balessing 103
Mali Gi)e le%nd!!n Dance Association, Balessing 124
Nza(), Used in the Pu! Ma"nzo") Dance 125
CHAPTER 4
DAKASBA After a Performance in Yaoundé, June 2003 136
Photograph of the Deceased at a Shy*o% Legwe% 158
DAKASBA Members Waiting to Leave for a Nkem Legwé at the Liberté Bar 170
Taking a Break in Balessing, the First Ngiemb!!n Village of the Trip 173
CHAPTER 5
Interaction Between a DAKASBA Dancer and the Ma%ku"m 186
Tsétsá', Nd#’, Mu! nka" and Ma& nka" 197
Bernard Tenzem Playing the K'i’ fu"! 201
Robert Tido Playing the Me%sh#a 203
Stylized Battle Interaction 204
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CHAPTER 6
Jean-Pierre, Brian, Étienne, and Photo of Waldo and Elma Schrag 245
The Smooth, Solid Road to the Ngiemb!!n Homeland 250
xii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The people who collaborated in this three-year project constitute an
embarrassment of riches for me. I am deeply indebted to them, and recalling their faces
and hearts and minds evokes warm feelings. So here is my heartfelt encomium, along
with a reminder that I take full responsibility for any errors.
A number of people joined my research activities concretely, practically, and
creatively. First and foremost among these is Ferdinand Doumtsop, whose diligence,
thoroughness, and ingenuity as my research associate made this project much more
trustworthy and important than it would have otherwise been. Moïse Yonta, Prosper
Djiafeua, and Steve Anderson also played indispensable intellectual and spiritual roles
in guiding and correcting my work. In addition, Steve Rehn, Roch Ntankeh, Bruno
Fofouh, and Elwyn Schrag took pictures, shot videos, pointed microphones, and lugged
cables on a number of crucial research trips.
In Balessing, King Pascal Fouamene Ganno granted me privileges and insights
that could only have emanated from a character marked by warmth, integrity, and a
deep awareness of his responsibilities. I am extremely grateful to him. Also in
Balessing, the Tiozang family prepared a home-cum-research-station on all of my visits.
Without David Tiozang's ceaseless introductions and ideas, and Marie and Ghislaine's
wonderfully varied cooking and input, I would never have made a dent in understanding
or enjoying Ngiemb!!n village life. Each of the other members of the family that I
interacted with–Ferdinand Doumtsop, Bruno Fofouh, Ibrahim Zongning, Eduard
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Tamewo, Pelagie Tido, Hervé Koungoum, Maximillian Lontsi, Florence Lontsi, and
little Brian Goumgong–welcomed and warmed my visits.
I profited from the knowledge and skills of several specialists. Eduard Van
Oene helped to translate my fuzzy ideas of a communication model into the clear,
attractive graphical form in Chapter 1 (Figure 1.4). I would also like to thank Libbie
Freed for sharing her research on roads, naturalist Paul Noren for helping me identify
plants, Lori Tapia for insights about sound systems, and Dan Fitzgerald and Roch
Ntankeh for their input on my rhythm analyses.
The DAKASBA dance association opened its warrior family to me, assisted
me,and made my attendance at rehearsals and performances such a treat. In addition to
the special assistance given me by Bernard Melataya, Prosper Djiafeua, Jean Pierre
Tametsa, Etienne Nota, Jean Claude Keula, Moïse Tchinda, and Samuel Fotio, I am
grateful to the entire group: Tiya Robert Kanou, David Kemetia, Jean Paul Diffo, David
Tsagning, Flaubert Kenné, Thomas Manfouo, Etienne Kamou, Jean Pierre Tchoupou,
François Lado, Victor Temtsa, Patrice Wagoum, Bernard Tezem, Jean Marie Mouafo,
André Yemetio, Emmanuel Kuété Fongang, Martin Lontchi, Daniel Mekazung, Pauline
Tchinda, Robert Tindo, Josué Tiokeng, Augustin Tsapi, Timothée Yemetio, Paul
Wagoum, Jean Pierre Tchiaze, Michael Yemdji, Julienne Kougang, Mathieu Tsapi,
Prosper Tané, Isidore Tilong, Lazarre Feudjio, Robert Kougoum, Odette Folem, David
Ngouanfo, and Bonas Fopa.
So many others made a panoply of contributions: Ghiselle Yonta transcribed
and translated song texts; Pastor Benjamin Noumba, the Montée Kondengui cellule de
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prière, and Cheryl and Roger Mawamba among many others talked with God on my
behalf; my dissertation committee, led by the indomitable Jacqueline DjeDje,
communicated and guided me with wisdom and clarity; UCLA professors Helen Rees
and Roger Kendall gave insightful, timely responses to my distant queries; and Michael
Jindra read and commented on a capsule of the dissertation. Official permission to
perform research came from Cameroon's Ministère des Recherches Scientifiques et
Techniques (MINREST), and financial support came from our amazing team of
partners, SIL International, SIL Cameroon, and the West Congo Group of SIL. I
applaud SIL's unceasing commitment to thorough, sensitive scholarship as a necessary
backdrop to all its work.
All photographs and musical transcriptions are my own.
Finally, I thank God, in whom I live and move and have my being, and the
remarkable wife he put me on this road with.
xv

VITA
August 28, 1962 Born, Hutchinson, Kansas
1984 B.S., Cognitive Science, Magna Cum Laude (Sigma Xi)
Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island
1987 M.A., Intercultural Communications, with emphasis in
ethnomusicology, Summa Cum Laude
Wheaton College
Wheaton, Illinois
1991-1992 Graduate courses in linguistics
University of Texas, Arlington
1996 -1997 French Language and Music Studies
Institut Français des Alpes and École Nationale de la Musique
Chambéry, France
1999-2000 Teaching Assistant and Teaching Assistant Coordinator
.
Department of Ethnomusicology
1990-present SIL International
University of California, Los Angeles
Linguist/translator. Democratic Republic of Congo
Editor, EMNews
Editor, Catalyst Library
Instructor, Cross-cultural Communication. Cameroon
Instructor, Ethnomusicology. Southwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas
Ethnomusicology consultant, Cameroon
xvi

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
2005. "Musical Invigoration of Cultural Dynamism in a Bamiléké Dance Association."
African Music 8(2).
2003a. "What Right Have We to Interfere? Rigor, Integrity, and Grace in the Context of
Criticism." Paper presented at the Global Consultation on Music and Missions, Fort
Worth, Texas.
2003b. With Neil Coulter. "Response to 'Ethnomusicology as Tool for the Christian
Missionary'." European Meetings in Ethnomusicology 10: 98-108.
2000. “Dialogic Grooving at the Nexus: The Intersection of African Music and Euro-
American Ethnomusicology at UCLA.” Paper presented at the annual Meeting of
the Society of Ethnomusicology, Toronto, Canada.
2000. With Kenneth S. Olson. “An overview of Mono phonology.” In Proceedings from
the 2nd World Congress of African Linguistics, Leipzig 1997, ed. by H. Ekkehard
Wolff and Orin Gensler, 393-409. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
1999. “Situated Musical Competence: Insights from the Composition of Three Songs in
Northwestern Congo.” Paper presented at the annual Meeting of the Society for
Ethnomusicology, Austin, Texas.
1999. “An Introduction to Mono Music.” Unpublished compilation of data and analyses
of Banda-Mono music prepared for UCLA class ESM 281A.
1998. “Mono Creativity: The Commissioning and Composition of Three Songs.”
Research Review (Legon, Ghana) Supplementary Issue No. 10.
1996a. “Toward a Generative Analysis of Rhythm: A Review of African Polyphony
and Polyrhythm [Simha Arom].” EMNews 5(1).
1996b. “Catalyzing Creativity: Nurturing a Dying Music Through Apprenticeship.”
Paper presented at the Meeting of the Midwest Chapter of the Society for
Ethnomusicology, Cincinnati, Ohio.
xvii

1994. “Toward a Model for the Evaluation of the Cultural Strength of Various Musics.”
Notes on Anthropology and Intercultural Community Work 16:3-14.
1992. “Translating Song Texts as Oral Compositions.” Notes on Translation 6 (1):44-
62.
1989. “Becoming Bi-musical: The Importance And Possibility Of Missionary
Involvement In Music.” Missiology 17:311-320.
1987. “The Daasanech and Their Music: A Preliminary Analysis.” Paper in partial
fulfillment of M.A. requirements, Wheaton College.
xviii

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION
How Bamiléké Music-Makers Create Culture in Cameroon
by
Brian Edward Schrag
Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnomusicology
University of California, Los Angeles, 2005
Professor Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, Chair
Cameroonians essentialize their Bamiléké populations as highly disciplined, hard
working, successful in commercial ventures, and exceptionally devoted to their
traditions, qualities captured popularly in the phrase "le dynamisme bamiléké." Given
that music is commonly regarded as an entertainment and pastime and thus perhaps as
distracting from discipline and hard work, it comes as something of a surprise that
traditional musical performance permeates village and urban life of a subgroup of the
Bamiléké, the Ngiemb!!n. In this study, I argue that musical performance in fact
contributes to and is consistent with Bamiléké dynamism rather than detracting from it.
xix

To make this argument, I develop a model of reciprocal communication, which I apply
to rural and urban contexts of musical performance. Through this exploration of the
physical, musical, and social infrastructures undergirding Ngiemb!!n communicative
strategies, I show that musical performance does indeed invigorate Bamiléké culture,
not only in affective arenas, but in economic and material areas as well. In particular, I
argue that music powerfully mediates and energizes reciprocal communication with
givers, enforcers, and protectors of traditional Ngiemb!!n values and social structures,
both living and dead. I further suggest that this musically invigorated communication
creates physical and symbolic feedback resonance, thereby helping to perpetuate,
strengthen, and extend le dynamisme bamiléké. Information on how to obtain a DVD
containing the audio and video clips referred to in the dissertation is available at
www.sil.org/~schragb.
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Chapter 1
Investigating Music in Ngiemb!!n Communication
Figure 1.1. "Sa'a Ka"n!"!n" Lyrics (Audio Clip 1; vocables in English text italicized) 1
He he he sale le!
He kwake!e le! !
He Fu'mbum!
He la' te lye! !
He he he Ka"n!"!n!
He Tree of Peace!
He Gift From Bamoun!
He Night Without Sleep!
O nn" y##n mo, o$ sale le! Oh my body, oh Ka"n!"!n
Peg w#% l&a nyi! mba a% kwe%! We mourn someone when he dies!
Sale le%, o$ yu mpf&% mba a% l&' o Ka"n!"!n, oh he who has died has decayed
Sale le, o$ Fu# Sonkwa‚ pe% ya lo%o Ka"n!"!n, oh King Sonkwa saw
Sale le Ka"n!"!n
O peg w# l&a nyi! mba a% kwe% Oh, we only mourn someone when he has died
O sale le, o$ w# g&a Maya Oh Ka"n!"!n, he will leave for Maya
Nt(i nt&#’ o$ Fu’mbum Tell it, oh Gift From Bamoun,
O Fu# Tanta! pe ya lo, o$ sale le Oh King Tatang saw, oh Ka"n!"!n
He he he sale le!
He kwake!e le! !
He he he Ka"n!"!n!
He Tree of Peace!
He Fu’mbum!! He Gift From Bamoun!
Aa lı%lı% ke a pf& pf&? Does it sleep, or does it die?
Aa lı%lı% a lı%lı% a lı%lı% It sleeps, it sleeps, it sleeps
Several times a year, members of the DAKASBA (Danse Ka"n!"!n du Secteur
Baléna) dance group travel a mostly paved road from their homes in the Cameroonian
capital of Yaoundé to their birth region in the West Province. There, they musically
invoke the names of Sonkwa (the current king of their natal village Batcham), Tata)
(Batcham's recently deceased king), Bamoun (a reference to the centuries' dead leader of
a neighboring kingdom), and scores of other personalities mentioned in lyrics of songs
like that above. Throughout the rest of the year, they rehearse and perform from a
1 This paper is published in Doulos SIL, a unicode font created by SIL.
1

continually evolving repertoire, referencing the same personalities, but from sites
primarily in Yaoundé. Members belong to the Ngiemb!!n kingdom, a subgroup of the
Bamiléké, whom Cameroonians essentialize as highly disciplined, successful in
commercial ventures, and exceptionally devoted to their traditions, qualities captured
popularly in the phrase "le dynamisme bamiléké."
When members of DAKASBA perform a song or take to the road–or do both
simultaneously–they are not alone. Hundreds of Bamiléké dance associations throughout
Cameroon regularly and frequently
engage in parallel activities, journeying
through well-worn, though often
malleable communication pathways: the
roads to and from the West Province;
the words and rhythms of songs; and the
social protocols they follow when
interacting with their compatriots, to
name a few. However, nowhere have the
creators of written and oral literature on
Bamiléké cultures examined the vital
roles that music plays in producing and
maintaining their vitality. I intend to fill
this gap.
2
Figure 1.2. Map of Bamiléké and
Ngiemb!!n Home Regions in Cameroon

Through a detailed description of occasional and regular musical performance
contexts in the Ngiemb!!n village of Balessing, and an exploration of the physical,
musical, and social infrastructure undergirding DAKASBA's communication, I will
show that musical performance does indeed invigorate Bamiléké culture, not only in
affective arenas, but in economic and material areas as well. In particular, I argue that
music powerfully mediates and energizes reciprocal communication with givers,
enforcers, and protectors of traditional Ngiemb!!n values and social structures, both
living and dead. I further suggest that this musically invigorated communication creates
physical and symbolic feedback resonance, thereby helping to perpetuate, strengthen,
and extend le dynamisme bamiléké. To achieve this, I develop a model of reciprocal
communication that will contribute to the field of ethnomusicology and similar fields,
promising to demystify the sometimes murky expectations and methods of dialogic
cross-cultural research.
The Research Process
I performed research for this dissertation between June 2002 and December 2004.
During this period, I lived with my family in Yaoundé, in a house owned by SIL, 2 the
Christian Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to which I have belonged since 1990.
I conducted the majority of my research during attendance at meetings and
performances of the DAKASBA dance group in Yaoundé and six trips of between three
2 SIL originally stood for "Summer Institute of Linguistics." Like many organizations, SIL grew beyond
the realities surrounding its inception, and now legally retains only the acronym as its name. I discuss SIL
further below.
3

and eight days to Ngiemb!!n villages. I also recorded interviews with Ngiemb!!n
musicians and leaders, and perused the archives of the Ministère des Recherches
Scientifiques et Techniques (MINREST) in Yaoundé.
First Steps
My decision to make the Ngiemb!!n musical world the focus of my research
resulted from a combination of directed inquiry and serendipity. In 2001, I proposed a
dissertation research project in the Central African Republic (CAR), which would have
allowed me to build on my previous research among people who speak Banda-Mono in
northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo (see Schrag 1994, 1996a, 1996b, 1996c,
1998, 1999a, 1999b, 1999c, 2000). Because of the risks to my family posed by political
instability and violence in CAR at the time, I changed my geographical focus and
moved to Cameroon, where SIL maintains a significant presence.
When we arrived in Cameroon in April 2002, I began to interview expatriate and
Cameroonian linguists and other acquaintances in order to gain initial glimpses into the
musical lives of various communities in Cameroon. I created a rubric that guided our
discussions through the areas of logistics (for example, travel routes, road conditions),
housing and climate, characteristics of musical activity in Yaoundé and origination
areas, histories of involvement with SIL and CABTAL (Cameroon Bible Translation
and Literacy, a national Bible translation organization), existing publications, and music
in the churches. Aided by several overviews of music in Cameroon (for example, Kubik
4

2001; Fitzgerald 1999; Ateba 1994), by June, I decided on the Ngiemb!!n, a Bamiléké
subgroup, as the ethnic focus of my research.
I chose the Ngiemb!!n for three principle reasons. First, even though they are
one of the most numerous and socially influential cultural groups in Cameroon, there
are virtually no published analyses and very few recordings of Bamiléké music or
musical activity. In addition, almost all of the literature concerning Bamiléké cultures
exists only in French. Thus, my research not only fills a void in ethnomusicological and
anthropological literature, but it also eases Anglophone access to documents almost
exclusively restricted to French-speaking communities. Second, the Ngiemb!!n people
perform uniquely Ngiemb!!n music both in their geographical homeland in the West
Province, as well as in major cities throughout Cameroon. This allowed me to profit
from the advantages afforded by multi-site studies, as discussed below. Third, two men
who had already performed basic linguistic and anthropological research in the
Ngiemb!!n region were available to introduce me to people and social organizations
that would help me begin making relationships. These were Dr. Stephen Anderson of
SIL, and Moïse Yonta, CABTAL linguist and native of Batcham, a Ngiemb!!n town.
Three other people played foundational roles in the accomplishment of this
project. Moïse Yonta introduced me to David Tiozang, a resident of Balessing. Mr.
Tiozang is a teacher, counselor to the king of Balessing, catechist in the local Catholic
church, and proponent of Ngiemb!!n literacy activities. During my trips to Balessing,
he and his family provided singular service, offering housing, food, friendship, and
research advice, which I detail in Chapter Three. In addition, Mr. Tiozang's son,
5

Ferdinand Doumtsop, became my research assistant; his contributions will be evident
throughout the paper. Finally, I relied heavily on Prosper Djiafeua, Professeur des
Lycées d'enseignement Général, Cadre d'Etudes à la Direction de l'Enseignement
Secondaire Général at Cameroon's Ministère de l'Éducation, and special counsel for
DAKASBA. He provided strategic input for direction in my research and responses to
my incessant questions.
Ngiemb##n as a Valid Research Category
Ranger (1983) presents convincing evidence from southern and eastern Africa
that some of the most taken-for-granted categories through which social scientists have
viewed African cultures result from colonial and post-colonial interventions, and thus
have an uncertain relationship to realities there. Two of those categories relate directly
to the present study. First, Ranger argues that German and British colonizers explicitly
extended local concepts of kingship to correspond more directly with a European-
defined Imperial Monarchy. In order to ease the burden of governance, "the colonial
rulers felt the need for a shared ideology of Empire which could embrace whites and
blacks alike, dignify the practicalities of collaboration and justify white rule" (229). In
Cameroon, colonial administrators appointed local chiefs to help them govern, most
notably in southern, central and eastern regions, where traditional social organization
was generally acephalous (Mbuagbaw et al 1987:84, 93, 95-6; Laburthe-Tolra and
Warnier 1997:98). In northwestern and western Cameroon, especially among Bamiléké
groups, Germans, British, and French encountered a hierarchical social structure
6

drawing on hundreds of years of hereditary authority and a definition of kingship
supported by multiple religious and judicial structures. It is unlikely that the colonists
had significant influence on basic definitions of Ngiemb!!n kingship.
Second, Ranger argues that colonial governments used records spelling out
appeals to idiosyncratically defined local traditions, and the publication of lexicons and
other literature in a single dialect to help them manage the unwieldy social complexity
they encountered (1983:247-262). The resultant reifications of concepts like "tribe,"
"African Traditional Religion," and the boundaries of a specific language, have taken on
lives of their own, where everyone is complicit: "Europeans believed Africans belonged
to tribes; Africans built tribes to belong to" (Iliffe 1979: 324, as quoted in Ranger
1983). In my research, I have carefully chosen analytical categories and have attempted
to remain conscious of those that appear helpful in deepening my understanding,
discarding or modifying them when necessary.
In this vein, I have discovered that the label "Ngiemb!!n" has a compelling
relationship to communicational realities and a growing validity as a unifying symbol of
identity. In attempting to apply consistent principles to the sorting out of Cameroonian
languages, linguists have circumscribed what is spoken in the five Ngiemb!!n kingdoms
as a single–though not simple–communicational unit. As I explain in Chapter Three,
people speaking the language and dialects there understand each other, but don't
understand most of the languages spoken in surrounding areas without a significant
period of learning. In terms of identity, before colonists fixed the geographical
boundaries of Bamiléké villages, family groupings, treaties, and interkingdom wars all
7

contributed to the complex distribution and loyalties of various sociolinguistic
groupings (LAFABA 2004). Though Ngiemb!!n people all point to a single point of
origin in the kingdom of Bangang, they identify themselves more readily as inhabitants
of their own kingdom than of the five kingdom complex called Ngiemb!!n. Many
Ngiemb!!n élites look favorably on a shift towards identification with the larger
grouping.
Research Personality
I planned my research with three broad issues in mind: balance between local
and non-local benefits of my work; methodological flexibility; and awareness of the
various combinations of parameters that contribute to my positions as insider and
outsider. First, Kwabena Nketia asserts that current research in African music should
exhibit the same balance of scholarly and practical pursuits that typifies its history
(1998: 14, 30, 48, 66-68). Though he believes that the primary task of African
musicology is to provide musical knowledge (Nketia 1970), it must also possess aspects
that are relevant and practical. Humanist scholars "should not only analyze and
describe, but reassess, reintegrate, rediscover, and make available 'the materials and the
blueprints' with which their 'contemporaries can build their own culture' (Nketia
1998:68; Schlatter 1965). Nketia's exhortation parallels movement within the field of
ethnomusicology as a whole to apply ethnomusicological activity to social needs beyond
the classroom (as attested, for example, by Hawes [1993], and Brown University's 2003
8

conference entitled "Invested in Community: Ethnomusicology and Community
Advocacy").
These developments in ethnomusicology form part of greater attention to power
relationships, diasporic and gender studies, and post-colonial discourse, catalyzed by the
cultural studies movement since the1960s (see Negus 1996; Sardar and Van Loon
1998). A branch of this movement with which some of my concerns resonate is that of
action research. The recent publication of Handbook of Action Research (Reason and
Bradbury 2001) demonstrates the maturation and broadening of a field instigated in the
1940s by Kurt Lewin (see, for example, Lewin 1946). Reason and Bradbury define
action research as "a participatory, democratic process concerned with developing
practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes, grounded in a
participatory worldview" (1). Such a worldview assumes a reality that exists, but insists
that researchers co-create analyses and metaphors that add to and modify that reality.
The goal is not merely to produce conceptual knowledge, but to improve people's lives.
Though its advocacy of democracy as the only–or at least, primary–systemic basis for
relieving human suffering seems limiting (see p. 9, for example), action research
presents a fertile field for insights into practical research.
Though incomplete and preliminary, I have attempted to integrate concern for
local benefits, both scholarly and practical, into the warp and woof of my research.
Because governments and other African institutions are interested in the "recording,
documenting, classifying, cataloguing, preserving, and promoting of traditional music"
(Nketia 1998:66), for example, I have deposited recordings and written documentation
9

with MINREST, and the fledgling Centre des Recherches Ethnomusicologiques (CRE)
located in Yaoundé. CRE's vision includes stimulating scholarship and research on
music topics among Central African academics, in part through organizing colloquia
and seminars; I plan to present my research at such colloquia, and perhaps in the
University of Yaoundé's department of anthropology. In addition, to kindle discussion
of Ngiemb!!n cultural products and processes, I have given copies of research
materials–mostly in the form of videocassettes, audio compact discs, or video compact
discs–to the performers. Also along these lines, I have helped DAKASBA make studio
recordings that they hope to sell commercially, and have given English-speaking
Ngiemb!!n colleagues drafts of my analyses, integrating their feedback into this
document. Finally, I have begun a process to make my findings available to Ngiemb!!n
church leaders to help them work toward more fully-contextualized use of music in
their congregations.
In terms of the second major aspect of the personality of my research, I utilized
several methodologies and approaches in investigating Ngiemb!!n musical
communication. Others have adopted multiple analytical paradigms in musicological
research, but the disparate terminologies and theoretical orientations sometimes result in
problematic presentations. Thus, for example, while Steven Feld's Sound and Sentiment
(1982) reveals much about Kaluli musical culture, I found the overall presentation
disjunctive, an inorganic whole. The evolving goal of my research has been to invoke
an overall objective–that of identifying the substances and patterns of Ngiemb!!n
musical communication–and then conscript methods and approaches eased out of their
10

original philosophical moorings into its service, weaving it as seamlessly as possible
into the overall narrative of my report. My primary mechanism for achieving this
organic unity is the flexible organization of chapter contents according to the parameters
of the communication model I present below.
Third, I have reflected often on my positions vis-à-vis my Ngiemb!!n contacts.
Marcia Herndon has argued that binary descriptions of researcher/researched as
outsider/insider are simplistic and distorting (1993). Our positions vary on continua of
insiderness, or–better yet–"multi-dimensional congeries, or even multi-dimensional
dynamic models" (79). Kubik (2000) reflects in some detail on human relationships in
the research context:
No human being can ever be a 100% insider in any conceivable context, nor a
permanent outsider for that matter. The insider/outsider dichotomy functioned as
a nativistic and ethnicist statement, as a model to trap individuals on the basis of
physical appearance, language, nationality, or birth-place with the claim that
such factors would predictably condition individual success or failure. It also
served as a defense mechanism in societies that had reacted to the psychological
challenges of transculturation by shutting themselves off.
However, the realities of human life are too complex to be reduced to binary
models. Neither the interacting persons, nor their methods and objectives are
particularly conducive to the degree of psychological transparency that would
permit safe predictions. While intellectual preference for sharp contrasts and
bipolar models has tended to dominate socio-cultural theory in the late 20 th
century, the real world–and that includes our developing virtual circuits and
communities–is a terrain of fuzzy logic, of shades and transitions (12-13).
11

Throughout the research process, I have attempted to maintain integrity and
transparency while flowing between my various roles as researcher, SIL member, and
Christian. Points of connection with some Ngiemb!!n contacts in Cameroon include
having already lived two years in an African village, speaking French, being able to
play a Congolese harp (the kundi), and sharing Christian beliefs. Frequent parameters of
disconnect include my white skin, US upbringing, my desire to maintain some aspects
of American culture with my family, and the necessity to perform research for personal
and UCLA academic goals. Of course, any of these could be turned on its head and
work in the opposite direction. My goal has been to keep my positions vis-à-vis my
African colleagues in mind as I performed research activities, acknowledging the limits
and benefits they bring to my perceptions, relationships, and analyses.
This interpersonal complexity argues for including some elements of my
experience in this report of my activities. As Michele Kisliuk suggests, "the role of the
ethnographer must be written into the text...as a continuously interwoven awareness and
exploration of the interpersonal negotiations, power dynamics, and epistemological
grappling involved in research and writing" (1998:12-13).
An element of these interactions that has provoked controversy and concern in
broader ethnomusicological discourse is my membership in SIL, which owes its
existence in large part to explicitly Christian goals; specifically, the translation of the
Bible into all of the languages of the world. The international community–as
demonstrated by UNESCO–recognizes SIL as a Christian NGO. John Watters,
executive director of SIL, proposes the following characterization of this perspective:
12

"SIL International is a faith-based organization focused on the role of language and
culture in effective development. SIL is committed to the empowerment of indigenous
communities worldwide through language development efforts. Its members share a
Christian commitment to service, academic excellence and professional engagement
through literacy, linguistics, translation, and other disciplines. SIL International makes
its services available to all without regard to religious belief, political ideology, gender,
race or ethnic background" (Watters 2004:5; see also www.sil.org).
SIL began working in Cameroon in 1970, is active in approximately 50
development projects there involving linguistic research and development of literacy
materials, and has been the primary force behind the translation of the New Testament
into fifteen languages, playing a leading role in another twenty (SIL 2003). John
Vallier (2003a, 2003b) has questioned the ethical viability of working as an
ethnomusicologist and simultaneously belonging to such an organization. I have
contributed to this dialogue with a response to Vallier's charges (Schrag & Coulter
2003), but further substantive elaboration is outside the scope of this thesis. Suffice it to
say that honestly and humbly representing Jesus, SIL, and UCLA in my research
relationships was seldom straightforward, and required reflection and creative
communication. In the context of recording traditional dances, for example, I would
often follow a performance with a brief speech thanking the dancers, telling them that I
was a follower of God, that he valued their creativity, and wanted to hear new songs
directed to him. Though few of the performers seemed to share substantial theological
13

views with me, I am aware of none who expressed concern with my motives or found
my multiple roles disconcerting.
The Grand, Multi-sited Conversation
Lessons I learned as a headhunter helped prepare me for the complexities of research.
In 1988, with a newly minted Master's degree in ethnomusicology in hand, and a wife
four months pregnant at my side, my motivation to gain employment was high and the
prospects low. The situation circuitously resulted in my working for a headhunting firm
in Chicago, a job for which I was ill suited. Nevertheless, one of the firm's owners
taught me a lesson about sales that has proved useful in performing fieldwork. Our task
was to find people who were qualified and willing to take positions with the companies
we represented. He noted that if you wanted to sell an object, you had only to convince
a prospective buyer to buy that object, and make the transaction; the object itself could
not refuse. However, in our work as recruiters, we had to initiate and follow through on
a process in which both the potential employee and employer could refuse to continue
the transaction at any point. To make matters worse, as mediators, we could also cause
the communication to fail. Thus, at least three participants have the ability to derail the
process (not to mention the colleagues, family members and others working behind the
scenes). In more volatile and far-reaching contexts, such as in negotiations to halt a war,
the precarious nature of multiple conversations becomes even more evident and serious.
In a similar vein, I approach the task of fieldwork as a grand conversation
between multiple actors, at numerous sites, each of whom is beholden to untold
14

communities and free to terminate or confuse the conversation at any point. In research,
the goal of the conversation is discovery of patterns, and as the negotiator, I am perhaps
the actor most prone to cause the enterprise to fail. To guard against this weakness, I
attempt to apply rigorous processes to the data, calling into service multiple
methodologies and approaches, all with the aim of allowing me to converse more
fluently with the participants. Ultimately, my goal is valid, truthful representation of
realities that exist. Furthermore, to make these analyses more theoretically cogent and
externally verifiable, I make my presuppositions and methodologies transparent.
The field of ethnomusicology teems with research performed in multiple sites.
Koetting's study of the Kasena of Ghana (1980), Turino's treatment of the population of
an Andean village in Peru (1993), Avorgbedor's discussion of the rural-urban
interchange of people who speak Anlo-Ewe (1998), Levin's The Hundred Thousand
Fools of God: Musical Travels in Central Asia (1996), and DjeDje's analyses of one-
string fiddles in West Africa and gospel songs in Georgia (1978a, 1978b, 1992b)
represent just a few of the musical ethnographies highlighting the divergent
geographical locations of musical production and experience.
This published acknowledgement of geographical complexity flows in part from
the relatively recent attention paid to the lives of ambulatory people such as refugees
and migrants. Malkki (1992) contends that unexamined application of commonsense
conceptions of place to moving people can lead to inaccurate–even immoral–
conceptualizations of human phenomena. She holds that metaphors relating people to
place in terms of rootedness, genealogical trees, or other arborescent images can lead to
15

cultures being conceptually confined to, even incarcerated in certain territories. She
relates the call on a university campus of the Rainforest Action Movement Committee
on Indigenous Peoples to hold a candlelight vigil for endangered "Indigenous Peoples."
She asks, "Are people 'rooted' in their native soil somehow more natural, their rights
somehow more sacred, than those of other exploited and oppressed people?" (29)
Malkki fears that such a frame "may have the effect of subtly animalizing while it
spiritualizes" (30).
Deleuze and Guattari's (1987) solution to the potentially negative effects of
arborescent metaphors is the metaphor of the rhizome, the "horizontal, usually
underground stem of a plant that often sends out roots and shoots from its nodes"
(www.wordiq.com/definition/Rhizome). Rhizomorphous theory and research allow for
non-hierarchical conceptions, and multiple sites of agency, in contrast to the single site,
hierarchical views flowing from a tree metaphor. As I will show, Ngiemb!!n
worldviews include both a strong hierarchical component and space for multiple
agencies.
George Marcus addresses concerns like those of Malkki, Deleuze and Guattari as
he outlines what is involved in ethnographic research. To Marcus, multi-sited
ethnography proceeds as "construction through (pre-planned or opportunistic)
movement and tracing within different settings of a complex cultural phenomenon given
an initial, baseline conceptual identity that turns out to be contingent and malleable as
one traces it" (Marcus 1995:106). I initially conceived the subject of my study as the
group of people who speak the Ngiemb!!n language, and who identify five villages in
16

Cameroon's West Province as their homeland. As I became acquainted with people in
this group, I saw more and more of the patterns that music-makers followed, and the
values they espoused. Early on I began to attend rehearsals of DAKSABA in Yaoundé.
Though Marcus describes multi-sited ethnography as a methodology, I conceive
of it more as an awareness of multiple positions that inform the researcher's
organization and application of various methods of discovery. As I "followed the
people" (ibid), 3 I found myself dancing at DAKASBA rehearsals at a home in a
Bamiléké-dominated neighborhood in Yaoundé; taking photographs of DAKASBA
performing at a condolences ceremony for one of its members; recording three
DAKASBA leaders singing songs from their repertoire in an SIL classroom; trying to
stay awake as I sat in a 35 passenger bus full of DAKASBA members at 3am, listening
and recording as they sang for five consecutive hours as we traveled to a death
ceremony; and videotaping DAKASBA and other dance groups in the town of Batcham
at a death celebration commemorating a member's succession to his father's family
throne. My challenge at each of these sites was to establish "some form of literal,
physical presence, with an explicit, posited logic of association or connection among
sites that in fact defines the argument of the ethnography" (ibid:105). No matter where I
was, I had to decide to do something that furthered my research goals. It would perhaps
have been simpler to stay in one location and conduct research with whoever showed
3 Marcus suggests several approaches to constructing research objects. Among others, these include
following the people (my approach) and following the thing (for example, an instrument, as in DjeDje
1978a, or musical styles, as in Feld 1994),
17

up. However, that would have ignored the movement and multiple conversations that
constitute the reality of Ngiemb!!n life, and the insights that such attention generated.
Activities, Analyses, and a Model
The majority of my activities comprised situationally modified application of
ethnomusicologists' long-tested research tools: audio and video recording or musical
performances, recorded and impromptu interviews, observation, and participation. I also
integrated dialogic techniques whenever possible. For example, I watched video footage
of a dance I had recorded with Ngiemb!!n leaders of the dance group to spark
discussion of the events (inspired by Rees 2000, 2001). Prosper Djiafeua and Moïse
Yonta also read and commented on drafts of papers and chapters, providing important
corrections and adding ideas. Finally, desire to gain a global perspective on the vast
network of dance associations in Ngiemb!!n villages prompted me to tap into the
strengths of questionnaires; I describe this in detail in Chapter Three.
I communicated almost exclusively in French, with a smattering of English and
Ngiemb!!n where socially appropriate. I overcame the limits imposed by my
rudimentary ability in the Ngiemb!!n language primarily by working closely with
highly educated Ngiemb!!n people with strong experience and interest in their
traditional culture and language. I also planned my research priorities in ways that did
not require prolonged, intimate conversations with monolingual Ngiemb!!n speakers. In
parallel research activities, I traveled to several Ngiemb!!n towns, audio- and
videorecording musical performances in mundane and ceremonial contexts, as well as
18

eading Cameroonian scholars' reflections on aspects of Ngiemb!!n and other
Cameroonian cultures.
In the rest of this section, I describe each object with which I interacted, and
introduce the types of analysis I applied to the object; more detailed accounts of
implementations of these analyses appear throughout the chapters that follow. Early in
the research process, I happened upon Jacques Fame Ndongo's (1996) model of
communication and allowed it to inform the questions I posed and the analyses I
performed. Like a self-modifying heuristic computer program, Ndongo's model
morphed and expanded in order to account for Ngiemb!!n realities; I conclude this
section with a presentation of the maturing model.
Analyses
Music Event. Geertz once stated, "[I tried] to keep the analysis of symbolic
forms as closely tied as I could to concrete social events and occasions" (1973:30). In
the same vein, and following ethnomusicologists such as Stone (1979, 1982), Heth
(1979), DjeDje (1998), and Helton (1981), I take musical events as the primordial social
entity in my research, and thereby my primary entry point into analysis. Stone describes
a music event as
... a bounded sphere of interaction. That is, it is set off and made distinct from
the natural world of everyday life by the participants. The event encompasses
music sound producing behavior, music auditing behavior, proxemic-kinesic
behavior, and perhaps other kinds of behavior in a particular cultural setting
(1979:37).
19

Just as prototype studies have shown that certain levels of cognitive
categorization are more salient than others–for example, the basic-level concept 'chair' is
remembered and mentally manipulated more easily than the higher-level category
'furniture' (Rosch 1975)–I believe music events constitute a basic level in musical
communication. Support for this approach comes also from dance studies. In order to
avoid problems associated with abstracting "the 'form' of the 'dances' (i.e.
choreographies) from their contexts and using this 'form' to define what dance is"
(Mendoza 2000:34), Royce (1977) suggested that researchers should always ground
their studies in dance events. Ngiemb!!n people make music in identifiable locations for
specific occasions at certain points in time. As exemplified in the analysis of
Ngiemb!!n musical infrastructure in Chapter Five, my goal is to ground every insight
that emerges in these prototypical–or, as I define later, integral–contexts of music
production, music events.
Musical Sound. Analysis of the music event results in identification of
components such as songs and instruments, which in turn provide material for analysis
of musical sound and textual content. My analyses focus on three elements of musical
sound: instrumental rhythm, song structure, and melody. I ground my analyses of
rhythm in the strokes that players perform on specific instruments used during
performance of events. I augment discoveries of rhythmic patterns with other
researchers' treatments of African percussion, insights rising from my own participation,
and analytical recordings.
20

My analyses of song structure and melody stem in large part from principles I
learned from Vida Chenoweth, a recently retired member of SIL. Since SIL has played
a significant role in my formation and identity as a researcher, I dedicate this section to
positioning myself both in terms of Chenoweth's approach to musical analysis, as well
as her philosophical priorities.
Vida Chenoweth developed her method of emic melodic analysis while working
as a linguist and Bible translator for SIL in the 1960s and 1970s (Chenoweth 1972). In
the 1950s, a Fulbright fellowship allowed Chenoweth to study the marimba in
Guatemala. She became an accomplished player, performing new works for Guatemalan
audiences, and sponsoring a composition contest for Guatemalan composers. Her
performing career reached its zenith at a widely acclaimed concert at Carnegie Hall in
1961; her rendition of Paul Creston's Concertino for Marimba and Orchestra remains a
seminal component of the repertoire of marimba students (Chenoweth 1965).
Chenoweth became a follower of Jesus Christ in the late 1950s in New York and
eventually abandoned her concert career to join SIL. Beginning in 1966, she worked as
a linguist in Papua New Guinea, with the goal of translating the New Testament into the
Usarufa language. After the death of her American partner, Darlene Bee, in 1972, she
continued the translation project with Usarufa colleagues; the Usarufa New Testament
was eventually distributed in 1983.
Chenoweth went on to receive the doctorate in ethnomusicology and linguistics
from the University of Auckland in 1974, based on her research and analysis of Usarufa
music (Hickerson 1995). She has been an active member of the Society for
21

Ethnomusicology for many years, contributing important works to the
ethnomusicological literature, including The Marimbas of Guatemala (1964), Melodic
Perception and Analysis (1972, 2001), The Usarufas and Their Music (1979), and
articles on Oceania in the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Australia and the
Pacific Islands (1998).
Though her approach to musical analysis is based on Pike's phenomenological
view of reality–one in which perceptions of reality are recognized as fluid but
comprehensible (1954-55)–Chenoweth maintains several characteristics of functionalist
thought prevalent throughout her formative years. Most germane to this discussion is
her view of humanity as divided into discrete cultural units, each of which consists of
an organic whole, clearly bounded by linguistic and social practice disjunctures with
other units. Along with this approach is a high value put on the search and discovery of
pure, authentic examples of music sound and culture, unpolluted by outside influence.
Chenoweth advises her students always to search out the older musicians, widely
acknowledged as experts in musical performance and knowledge, in order to access this
idealized musical reality.
Chenoweth's method of melodic analysis is unparalleled in its rigor, attention to
detail and comprehensiveness; I use it in modified form to gain insights into Ngiemb!!n
song structure and melody (Chapter Five). However, my approach differs from
Chenoweth's in several important ways, two of which I mention here. First, the single-
site ethnographic approach that corresponded adequately to the reality of the
geographically isolated Usarufas (Chenoweth and Bee were the first "red faces" that the
22

people there had seen) falls flat in the face of Bamiléké mobility and cosmopolitanism
in the early 21 st century. Second, I use the term "tradition" to describe the living
"interplay of innovation and sedimentation" (Ricoeur 1984:68), but with a focus on
continuity; functionalist conceptions of tradition often connote boundedness and stasis.
In this vein, J.H. Kwabena Nketia describes as traditional “any music that embodies a
large measure of significant aspects of style passed on from generation to generation at
different points in time” (1978:3). I return to this subject in Chapter Six.
Song Texts. For this study, song lyrics provide data for two basic types of
analysis. First, text forms afford insight into song organization and rhythmic structure.
As I show in Chapter Five, patterns in lyrical content helped me to determine both
underlying rhythmic patterns and strophic organization. Second, I analyzed the content
of song texts to identify references to people, places, and values. This information
proved invaluable in developing my conceptions of musical communication.
Quantitatively Bounded Qualitative Analysis of Questionnaires. Chapter Three
contains analyses of patterns in Ngiemb!!n village musical life that are based on
questionnaires that I developed, and which were administered by Ferdinand Doumtsop.
When a social scientist uses interviews to discover trends in attitudes toward sexual
activity in Ghana (for example, DeRose et al 2002), or a politician transcribes group
interactions to gauge responses to TV ads, they frequently "transcribe their interviews,
read and re-read these thoroughly and then state that in this process categories of
description, and so also the conceptions, simply 'emerge' " (Hasselgren 1993: 71).
However, researchers who wish their analyses to be more theoretically cogent and
23

externally verifiable attempt to apply rigorous processes to the data, and make their
presuppositions and methodologies transparent. I attempted to produce a rigorous
analysis through systematic treatment of the themes contained in these questionnaires.
Participant Reflection and Behavior. Informal discussions, recorded interviews,
and observations of behavior and events written in my notebook each served to suggest
categories for investigation, as well as to correct or redirect research avenues that I had
already begun. As I document below, participation produced insights in all investigative
domains, from social dynamics to musical production.
The Model
I first encountered Jacques Fame Ndongo's model of African reciprocal
communication when a Ngiemboon man, Elvis Tangwa Sa'a, gave me a review he had
written of Professor Ndongo's Un Regard Africain sur la Communication (1996; Sa'a
1999). During subsequent research in MINREST's archives and local libraries, his ideas
began to inform my reflection on patterns of Ngiemb!!n music-making in its various
geographical and social contexts, and affect the kinds of questions I asked in interviews
and other research activities. Thus, I allowed this communication theory–the result of a
Cameroonian's negotiation between local and occidental thought–to become a central
explanatory thread of my research. The global was "collapsed into and made an integral
part of parallel, related local situations rather than something monolithic or external to
them" (Marcus 1995:102). I here elaborate a theoretical framework drawn from
Ndongo's communication theory, the acoustic metaphors of feedback and resonance,
24

and characteristics of communication I encountered in Ngiemb!!n music-making
contexts. The emergent model both reflects and organizes the themes of this study.
Jacques Fame Ndongo, professor, Cameroonian Ministre de la Communication, 4
and former rector of the Université de Yaoundé I, has extended concepts drawn from
the field of semiotics to produce a theory explaining communicational realities of Bantu
Africans (1996). The elements of his contribution that concern us here are his expansion
of the categories of the transmitter and receiver of a message (l'Emetteur and le
Récepteur of le Message), the medium (le Support), and the circular nature of African
communication. Ndongo draws on concepts connoted by the word muntu in many Bantu
languages to characterize the émetteur and récepteur of the communication process.
Following most closely its usage
among Luba speakers in the
Democratic Republic of Congo,
Ndongo transforms muntu into a
technical term, defining it as an entity
that is intelligent, living or dead, spirit,
totem, divinity, Supreme God, or
procreator (Sa'a 1999:46; see also
Eboussi-Boulaga 1977; Motoshi 1995;
and Bimwenyi 1968); I will follow this
usage in the dissertation. The muntu
Figure 1.3. Ndongo's Model of Reciprocal
Communication (Simplified)
4 Professor Ndongo left his position as Minister of Communication in December 2004.
25

emits a message through a specific medium (support), which reaches the récepteur, who
sends a message back to the émetteur.
That this broader category for the beings involved in Ngiemb!!n communication
is important rings immediately true. While investigating a Ngiemb!!n narrative that he
had recorded and transcribed, for example, linguist Stephen Anderson was unable to
pinpoint the referent for a certain pronoun. The narrative related a story about a family
controversy alluding to the skull of a deceased man. 5 At one point in the story, two
men dig up a skull, wash, speak to, rebury, and offer a sacrifice to it. The text then says
that "he (different subject) immediately got up" (Anderson 1986:23) and threw his
enemy into the fire. Anderson confesses, "My cultural 'blind spot' had caused me to see
only two possible actors (that is, the two living human beings) present at this point in
the story. According to Bamiléké premises, however, there were already three potential
agents present and thus it was clear that it was the third participant (the skull) who had
acted in such a powerful and decisive manner. Thus, even a simple linguistic task like
referent identification can be easily skewed by the cultural presuppositions of the
investigator" (ibid).
Ndongo draws explicitly on three of the seven communication theory traditions
recently identified by Griffin (2003) and Craig (1999). 6 The focus on power
relationships and justice in the first of these, the critical tradition, does not inform his
5 Rites involving skulls play a central role in death ceremonies among Bamiléké cultures. The skull serves
as the physical and spiritual contact point for communication with its original occupant.
6 These include the socio-psychological, cybernetic, rhetorical, semiotic, socio-cultural, critical, and
phenomenological traditions.
26

methodologies, but serves as a framework for the whole project. By elevating the rigor
of African communication studies, Ndongo hopes to counteract Western academic
hegemony: "[T]o want to make the World uniform by creating this 'unidimensional
man,' as Herbert Marcuse challenges, one runs the risk of annihilating peoples' creative
genius, and reducing Africa to a passive, sterile role as a receptacle, merely copying the
modes of thinking of Others" (1996:9; my translation).
For theoretical and methodological insights, Ndongo draws on scholars in two
other streams: the cybernetic (represented by Norbert Wiener and Paul Watzlawick),
and semiotic traditions (represented by Roland Barthes [1994]). In particular, he derives
much of his technical vocabulary from Wiener and Watzlawick's retroactive circular
model of communication, which they produced to counterbalance popular linear
conceptions beginning in the 1940s (Ndongo 1996:13, 16; Watzlawick, et al 1967;
Wiener 1948). The model states simply that as one person transmits information to
another, the receiver transmits information in turn, a process that continues in a
feedback loop until the actors break the communication event. Information–taken in a
broad sense here–can include many phenomena, including, for example, a fact, a
sentiment, or a signal (Sa'a 1999:46).
But Ndongo takes these ideas further, tying them to his conception of primordial
African characteristics and patterns of communication. He believes that African
communication is "based on the paradigm of circular geometry inherent in African
cosmogony. The vision of the world of Africans, their Weltanschauung, is governed by
circular geometry" (Sa'a 1999:48; my translation). Or more precisely, "[t]he diverse
27

origin myths of African peoples hearken back to images (circle, curved lines, cylinder,
spiral, snail figures, elliptical or sinusoidal shapes) for whom circularity is at the
epicenter" (Ndongo 1996: 67; my translation).
Figure 1.4 depicts my elaboration of Ndongo's conception of reciprocal
communication.
Figure 1.4. Modeling Ngiemb!!n Musical Communication Events
With this diagram, I attempt to model essential parameters involved in musical
performances, through the lenses of communication. Simply put, people interact by
navigating messages through various infrastructures, and each of the components of the
process may exert influence on any or all of the others. I here expand on each
component of the model.
28

View. 'View' is a metaparameter akin to the result of using the 'zoom in' and
'zoom out' function of a camera or computer drawing program. To understand an event
as an instance of communication, we must first define its temporal and locational scope,
and the ways it interacts with communication elements perceptible from more distant
and closer points of view. Figure 1.5 presents a hierarchy of views based on locational
scope.
Figure 1.5. View Hierarchy Based on Locational Scope
View Object Under Examination Example
Narrow Sub-set of a musical event Interaction between a song leader and her
29
responders
Basic Musical event A dance association performing at a
Local Village, or ethnically-localized
grouping
funeral
Rehearsal patterns of all dance associations
in a village
Regional Larger area or country Contest to choose dance associations to
represent a nation
Global Multiple regions or countries Comparison of effects of songs containing
AIDS messages in different countries
Each view provides access to different degrees of detail and perspective, and
requires various types of investigation and analysis. A basic view of a concert, for
example, would allow its analysis as an event consisting of a nucleus surrounded by
margins, with the progression marked by sub-events (Helton 1981). Insights into the
concert-going tendencies of people in a town, on the other hand–at a local view–may
require statistical analysis of sociological variables. From each view, I pose the

questions, "Where and when are they communicating?" (in order to draw out
information about the 'Location' and 'Time' Foundational Plane); "Who is
communicating?" ('Communicators' parameter, Ndongo's émetteur and récepteur); "How
are they communicating" ('Infrastructures,' Ndongo's medium); "What are they
communicating?" ('Message,' Ndongo's message); and "What resonance characterizes
their communication?" (Embedded in the size, shape, and texture of the arrow). While
investigation into one or a few of these components may yield interesting discoveries,
only a composite conception that includes answers to all of these questions exploits the
strengths of viewing musical production as communication.
The Foundational Plane: Location(s) and Time(s). Location, represented in the
diagram as part of the fabric of the plane in which the event occurs, refers to the
physical site in which the event takes place. Communicators' individual and collective
histories with particular places affect all aspects of the event, including message content
and negotiation of various infrastructures. The temporolocational View defines the
limits of time and place, whereas this location refers to its actual physical and other
characteristics. The other element in the plane supporting the communication circle is
time. This refers to the temporal moment(s) through which the communication event
travels.
Communicators. The people involved in the communication event consist of at
least two individuals or aggregates of individuals–muntu–who may or may not be
physically proximate, and may or may not be alive.
30

Infrastructures. In Figure 1.4, infrastructures are represented by the intertwining
bands that make up the bodies of the arrow lines (the words "infrastructures" in the
diagram are meant only to label these bands). I have chosen a rather prosaic term,
'infrastructure,' to describe the forms that communication takes to highlight often
overlooked phenomena necessary for communication. These may include, for example,
roads that allow people to travel to the proximity of someone else. Composed of the
Latin prefix 'infra' (beneath) and 'structure' (the interrelation or arrangement of parts in a
complex entity; TheFreeDictionary.com), infrastructure evokes both the media
supporting human communication, as well as the possibility of agency in modifying or
creating new supports. As I discuss more fully in Chapter Six, this study is part of the
recent interest in ethnomusicology and musicology to reveal music's ability to construct
social realities (de Nora 2004).
In this dissertation, I emphasize three kinds of infrastructure: physical, social,
and musical. Physical infrastructure refers primarily to means by which peoples' bodies
are transported from one place to another, such as by foot or motorized vehicle; I
subsume locally organized physical movement such as dance and instrument playing in
the category of musical infrastructure. Social infrastructure refers to a wide range of
norms and life patterns influencing human interactions in the social context of the
communication event. These include, for example, linguistic and behavioral conventions
for respecting social hierarchy and regularity of meetings. This domain of
communicational infrastructure may best be understood as habitus, Bourdieu's term for
"[s]ystems of durable, transposable dispositions, structured structures predisposed to
31

function as structuring structures, that is, as principles of the generation and structuring
of practices and representations..." (1977:72). As I shall explore in Chapter Six, this
conception shows "how society is partially musically structured since music activity
comprises one important public domain through which the internal dispositions are
externalized" (Turino 1990:29). I have intentionally left this category malleable in
order to avoid limiting the kinds of humanly ordered behavior and thought. Finally,
musical infrastructure consists of the patterns and resources on which a communicator
draws to create appropriate and effective musical expressions. Musical and social
infrastructures may be intertwined, ensconced one in the other, or even constitute
identity with each other, as I have tried to show in Figure 1.4 above.
Message(s). Marshall McLuhan characterized the content of a medium as "...
always just another medium. The content of writing is speech, just as the written word
is the content of print, and print is the content of the telegraph. If it is asked, 'What is
the content of your speech?,' it is necessary to say, 'It is an actual process of thought,
which is itself nonverbal' " (1964:8). Messages are the thoughts that take form when
mediated by an infrastructure. They may include ideas intentionally produced for
hortatory, educational, or any number of other purposes, or may result from the
symbolic values of ancillary acts or other phenomena, such as the color of a piece of
clothing or regal associations with a certain instrument.
The Arrow: Resonance and Frequency. My final expansion of Ndongo's model
concerns the nature of reciprocity, or feedback. This is represented in the diagram by
the arrows, which show the directionality of the message (the arrowheads), the
32

characteristics of the channelled infrastructure (the texture of the arrow body), and the
frequency of the reciprocal communicational event (the number of 'speed lines' next to
the arrows).
In an audio amplification system, feedback refers to the increase in amplitude of
frequencies that results from the sound emanating from a speaker returning to the
amplifier through a microphone. At a certain threshold, the sounds form a continuous
loop that results in certain frequencies being amplified again and again (Davis and Jones
1990). Collins (1987) has applied this concept to the influence of Black American
musics on the creation and development of popular African musics. Common musical
traits resulting in large part from previous musical interactions with enslaved Africans
allow ease of assimilation. Feedback resonance caused by the interactions between
musicians traveling back and forth between Africa and the Caribbean, for example,
provides an explanation for Cuban and Congolese musical similarities. In such
contexts, musical energy flows with little resistance, and when feedback occurs, musics
acquire energy, and build on themselves.
Jihad Racy applies the concept of feedback resonance to Arabic music that
"emphasizes live musical performances, gives prominence to instantaneous modal
creations, and treats music as an ecstatic experience" (1991:9). From this perspective,
the creative process requires not only the skill and artistry of the classically trained
composer/performer, but also a communicative audience that shares an understanding of
the basic musical materials (for example, maqamat) with the performers. Intelligent,
emotional feedback from the listeners affects how the performers spontaneously
33

compose. This emotional exchange helps to create in the performer the ecstatic state of
saltana.
The model I propose could yield insights into Collins' discussion of resonance
resulting from the interactions between music-makers of different but historically
related cultures, and Racy's application of the concept to performer-audience interaction
in individual performance. However, I here focus on the effects of repeated musically-
mediated reference to current and historical figures and wisdom on cultural values and
activities. 7
I also hope to use the arrow to show the nature of the frequency of the
communication events in a given view. The basic parameters here are whether the
communication occurs periodically–that is, cyclically or recurrently–or irregularly–i.e.
intermittently or sporadically. Other relevant characteristics of the infrastructure are its
degree of plasticity (how much the communicator can modify the forms of the medium
while using it to communicate), and its durability (how prone it is to resist structural
modifications).
I will exploit this model to describe the participants in DAKASBA's
communication acts, and the physical, social, and musical infrastructures through which
they communicate. With it, I am able to address questions such as the following: When
the leader of a Kàn!"!n song calls on Fu! Sonkwa or Ma%lem Ndiku%n, what does he allow
him to say, and to whom? Does he create a feedback loop that reinforces the cultural
7 Gabrielsson (1999:515-516) provides an interesting discussion of perceptual feedback in musical
performance.
34

characteristics of Bamiléké peoples that have made them so powerful? Does the musical
form of the call make it stronger?
Research and Publication Review
The first published representations and discussions of Cameroonian music appeared in
the early years of the 20 th century: Bernhard Ankermann produced a wax cylinder
recording of Bamoun court music in 1909 (contained in the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv;
ethnographic notes were published in Ankermann 1910), and Eric Moritz von
Hornbostel wrote a chapter on Fang music for a book in 1913 (Tessman). Since then,
both European and African scholars have made significant contributions to the body of
literature devoted to Cameroonian music. In this section, I relate the history of recent
musical scholarship in Cameroon, and then focus on publications that treat the music,
language, and social workings of Ngiemb!!n and other Bamiléké groups.
Overview of Music Research in Cameroon 8
Kwabena Nketia labels the decade of 1960-1970 as the "Period of Institutional
Development" in African musicology (1998:38): countries that had recently regained
their independence searched for ways to formalize and nurture their newly revalued
local artistic expressions. Three Cameroonian scholars emerged during this period that
8 I am grateful to Dan Fitzgerald, who introduced me to much of the literature and many of the ideas I
cite in this section.
35

have made significant impact on the study of music in Cameroon and beyond. 9 Francis
Bebey (b. 1929), the most well-known internationally, worked as a composer, guitarist,
novelist, and musicologist until his death in 2001. His African Music: A People's Art
(1975) is a respected introduction to African music, and he produced numerous
snapshots of music in other African countries (for example, 1980a, 1980b, 1981a,
1981b).
A second Cameroonian scholar, Samuel Martin Eno-Belinga (1935-2001), was
known as a "poète-musicologue-géologue" (Veziant 2001). He held a doctorate in
natural sciences, and championed Cameroonian cultural resources as a member of the
government. He wrote a treatment of African oral production, Littérature et Musique
Populaires en Afrique Noire (1965), and produced several works on the music of his
ethnic cluster, the Beti-Bulu-Fang (1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1978, 1979); these include
analyses of the mvet tradition.
Abbé Pie-Claude Ngumu (?-1997) "was one of the principal pioneers in the
enculturation of Ewondo music forms, musical instruments, and language in the
Catholic liturgy of the Archdiocese of Yaoundé" (Fitzgerald 1999). Flowing in part
from his studies with Gerhard Kubik in Vienna, Ngumu published a definitive work on
Beti mendzang (xylophone) ensembles (1976). He composed and recorded numerous
liturgical works, and directed the renowned Yaoundé Ewondo Cathedral Choir. His
9 I have chosen to focus on the less frequently told stories of Cameroonian musicologists rather than those
of Europeans. Notable non-African ethnomusicologists who have worked in Cameroon include André
Schaeffner (1933, 1943), Marius Schneider (1952, 1967), Gerhard Kubik (1966, 1968, 2001), and Veit
Erlmann (1983, 1985). Their research touches on numerous traditions throughout Cameroon.
36

successor in this position, Jean-Marie Bodo, has extended discussions of liturgy and
traditional expression with two books: Y a-t-il une Musique Sacrée? (1991) and La
Musique, Instrument Privilégié de la Liturgie pour la Seconde Évangélisation du
Cameroun (1992).
In 1970, Pie-Claude Ngumu and Samuel Eno-Belinga attended a UNESCO-
sponsored five-day meeting in Yaoundé entitled, "Musical Traditions in Africa"
(UNESCO 1972). Other luminaries in African musicology who were present include
Alain Daniélou, Charles Duvelle, Atta A. Mensah, Kwabena Nketia, Gerhard Kubik,
Ben Aning, Fela Sowande, and Akin Euba. The conference had far-reaching effects. The
participants recommended that research and documentation of African music should
continue and be integrated into national education systems (UNESCO 1972:150-152).
UNESCO responded to these recommendations as part of a broader plan to "promote a
collaborative, multilateral movement among central African states for the development
of scientific research of the languages and music traditions of that region" (Fitzgerald
1999:12). The music portion of this initiative was entitled, "Ethnomusicologie d'Afrique
Central (EMAC)." Pie-Claude Ngumu first directed the project through Le Centre
Régional de Recherche et de Documentation sur les Traditions Orales et pour le
Développement des Langues Africaines (CERDOTOLA). At the same time, the
Cameroonian government proposed a plan to document and record the music of every
one of its villages, and adopted a new program called, “Recherche Ethnomusicologique
du Cameroun” (Ngumu 1984).
37

An initial documentation and recording project took place between late
December 1979 and March 1980, which trained researchers from seven central African
nations. The venture resulted in several recordings, written documents, and one video
documentary on the mvet. However, since the 1980s, there has been little
ethnomusicological scholarly production. Nketia suggests that when the "excitement of
political independence wears off, and consciousness of national identity becomes less
and less an issue, the inspiration that these qualities provided for initiating relevant
research might also fade" (1998:48). It may be that there was no longer the political will
to muster the personnel, equipment, and storage facilities necessary for such ambitious
projects.
Literature on Bamiléké Topics
As I explain in some detail in Chapter Two, the term Bamiléké encompasses
well over a million people, living in over a hundred independent kingdoms, and
speaking a dozen or so distinct languages with numerous dialects (Grimes 2000). They
are historically related to populations migrating from regions now situated in Nigeria
and northern Cameroon, and share several distinctive organizational structures and
values. As I detail below, a perusal of published representations of cultural elements
related to the ethnic focus of this dissertation reveal no treatment of Ngiemb!!n music,
a few incisive reflections on Ngiemb!!n social structure and ideals, an extremely
limited presentation of Bamiléké music, an abundance of literature dedicated to
38

linguistic analysis of the Ngiemb!!n and other Bamiléké languages, and a growing
number of histories and topical social treatments of Bamiléké cultures.
Though it is not uncommon for the person in charge of a Ngiemb!!n ceremony
to enlist someone to audio- or video-record the proceedings for posterity, mine is the
first systematic study of Ngiemb!!n music and dance. Carolyn Pugh and Rebekah
Byrom have made methodical, as yet unpublished collections of music from the
geographically, linguistically, and socially proximate Yemba language group (Pugh
2002; Byrom 2003). The only published treatment of traditional Bamiléké music is
Jean-Claude Barbier and Bernard Surugue's Funérailles d'une Reine Bamiléké, recorded
in the Nee kingdom, whose inhabitants speak a dialect of the Fe'fe' language (1974).
Though the event occurred in the town of Bana on the southern border of the Bamiléké
region (the Ngiemb!!n region is in the northern area), the recording and liner notes
reveal a great deal of apparent similarity with musical and social characteristics of the
Ngiemb!!n; instrument names, the proliferation of dance groups, and funerary practices,
for example, are remarkably consistent in this short account. This limited but important
research example suggests that my analyses will enjoy relevance beyond the borders of
the Ngiemb!!n kingdoms.
Stephen Anderson initiated linguistic research in the Ngiemb!!n language as a
member of SIL in the 1970s. Resultant literature about or in the Ngiemb!!n language
consists of phonological and grammatical analyses (Anderson 1977a, 1978, 1981, 1983,
2001); a sociolinguistic survey of the Ngiemb!!n language (Starr 1990); orthography
statements, lexicons, and dictionaries (Anderson 1976b, 1976c, 1984); booklets
39

promoting literacy and other forms of community development (Ngonda and Anderson
1984a, 1984b, 1985; Anderson 1976a; Anderson, Anderson, Ngonda, & Shell 1987a,
1987b ); and small collections of oral texts, including proverbs and songs (Anderson
1977b, 1976d; Anderson, Ngonda & Ngouane 1980). In addition to these works, the
New Testament of the Bible has been completed and should be published in 2005, and a
revised and expanded French-Ngiemb!!n dictionary is also nearing completion.
Two Catholic priests from the Ngiemb!!n region–Dieudonné Watio (1984) and
Michel Ngouane (1983)–have contributed detailed explorations of Ngiemb!!n history,
values, and social and religious structure. Other Ngiemb!!n-specific literature was
written by a group of students led by my primary research associate, Ferdinand
Doumtsop (2002a); Anderson also published a worldview analysis of a spoken text
(1986). Finally, Jean-Paul Notué has written about sculptures created by people in the
Ngiemb!!n kingdom of Batcham (1993).
Because people who identify themselves as Bamiléké share many traits, exhibit a
generally strong inclination to hold on to traditional practices, and trace their histories to
a common moment in time (discussed in Chapter Two), literature produced by other
Bamiléké groups holds potential for providing insights into Ngiemb!!n practice. The
number of such items is growing, and includes histories of individual kingdoms (for
example, Njate 2001), and treatments of specific aspects of Bamiléké culture, such as
polygamy (Tchegho 2002a), death (Tchegho 2002b), and ritual preparation for
accession to the kingship (Tatsimo 1993).
40

Significance of the Study and Description of Chapters
My most ambitious hope for this study is that application of its approaches in other
contexts may shed new light on phenomena and relationships that ethnomusicologists
have explored in ethnomusicology for the last few decades under the influence of
symbolic anthropology. Symbolic, or interpretive, anthropologists ushered in an era of
cross-cultural research that favors dialogue between researchers and researched over
objective, dispassionate observation. Clifford Geertz states, "The whole point to a
semiotic approach is . . . to aid us in gaining access to the conceptual world in which
our subjects live so that we can, in some extended sense of the term, converse with
them" (1973:24; my emphasis). Though this approach has informed ethnomusicological
investigations since the 1970s (see, for example, Gourlay 1978, Feld 1982-1990, and
Roseman 1989), and is now ubiquitous, very few researchers have explicitly and
systematically explored the mechanisms and implications of applying a metaphor of
communication in their work. 10 With this study, I hope to fill this void, and further the
reach of the metaphor by unraveling aspects of the already existing conversations into
which the researcher enters.
As I mention above, this study fills other lacunae as well. This is the first
extended exploration of Bamiléké music-making, and promises to represent a much
wider population than merely that of the Ngiemb!!n. The focus on dance associations
also adds to a relatively small amount of general work on voluntary associations in
10 Exceptions include King (1989) and Stockmann (1977), who each apply models of communication to
some aspects of cross-cultural music research.
41

Africa (for example, Parkin 1969), and those tied centrally to dance, such as those of
the Anlo-Ewe in Ghana (see Ladzekpo and Ladzekpo 1980 and Avorgbedor 1998). In
addition, as I describe in Chapter Two, the Cameroonian background to my study is one
in which urbanization plays a major role. Others have noted the ways in which the rapid
social changes accompanying urbanization in Africa have sparked popular musical
creativity (Mukuna 1979-80, 1992, and 1998, and Pwono 1992 in DR Congo, for
example). My study joins a smaller number of studies, clearly exemplified by
Avorgbedor (1998), that document how some groups in fact resist changes by
reinvigorating the songs and dances of their pre-colonial history. Finally, I hope to open
a small window into Francophone cultural and musical scholarship, a world that often
seems obscure and inaccessible in Anglophone communities of ethnomusicologists.
I follow a narrative perspective in which Ngiemb!!n people as musically
communicating beings play the central roles; my activities and positions as narrator play
significant secondary roles. In each chapter, I will define the salient communication
events, identify the communicators and infrastructures relevant to these events, examine
the infrastructures in terms of the shapes of their components and their degree of
plasticity, and show what feedback resonance the communicators produce through their
exploitation of the infrastructures. In particular, having outlined the goals,
methodologies, and theoretical foundations of the research project in Chapter One, I
"zoom out" in Chapter Two to a regional view in order to introduce the communicators
in the events I describe, the Ngiemb!!n people. Consistent with the nature of
introductions, I selectively choose what I have found to be important to the reader's
42

understanding of subsequent portions of the narrative. This includes framing the
Ngiemb!!n as a heterogeneous yet coherent group in their historical, social, linguistic,
and geographical contexts in central Africa, and highlighting several aspects of their
internal social structures. In Chapter Three, I switch perspective to the Ngiemb!!n
kingdoms, a local view, to provide a wide-ranging image of the contexts of Ngiemb!!n
music-making.
In Chapter Four, I zoom back out to a regional view that includes Yaoundé and
the Batcham kingdom, focusing on the social and physical infrastructures that the
DAKASBA dance group travels. I dedicate Chapter Five to a detailed analysis of the
musical infrastructures undergirding DAKASBA's communication. Finally, in Chapter
Six, I zoom out to first a regional and then a global position. I summarize insights about
Ngiemb!!n groups produced by the model, and explore ramifications of the study on
both theoretical approaches to and applied aspects of ethnomusicological research.
43

Locational scope: Central African regions
Chapter 2
Ngiemb!!n Communicators
Temporal Scope: 18 th century to the present
Communicators: Current Bamiléké and forebears
Infrastructures: Earth roads, paved roads, time organization, economic and succession
structures
I first met Pascal Fouamene, King of Balessing, on the evening of September 5,
2002. David Tiozang and I approached the low, white entry building, which was
adorned with a large painting of a lion and double bells (nzeme mmo%), the primary
symbol of Ngiemb!!n royalty. The king$s house marked the last point with electricity in
the village, but the building was dark. We knocked on the door, and a tall, quiet man
turned on a light and let us in. After a few minutes, one of the king$s wives seated us in
a room that contained a carved wooden throne with a wild cat painted on it. A short
while later, she took us to an inner room, with another throne, a sculpture of a lion,
several chairs, a couch, an unplugged television, and a clock on the wall whose battery
was unequal to its attempts to show the movement of time.
When King Fouamene entered the room, dressed in a sweat suit and baseball
cap, we stood, bent slightly at the waist, and clapped softly several times; custom
demands strict adherence to greeting formulas, and forbids the king from touching non-
nobility. We sat only after he had sat on his throne. During this first encounter, I
44

presented research documents, we discussed my plans, and he conducted business with
others who joined us during the course of the evening. After the initial regulated
interactions, the king spoke freely and informally with all of us. We met several times
after that, exchanging gifts (he gave me a goat, and I gave him a bottle of whisky and a
hunting knife), discussing the social changes occurring in his kingdom, and the
challenges of leading. He showed remarkable insight and generosity.
In my meetings with King Fouamene, I was face to face with the symbolic crux
of Ngiemb!!n identity. As the king of a village, he is the highest authority; there is no
leader who unites all five Ngiemb!!n villages.
Two years earlier, his father died, and this
twenty-seven year old holder of a degree in
electronics heard the announcement that he was
to succeed his father to the throne. 11 According to
custom, the heir to the throne ran away, and had
to be forcibly caught and brought to the village
leaders. After la)akem, a nine-week initiation and
preparation period, he took the reins of power.
The king fits John Adams$ category of a
"focal institution" (Adams 1981:257). That is, he
embodies values and characteristics of
11 King Fouamene was born on April 15, 1974, and took power on July 21, 2001. His father, Daniel
Ganno, died on May 15, 2001. This information was taken from a circular produced for the celebration of
King Fouamene's completion of the la'akem initiation period ("Balessing" 2001).
45
King Fouamene of Balessing

Ngiemb!!n identity that have been carefully guarded through migrations and wars for
many generations. These life-ways, social structures, and mystique pervade every
interaction, activity, choice of song, improvised lyric, and ceremonial obligation of his
subjects. To understand Ngiemb!!n music-making, song texts, and the social processes
in which music plays significant roles, then, a familiarity with Ngiemb!!n history,
language, and social structures is essential. Song texts, for example, are replete with
references to historical personalities and places, and a sense of continuity flows through
music-making in all of its rural and urban contexts.
In this chapter, I will describe elements of history, language, social structure,
spiritual organization, and values that King Fouamene embodies, that characterize
Ngiemb!!n people in aggregate, and that they respond to as musical communicators.
This brief survey reveals several elements–including demographic expansion, temporal
organization, and socially encoded tensions between competition and solidarity–that
help galvanize the musically invigorated communication patterns I explicate in
subsequent chapters.
First Roads Home
Speakers of the Ngiemb!!n language are part of the larger Bamiléké cultural group
geographically located in the highlands of West Cameroon. Rigorous examination of
leaders', elders', and intelligentsia's oral accounts of the histories of various Bamiléké
kingdoms reveals a fairly clear, though complicated, series of migrations leading to the
46

current location of the five Ngiemb!!n kingdoms. 12 I refer to this area as the Ngiemb!!n
people's 'home' in an attempt to translate the Ngiemb!!n la)a ye%g or Cameroonian use of
the French village. Home connotes both the physical substance of the place, and the
people–muntu, both living and dead–that inhabit it. It also carries a sense of sacredness
and obligation. If a Ngiemb!!n or
other Bamiléké person dies
somewhere outside of the region, for
example–even in Europe or North
America–his or her family will do
everything in their power to return the
body or a surrogate to the region for
burial (Djiafeua 2002b; Poumbo
1999). Furthermore, songs make
explicit reference to the soil of home
(as in "Laayé," song 9 in Appendix
E). And as we shall see, even though
large communities of Ngiemb!!n
people live in urban areas, virtually
none of the most important funerary
Figure 2.1. Map of Movements of the
Ngiemb!!n (not to scale). The Noun River
(not shown) is just south of Kougam.
12 I consulted the following sources to create this historical representation: Delarozière 1950; Dongmo
1981a; Doumtsop 2002a; Ketchoua n.d.; Ngouane 1983; Mohammadou 1986; Mbuagbaw et al 1987.
47

ites are performed there. 13
Like the majority of Bamiléké peoples, the Ngiemb!!n cite the Ndobo as their
forebears. With roots in the savannah belt of West Africa, by the 18 th century, the
Ndobo had migrated through the Bornou Plain to the Mbam region, occupied currently
by the Tikar people in Cameroon (Mohammadou 1986:22; Dongmo 1981a:58). By the
time that the Foulbe began to force the Bamoun people southward in the mid 19 th
century, Ndobo groups had already begun to proceed south themselves (Dongmo
1981a:65). Their movement was "simply an episode of a vast migratory flow that, in the
pre-colonial period, drew numerous people from the North to the South of Cameroon"
(Dongmo 1981a:65; my translation). The Noun River formed a natural southern
boundary for these groups, until the Bamoun forced them to cross it between the middle
of the 18 th century and the beginning of the 19 th (Delarozière 1950:9).
The Ndobo groups that entered the Bamiléké plateau across the Noun River
came in five successive stages (Delarozière 1950:12-13). The peoples who eventually
gave rise to Ngiemb!!n kingdoms were part of the third wave (Ngouane 1983:29),
which crossed the Noun in Bangang-Fondji. They were eventually pushed out by the
Bandjoun people, and wandered for a long period before settling in their current
location.
13 An exception is the enlever le noir ceremony, in which a widow changes from her dark mourning
clothes to everyday attire, one year after her husband's death. This ceremony seems to have appeared
within the last twenty years, and is performed primarily by relatively wealthy Ngiemb!!n women, mostly
in urban areas (Tiozang 2002-2003; Djiafeua 2003c).
48

This migration from Kougam into the current Bamiléké country occurred at the
beginning of the 19 th century, under pressure from the Bamoun King Mboué-Mboué
(Dongmo 1981a:64). Mboué-Mboué was able to subdue 48 Ndobo kings, but many
others refused his rule, including the forebears of the Ngiemb!!n. These proto-
Ngiemb!!n groups eventually ended up in a place called Nzye, in the current village of
Bangang, which Ngiemb!!n people cite as the point from which all Ngiemb!!n people
spread (Ngouane 1983:35-36). It was in Nzye that the general Patu! was chosen the first
leader of the Ngiemb!!n people. Soon deposed by another king, Patu! left Nzye and
founded the Batcham dynasty.
The manner in which Ngiemb!!n people mark their history attests to the
centrality of the king in Ngiemb!!n thought. Namely, they cite kings and tell their
Figure 2.2. Map of Kingdoms in Ngiemb!!n Home
Region
49
stories in order to situate
themselves in the larger
community of Ngiemb!!n
muntu. I here list the
succession of kings as
embraced in the oral histories
of the villages with which I
have had most interaction,
Batcham and Balessing. The
people of Batcham trace a
succession of sixteen kings,

eginning with King Patu! and culminating with Sonkwa, the current king (Ngouane
1983:49-50):
Figure 2.3. Succession of Batcham Kings
1. Founder: Fu! Patwa
2. Fu! Patwa fathered Nkuété Minang
3. Nkuété Minang fathered Fuotsouo
4. Fuotsouo fathered Kyami
5. Kyami fathered Yempi
6. Yempi fathered Kelé
7. Kelé fathered Lonlemuo
8. Lonlemuo fathered Longuo
9. Longuo fathered Dju
10. Kju fathered Fuomekong
11. Fuomekong left his place to Fuopa$
12. Fuopa$ fathered Mbu$
13. Mbu$ fathered Djiatio Etienne
14. Djiatio fathered Tata) Robert
15. King Tata Robert fathered Fu! Sonkwa
16. Fu! Sonkwa. Current king.
Elders of Balessing include the kings listed in Figure 2.4 as part of their oral history.
Figure 2.4. Succession of Balessing Kings
(Ngouané 1983:54) 14
1. Founder: Tatokbak
2. Manguem
3. Piébeng
4. Ngumgang
14 Tchinda (2003:7) presents a slightly different list, relying on an article by Michel Ngouané to which I
have no access.
50

Figure 2.4, continued
5. Djundayonta
6. Ngwamaduyem
7. Tagantio
8. Ngwama Nzwemekem
9. Tiogning Jean
10. Ganno Daniel
11. Fu! Fouamene Ganno Pascal. Current king.
Emigration, Troubles, and Development of the Cameroonian Nation
Bamiléké regions soon became overpopulated. High birth and fertility rates, low
sterility, and a relatively long life expectancy combined with strong cultural motivations
for procreation to generate highly dense populations (Dongmo 1981a:71-88). By the
beginning of the 20 th century, Bamilékés had begun to move both to other Bamiléké
regions, as well as to other parts of Cameroon. By 1976, approximately 15% of people
born in the two divisions inhabited by the Ngiemb!!n–Bamboutos and Ménoua–lived
outside of their home region (Dongmo 1981a:195). Reasons for this emigration include
overpopulation, the loss of arable land due to colonial appropriation, lack of terrain to
grow food due to the multiplying of coffee plantations, civil unrest when Cameroon
gained its independence in the period of 1960-61, as well as the psychological attraction
of new experiences and knowledge afforded by interaction with the wider world
(ibid:199-209). 1997 figures reveal a continued elevated population density in
Ngiemb!!n areas, and mounting urbanization (Annuaire Statistique du Cameroun
51

1998:25, 22); continued population growth offers yet another sign of Bamiléké
dynamism.
This expansion of Bamiléké groups took place on the backdrop of Cameroon's
dramatic and sometimes bloody transition to independence and nationhood; as I show in
Chapter Three, some of these events profoundly affected Ngiemb!!n musical
production. Attendant on the Berlin Colonial Conference that ended in 1885, Germany,
France, and England each began trying to protect their trade with the Cameroonian area
of central Africa through colonizing agreements with local kings. 15 The Germans
initially won out, coercing Duala kings on the coast to accept annexation of their
territory in 1884. England and France joined forces during the First World War to expel
Germany from Cameroon, which they accomplished by 1916. From 1916 to Cameroon's
independence in 1960, France and England each exploited their separate territories.
France controlled approximately 5/6 ths , including northern, eastern, western, and central
portions, while England administered two disjointed northwest areas, relatively thin
blocks along the northwestern borders, called Northern and Southern Cameroon
(Mbuagbaw et al 1987:80).
Bamiléké kingdoms existed almost exclusively in the francophone western
region. The French created an artificial system of kings to facilitate the administration
of their territories. Their assimilationist approach to governance led them to choose their
15 I draw the content for much of this section from Mveng (1963); Ngoh (1996); and Mbuagbaw, Brain,
and Palmer (1987). Readers interested in going beyond this highly condensed presentation may consult
these works, as well as Delancey (1989), Delancey and Mokeba (2000), Njeuma (1989), Rudin (1968),
and Stoecker (1960-68), and many others.
52

own kings, whose sons were indoctrinated in French colonial philosophy and
methodology in specially designed schools. This approach succeeded in areas such as
the central region, because traditional social structures were essentially acephalous.
When the French encountered extremely hierarchical cultures like the Bamiléké,
however, they were forced to work through existing kings.
World War II catalyzed political and social movements throughout Africa and
Europe that culminated in Cameroon's independence in 1960. In 1948, Cameroon's first
indigenous political party, the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC), was formed.
The UPC called for immediate independence and reunification of the French and British
Cameroons (Ngoh 1996: 156). French policies and world economic phenomena–for
example, prices for major cash crops dropped precipitously in 1955–conspired to create
a volatile environment. When the UPC initiated strikes in Douala in May of 1955, the
colonial government responded with violence, and an unknown number of people were
killed. The government banned the UPC, and its charismatic leader–Ruben Um Nyobé–
transformed the party into an underground revolutionary movement. UPC adherents
became known as maquisards, or the maquis.
Ngiemb!!n people refer to the period between the 1955 uprising and the early
years of independence as les troubles. During this period, some Ngiemb!!n men joined
the maquisard rebellion, and attracted the violent retribution of the colonial army. The
residents of the village of Balessing were forcibly moved to the crossroad connecting
their village to Bafoussam and Dschang, and their houses were razed; David Tiozang
still possesses a scar from a machete wound during this time. The maquisards and army
53

fought a war that left heirloom art objects destroyed, hospitals burned, and many
European government agents and missionaries assassinated.
Engelbert Mveng aptly summarizes the reasons for the centrality of Bamiléké
participation in this violent clash:
On one hand, there was opposition to the law and the government that was at
issue. On the other, there was the social tension inherent in Bamiléké country,
both the most economically evolved and perhaps the most socially backward in
the center and the south. The traditional kingdom, totalitarian, owned the land,
goods, and people; but the Bamiléké society, so mobile, had invaded all of
central Africa, and replaced the village structures by cooperatives, work and
commercial associations crowned with success. The Bamilékés were
everywhere; they had their plantations, their coffee processing plants, their
garages, their stores, and controlled almost all road travel, and the taxis in cities.
A thousand networks linked the urban population with that of the countryside.
This coexistence of a feudal past and a revolutionary present had to result in an
explosion (Mveng 1963: 442; my translation).
On January 1, 1960, France granted independence to French Cameroon, which
became the Republic of Cameroon. The next year, the anglophone Northern Cameroon
voted to join Nigeria, and the Federal Republic of Cameroon was brought into
existence, consisting of the union of the anglophone Southern Cameroon and the
francophone Republic of Cameroon. Ahmadou Ahidjo became president, with John
Foncha his vice-president. English and French became the two official languages of the
country. In 1982, Ahidjo stepped down, and Paul Biya–an Ewondo from the central
province–was elected; Biya gained his fifth electoral mandate in October 2004, a seven-
year term.
54

David Tiozang and his contemporaries vividly remember the atrocities of les
troubles, and counsel their children to stay out of politics and war. His son, Ferdinand
Doumtsop, suggests that despite the continued dominance of Bamilékés in the
Cameroon economy, only the passing of his father's generation will open a door for
greater Bamiléké involvement in politics. Some Bamiléké elites believe that the
proportionately low political influence exerted by Bamiléké communities on
Cameroonian politics may have other causes as well. According to Zognong, Bamilékés
"have become the target for all sorts of discrimination, because of distrust by other
ethnic groups, as well as an excessive mystification of their presumed hegemony"
(2002; my translation); in other words, they are victims of their own success.
The Ngiemb!!n Language
The linguistic landscape in western Cameroon is made up of people speaking various
dialects that may change abruptly or gradually over geographical regions, depending on
any number of physical and social parameters (Anderson 2004). The most
comprehensive description of this landscape is the Atlas Linguistique du Cameroun
(ALCAM), published by a consortium of French and Cameroonian organizations and
researchers in 1991. These include principally the Agence de Coopération Culturelle et
Technique (ACCT) in Paris, and the Centre Régional de Recherche et de
Documentation sur les Traditions Orales et pour le Développement des Langues
Africaines (CERDOTOLA) and Centre de Recherches et d'Études Anthropologiques
(CREA) in Yaoundé. Created in 1970, ACCT's purpose is to "assemble the countries
55

united by their common usage of the French language, with the goals of cooperation in
the domains of education, the sciences and technical studies, and more generally, in
everything that converges on the development of the member countries and the
gathering together of peoples" (Breton and Bikia 1991:3; my translation). Dr. Maurice
Tadadjeu, a University of Southern California trained linguist and speaker of the Yemba
language (geographically and linguistically close to Ngiemb!!n), was a coordinator of
the team that produced the atlas, which gathered new data and integrated existing
research, including that by members of SIL. 16
There are approximately 250,000 speakers of the Ngiemb!!n language (Yonta
2002b), the majority concentrated in five kingdoms: Balessing, Batcham, Bangang,
Bamougong, and Balatchi (see Figure 2.2; Grimes 2000). These are found in the
Bamboutos and Menoua divisions of the West Province. The Ngiemb!!n language is
part of the Bamiléké subgroup of the Eastern Grassfields language family, thereby
closely related to the well-known Bantu language family (Anderson 2001). I spell
Ngiemb!!n words using the orthography first proposed by Steve Anderson (1976), and
subsequently modified by Moïse Yonta and others; Anderson hopes to publish a
statement incorporating all relevant research soon. Note that the Ngiemb!!n alphabet
includes a small, straight character resembling an apostrophe that denotes a glottal stop.
ALCAM places the Ngiemb!!n language in an area surrounded geographically
by four other languages: Ngombale to the north, Ngomba to the east, Gh!mala$ to the
south, and Yemba to the west. Sociolinguistic surveys attest to the reality of Ngiemb!!n
16 SIL's primary contribution in the publication of ALCAM consisted of technical production assistance.
56

as a communicational unity within this landscape. They demonstrate significant lack of
intercomprehension between speakers of Ngiemb!!n and those speaking most
neighboring languages, and an almost perfect level between people from the five
principle Ngiemb!!n kingdoms (Starr 1990; Starr and Stalder 1990; Haynes and Harro
1985). In fact, "dialectical differences between the language as spoken in different
villages consists primarily of minor differences in pronunciation, and does not pose
problems for comprehension" (Lonfo and Yonta n.d.; my translation).
Though a detailed study of the Ngiemb!!n language lies outside the scope of this
study, several distinctives warrant mention. First, the Ngiemb!!n language exhibits a
high degree of phonological complexity. Figure 2.5 contains the orthographic
conventions as described in the Ngiemb!!n-French dictionary in preparation (Lonfo
n.d.), its apparent simplicity belying underlying intricacies.
Figure 2.5. Ngiemb!!n Orthographic Conventions for Consonants and Vowels
Orth! Ngiemb!!n ! English! ! Orth! Ngiemb!!n ! English!
a! ta%! father! ! !! k!%! what?!
b!
m%bı%! to take! ! p! pu%! all!
n%ku%be! to change! ! pf! pfo%! ash!
mbab! meat! ! s! sa)! moon!
c! ncu"! war! ! sh! shu%u! to pass through!
d!
nda%! house! ! t! ta%! father!
mbı"d! pus! ! ts! tsetsa%$! earth!
e! me%! we! ! u! ku(! bed!
+! m%pf+%! to eat! ! #! t#"! strength!
f! e%fo%! to come from! ! v! v+"! wild cat!
g! gem! hole! !
57
m%v+%te! explode!

Figure 2.5, continued
!
ngingi! intestinal worm! ! w! w+&! this!
maga! finished! !
58
kwo"! foot!
ta%g! trouble! ! '! k'e%! deal!
i! ntı%! quality! !
j!
k!
nk'"ı"! unmarried!
ju(!! tomorrow! ! y! ye%! him/her!
n%ju%! to buy! !
kye%! abandon!
n%ku%! to enter! ! ÿ! ky*o! flee!
ku(! bed! ! ! n%ky*+%! invade!
l! la%$! village! ! z! lezı%)! name!
m! ma%! mother! !
nz!(! where?!
n! na%a! deal! ! ’! le"$e! promise!
)!
n)a)! root! !
e%fa$! to search for!
ta")a! ceiling! ! ! ! !
The dictionary is being prepared primarily for speakers of Ngiemb!!n, and thus
leaves the production of these sounds and their variants implicit; native speakers
unconsciously produce appropriate allophones. The pronunciation of consonants, for
example, varies widely dependent on phonological context. Figure 2.6 describes the four
allophones–i.e. variants predictably conditioned by context–of the phoneme /g/.
Figure 2.6. Variants of the phoneme /g/
Etic Position Description of Sound
[,] Word-initial voiced uvular fricative
[-] After a nasal voiced velar stop
[.] Between vowels voiced velar fricative
[q /] After a vowel, word final unreleased voiced uvular stop

Other alternations of consonants include palatalization, labialization, labio-
palatalization, velarization, and aspiration of some root-initial consonants. Vowels also
exhibit many variations, including nasalization and lengthening.
Tone also plays varied and complex roles in the language, being used to mark
lexical and grammatical information. Figure 2.7 gives examples of lexical contrast, that
is, contrast in meaning between words dependent solely on their tones. As an example
of tone signaling grammatical information, the immediate past tense is marked by a
rising tone on open monosyllabic verbs. Thus, for example, ‘‘n%na%’’ ("to give") becomes
‘‘na(’’ in a sentence like "a" na( nga%b" (‘‘he gave chickens") (Lonfo, n.d.).
Figure 2.7. Ngiemb!!n Orthographic Conventions for Tone
Tone! Orthography! Ngiemb!!n! English!
High! 0! ta%$! but!
Low! 1! ta"$! one!
Rising! ˇ! shu( / so! friend!
Falling! ˆ! shu&! cabbages!
Mid! (not marked)! j#$! place!
Interest in the tone of Grassfields Bantu languages has sparked a growing body
of literature and theoretical creativity (see, for example, Anderson 2001; Snider 1999;
Hyman 1979; Tadadjeu 1974; Voorhoeve 1971). Anderson (2001) posits four
underlying tone patterns for simple nouns, whereas verb roots contrast only between
high and low tones. However, multiple phonological and morphological processes
interact to produce a situation where surface manifestations of tone are often quite
59

different from their underlying tones. These complex phenomena include the presence
of floating tones (that is, tones not attached to a syllable nucleus), rules changing a tone
depending on its context in an utterance, and tonal morphemes. The interaction between
linguistic tone and song melody could prove a rich field of investigation.
Physical Environment
The Ngiemb!!n region has an average altitude of about 1500 meters, with a high point
of 2700 meters in the Bamboutos Mountains. The terrain is rarely level, covered with
high altitude savannah grasses in the few unpopulated areas, and with hedge-bordered
farmlands in the populated regions. Houses are generally built along ridges and high
places, with fields of produce flowing down from behind the houses to the many
streams and other
water sources in the
valleys. Rain is
abundant in the
Bamboutos mountains,
which contain the
headwaters for most of
the rivers in the West
Province.
Along the Road from Balessing to Batcham
60

Social and Religious Organization
Each of the five kingdoms is governed by a fu"!–chef in French, and king or fon for
English speakers. The king exercises a high level of social, judicial, and spiritual
authority; he and his advisors hear, decide on, and mete out judgment for virtually all
criminal and civil complaints in their purview. These kingdoms are in turn composed of
sub-kingdoms led by lesser rulers, which are made up of neighborhoods (lepfo% la) in
Ngiemb!!n, quartiers in French) governed by their own sub-rulers (ta% lepfo%). Each
neighborhood comprises a group of families led by a senior land-holder (fu*# tsi!e nda% in
Ngiemb!!n, chef de famille in French). Finally, these family groupings are made up of
compounds where a man, his wife or wives, and children live. The man is the owner of
his compound (nga! mb&*a in Ngiemb!!n, propriétaire de la concession in French).
People accord great respect to each of these authorities and are generally very cognizant
of relative rankings.
T!h!e! !k!i!n!g! !r!u!l!e!s! !n!o!t! !o!n!l!y! !t!h!r!o!u!g!h! !h!i!s! !o!w!n! !p!o!s!i!t!i!o!n! !a!n!d! !a!u!t!h!o!r!i!t!y!,! !b!u!t! !a!l!s!o! !u!n!d!e!r!
!t!h!e! !g!u!i!d!a!n!c!e! !a!n!d! !s!t!r!i!c!t!u!r!e!s! !i!m!p!o!s!e!d! !b!y! !t!h!e! k(ı*) fu*#,! !t!h!e! !b!o!d!y! !o!f! !a!t! !l!e!a!s!t! !s!i!x!
!a!d!m!i!n!i!s!t!r!a!t!i!v!e! !a!n!d! !s!p!i!r!i!t!u!a!l! !c!a!t!e!g!o!r!i!e!s! !o!f! !c!o!u!n!s!e!l!o!r!s! !a!n!d! !d!e!l!e!g!a!t!e!s! !t!h!a!t! !s!u!r!r!o!u!n!d!s! !h!i!m!.!
!T!h!e! k'ı$ fu"!! !i!s! !s!y!m!b!o!l!i!z!e!d! !b!y! !t!h!e! !d!o!u!b!l!e! !b!e!l!l (d!e!s!c!r!i!b!e!d! !i!n! !d!e!t!a!i!l! !i!n! !C!h!a!p!t!e!r! !F!i!v!e) !a!n!d!
!c!o!n!s!i!s!t!s! !o!f! !t!h!e! !C!o!u!n!c!i!l! !o!f! !N!i!n!e! !(p&+ a lepfw#)#!)!,! !t!h!e! !C!o!u!n!c!i!l! !o!f! !S!e!v!e!n! !(p&+ a s##nmb&% a!)!,!
!t!h!e! !p!r!i!e!s!t!s! !(pa gwa% )mej&) sse% –'those who sacrifice in the places of god'!)!,! !t!h!e! !s!u!b!-!c!h!i!e!f!s!
!(!mefu+ # nty, #))!,! !a!n!d! !t!h!e! !n!e!i!g!h!b!o!r!h!o!o!d! !l!e!a!d!e!r!s! !.! !O!t!h!e!r! !t!i!t!l!e! !h!o!l!d!e!r!s! !i!n!c!l!u!d!e !m!i!n!i!s!t!e!r!s!
!(!me!wa%la%)!)!,! !s!e!r!v!a!n!t!s! !(!mentsi+nda%)!,! !p!o!l!i!c!e! !(!m!e!k!o!o!a!n!)!,! !p!r!i!n!c!e!s! and princesses !(!memu$#
61

nt#%)!)!,! !a!n!d! mother of the king! !(!ma%fu+#!)! !(!N!g!o!u!a!n!e! !1!9!8!3!:!1!0!1!-!1!1!2!;! !D!o!u!m!t!s!o!p! !2002a)!.! ! ! This!
!v!a!s!t! !o!r!g!a!n!i!z!a!t!i!o!n!a!l! !n!e!t!w!o!r!k! !i!n!t!e!r!a!c!t!s !w!i!t!h! !a! !s!e!c!o!n!d! !i!n!t!e!r!r!e!l!a!t!e!d! !b!u!t! !s!e!p!a!r!a!t!e! !h!i!e!r!a!r!c!h!y!.!
!I!n! !c!o!n!t!r!a!s!t! !t!o! !t!h!e! !h!e!r!e!d!i!t!a!r!y! !b!a!s!i!s! !o!f! !t!h!e! !k!i!n!g!$!s! !s!y!s!t!e!m!,! !t!h!i!s! !s!e!c!o!n!d! !s!y!s!t!e!m! !f!a!v!o!r!s!
!i!n!d!i!v!i!d!u!a!l! !m!a!t!e!r!i!a!l! !s!u!c!c!e!s!s!,! !a!n!d! !i!s! !m!a!n!i!f!e!s!t! !s!y!m!b!o!l!i!c!a!l!l!y! !i!n! !c!l!o!t!h!i!n!g! !a!n!d! !f!e!a!t!u!r!e!s! !o!f! !a!
!p!e!r!s!o!n!$!s! !h!a!b!i!t!a!t! !(!D!o!n!g!m!o! !1!9!8!1!a!:!5!2!)!.! !
The high level of social stratification both influences and is moderated by an
equally strong network of solidarity-based groupings. People may belong to multiple
associations–ma*nzo*! (age sets) and lu! (voluntary or locationally determined social
groupings)–at any level of the organizational hierarchy, including those of compounds,
neighborhood, neighborhood groupings, village, or group of villages. The lu) may be a
secret society with spiritual functions, or a voluntary organization with goals that
include mutual aid (Dongmo 1981a:50-51). DAKASBA, the subject of Chapter Four, is
part of the latter category.
Ngiemb!!n traditional religion includes belief in a single, supreme god, Ssé,
referred to by many names highlighting various attributes, including creator, all
powerful, savior, merciful, and omniscient (Ngouane 1983:113-114; Lonfo n.d.; Signing
2002; Doumtsop 2002b). Adherents also believe in lesser spirits, most of whom reside
in trees or specially constructed houses near an important geological phenomenon like a
water source, or a sacred place such as the king$s compound. Priests offer sacrifices of
salt, meat, palm wine, or oil to these gods to ask for help when a child is born, someone
is sick, a woman has trouble becoming pregnant, or when a traditional seer (nkem ssé
62

for males or nzwe ssé for females) receives a message that a propitious moment has
arrived.
Ancestors also play a central role in the lives of traditional Ngiemb!!n people.
Most compounds in the home region have a small house in which skulls of the family's
progenitors reside. 17 Heads of household perform sacrifices to the ancestors on a rock or
pot sitting on top of the buried skulls, for occasions that include, among others,
thanking them, and asking for a favor (Ngouane 1983:123; Dongmo 1981a:50). The
most important event concerning an ancestor's skull is when it is disinterred and placed
in the small house, which may occur several years after a person's death; this ceremony
is called mb#%#nte% two% mpfo%.
Religious beliefs find their most vibrant expression in ceremonies related to
death. These include wakes that take place one or two nights after a person's passing
(legwe% in Ngiemb!!n, deuil in French), condolence observances for the aggrieved
family a month or two after a death (shy,o% legwe% in Ngiemb!!n, visite de condoléances
in French), ceremonies where a widow or widower changes from the dark clothes that
he or she has worn for the year since his or her spouse's death (les("' malin##n in
Ngiemb!!n, enlever le noir or enlèvement du noir in French) and ceremonies to
commemorate the death of a family member a few weeks to several years after his or
her death (nkem legwé, ke*me legwe% or nzi!te zi!te( in Ngiemb!!n, funérailles in
French). I will provide more details of these events in Chapters Three and Four, since
17 The transition to independence in 1956-1961 resulted in violence that caused the destruction of whole
villages, including the sacred houses and skulls within. When the Ngiemb!!n rebuilt, they replaced the
skulls with small stones representing individual ancestors (Tiozang 2002-2003).
63

music accompanies virtually all of them. However, because of the high profile that the
nkem legwe% ceremony holds in Bamiléké cultures in Cameroon, I will provide some
initial background here.
Nkem legwe% translates literally as "the unveiling of death" (Yonta 2002a).
Though people come to cry and show sympathy for the family immediately after
someone dies, they will assert that he or she is not dead, merely sick. It is often only
after the son of a man or woman who has died gathers enough goods and money for an
extensive celebration–which may take years–that nkem legwe% is performed in the
deceased person's village. Moïse Yonta here describes how a man might view his arrival
in a village to hold a nkem legwe% for his father:
I come now to tell you that [my father] is dead. And by saying that he is dead,
that I want to mourn him. He already died, but we waited. We held back from
mourning him. So we held it, waiting for a moment when I have friends, a
moment when I'm strong, a moment when I have money. And now, I come. I
act. I show to everyone that I'm a big translator of the Bible [laugh], a worthy
child. I show that I am a son who wants to give honor to his father. But it's not
honor to his father, but it's worship of his father. (Yonta 2002a; my translation)
In addition to the status-seeking motivation Yonta describes, spiritual incentives
are also at work. Before the celebratory portion of the nkem legwé–possibly years
before this event–the family of the person who has died performs a ritual to remove the
curse, or ndòon, that the deceased may be holding against the family. Yonta explains
how this works:
It's as if the father is saying, "If you don't take my head seriously, you might
die." After two or three years or so, you take out his head, and leave all of the
other parts of the body. You dig up the grave, take out the head, with a certain
64

kind of leaves, certain objects, and ... put it aside. Often there is still hair, which
you scrape off. Then you dig a hole in the ground and put the skull in it, and
place a clay pot on top. At this time, they use an expression that says, 'Now,
we'll mourn him' [Me ge l& ye ]. That's our funeral expression. (ibid)
Ka"n!"!n dancers and others join them to celebrate the removal of the curse.
Because the family did what was required, others come "to celebrate the victory. . . .
That's why there's so much joy, splendid clothes, dignified processions, excellent food,
people traveling in groups. They are all proud, drink a lot of wine, and are very content"
(ibid).
Though the nkem legwé constitutes the socially and spiritually central event of
Ngiemb!!n life, it provokes controversy of two basic sorts. First, many Christians
interpret the concomitant skull ceremonies as worship of the dead instead of God
(Yonta 2002a; "Le Chrétien face aux funérailles" n.d.); Yonta takes this position. 18
Second, the enormous expense of providing food, drink, and other provisions for the
dignitaries and other attendees has led to a public debate about the practice. One
newspaper article begins, "The quality of a funeral is henceforth measured by the
conveniences placed at the disposition of participants. Waste and excess have taken the
place of tears and sorrow" (Cameroon Tribune 2002; my translation). One DAKASBA
member estimates that the total cost of putting on a nkem legwé for someone of average
means could reach 4,000,000 FCFA 19 (Keula and Djiafeua 2004). This includes
18 I have not yet formulated my own position on this issue.
19 1000 Francs CFA (Communauté Financière Africaine) equal approximately 1.5 euros, or about $2US
(at early 2005 exchange rates).
65

approximately 1,500,000 FCFA spent in the days surrounding the ceremony in the
village, with the rest consumed in travel and communications during the months and
years leading up to it.
Economic Organization
The Ngiemb!!n region's economy is
based primarily on subsistence
agriculture, domestic husbandry,
production and sale of handmade
crafts such as wooden masks, stools,
and woven raffia sacks, and a few
cooperatives and cash crop
plantations. Arabica coffee was
introduced to the region in 1933, but
the global and local markets have
changed in recent years so that some
coffee cooperatives have had to close
("Balessing" 2001; Doumtsop 2002a).
Other exports include tea and sand.
Jonas Tchoffo, Workshop Director
The neighborhood of Balena in Batcham demonstrates a close connection
between artistic and economic production. Ngiemb!!n musicians from all over come to
the workshop–the "Centre Artisanat Balena"–in Balena to buy drums, whistles, other
66

musical instruments, masks, and statues. The members of the artists' group also have a
store in Bafoussam, a large city to the east of Batcham.
Voluntary associations also play a major role in the economic foundations of the
region. In addition to their identities as a lu!, a term that foregrounds the cultural and
musical identity of a voluntary association, most associations are also nts(a)as, the
Ngiemb!!n term for a highly structured savings, cultural, and dance association, which
includes mandatory participation and attendance for members; nts'a$a highlights the
financial aspects. Virtually all of the dance associations in Yaoundé and the Ngiemb!!n
village region serve as this type of social institution, which form part of a larger
phenomenon researchers have called tontines, or ROSCAs–Rotating Savings and Credit
Associations. Ubiquitous in Cameroon–perhaps as many as 80 percent of adults belong
to at least one (Guérin 2003)–they fill both social and financial functions. Though
scholars drew the tag 'tontine$ from the Italian banker De Lorenzo Tonti, who created a
collective savings association in the 17 th century, similar associations probably existed
much earlier in Africa (Furer 2003; Laburthe-Tolra & Warnier 1997). 20
Tontines 21 often function like the Sa*malı% dance association (Mali Ngi!"
Lend##n) in the Bametac II neighborhood of the Ngiemb!!n village of Balessing. There,
every member contributes 300FCFA at each weekly meeting. The money is gathered
20 Interestingly, a singer from northwest Cameroon, Benson Loh (2003), likens death celebrations
(funérailles) to tontines. Your attendance at someone else's celebration serves as an invitation to others to
attend yours. As in a tontine, everyone benefits on a rotating basis (see Poubom 1999).
21 I will use the term tontine, even though it is most commonly used in documents written in French. I do
this because it is more elegant than the acronym ROSCA, and does exist in English-language literature
(see Jennings and Trout 1983).
67

and immediately disbursed to one of the members, each in turn. The association also has
a voluntary bank where people can deposit additional funds to a separate pot, and the
group can choose to lend it out at interest to members who have special needs; at the
end of the year, depositors receive their contributions back with interest. Tontines like
this have contributed greatly to the financial success of Bamiléké groups for a long
time. In the 1920s and 1930s, for example, European businessmen in Douala viewed
Bamiléké immigrant associations as a financial threat (Mbuagbaw et al 1987:85). In
Chapter Four, I present a detailed discussion of DAKASBA, a Yaoundé association that
functions as a tontine.
Temporal Organization
Residents of Ngiemb!!n villages order their lives temporally through reference to
multiple periodic cycles, and two types of unpredictable events–those occurring during
the course of a person's life, and those initiated supernaturally. In this section, I
introduce some basic information of these two types, which will be referenced in later
chapters. 22
Events With Temporal Regularity
The primary periods to which Ngiemb!!n people refer are those of the day,
week, month, and year. Days contain the repeating divisions shown in Figure 2.8.
22 Many elements related to Ngiemb!!n temporal organization that I discuss here and in Chapter Three
find parallels in Stone (1998).
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Figure 2.8. Time Divisions in a Day
very early in the morning ! ts+"+ mba$a%mba$!
morning ! mba$a%mba$!
noon ! ts+"+zso(/t#"zso(!
afternoon mby*+2 njy*o%
evening ! ncwo" nze%m!
night ! ts'+%$!
midnight ! ts+"+ts'+%$!
After days, the next organizational level is the week. Ngiemb!!n people appeal
to two weekly calendars, the traditional eight-day period, and the seven-day week
introduced by colonial powers. Inhabitants of Ngiemb!!n villages refer to the traditional
eight-day calendar in order to guide their activities in two important ways. First, each
village holds a major market on just one of the eight days; people plan their selling and
shopping according to the days on which markets will be held in their village or nearby
areas. In addition, vendors of items such as cloth and stools will make the circuit of
village markets to sell their goods. Figures 2.9 and 2.10 present names for week days.
Figure 2.9. Eight Days of the
Traditional Week
1. Nkw!$sh#(a
2. Nga)a%
3. Shÿa$nze"me (Shÿa$nga)a%)
4. Nzèmenzème (Nzed!!n)
5. Njÿonzse (Mándunzse)
6. Met#anzse (Nj#'nk#)
7. Shÿa$c#%$# nzà'a
8. C#%$# nzà'a
69

Figure 2.10. Ngiemb!!n Names for Days of the
Modern Week
0- Monday! Mvfoly+%!
1- Tuesday! Mb!!nte mvfoly+%!
2- Wednesday! Tsets+ly+%!
3- Thursday ! Mb!!nte tsets+ ly+%!
4- Friday! Mvfo maga ly+%!
5- Saturday! Maga ly+%!
6- Sunday! Ly+’+ swinte.!
The second way that the traditional calendar informs peoples' lives is through the
proscription of certain types of activities on certain days, and the promoting of others.
Thus, for example, women are forbidden to work in their fields on Nga)á. This
restriction has its origins in the belief that it was on this day that evil spirits were buried
in the earth. In addition, ceremonies for twins, mefág, can take place only on Shÿa$c#%$#
nzà'a, Nkw!$sh#(a, and Nga)á, and each kingdom has certain days on which one cannot
hold a death celebration, or nkem legwé (Doumtsop 2004a).
Since most people are also involved with schools, churches, businesses, and
government offices–all of which follow the seven-day week–organizing activities can
become complex. In order to aid in juggling both systems, several people have
published calendars that show the month, date, and weekday name of the Gregorian
calendar, and the corresponding Ngiemb!!n day name. Figure 2.11 shows a page from
70

the month of January 2002, published by David Fouafang Kenne. 23 Also visible are
French translations of Ngiemb!!n proverbs that Mr. Kenne has added to each page.
Figure 2.11. Page from a Ngiemb!!n Calendar (Gregorian
day names are marked by their first letter in French.)
Weeks are organized into monthly and yearly cycles, which Ngiemb!!n people
use in part to mold their agricultural and certain ceremonial activities (Figure 2.12).
During the majority of the year, the rainy season of April through October,
agriculturalists clear fields and plant and harvest various crops. These crops include
23 Mr. Kenne published a new calendar each year, until his death in 2003.
71

corn, potatoes, yams, cocoyams, taro, cassava, bananas, and many vegetables. In the dry
season, lu*m, land is prepared for planting when the rains come. Note that the traditional
year begins during the early part of July (Ngouane 1983:104).
Figure 2.12. Months of the year (sa! means $moon$ or $period$)
Rainy! Dry! Rainy!
Jul! Aug! Sep! Oct! Nov! Dec! Jan! Feb! Mar! Apr! May! Jun!
Sa) ty+b ty+b m#)!
Sa) mb#)!
Sa) ngw!%mb#)!
Sa) ta) u tse%tsa%!
Sa) mejwo)no%!
Events Without Temporal Regularity
Sa) lu%m!
In addition to the repeating periods of days, weeks, months, and years,
Ngiemb!!n time is also organized by events that can't be predicted by reference to such
cycles. Birth, marriage, death, and other occasions associated closely or necessarily with
a person's life often require other events like ceremonies, and serve as reference points
in discussions of recent or distant historical time. The nature and extent of the
concomitant events depend in part on the social status, reputation, and associational ties
of the individual. For example, the death of every person triggers commemorative and
mourning ceremonies, but their size and number depend on factors such as how old he
or she was, and the associations that he or she belonged to. The death of a king is a
special case that sets numerous processes and events into motion, related both to
72
Sa) tsets+ lu%m!
Sa) nkag ngwo%)!
Sa) lepye shu%m!
Sa) cyo!
Sa) ts++ cyo%!
Sa) mjyo la%!

succession and honoring him in an appropriately extravagant manner. The death of
Daniel Ganno, the previous king of Balessing, launched deliberations and ceremonies
resulting in the crowning and initiation of Pascal Fouamene as his successor. King
Fouamene's month-long nkem legwé took place in October and November 2004, lasting
many times longer than that of someone who was not a king. The life and death of
kings also serves to mark history, as I discuss above.
The other type of non-periodic event that frequently provides points of reference
in a person's life originates in the spiritual realm. Seers receive words from supernatural
beings, often directing them to hold a ceremony for a particular person or family. I give
several examples of this in Chapter Three.
Judith and Alton Becker (1981-90) posit homologous relationships between six
calendrical and numerous sociopolitical cycles in Javanese society, arguing for the
metaphorically related iconic power of coincidence in Javanese gamelan music. Though
Ngiemb!!n life responds and interacts with several temporal orderings, coincidence is
not as pervasive a concept as it appears to be in Javanese society. This may also prove
to be an interesting area for future research.
Competition in Solidarity
All of these elements–a healthful physical environment, overpopulation, strong
hierarchical social structure combined with a fervent sense of solidarity–contribute to
Bamiléké dynamism. Other specific social practices also play significant roles.
Inheritance customs, for example, require the head of a family to choose the most
73

capable of his sons to be named his successor, and the chosen son receives all of his
father$s wealth. Because the father confides his choice to a close friend, who only makes
the selection public after the father$s death, potential inheritors often compete to be
viewed as the most capable. In addition, the son(s) who is not chosen must then start
from scratch, and is expected to found his own dynasty. "The principle of the
indivisibility of inheritance, putting the non-inheriting sons in the absolute obligation to
make their own way, and to consider them as founders of their own lineages is a
powerful goad to action. Hard on the incapable and lazy, the Bamiléké custom gives to
the most gifted the possibility of a rapid social climb" (Hurault 1962:36, my
translation). Jean-Louis Dongmo, whose two volume Le Dynamisme Bamiléké (1981a,
1981b) represents a sweeping exploration of Bamiléké cultural potency, considers
competition, struggle, pronounced taste for independence, a spirit of initiative and
innovation, and a traditional education oriented toward production as the essential social
reasons for the Bamilékés$ disproportionate commercial and financial success. In a
nutshell, he views Bamiléké dynamism as a result of competition in solidarity
(1981a:53-56).
Summary and Reflection
Ngiemb!!n people arrived at their present homeland in western Cameroon through a
circuitous route, having developed a well-ordered, stable social organization. They
frame their lives temporally through both regular and unpredictable events, and
elements of their social systems encourage competition and initiative in a context of
74

solidarity. As I will show in the following chapters, these dynamic phenomena find
homologous resonance in musically structured Ngiemb!!n communication as well.
75

Chapter 3
Musical Communication at Home
Locational scope: Ngiemb!!n kingdoms, primarily Balessing
Temporal Scope: 2002-2004
Communicators: Ngiemb!!n kingdom inhabitants, dance association members in particular
Infrastructures: Time, dance associations, music
In September 2002, my research associate, Ferdinand Doumtsop, was asked to
take photographs of a coming of age ceremony for a girl in his home village of
Balessing. On his invitation, I went along. When we arrived at the family’s compound
and asked whether I could videotape the event, some of those in charge asked Ferdinand
privately what my motives were, especially if I were hoping to make money from this
videotape. He assured them that I wasn’t, and they welcomed me, happy to have
another form of documentation of the event (I sent them a videotape afterwards).
Before we entered the girl’s mother’s house on the compound, I met Bernard
Tekeu, one of the principle spiritual leaders of the proceedings. Bernard wore a Mickey
Mouse cap that covered his dreadlocks and a Chicago Bulls shirt, and told me that he
had received a message from God instructing him to execute this ceremony for the girl.
It is performed for children who are born either with their umbilical cord wrapped
around their neck, or their feet exiting the womb first, or for twins; I was not able to
discover the exact conditions in which the girl in this ceremony had been born. When I
76

offered my hand to greet him, he politely refused, explaining that he needed to respect
the ceremony; avoiding physical contact with others is a common restriction on those in
spiritually authoritative positions, as I noted in Chapter Two. In this brief conversation,
he thanked me for coming and videotaping, expressing contentment that he could
enlarge my vision.
We entered a small room, where perhaps a dozen people sat on stools and chairs
against the walls, and Bernard and a few others struck dried, cut gourds with their hands
while singing (see Video Clip 1). A woman sprinkled oil and salt on the people and
floor, and another brushed them with the branch of a peace tree (mek&!). After about
fifteen minutes, the girl at the center of the ceremony knelt before a woman wearing
multi-banded bracelets (kwa!a pa!) and necklaces, who then attached a copper bracelet
to the girl’s arm. The girl danced with vigor and joy for several more minutes, until the
ceremony came to an end.
Lec&’ lefemé penk&% –the ceremony of children–represents one of myriad
contexts in which musical performance serves both as infrastructure and message in
animating Ngiemb!!n society. In this chapter, I sketch a picture of Ngiemb!!n village
musical life, highlighting the most salient aspects of my model of communication: the
participants, their performance locations, and the infrastructural supports that carry and
shape their messages. My primary perspective will be from the Basic–in this case,
village–View.
The characterization that emerges from investigation of the Ngiemb!!n
kingdoms consists of two broad categories of musical performance, flowing from the
77

temporal organization I developed in Chapter Two. The first of these encompasses
musical production emanating irregularly from evanescent groupings of people, who do
not meet at permanent locations to practice and buttress their group identity. The second
grouping contrasts with the first in that its musical activities derive from tightly
organized social groups who meet regularly at specified places and times to craft group
solidarity and prepare for musical performance at life cycle events, primarily those
surrounding death and birth. The existence, ceaseless enactment, and symbiotic
relationship between these two types of activities find homologous expression in many
cultural domains, including the musical production I detail in Chapter Five. Resultant
creative tensions sustain the feedback resonance essential to Ngiemb!!n cultural
dynamism.
Preliminaries
I conceive of musical performance as any enactment of culture drawing on the
aggregate of activities that constitute music. This includes singing, dancing, and
instrument playing. Many ethnomusicologists have either explicitly or implicitly
adopted a similar view of performance (see, for example, Hood 1971:133; Myers
1992:23; Nettl 1964:153-5; Kisliuk defines performance as ‘enacted culture’ 1998:12).
In this and subsequent chapters, then, I do not restrict the performance object only to
contexts in which people produce music for an audience explicitly attending to them;
rather, I also include events such as rehearsals.
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The data from which I draw these analyses consist primarily of audio and video
recordings I made in the villages of Balessing and Batcham, interactions I had with
participants and observers of these recorded events, and questionnaires completed by
leaders of dance associations in the village of Balessing. Throughout this phase of my
investigations, I leaned heavily on David Tiozang and his family in Balessing. Not only
did the Tiozang family open their home to me whenever I came to visit, but Mr.
Tiozang organized excursions to dance association meetings, his sons Bruno and
Ferdinand accompanied me to events and helped interpret proceedings, Ferdinand
administered questionnaires to over 80 dance associations, and his wife, Marie, and
daughter, Ghislaine, provided delicious Ngiemb!!n fare. In addition, many of the
analyses I present in this chapter resulted from discussions with Ferdinand. I will
expand on
methodological details
when germane to the
discussion below.
Figure 3.1
shows the locations
where Ferdinand and I
performed research.
Note that I shaded in
the entire village of
Balessing, which was
Figure 3.1. Village Research Locations
79

the primary focus of our work. Other sites include the Batcham neighborhoods of
Balena (shown in its Ngiemb!!n spelling, Le&nna"’), Batcham Ville (Ts!%!n Ville),
Bazimbap (Nzi)mbab), and Batchuéti (Ts'++ty3!’).
Music without locational or temporal regularity
This category includes music integral to three supernaturally initiated ceremonies,
prominent life cycle events surrounding birth, marriage, and death, and individually
performed music. I will briefly describe each of these contexts of musical production,
and expand on several to highlight elements particularly interesting and relevant to the
theses of this dissertation.
Lefemé
Lefemé (or lefomó) refers to a dried, hollow
gourd with two holes, slapped by the hands to
accompany three types of ceremonies: the coming out
of twins (lek(ile mefág), the ceremony of the children
(lec&’ lefemé penk&%), and the God dance (ssé), which is
performed by midwives. Lefemé player Bernard Tekeu
asserts that this is the oldest of all Ngiemb!!n
instruments. The term “lefemé” has come to connote the kind of music it is used to
produce, as well as the mysterious and otherworldly reality associated with these three
ceremonies. The ssé ceremony, for example, is initiated when a person falls into an
80
Lefemé

unusual state of consciousness, appearing to be in a coma or trance; I do not know if
certain circumstances precipitate this occurrence. Observers take this as a sign from
God that they should hold the dance, and begin making preparations. A seer, or servant
of God (nkem ssé for males or nzwe ssé for females; the latter may also be translated
"wife of God") may also divine that such a ceremony should take place and initiate
preparations.
I witnessed and videotaped examples of two of these ceremonies–mefág and
lec#’ lefemé penk#%–which share a large repertoire of songs. Further description of the
people and practices involved in the lec#’ lefemé penk#% performed for 16-year-old
Mme. Régine Kemene
Playing the Lefemé
Emiline Flaure Youda–with which I began this
chapter–will illustrate several important elements
of these occasional contexts for musical
performance. This ceremony was directed by
Bernard Tekeu, another nkem ssé–David Tchinda–
and Regine Kemene, a nzwe ssé (shown playing
the lefemé in the photograph). In contrast to the
pu# la%, people who perform sacred functions in the
name of the village king (Ngouane 1983:120), the
nkem ssé and the nzwe ssé are people who fill
sacred roles because of direct or indirect calls
from God.
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A nkem ssé or nzwe ssé knows that he or she has been chosen by God when
“arrested”–thrown into a trance, a state of confusion that includes visions and delirium
(Ngouane 1983:120); I do not know details surrounding this and the following events.
After learning from a seer which god initiated the contact, the person undergoes an
initiation of several months. During this time he or she learns how to communicate with
the divinities, how to offer sacrifices, and how to perform certain ceremonies. When
Ferdinand Doumtsop asked Bernard Tekeu to describe his activities in making music, he
responded this way:
[The music we make is] called lefemé, to worship kings [mefù!, alternately
translated gods, the spirits in shrines], to thank children, the servants of God
[Ssé], those who suffer. . . . We don’t have a meeting place, because we belong
to god [ndêm]. Just like you yourself, you live and something happens, and you
don’t know where it came from. . . . We don’t have a specific time for
[performance]. You could be around, and someone tells you to thank the kings.
You invite people, you invite the gods, you have a feast, and at the same time
people dance. (NG04-03)
Bernard Tekeu fell ill while living in Douala and began to act as though he had
lost his mental faculties. When he returned to Balessing, people consulted voyants like
Régine Kemmene, and they initiated him as a nkem ssé.
A nkem ssé relies on various natural products for spiritual protection (NG02-
01:156-157 24 ). In a small leather pouch, Bernard Tekeu carries a dried leaf from the
"peace tree" (nk&nk&!), and a jujube fruit. The jujube–an afromomum, in the family
24 I used a simple code to label materials I gathered during research. This appellation refers to a notebook
containing information on a Ngiemb!!n topic (marked by "NG"), collected in 2002 ("02"), on pages 156
and 157. A "DV," "CD," or "MD" prefix specifies the medium (digital video, compact disk, or minidisk).
82

zingibarcea–is called
nde"nd#%m in Ngiemb!!n, and
contains dark red beads with
a bittersweet flavor. Bernard
maintains that when a spirit
bothers him, he eats some
jujube, and the spirit then
leaves him alone. Throwing
salt can have the same effect.
The other spiritual leader in this ceremony, the mánè, arrives at her position
because she gave birth to twins, triplets, children born breach or with the umbilical cord
wrapped around his or her neck, or a child deemed to be a ‘twin’ by a diviner (Gerger
and Bell 2003). Twins are called mefág, 25 and occupy a respected and feared position in
society, in part attested by special kin designations given to their family members: mánè
refers to a twin's mother, tánè the father, tákalá' her immediate older brother, mákalá'
the immediate older sister, and nk&! mefág, her younger sibling. During the mefág
ceremony, twins and their parents are given these new names, as well as the right to
meet with others in the same categories. See Video Clip 2 for excerpts from the
community dance performed after these rites.
25 People who are in this 'twin' category by virtue of being born feet first are called metsa%) or s(") le
mekwo.
Nde"nd#%m
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The ensemble consists of at least two lefemé and raffia shakers (me!koon).
Participants may also play a big drum (mâ nka) and horn (cu'); the horn plays a non-
rhythmic, atmospheric role. Vocally, one person leads short calls, and the others
respond with a repeated sung phrase. When capable people are present, the leadership
can rotate to different people. One of the rhythms I recorded, presented in Video Clip 3,
follows.
Figure 3.2. Lefemé Pattern in Time Unit Box System Notation (DVNG03-09)
Lefemé One - Ferdinand Doumtsop
Rt X O X O
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Lft X X X X
Lefemé Two – David Tchinda
Rt X X X X
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Lft X X X O
Nk##n - Bernard Tekeu
X X X X X X
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
84
Legend
O – palm hits lefemé on hole
X – palm hits lefemé body next to hole
Figure 3.3 contains the lyrics of a lek'ile mefág song; I have omitted the
majority of the words, which consist of vocables. The song is used to invoke spirits, as
well as produce blessings during harvests and business activities.

Figure 3.3. Text of a Lek'ile Mefág Song (CDNG02-04-14)
Ngiemb!!n! English
N z!b nte)e mang#a nj#’ I sing, citing the ancestor
N z!b nte)e fu! z'aga I sing, citing king Z'aga [god of a sacred place]
A ngwa mvfo ne nki( He who operates on the lamb with his fingernails
N ge n#%’ ee n#%’ t+’ t+’ I will tremble greatly
N ge n#%’ jy3o mev+ I will tremble and eat oil
N ge n#%’ jy3o ngwa%) I will tremble and eat salt
Salient life events: Birth, Marriage, and Death
Birth. Each evening during the first week after a newborn comes home from the
hospital (a period called lefa mápfò), people from the family’s neighborhood visit the
house to sing and eat couscous (a paste made from corn meal). After this first week,
members of the newborn’s mother’s family begin to make visits called s(" or gya mú#,
in which they bring drinks, soap, plantains, salt, and other edible goods. Each part of
this belle famille (family in law)–including the mother, grandmothers, and homonymes
(k(ı%), i.e. family members with the same name as the mother or infant)–forms itself into
a delegation, chooses a day to come, and arrives while singing songs that communicate
joy. They will sing, eat, and enjoy fellowship throughout the whole day.
The repertoire consists of a number of songs associated exclusively with this
period of gya mú!, as well as those stemming from dance associations to which
members of each delegation happen to belong. The songs must express joy, and themes
of their lyrics include giving thanks to the supreme God (Ssé) and local gods, and
celebrating the value of children and sexual intercourse. Interestingly, these newborn
85

ceremonies have certain songs in common with marriage celebrations (for example, the
song in Figure 3.5). This occurs because children are the objects of both celebrations:
gya mú! songs celebrate a specific child, while marriage songs celebrate children as the
goal and purpose of the matrimonial union.
Songs in the gya mú! repertoire are characterized by a call and response vocal
form, with no instrumental accompaniment. I have only heard women sing these songs
and they punctuate the performances with frequent ululations and other vocal cries of
joy. Performers chain one song after the other, with different individuals taking the
roles of leading the calls.
On August 24, 2003, I visited a compound in the Plateau Marché neighborhood
of Batcham Ville, the home of Paula Lacdo, a girl who had been born one week earlier.
A group of women was visiting, and they agreed to let me videotape gya mú! songs
they were singing. The lyrics excerpted below are drawn from a greeting sequence that
initiates a chain of gya mú! songs, and is meant to welcome a delegation that has just
arrived. These delegations often carry food and other objects on their heads for long
distances, so the text is full of gratitude. I include only the caller’s texts, and not the
responders' vocable response (which is a noble acknowledgment, ##!).
86

child:
Figure 3.4. Excerpt from Gya Mú! Greeting Sequence (NG04-05:01)
Ngiemb!!n English
Nd!!n n%d!!n g'i mba, pi zséletó mba Congratulations, congratulations, Welcome!
Pi ne)e ta nju$u mba, pi muo l#) + Seat yourselves comfortably, seat yourselves
Nd!!n n%d!!n Congratulations, congratulations
M!(!n Lı%sape Lagnd!($ ye( me% tsy+$te g'i
mba
Mama Elisabeth Lacdo asks that we should greet
Nd!!n n%d!!n g'i mba Congratulations, congratulations
you
Ndenjy*ola ye( me tsy+$te g'i mba Honorable Jiola [neighborhood leader, Balepipi II,
Balessing] asks that we should greet you
Nd!!n n%d!!n + Congratulations, congratulations
M!(!n Tuan+t ye( me tsy+$te g'i mba Maman Antoinête asks that we should greet you
Nd!!n n%d!!n +, Nd!!n n%d!!n g'i mba Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations,
congratulations,
Fu2! pu$ngwo) ye( me tsy+$te g'i mba The god of Pougoung [Balessing, north sector] asks
that we should greet you
An excerpt from a song these women performed highlights the value placed on a
Figure 3.5. Excerpt from Gya Mú! Song (NG04-05:02)
Ngiemb!!n English
Nda ye% nte( la%$ z!$ w!% I had sworn never to marry
Nda ye% nte( la%$ z!$ w!% I had sworn never to marry
Nda$ ngwa gya% n%g'iin ndu%m I was surprised to find myself with a husband
Ng'iin ndu%m mela$a k!%? Why should I marry?
Ng'iin ndu%m mela$a mu%! Because of a child
Gw!( taa naa w!!n mu%! pa%$ be%be% [name
uncertain]?
Who will give me a child like this Baby [name
uncertain]?
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Figure 3.5, continued
Ye% n ky*ote nd# ng#a ntse tu%$ ntse nd!g nto%
s!2g! ye%
Ngie w!( taa naa w!!n mu%! pa%$ be%be% % [name
uncertain]?
Ye% n ky*ote nd#% ng#a ntse ntu%$ ntse nd!g
nto% s!2g! ye%
Ngie mi) nyi) w!% s!2g! nz!%$, ngie mı%) nyi)
w!% s!2g! nz%!$
I’ll take good care of him
Who will give me a child like Baby [name
uncertain]?
Like running to the stream, fetching water to wash
him
Listen: Someone's child is washed and clothed
Listen: Someone's child is washed and clothed
Me% te)e lel!%g we Let's mention his sleep.
Me% la%$ ngwa%$ n de gwa%$, ngie me% la%$ ngwa%$ n
de gwa%$a mi) nyi) lel!%g
If other people abandon him, I will never abandon
the child
I will not abandon someone's sleeping child
Marriage. The process through which a man and woman enter a traditional
Ngiemb!!n marriage–l#%#n nda%–begins with the man’s visit to his prospective wife’s
father. 26 The suitor's older male relative accompanies him, and through indirect
communication–for example, by stating that something in the house caught their eye
during a chance stop in the course of a rainstorm–he indicates the girl that his brother
would like to marry. If the father agrees, he gives a list of other relatives that the suitor
must visit to gain full consent. If he fulfills these calls successfully–which often include
presenting gifts of food and money–then the family sets a date for le grand jour, the day
on which the final negotiations will be made. On this day, the suitor comes to the
woman’s house with food and drink, which may include a goat, palm wine, and beer.
Discussions begin in the evening and may last through the early hours of the next
morning. During this time, the man must negotiate with all members of the woman’s
26 Weddings in Christian churches are rare.
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family, each of whom will bargain for food, drinks, and money. Once everyone is
satisfied, rites are performed, the woman’s father blesses her, and the couple retires to
their room.
The morning after these final deliberations marks the beginning of a week-long
celebration, during which the participants sing special marriage songs and dance. Like
the songs for a newborn, marriage songs are sung without instrumental accompaniment,
and are characterized by a call and response structure.
Figure 3.6. Excerpt from a L!%!n Nda% Song (NG02-07:07; choral response indented) 27
Ngiemb!!n English
N ge fo% legu! nts+ m!%g le I return from a night visit and find a fire [in my house]
W! pa’a la Ssé, andi Thank you, God, the Lord
Se"m ncwo" te la%’ gi)e w!%!n gya% w!% "Tie mouth" [bandit in the night] will no longer see me
W! pa’a la Ssé, andi Thank you, God, the Lord
Mb#) ts'+ te la%’ gi)e w!%!n lu w! The rain will no longer beat down on me during the
night
W! pa’a la Ssé, andi Thank you, God, the Lord
Pa’a la le Thank you
W! pa’a la Ssé, andi Thank you, God, the Lord
Ye n ge fo% legu! nts+ m!%g la% So I will return from a night visit and have found a fire
[in my house]
W! pa’a la Ssé, andi Thank you, God, the Lord
Sèm ncwò te la%’ gi)e w!%!n gya% w!% "Tie mouth" [bandit in the night] will no longer see me
W! pa’a la Ssé, andi Thank you, God, the Lord
27 Much of this lyric is in the closely related Yemba language.
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This song affirms the benefits of marriage. The woman need no longer fear
being apprehended by the se"m ncwo", the men entrusted with the task of locating women
that the king wished to add to his coterie of wives, marking her new status by putting a
bracelet on her arm; this custom is no longer practiced. In his turn, the man need no
longer search for food at a neighbor’s house, perhaps being caught in the rain during the
process. He can return home to his wife, who has already prepared a fire and food for
him.
The marriage ceremony marks the end of that period of a man's life seen as one
of misery by the Ngiemb!!n. Though it is no longer performed, a single man could
organize a dance called a ndy,#*g!in which he and people in other unfortunate
circumstances could gather to sing about their problems. This dance produced a genre
of songs for sufferers. Two songs in this genre that I recorded discuss the difficult life
of a single man: he only eats corn, because he doesn't have a wife to cook taro (a tuber
paste served with yellow sauce) for him; he passes each day wondering when his
suffering will end; he laments the fact that he is not a man of means, and so can't
procure a wife; and he contemplates how he could make a woman divorce her husband
so that he could marry her (CDNG02-06:10, 14).
Death: The Week of Sadness. Multiple events involving music surround the
death of a Ngiemb!!n person. The first major phase–légwe nd&a l&a, or “the death
when we cry”–takes place during the week or so after a person dies, and includes the
burial, visits by the family-in-law of the deceased (ntú! légwe), visits by any dance
groups or age sets (mànzò)) to which he or she belonged, particular ceremonies
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determined by the sex of the deceased–nzígé légwe for a woman (during which older
women sing and dance songs in the shùshù! genre), k#'# k&!e for a man–and finally the
shaving of the heads of the members of the deceased person’s family. When a man dies
and leaves a widow, a one- or two-week phase called the pf#%g begins at the burial,
terminating with the cu*'u pf#%g or les#g# (purification) ceremony.
Song and dance mark several points in this week of mourning. When visitors
arrive at the compound of the deceased person during this period, their first exchange
with the mourning family is a musically organized greeting. On March 15, 2003, David
Tiozang, Ferdinand Doumtsop, a few other people, and I visited the compound of
Étienne Tiogning in the Bambi neighborhood of Balessing. He had died four days
earlier, on March 11. As soon as we traversed a short walkway through some trees
surrounding the houses, David Tiozang began singing a short call. Immediately, the
family members in the compound stood where they were–women in front of one house,
men in front of another, younger people on the edge of the cleared area–and began
singing; the women and girls wept. We walked very slowly down the slope to the
houses, still singing. Ferdinand and another youth went to the side of the compound
where the young people were, and each placed a hand on the shoulder of a young man
facing the center of the compound. David and I joined the men in front of the house at
the base of the slope. This kind of interaction occurs whenever visitors arrive. Figure
3.17 details salient elements of the location.
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Figure 3.7. Entering the Mourners' Compound
Figure 3.8 contains an example of the text of a song used to welcome visitors to
a place of mourning. Each line would be sung by one of the new arrivals, immediately
followed by a vocable response by the members of the family in mourning.
Figure 3.8. Excerpt from a Song Marking the Arrival of Visitors to Mourners' House
(NG04-07:01)
Ngiemb!!n English
Le% y!!n m%mı% le% See how we can be many, and yet all come to an end
Ly+($ pa%$ y!!n le A [bad] day like this!
Mbw!$ nkwi) ma% w!!n me My mother$s bundle of sticks
Mbw!$ nk'i) la mag so) so) ye( The bundle was pulled and pulled until it was gone
Ng!$ y!!n me My misery
T!(!n nd# mbo)o laa kwab ts'e% ye( Even the best stalk doesn't stay on the vine for long
Ly+($ pa%$ y!!n le A [bad] day like this!
Ma% w!!n me My mother
Ta% w!!n me My father
T!(!n nd# mbo)o laa kwab ts'e% ye( Even the best stalk doesn't stay on the vine for long
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The dance groups and age sets to which the deceased belonged may also
perform during this mourning period. Étienne Tiogning, the man whose compound I
describe above, belonged to an age set–mànzò! ka!–consisting of men born near the
same time and place. Songs performed by this type of group typically vaunt their
singers' progeny, and are also sung during the ng&a ceremony for cleansing sacred
places (see below). As part of their obligations to their departed member and his family,
this mànzò) performed a theatrical dance that lasted approximately twenty minutes. I
videotaped the events, and David Tiozang and Fidèle Medakoua commented on it
afterward; a short excerpt appears in Video Clip 4. I include some of their
interpretations in the following narrative.
Preparations for the dance began behind the man’s house, where the mànzò)
drank raffia wine and discussed their plans. When they were ready, they sang a vocable-
rich call and response song accompanied by a few men hitting sticks together in a
simple rhythm, and walked up a slight incline by the side of the house into the middle
of the courtyard. They carried bamboo poles attached as though taken from a bed, a pair
of white pants hung on a stick like a flag, some small poles and boards, and a live
chicken. They formed a circle in the courtyard, still singing, and threw the sticks into
the middle. Several men also took turns chopping the bamboo from the bed into smaller
pieces and adding them to the pile in the middle of the circle. I noted six different songs
performed, marked by changes in rhythm of the struck sticks, differences in melody,
and boundary marks of silence. A few minutes into the performance, some of the men
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dropped small, downy chicken feathers onto the ground. Children who had been
observers immediately moved into the dancing area, carefully picking up every feather
they could find.
About eight minutes into the performance, the men went back behind the house
for a minute, and returned singing a new, faster song. After a few more minutes, several
of the men gathered the wood on the ground, and took it several meters up the path.
They used it to ignite a fire, and burned the feathers the children had collected. While
the fire was burning, the widow and the wives of her brothers stood in a line in front of
the woman’s house, with one woman facing them as though directing. They sang
several short songs, and walked down to the grave, where the widow tapped her right
foot twice, and returned to her house crying, as if communicating to everyone, “My part
is through–I no longer have a husband. From now on, I am as you see: free in some
way.”
This performance enacts cultural values about death that allow family members
and close friends to physically engage with the loss of Étienne Tiogning: the widow
steps on her husband’s grave to show that she knows he is no longer alive, and flames
reducing symbols of his mànzò) to ashes make a statement that his friends have said a
final goodbye. Even the children play an active role in gathering material signs of his
existence for ultimate destruction. Each of these enactments, except the making of the
fire, is framed in musical performance.!
Death: The Phase of Joy. The second major stage related to a person’s death is
known variously as nzi!te zí!te( (phase de joie in French), nkem legwé, or funérailles.
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This event used to take place directly after the first phase, but now usually occurs any
time from one to four or more years after the person’s death. I will describe a nkem
legwé in which DAKASBA performed in Chapter Four. In this section, then, I will
present only a brief overview of the musical performances involved.
After sometimes years of planning, celebration of the nkem legwé climaxes on
the day when members of all of the social groupings to which a deceased person had
strong connections arrive at his or her compound to eat, drink, and dance. Throughout
the day, dance groups perform, interspersed with occasional performances of the zí! and
ke%ya*', dances reserved for the nkem legwe%. In its most basic form, the zí) consists of a
drum-actualized rhythm accompanying the entry of a traditionally-dressed group of
people into the dance area, their dancing, and eventual exit; there are no other
instruments or singing in this basic form. Three subcategories of zí) exist: the zí)e
méndó) (also called ma la’), in which the performers play both the drum and a whistle;
the zí)e ménza), where the nza) xylophone is added to the drum; and the zí)e ngà)
mb#"a, the successor’s dance–literally, “dance of the compound’s possessor” (the dance
may also be called “the dance of the father”)–which marks the end of all the festivities.
The ke%ya"' dance normally precedes each performance of a zí), evoking themes of valor
and heroism, and associated with a separate repertoire of songs.
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Figure 3.9. Dances at Nkem Legwé for Maurice Tagoundjou Tsasse, January 10, 2004
Group Name (if one exists) Dance Genre
“Kana de Bangangte” Ka"n!"!n
“Jeunesse des Femmes” Jeunesse
! Ke%ya"' 1 and Ke%ya"' 2!
“SAHLE de Bafoussam” Ka"n!"!n (sale%)
96
Zí)
Zí)
Zí)
Women’s groups
Children’s group
“Ngninwole won de Mbouda Ville” Unknown
“DAKASBA” Ka"n!"!n
Woman’s group
“Moumazon. Batcham Bameffo” Mu&! ma%nzo")
“Mally. Chez Fouodjo. Bataki I” Sàmalí
“Ndandzi” Nda"nzı"
Zí)e ngà) mb#"a
Death: Other Ceremonies. Two other events sometimes play a part in how
Ngiemb!!n communities process the death of one of their members. These include
condolence observances for the aggrieved family a month or two after a death (shy,o% %
legwe% in Ngiemb!!n, visite de condoléances in French), and ceremonies where a widow
or widower changes from the dark clothes that he or she has worn for the year since his
or her spouse's death (les("' malin##n in Ngiemb!!n, enlever le noir or enlèvement du
noir in French). I will discuss condolence visits in my treatment of DAKASBA’s
activities in Chapter Four, and since the ceremony marking the removal of the mourning

clothes appears to be primarily an urban event, it is outside the scope of the present
discussion.
Individually Performed Music
Ngiemb!!n musical production rarely includes individual performance. A
single person may sing songs from genres that require more than one performer while
working alone in fields, traveling alone, or during mourning periods. However, I have
found only two types of music whose practice as a genre essentially comprises only one
person: lullabies, and music influenced by regionally-popular performance practice.
Lullabies. In one example of a lullaby (ndye mu%#), a woman taking care of a
child while the mother is away sings to a baby, “Don’t cry. Your mother will return and
give you milk. You don’t need to cry. There is your banana – we’ll give it to you. Wait,
baby, your mother will return and give you milk” (CDNG02-06:13). This is the only
type of song I have heard that is produced with a monophonic texture in its primary
performance context; when one person sings to an audience consisting of one baby,
while holding that baby, an organized musical response or accompaniment is
improbable. The lullaby appears to have a rather limited distribution: though I have one
other recording (CDNG02-04:06), my requests for additional examples yielded none.
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Popular music. I have recorded and observed three other examples of
individually produced songs, each by Ngiemb!!n men extending their performance
practice to include influences from music outside longstanding Ngiemb!!n traditions. 28
Mr. Pierre Techeabeng, the father of DAKASBA president Bernard Melataya, played
songs on a guitar in his home in
the Bazimbab I 29 neighborhood
of Batcham (see Video Clip 5).
Further investigation of his
musical development could
result in insights into
interactions between
Ngiemb!!n musicians and
popular culture since
Cameroon’s independence.
Another popular musician I spent time with was Ambrose Ambicat Chinda, a
Ngiemb!!n man who grew up in the Ndop plain of the anglophone Northwest Province,
outside of the traditional homeland. He has produced two professional recordings of
original songs, which he sings in Ngiemb!!n, French, English, Pidgin, and Nashodin, a
personal spiritual language that he is developing. Chinda presents himself as "Nashoo
28 Berthy M, a Ngiemb!!n vocalist who grew up in Douala, produced her first album–La Voix de la
Ouest–in 2003. In so doing, she overcame strong Bamiléké taboos against women performing popular
music (Doumtsop 2004b).
Ambrose "Ambicat" Chinda
29 Bazimbap is one of a number of names referring to more than one neighborhood. Many people
differentiate between them by adding an ordinal number to the name.
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Man." Nashoo is a modified form of the Ngiemb!!n phrase for "show the way," which
Chinda has extended to create a Christian ministry called NASHOOO Artistic Ministry.
He forms this acronym from "Natural Science from the Most High God, Omnipotent,
Omniscient, Omnipresent." His goals in NASHOOO include helping musicians create
work to glorify God, and find the means of recording and publishing their music. As
part of this, Chinda would like to convince Bamiléké communities that music can make
money, in order to attract patronage from wealthy business people.
Chinda describes his music as a fusion of traditional and world styles; one of
three strains of Nashoo
music draws on African-
American funk. His primary
performance instrument is
the guitar, but he also draws
on patterns of traditional
instruments, such as a
lamellophone called
alternately ndeenge, lelu!
Ndeenge
nkubá, k&*k(", or ak&k&ga. I have not discovered the origins of the ndeenge, but it has a
limited distribution in Ngiemb!!n music. At least one person (David Tiozang) believes
its appearance in the Ngiemb!!n area is recent. On the other hand, Étienne Nota of
DAKASBA suggests that it is indeed a Ngiemb!!n instrument, but most of the people
who played it are no longer alive. It is used in mangab& and mang#' music, and
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sometimes also in the marriage celebration. Mang!' refers to a group of songs that
unmarried men used to sing to complain about their situation and ask for food; the
ndy*!"g dance uses the same song repertoire, but a different manner of dancing.
Chinda recorded his first album, Les Robots de Montagne, in a Douala studio
associated with Sam Fan Thomas (Cameroonian Makassi star), with the assistance of a
Bamiléké investor. I recorded Audio Clip 2 at Ambicat's home (MDNG02-07:01). He
performed it on a guitar,
but said that he could also
have played it on a
ndeenge. Ambicat's family
played shakers and
clapped on this recording.
Audio Clip 3, "Crize
Economic," comes from
Les Robots de Montagne,
Finally, Etienne
Nota–percussionist and
Étienne Nota Enjoying Playing a Drum Alone
vocal leader of DAKASBA–plays the ndeenge, and has composed songs relating events
and emotions surrounding personal experiences, using the Ngiemb!!n language and
vocal forms. For these three men, individual expression seems to play a primary role in
their motivation for musical creation. They have either reached outside of traditional
Ngiemb!!n music-making contexts to respond to this motivation, or explored the
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periphery of Ngiemb!!n musical production. The ndeenge, with its soft bamboo-
lamellae produced sound, seems particularly suited to individual expression. In addition,
the plight of the unmarried man also creates rich possibilities for bewailing the sorrows
of being alone. However, as I show below, the vast majority of musical expression
manifests itself in the context of close social interaction, most clearly exemplified by
one person singing a call to a group’s response.
Sundry
Several contexts of musical production exist that have either slipped into disuse
or for which I have little data. I here present short descriptions of these in the interest of
completeness.
Nzse. Nzse is a group of cultural élites that meets irregularly. Their sound
production consists primarily of animal noises related to their personal totems (zyè).
K#*#n. K!"!n is a group of sages that is part of the king's coterie. They dance
only when one of their members dies, and whistle rather than sing.
Ma la’. Many neighborhoods have this group, which dances the zí) at
funérailles, employing a whistle. It does not exist in all Ngiemb!!n villages.
Makii. During the Time of Troubles surrounding Cameroon's gaining of
independence, the maquisards put up a stiff resistance to French rule. Each maquisard
group developed their own style of music, which village kings eventually forbade
during bitter reprisals. Some older men still know these songs (Audio Clip 4).
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Ng&a. Ng#a denotes recreation songs for girls. Formerly, these songs were
associated with a festival for cleaning sacred places, which no longer occurs. Now girls
sing this type of song at school, but primarily in French; even Ngiemb!!n melodies
seem to have been replaced with French ones.
Music with Locational and Temporal Regularity
When I began to make visits to the Ngiemb!!n village of Balessing in the second half
of 2002, I was almost immediately struck by the prevalence of dance associations. In
my effort to discover the number, character, and organizational patterns of these points
of musical production, I initiated three types of research operations. First, I attended
rehearsals of three dance groups in Balessing, sat in on portions of their meetings, and
videotaped their dancing and singing. Second, I worked with Ferdinand Doumtsop in
his organization of the Cercle des Élèves, Étudiants et Parents Bametac (CEEPB)
cultural celebration in the Bametac neighborhood of Balessing in August 2003. I
videotaped performances of four Balessing dance groups, as well as Ferdinand's
interviews with their leaders. 30 Third, in early 2003 I developed a questionnaire, and
after some modifications precipitated by discussions with Ferdinand, developed a plan
in which he would identify and administer the questionnaire with representatives from
as many dance associations in Balessing as possible; Appendix D contains the full
French text of the questionnaire, followed by an English translation. I engaged
30 I videotaped many dance groups from other Ngiemb!!n villages as well, but have not analyzed them
for this dissertation.
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Ferdinand to perform this research between March and September 2003, and continued
to pay for his assistance in other research.
The survey contains questions to elicit information about the place and
frequency of meetings; constitution, number, and internal organization of members;
instruments, clothing, and other material objects associated with the dance; other salient
characteristics of the dance they perform, including performance practice, history,
lyrical content of songs, and emotions; purposes and performance contexts of the group;
and the nature of the group's financial activities. Ferdinand drew on his relationships as
a Balessing native to attempt to identify
every dance association in its
approximately forty neighborhoods. He
began with the groups of which he was
already aware, and then asked people–
usually the head of each neighborhood–
about the existence of others. Ferdinand
administered questionnaires with nine
groups in March 2003, eleven in April,
twelve in May, one in June, twenty-eight
in July, ten in August, and thirteen in September, for a total of eighty-four; I have
minimal information from about six additional groups. Each month, he reported his
progress to me in Yaoundé by email, and asked for help in resolving any problems he
encountered. We also periodically consulted together in either Balessing or Yaoundé.
103
Author Videotaping in Balessing

Ferdinand administered the questionnaires in a variety of contexts, but usually in
group leaders' homes, in the evening, when they had returned from work in their fields.
As the son of David Tiozang–a respected leader, judge in the traditional system, and
confidant of King Pascal Fouamene Ganno of Balessing–and a student active in
promoting Ngiemb!!n traditions, Ferdinand was usually able to gain a hearing with
relatively minor difficulties. When people did question his motives, he often responded
as follows: "First, I am Ngiemb!!n, and work in Ngiemb!!n culture. This work helps us
to know Ngiemb!!n culture better. We've lost things because they were not written
down. With this information, I will help create a document that will save Ngiemb!!n
things, and publish it for people in the Ngiemb!!n language." Sometimes informants
would require him to buy drinks before agreeing to the interview, and some remained
uninterested.
Ferdinand conducted the vast majority of the interviews in Ngiemb!!n, and
wrote French translations of each spokesperson's responses on the questionnaire form
for my benefit. He posed the questions in French for a few of the more educated
representatives, and then changed to Ngiemb!!n for further discussion. Ferdinand wrote
down some important Ngiemb!!n texts, including, for example, proverbs and song
lyrics; he added French translations for these later. Questions that an informant either
didn't understand, or to which he or she did not know the answer, he left blank.
Results of this research should be viewed in light of three considerations. First,
Ferdinand's credentials as a Balessing native served him well in providing contacts, and
in informing his manner of questioning. He knew, for example, the Ngiemb!!n
104

greetings appropriate to the particular people he addressed. However, he holds insider
status in only the few associations to which he has a strong connection. The
representatives of secret societies, such as the fw#' ssé, were quite reticent to provide
information. Respecting King Fouamene's wishes to keep the activities of this kind of
group concealed–which he communicated directly to me–I did not search for other ways
of investigating them. Thus, secret dance groups are underrepresented in this survey,
and the information provided by the few Ferdinand interviewed is conspicuously
incomplete.
A second issue concerning the reliability of this data is my limited interaction
with Ferdinand during the process: I prepared him by discussing each question in the
form with him, to make sure that he understood it and could make modifications
depending on the situation; I responded to logistical problems he had (for example,
providing a bicycle with a light for night travel and money to buy raffia wine for gifts);
and I have discussed the responses with him, asking for clarification on unclear points.
Despite these interactions, Ferdinand performed most of the work for this operation
independently. My confidence in the reliability of Ferdinand's efforts springs first from
his assiduity and attention to detail, and the initiative he showed in overcoming barriers
to gathering the information. I have also, however, relied on external verification for
portions of Ferdinand's findings. These include my own use of the tool with a Yaoundé
based dance group, my direct questions to David Tiozang's Sa"malı% dance group in
Balessing, and leaders' responses to related interview questions that I videotaped. These
105

have provided an adequate level of verification, and opportunity for correction when
needed.
A third and final question has to do with the applicability of these results
gathered in Balessing to other Ngiemb!!n kingdoms. In addition to the basic language
unity attested by sociolinguistic surveys, and cultural correspondence affirmed by
various writers and common belief, I add one other bit of evidence that argues for the
valid extrapolation of this data to other areas of the Ngiemb!!n homeland. I gave a list
of Balessing dance types to Prosper Djiafeua of DAKASBA, and asked him to provide
names of associations of at least one of each in the neighboring kingdom of Batcham.
Of the twenty-two names I gave him (included in Appendix A), he was able to find
examples of all but two: M#'#temi and Ntse mb&!.
In this section, then, I will present data about the dance groups that meet
regularly in a fixed location, through the rubric of the communicational categories I
have been developing. Specifically, I will first examine the groups' conceptions and
activities related to location. I will then discuss the composition of the people in the
groups, their leaders, and reference figures. This will be followed by treatment of the
groups' internal, external, and musical infrastructure, and the messages that they
communicate.
Location
To arrive at an exhaustive list of neighborhoods (lepfo%) in Balessing, I drew on
the inventory produced by the team working on the Ngiemb!!n-French dictionary
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(Lonfo n.d.), a map created by Paul Lontchi in 1995, and Ferdinand's findings while
administering the questionnaires. This process was complicated by the lack of
standardization in people's usage of both the Ngiemb!!n orthography and the
government roman spellings; members of the dictionary team hope that their project
ameliorate this problem. In addition, as I mentioned above, a number of neighborhoods
have the same name, and are sometimes referred to jointly; other times, people refer to
them singly with a number following the name, such as Lepipı% I, II, III. In the
following analyses, I use all of the neighborhood names I've discovered, grouping those
with the same name that are contiguous; Figure 3.10 shows all of the Balessing
neighborhoods.
Figure 3.10. Detail of Balessing Neighborhoods
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Our survey confirms that dance groups are pervasive throughout the kingdom of
Balessing. Thirty-one of the thirty-nine neighborhoods have at least one dance
association, with the most occurring in S!%’ (7), Letsye (6), and the Lepipı% (9) complex.
Within these neighborhoods, each association meets at the compound of a family. These
compounds are of three types. First, certain dances are tied to the neighborhood itself,
and necessarily meet at the home of the neighborhood head. Second, the majority of the
associations are voluntary, and usually convene at the house of the founder. In unusual
circumstances, this location can change–for example, the Sa"malı% group in the Bametac
neighborhood moved to David Tiozang's compound when there were problems with the
head of the previous compound. Third, secret dance associations can meet only in
places that fulfill requirements of the dance; some associations, for example, can meet
only at the home of a man who holds a position in the king's coterie.
Communicators
All ages are represented in dance groups, though data about the percentage of
different ages was not forthcoming. As I mention above, dance associations are a
pervasive social phenomenon throughout Balessing. The clear demarcation of male and
female roles in traditional Ngiemb!!n society is reflected in the constitution of dance
groups, though the last generation has seen some changes. As I discuss below, people
commonly categorize dance groups as women's groups, mixed, children's, or secret. The
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mixed groups originated as masculine warrior dances, but have opened up to women
within the last generation.
Social Infrastructure
Dance group members draw on both traditional and cosmopolitan 31 Ngiemb!!n
resources to structure their internal workings. In this section, I examine the groups'
objectives, the positions that members fill to fulfill these goals, and financial activities
and their relationship to discipline. I also discuss how groups negotiate between
occidental and local calendars to determine the frequencies of their meetings.
Objectives. In the table below, I categorize all of the responses to the question,
"What are the declared objectives of the group?" according to theme. Many group
representatives listed multiple objectives, so the numbers below refer to the total
instances a specific kind of objective was mentioned.
31 I follow Turino's definition of the term "cosmopolitan" as those "objects, ideas, and cultural positions
that are widely diffused throughout the world and yet are specific only to certain portions of the
populations within given countries" (2000:7). Associated values include standardization of cultural
artifacts for wider consumption and secularization.
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Figure 3.11. Association Objectives by Theme
Themes Number of times an objective
A Provide assistance (in the form of money, advice, and
presence) for common events that strain members' material
resources (primarily death-related, but also sickness, birth, and
work)
110
consistent with this theme was
stated in a questionnaire
B Enliven death related events with song and dance 45
C Cultivate solidarity and harmonious relationships through
conflict resolution, advice-giving and teaching, assembling
people, and discussion of common problems
D Provide dependable structures (such as tontines and funds
for lending) for acquiring money for planned projects
E Represent their neighborhoods at official ceremonies, either
traditional or government-related
F Defend the village 3
Providing practical help in times of social and financial stress constituted the
most common objective listed for the existence of the dance groups in Balessing
(Theme A). Approximately 85% of these refer specifically to financial assistance for the
production of wakes (légwe nd#a l#a) and funerals (nkem legwé), and costs related to
illness. Six groups–all women's groups–purport to provide material aid for the family of
a newborn child. A few mentioned that members used to help each other in building
houses and with agricultural work in the fields, but that these practices have essentially
disappeared. The theme of mutual aid is even more common than the figures for this
category suggest, attested by some responders who interpreted all of their group's
activities as contributing to this goal. Notably, they occasionally listed money lending
77
36
35
9

and advice giving as forms of mutual help. One group summarized this element like
this: "the association constitutes a sort of insurance (life insurance, funerary insurance . .
.). It's a manner of keeping relationships with people who can help you in hard times"
(JUIL03-01). 32
Theme B–enlivening or animating wakes (légwe nd#a l#a) and funerals (nkem
legwe%) with song and dance–was the second most common response. That every group
did not list this as an objective may simply have been a matter of their not seeing the
necessity of stating an obvious element of habitus; dancing is simply a thing that they
always do.
Theme C reveals the explicit importance that leaders place on harmonious
relationships, or solidarity. The groups constitute an environment impregnated with
structures and processes promulgating social stability and growth: resolving conflicts,
solving problems, teaching young couples how to remain married–"Marriage is but
courage" ("Mariage n'est que le courage"; MAI03-08), searching for solutions to issues
common to women living in a rapidly changing world, and exploring options for
financial development. A Sa"malı% group underlined the importance of associations this
way: "[Our goal is to a]ssemble people to better appreciate cultural and social behavior.
Because, as we have the habit of singing, 'He who belongs to no association must be
either a bandit or a vampire (Manz'e( te g#a lu) taga te% w!% nd#m mba a ge fo% w!%
ntso))' " (MARS03-01).
32 Unique codes referring to individual questionnaires consist of the month and year administered (here,
Juillet 2003), and an ordinal processing number (here, 01).
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Theme D shows the importance that the respondents placed on the financial
activities of their groups. I will discuss these in more detail below.
Theme E reflects a desire for recognition beyond the neighborhood in which an
association is located. As I suggest in my discussion of the DAKASBA dance group in
Yaoundé, I suspect that searching for fame is a more important motivation for dance
groups located outside of their home regions; increased movement through
cosmopolitan modes of communication and values may result in higher value on their
music as an exploitable commodity, capable of yielding financial and cultural dividends.
Finally, Theme F–defending the village–was listed by groups that were
originally elements of the Balessing army, such as M!$!temi. They no longer play this
role.
Internal organization. The degree and nature of internal organization of
Balessing dance groups ranges from those highly active and structured groups with
multiple positions (up to eleven; AVR03-06), to those whose membership has dwindled
and only one or two leadership positions remain. Organizational positions are drawn
from both traditional and urban settings. Traditional roles include the ma lu'!–mother of
the group, and ta lu'!–father of the group. Positions common in urban, business
institutions such as President, Vice-President, Secretary, Assistant Secretary,
Accountant, and Treasurer are becoming common. Other titles crystallize functions
relating to communication (Messengers and Communications Commission), internal
discipline (the Censor, who imposes fines on rule-breakers), and musical performance
(animateurs). The French word animateur (mu%# pı%m in Ngiemb!!n) might be translated
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in English as animator, enlivener, or rouser. These are the experts in singing, dancing,
and instrument playing, who have the tasks of making sure that the music is performed
well and enthusiastically.
Financial organization. Of the 80 groups that answered questions about finances,
67 stated that they function as a tontine, and some of these also provide a separate
banking service (mba%!, from the French, banque). The twelve groups that did not act as
tontines fall into five categories. First, groups of youth normally do not have regular
financial systems because they remain financially dependent on family, and are
locationally unstable; penury and travel for school and jobs keep them from regular
commitments. Second, several of the groups stated that they were experiencing either a
decline in membership that made a savings association untenable, or a member had
recently absconded with money, souring them on the process for the moment (there was
only one group that mentioned this latter case). Third, one association said that they
were initiating a financial system. Fourth, several groups gave no reason for their lack
of a tontine. Of these, four are groups that perform the Pu! Ma"nzo") dance (out of a total
of only five Pu! Ma"nzo") groups). Further research is necessary to discover the reason
for this correlation.
Though there is some variation between the functioning of the tontines among
the groups, the prevalent mode has each member contributing a small sum each time
they meet (from 100FCFA to 1000FCFA, with 200FCFA and 300FCFA the most
common). The total contribution is then given to one individual, either following the
order of a predetermined list, or by drawing lots. If there are 30 members of a group,
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for example, and they each put in 300FCFA, the chosen member could take home
9000FCFA for the purchase of a cooking pot or other household item. Some groups also
require the beneficiary to provide drinks–normally, raffia wine–as a sign of thanks to
the rest of the members.
Not only is tontine activity a predominant characteristic of dance associations in
Balessing, but many members also perceive it as essential to their very existence.
Several quotes illustrate this clearly:
It's the tontine that assures the survival of the group. (SEP03-01)
It's the tontine that makes the group permanent. (JUIL03-21)
The tontine guarantees the permanence of the group (MAI03-04)
It's the tontine that is the essence of the group, because without it, a lot of people wouldn't find
[the group] compelling enough. (MAI03-07)
It's the tontine that obligates people to attend meetings. (SEP03-07)
We don't fool around with tontines [i.e. they take them seriously]. There's a tontine for wakes,
funerals, illnesses, births, and investing capital. (AVR03-09)
In addition to motivating members to attend meetings, the tontine also carries
social and spiritual weight. The transfer of money is often accompanied by rites of
blessing. One group holds hands while giving the money to symbolize unity (AVR03-
03), and several others bless the money with dust, "that it may bear much fruit"
(MAI03-11).
Time referents. A striking characteristic of the dance associations in Balessing is
their commitment to regular interaction. The vast majority of those surveyed meet every
week throughout the year, and as I discuss above, impose financial fines in order to
maintain this regularity. However, as I discuss in Chapter Two, urban and traditional
systems and values intersect regularly in the Balessing kingdom. Because of state
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mandated schools, taxes, radio and television programming, and frequent travel to and
from towns and cities where cosmopolitan modes of communication are more
widespread, organizing time has become complicated. Specifically, because some social
systems follow a Gregorian seven-day week, and Ngiemb!!n ceremonial and
agricultural patterns rely on an eight-day week (with related expectations and
restrictions on activity), dance groups must work out an answer to the question, "When's
our next meeting?" The chart in Figure 3.12 provides a summary of dance groups'
responses.
Figure 3.12. Summary of Balessing Dance Association Meeting Times
Meeting Day Number of
Groups
Ngiemb##n Time Divisions (8 day week)
115
Morning
Starting Times
Nkw!$sh#(a 12 4, 7, 7:30, 8 2
Afternoon
Starting
Times
Nga)a% 28 5, 6, 7, 7:30, 8, 10 12, 2, 2:30, 3,
Shÿa$nze"me (Shÿa$nga)a%) 2 2
Nzèmenzème (Nzsend!!n) 0
Njÿonzse (Mándunzse) 2 3
Met#anzse (Nj#'nk#) 1 7
Shÿa$c#%$# nzà'a 7 7 2, 3, 4
C#%$# nzà'a 0
Cosmopolitan Time Divisions (7 day week)
Sunday 32 6, 6:30, 7, 7:30, 8 2, 3, 4
Sunday and Wednesday (during nkem légwe
period - October to March)
Cosmopolitan and Ngiemb##n Time Intersections
Sunday nkw!$sh#(a 1 7
Sunday Shÿa$c#%$# nzà'a and Sunday
Nzsend!!n
1 4
1 7:30
Sunday Nga)a% 1 7
4, 5

More than half (50) of the dance associations who responded to this question
meet on a day in the Ngiemb!!n calendar. Of those groups that use the urban, European
week as a time reference, all meet on Sunday; the single exception is a group that
gathers only during the nkem legwé season, two days a week. Three other groups
appear to convene only when a Sunday corresponds with a particular Ngiemb!!n day. If
this is true–and it appears to be so–such a time convergence would yield a meeting only
every ninth week, or about six during a 365-day year.
The vast majority of groups meet once a week (in either the seven or eight day
system), though a few only every other week. In general, their regularity extends
throughout the whole year, with a few groups–mostly of children–that meet exclusively
during the nkem légwe season of October to March. Negotiation between the two
systems is demonstrated practically for Sunday-meeting groups when a particular
Sunday falls on the Balessing market day (Njÿonzse): because they cannot
simultaneously rehearse and make market purchases, these groups meet on another day,
generally the Saturday before.
Musical Infrastructure
Each association draws a central part of its identity from the dance genre that its
founders have chosen. The name of the association typically consists of the dance and
its location. For example, in the name "Ntse mb#) de Batchowa," "Ntse mb#)" specifies
the name of the dance, and "Batchowa" refers to the neighborhood in which it meets.
Because I have directly experienced performances of only five of the dance groups
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epresented in the questionnaires, I am unable to confidently divide them into musically
defined genres. However, the groups' self-reported descriptions of the instruments they
use, dance movements, types of songs, and resemblance to other groups, as well as the
recordings I have made, suggest aggregates of features defining musically similar
groups. In short, song repertoire, instruments, and sex of the dancers are more germane
in differentiating patterns in musical infrastructure than dance names. Using these
parameters, four major musical clusters become apparent, as shown in Figure 3.13.
These clusters correspond to widely accepted categories, namely, dances performed
primarily by women, those for both men and women, those for children, and dance
genres associated with secret societies. Appendix A lists each dance genre and its
defining characteristics.
Figure 3.13. Dance Genres in Balessing
Women Mixed Children Secret
Djamassale (var:
Ndjamassale) !
Ka"n!"!n ! Lepa)nda%) ! Fw!"$ sse%
Jeunesse ! Kwákwá Melant+ (var: Malant+)! Ku ts'+!
Ke)nzem ! Pu! ma"nzo") ! Sa"malı% penk# ! Ku"$nga")
Nkwo)e c#a nkab! Sa"malı% ! Kwa%) mezwe fu!!
Kw!'!nza) ! Ta" no" p#"a w!%!n ngy*o
w!%!n !
117
K'ı"' fu"!!
Lene)e mbo) ! Ntsebe! Mank'i)!
Mamba) ! (Mbe"ya" - see
discussion below)
!
M!'!temi (var:
ma"nzo"))
Manty*!' ! Se%s!g!
Nza()
Nkembw!’
Ntse mb#)
Ny+lo&) (var: Nylo))

In addition to these genres, I recorded one all male group that does not fit into
the category of secret dances. This group meets in the Manetoon neighborhood of
Bamendou (a non-Ngiemb!!n village), on the border with the Ngiemb!!n neighborhood
of Bazinza, and performs the Mbèyà dance. This dance has its origins in anglophone
regions, and is striking for the athleticism of its movements. These include dancers
picking up money with their mouths while walking on their hands. Because we found
only one such group, I have not created another category for it.
In the remainder of this section, I outline two parameters related to music-
making from a village perspective: instrumental resources and composition practices. I
then elaborate on women's and mixed dances. Appendix A contains information
regarding children's and secret dances, for which I have relatively little data.
Instruments. Appendix C contains descriptions of instruments I have found
primarily in Balessing, but also in Batcham. Idiophones are the most common, and I
found no examples of chordophones. Discussion of dance genres below reveals
symbolic links between certain instruments, the people who play them, and the contexts
in which they are played.
Composition. Songs originate from several types of sources, each of which was
mentioned commonly in the questionnaires. First, active repertoires of dance groups
may include songs passed down from previous members of the organization, sometimes
generations ago. Second, group members often adopt a song wholesale from a group of
the same type. Third, they may take a song that members had heard performed by a
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different type of dance group and change it to fit their musical patterns; they usually
characterize this as "adapting a song to our rhythm." Fourth, groups commonly produce
new songs. This may be accomplished by individuals–several groups name people who
are especially capable composers–or as a group. When an individual composes a song,
he or she then teaches the refrain to the rest of the group when they are together.
Collective composition may occur during normal rehearsals, or at meetings specially
called for this purpose.
A creative thread runs throughout all musical activities of Balessing dance
groups, imbuing even the most moribund with a certain level of animation. This thread
results from awareness requiring active response to the physical and social environment
in which a performance occurs. Thus, for example, even if a group does not compose
new songs, when they perform at a death-related event, leaders are obligated to adapt
their lyrics to acknowledge family members of the person who died, as well as local
deities. Though I have not heard examples of songs from every dance group, I have yet
to hear of forms other than call and response. The improvisable call of this ubiquitous
structure facilitates maintaining social relationships and musical creativity.
Women's Dances (Lu!o Panzwe). Roughly half of the dance groups in Balessing
are made up exclusively of women (in some exceptions, men play a role as "father" of
the group). The majority of these dances exhibits a relatively thin rhythmic texture
(most do not use drums), employs a certain group of instruments, and sometimes
includes births among their performance contexts. The most common aggregate of
instruments associated with women's dances consists of the cu' (an end-blown
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aerophone), ke%jya%ga (metal leg shakers), làmbì (pressure drum), and ndo! (whistle), all
of which are played by women. Djamassale, Kenzem, and Kw!'!nza) groups differ
from this characterization, utilizing instruments common in more masculine dances,
such as the nza'! (balafon), nd&*' (wooden slit drum), and se*m and nka* (skin drums). I
have not witnessed performances of these dances, and so do not know whether women
play these instruments, or if they summon men to fill the roles.
Members responding to questions about resemblance to other dance groups and
sources of repertoire often remarked that there is a strong affinity between women's
groups. The figure below illustrates the perceptions of interrelatedness among women's
dance groups. For each mention of influence or similarity to another dance group in the
questionnaires, I inserted an arrow: the beginning point (without arrowhead) is at the
name of the influencing group, and the arrowhead points to the group that cited the
influence. Figure 3.15 presents the same information in tabular form. Based on these
reports, the six Manty*! groups in Balessing are the most influential.
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Figure 3.14. Geometric Description of Musical Influences Acknowledged by Women's
Groups
In 1984, King Daniel Ganno outlawed the Jeunesse dance, believing it led to
infidelity. The current king of Balessing, Fouamene Ganno Pascal, told me that the
Jeunesse dance attracted young married women, usually without the approval of their
husbands. An atmosphere devaluing members' marriages prevailed, encouraging
unfaithfulness. Members of two dance groups explicitly responded during interviews
that they had been affected by King Ganno's edict. One converted their association to
Kw!'!nza), and another to Ke)nzem. The ban on Jeunesse groups appears to be
softening, however, as demonstrated by the inauguration of a new group in 1992, and
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the recent reassociation of one group to the genre; a group in Bambi) that altered its
identity to the Ke)nzem style, for example, now calls itself Jeunesse Ke)nzem de
Bambi).
Figure 3.15. Tabular Description of Musical Influences Acknowledged by Women's
Groups
Number of Groups it Influenced Number of Groups that Influenced it
Djamassale 1 3
Jeunesse 1 3
Ke)nzem 1 3
Nkwo)e c#a nkab 0 0
Kw!'!nza) 1 1
Lene)e mbo) 2 3
Mamba) 0 3
Manty*! 8 2
Nja) 1 1
Nkembw!’ 2 1
Ntse mb#) 1 2
Ny+lo) 5 4
The Lene)e mbo) group in the Bametac neighborhood represents a vital node in
this complex of women's dances. In previous generations, all women were considered
wives of their king. This identity expressed itself in part in the requirement to belong to
a neighborhood dance group, formed and sanctioned by the king. A primary function of
these groups was to provide financial and social support in cases of sickness and death.
Though the appearance of other support options (such as finances from relatives living
in cities) and weakening of the kingship have resulted in waning influence of women's
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associations in some areas, this group remains strong. Metal ankle jingles (kejya%ga),
whistles (ndo)), pressure drum (làmbì), and end-blown plastic tube (cu() create a spare
musical texture, with the ankle jingles forming the dance-step regulated rhythmic base.
Members state that they listen to the whistle pattern to guide their steps.
Dancers move in a circle, while vocal leaders and whistle blowers dance around
in the central area; pressure drum players may also move through the center. Like all
other Ngiemb!!n groups I have heard, song structure is dominated by a leader's call,
and the homophonic vocal response of the rest of the group. Video Clip 6 was filmed
during a weekly meeting of the Lene)e mbo) group in Bametac.
Mixed Dances. These genres originated as men's dances, but have evolved to
include women as well; dances for secret societies constitute the sole existing "men's
only" category. Sa"malı% and Ka"n!"!n are the two most common dances, with eleven
examples of each.
My observations and involvement in the Sa"malı% group that meets at David
Tiozang's compound, Mali Gi)e Le%nd!!n–which means, "Sa"malı% move forward
slowly"–reveal musical traits characteristic of many mixed and women's dances. The
combination of the large solo drum and its smaller accompanist (ma& nka" and mu! nka",
respectively), the shakers (mbanc#a%'), and pressure drum (làmbì, held under the arm and
struck with the hand) provide a restrained rhythmic backdrop over which a singer leads
vocal call-and-response phrases. The dancers move steadily in a circle around a central
area containing the two largest drums and shaker players. One or two dancers blow
metal whistles, and the person playing the pressure drum seems free to move in and out
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of the central area. The dancers normally step on the first and fifth pulse of an eight-
pulse cycle, occasionally performing a group-organized movement associated with a
portion of a song, such as moving toward the center of the circle, and then turning
quickly outward. Video Clip 7 illustrates the Sa"malı% dance.
Mali Gi)e Le%nd!!n Dance Association, Balessing
Pu! ma"nzo") contrasts strikingly with the Sa"malı% dance. Though one group stated
that it imported the dance from Batcham, no one offered information about its ultimate
origins. However, because it is performed mostly by men, the dance requires a high
level of physical strength and stamina, and swords play a prominent role in performers'
gestures, Pu! ma"nzo") likely has roots in a warrior society. Instrumentalists play nza(),
ndo), ma& nka", and mu! nka", and each dancer wears a ndii (leg rattle) on each leg. In
contrast to the Sa"malı% and women's groups, the dancers don't rotate together around the
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instruments in the center, but move
in idiosyncratic directions,
sometimes joining another dancer
for a coordinated interaction. Foot
movements are quick and
vigorous, and produce a loud
sound from the mendii on their
legs.
Two men each hold two
wooden beaters (pu"'u) to play the nza(), one on each side of the instrument. The bars are
laid perpendicularly on two banana stalks. One instrument I recorded was tuned as
shown in Figure 3.16. Video Clip 8 shows members of the Pu! ma"nzo") association of
the Balessing neighborhood of Bakeng performing in 2002.
Figure 3.16. Nza() Tuning
Hz 470 451 426 379 329 298 267
Messages
Nza(), Used in the Pu! Ma"nzo") Dance
Because of the abstract nature of question 16, "What are the social or religious
connotations of this type of song?" Ferdinand's discussions with leaders yielded more
than one type of answer. In general, they either didn't respond, explained the meaning of
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a song he had earlier asked them to perform, or reflected on the significance of their
activities to their members as well as wider communities. In this section, I will examine
these responses, as well as the texts of forty-four songs respondents performed for
Ferdinand, drawing on categories developed in Speech Act Theory.
Respondents view musical performance as a potent force within Ngiemb!!n
society. Through their songs, they render homage to people important to them, comfort
and heal compatriots of social injuries, speak messages to society, and inspire hope.
They also sometimes vaunt their own merits and provide entertainment. In describing
the impact of their songs, group leaders used verbs such as advocate, condemn, teach,
combat, counsel, present, critique, denounce, correct, and encourage. A leader of the
Mbèyà dance group described their songs this way:
We listen for the best songs of other dance groups to adapt them to Mbèyà dance
rhythms. [I]f a message seems to be true in people's eyes, we'll make every
effort to sing it among the other Mbèyà songs. . . . Our songs always convey
messages. It's like at school, when the teacher is convinced of the necessity of a
message, a message that promotes development...he makes every effort possible
so that the students understand (Kueta Manga, NG04-02).
The way in which they ascribe power to their performance of songs is redolent
of categories of communication delineated in Speech Act Theory (SAT), particularly by
J.L. Austin and John Searle. In the 1950s and 1960s, proponents of SAT reacted against
structuralist conceptions of language, which focused on systemic relationships between
linguistic elements, like words. Instead, they asserted that utterances must be viewed as
social acts, most often spoken with intent to do something.
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In How to Do Things With Words (1975; see also Searle 1969), Austin presents
a linguistic act as consisting of three parts. The locutionary act is the act of saying
something; meaning is in focus. In the illocutionary view of a speech act, the speaker
informs the utterance with his or her intention, often coming through as attitude,
inflection, feeling, or motive; the actor and his or her performance are in focus. Finally,
the perlocutionary act entails consequences. A common example of the perlocutionary
force of an utterance is that of a minister pronouncing a woman and man to be married;
the minister's speech coalesces a social unit.
Balessing dance groups view performance of their songs as perlocutionary acts,
hoping to cause a wide range of social effects when they sing and dance. 33 The table
below enumerates those that they explicitly stated, primarily in responses to question 16
in the questionnaire.
Figure 3.17. The Perlocutionary Force of Dance Association Songs
Associations perform messages through song and dance, in order to
• make peace hold sway in Balessing
• help people understand what is important in life
• help people envision society as a system in which they are but a small part
• encourage people who feel insignificant
• provide what's necessary to live
• help people discern between good and evil
• produce shame and fear in wrong-doers
• dispel the spirit of solitariness from people and inspire hope
• empower people to combat social problems
33 See Engard 1989 for a discussion of the perlocutionary force of a dance in the Bafut culture of
Northwest Cameroon.
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Leaders of dance groups hope to effect these changes in part through the
construction of a symbolic moral and social infrastructure. One responder states, "These
songs build up into a body of counsel that is taken into society and shows what it should
be" ("Ces chansons s'érigent aussi en conseil que l'on apporte dans la société et dit ce
qui devrait être"; AVR03-01).
Messages drawn from song texts performed by dance group leaders reveal a
body of counsel that is consistent with association objectives (in Figure 3.11 above), as
reflected in Theme C's advice-giving component. For example, singers remind listeners
that love is more valuable than money, and that a single stick breaks more easily than a
bundle. They warn against prostitution, laziness, and wanting to be equal with one's
superiors, affirming the hierarchical nature of society. Two types of lyrics offset this
emphasis on solidarity and conserving traditional social organization. First, groups
frequently vaunt their positive characteristics, calling on their gods and neighborhood
leaders as symbols of authority and power. Second, one group explicitly states that it is
like an unmarried woman, dominated by no one.
Summary and Reflection
The fundamental purpose of dance associations in Balessing is for members to support
one another in difficult times, especially with events related to the death of close
relations. To provide for the long-term endurance of this service to members, they
create an exigent hierarchical leadership structure, and obligate the members financially
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to ensure their continued involvement. Musical performance provides a refreshing
emotional and physical release that simultaneously reinforces messages of solidarity and
good living, as well as extending the solidarity beyond the local group to muntu who
are distant in space and time.
The backdrop tension of competition in solidarity I introduced in Chapter Two
surfaces in dance associations as well. Several groups explicitly state that they try to
show their neighborhood or group as exemplary. One tries to "vaunt the merits of the
girls of Balena', to show that we are 'at the summit, or on high,' an expression used to
show that girls from other places know nothing" (JUIL03-06; also MARS03-04, JUIL03-
15, AOUT03-01). Nine groups stated the goal of representing their neighborhoods at
official events, which also engenders competition; in order to do this, an association
must show itself better than others. Despite this evidence of competition, however, self-
reports showed a preponderant emphasis on promoting solidarity.
This study also shows that dance associations provide spaces within Ngiemb!!n
society for profound reflection. Song subjects include life after death, causality, the
meaning of family, and the consequences of social changes (for example, the arrival of
cell phones); one group stated that their songs help people to understand society as a
system (SEP03-05). Added to the financial, social, and moral benefits of belonging,
reflection on fundamental issues of existence that occurs in dance associations
empowers Ngiemb!!n people to influence the direction of their destiny, not merely flow
with events beyond their control.
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Chapter 4
DAKASBA
Locational scope: Yaoundé and Batcham Kingdom
Temporal Scope: 1997-2004
Communicators: DAKASBA members
Infrastructures: Demography, performance, functional organization, meetings, roads
On Saturday evening the 11 th of October 2003, I hailed a taxi and negotiated a
fare of 600 FCFA to attend a rehearsal of the Danse Ka"n!"!n du Secteur Baléna
(DAKASBA) group in the Cité Verte neighborhood of Yaoundé. Tropicana, the
neighborhood in which I live, is situated in the southeast corner of Yaoundé, while Cité
Verte is on the far west border. The distance is not great–a few kilometers as the crow
flies–but Yaoundé’s hilly terrain lengthens travel routes and creates unpredictable
weather patterns. Though it had been raining intensely in Tropicana, causing
exceptional traffic congestion, by the time I arrived around 7pm, I found that the Cité
Verte had not had even a drop (see Figure 4.1 below).
130

Figure 4.1. Yaoundé, with DAKASBA related neighborhoods in bold (Adapted from
“Cameroun," Institut National de Cartographie 1998)
I stepped out of the taxi in front of the Liberté Bar and checked to see if any of
the dance group members were inside, socializing over a Castel or 33 beer before
131

continuing on to the meeting. Seeing no faces I recognized, I walked up the narrow,
rutted path, by the open doors of concrete residences, through a small field of corn and
manioc, past a two-story white building with a sign reading, La Vraie Église de Dieu,
and to the large metal door in front of Moïse Tchinda’s compound, where I could hear
the sounds of drums, shakers, and singing. I pushed open the door, walked to the center
of the compound where about ten people were dancing and making music. I took a
tsétsá (metal shaker) out of the plastic bag on the dirt ground next to the drums and
began playing and dancing around the drums.
We continued like this until a little before 8pm, when we returned the
instruments to their places in Mr. Tchinda’s house and sat on an assortment of wooden
benches and stools on the narrow, tin-covered cement porch. This evening, President
Bernard Melataya led the discussion of family business items: new performance regalia
would cost about 25,000 FCFA per person, and they needed to decide on a color (they
settled on dark gray that night, eventually purchasing tangerine); they also must choose
a date for the recording at the studio (December 20, 2003); one of the members handed
out computer generated invitations to the nkem legwé of his father-in-law in November
in Batcham, an event that all DAKASBA members were expected to attend; and four
members paid up to 10,000 FCFA for fines and other charges to the treasurer.
The meeting broke up informally, and President Melataya and I had a drink at
the bar down the hill, where an inebriated man spoke confidentially to me in French,
Spanish, English, and German. When I mentioned to Bernard that I’d never seen anyone
drunk at a DAKASBA rehearsal, he responded that such behavior could result in a fine
132

of up to 2000 FCFA. He described DAKASBA’s concern for order and propriety, and
how he dreams of building a sense of community, so people will come and be serious
about the group. He felt that not enough people were involved; only a few exhibited the
sense of commitment and community he hoped for thus far. Soon after 9pm, I
negotiated another 600 FCFA taxi fare back to Tropicana.
Bi-weekly Saturday night rehearsals like this constitute DAKASBA’s most
frequent type of gathering. 34 In this chapter, I focus on DAKASBA members as
communicators, and the shapes and nature of the social infrastructures through which
they organize themselves. I will describe their history, activities, and internal
organization, document my experience of a trip to a death celebration with the group,
and draw out characteristics of the social infrastructure that feed into the creation and
maintenance of Bamiléké dynamism and communication patterns. In short, DAKASBA
has developed a rhizomorphous instantiation of Ngiemb!!n social structure, resulting
from negotiation between a strong drive to remain rooted to Ngiemb!!n tradition and
necessities and desires flowing from cosmopolitan communication patterns. Like the
occasional and regular musically enlivened events in village life, the tension between
these two drives worked out on the backdrop of both stable and fluid social structures
and values feeds into the broader forces of Ngiemb!!n cultural dynamism.
34 In June 2004, DAKASBA held elections that resulted in an amicable transition to a new group of
leaders. Though the new regime instituted some changes–for example, meetings changed from bi-weekly
to monthly, and a tontine was reinitiated–the membership and character of the group remained essentially
unchanged. I will not incorporate these changes into this study.
133

To produce this portrayal, I rely on personal observation, interviews, and
analysis of documents produced by DAKASBA. Between June 2002 and December
2004 I attended approximately 15 of the regular bi-weekly Saturday night meetings,
accompanied the group on three visites de condoléances in Yaoundé, and traveled with
them to one nkem legwé in Batcham. Some interviews I conducted were formal and
recorded, while others took place during interactions at events, while traveling, in bars,
or other informal communication contexts (see Koetting 1980:8 for another example of
the benefits of casual interactions). Finally, meticulous attention to written descriptions
provided invaluable insight into DAKASBA’s values and organizational structure, and a
reliable record of their activities since 1997. These documents include the “Reglement
Interieur de la DAKASBA”–a well-organized set of by-laws for the group, folders
containing information and correspondence relating to each member, a register in which
the general secretary records minutes of each meeting and occasional extended
descriptions of events, and several notebooks containing financial information.
DAKASBA generously gave me free access to all of this information, which I here
attempt to integrate faithfully into my analyses.
I have not fully investigated DAKASBA's striking commitment to written
documentation of their activities, finances, and organization. However, three factors
seem to contribute. First, though members' education levels range widely–from having
completed three years of primary education, to pursuing doctoral studies–formal
instruction carries a high value among DAKASBA's leaders. Written records may
bestow significant social capital on the group. Second, the social intricacies related to
134

tontine administration may require access to objective data to enforce compliance with
rules and settle disputes. Prosper Djiafeua remembers as a little boy his parents keeping
written records of the tontines they belonged to; protection of financial and social assets
can become a strong motivation for detailed accountability. Third, DAKASBA's written
records may constitute an expression of the pride they feel in their culture, and a desire
to extend their long history into the future. The relative durability of pen and paper
would be attractive to people wanting to be known by future generations.
Overview of the Group
DAKASBA members meet every other Saturday, from 6pm until 8 or 9pm, at the home
of Moïse Tchinda, in the Cité Verte neighborhood of Yaoundé. The group consists of
approximately forty adults, less than five of whom are women. It was founded in 1992
as the cultural arm of SYSCADESBAL–Section de Yaoundé du Sous-Comité
d'Action de Developpement du Secteur Baléna, a formal organization of Batcham
natives living in Yaoundé. The name Baléna refers both to a neighborhood in the village
of Batcham (home of the artisan's workshop I mention in Chapter Two), and a larger
sector there that includes Baléna as well as eight other neighborhoods. To resolve
resultant confusion, in 2002 the king of Batcham renamed the sector to 'Ntúmlépf+%.'
Though the group's designation has thus officially changed to DAKASTUM (Danse
Kana du Secteur Tumlefe'et), most members still refer to it as DAKASBA. Unless the
reference is part of a direct quotation, I will refer to the group as DAKASBA.
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In 2001, leaders reflected on the birth of DAKASBA this way: “It was about a
group of people, sons of the Balena sector, who had a concern to meet together, to have
a structure with a cultural and humanitarian character, that is, mutual aid” (DAKASBA
Registre 01-15). This statement highlights its two most commonly affirmed purposes.
First, DAKASBA exists to promote Ngiemb!!n culture. Article 9 in the by-laws states
their principle objective as extending the “cultural influence of Ngiemb!!n people in
general, and of the Ntúmlépf+% sector in particular” (DAKASTUM “Règlement
Intérieur” 2004). They
are proud to be
Ngiemb!!n and perform
the dances with gusto,
partly in order to
convince others of the
value of Ngiemb!!n
cultural practices; they
want their traditions to
be known by everyone
(Djiafeua et al 2002).
On a studio recording I
helped them complete,
members included a
DAKASBA After a Performance in Yaoundé, June 2003
136

spoken description of the history of the Ka"n!"!n dance in order to educate their
compatriots and outsiders about who they are (Appendix B contains the complete text).
Second, they exist in order to help each other. In addition to its identity as a lu),
a term that foregrounds the cultural and musical identity of a voluntary association,
DAKASBA is also a nts'a$a, the Ngiemb!!n term for a highly structured savings,
cultural, and dance association, which includes mandatory participation and attendance
for members; nts'a$a highlights the financial aspects. Virtually all of the dance
associations in Yaoundé and the Ngiemb!!n village region serve as this type of social
institution, which forms part of a larger phenomenon of ROSCAs or tontines, a concept
that I treat in Chapters Two and Three.
Thus, members of associations–who often don't have enough monetary or social
capital to access commercial banks–benefit from this alternative savings system. But
even more fundamental than the economic benefits is the solidarity that associations
engender. Associations bring much pressure to bear on their membership to attend
meetings, visit other members in times of death or sickness, and to keep current on their
financial obligations to the group. In return, the group is always there to proffer
emotional and financial aid, to “give courage to live” (Djiafeua et al 2002).
DAKASBA practices reflect this emphasis on the solidarity aspects of their
association over the financial. They contribute 500FCFA at each meeting (every other
week), but the treasurer holds that money to pay for travel to ceremonies where the
group will perform, usually in Ngiemb!!n villages; no regular distribution or investment
137

function exists. 35 Special circumstances may require additional contributions. For
example, one of the members lost his spouse in April 2003, and each of the other
members gave 1000FCFA to encourage him, presented at a visite de condoléances. The
group is also in the process of replacing its performance clothes and will require a one-
time contribution for this from members.
DAKASBA Communicators
DAKASBA maintains records on its members in the form of folders containing
documents related to each member’s relationship with the organization. These folders
hold correspondence concerning fines imposed and disciplinary actions taken by
DAKASBA, and cards communicating basic information about the member. In this
section, I draw on these latter documents to present a portrait of the membership.
Files pertaining to each member consist of a card with data on the individual,
including his or her name, birth date and place, father’s and mother’s names, profession,
place of residence, a statement of whether or not they are married, widowed, or a
bachelor, a postal address, the date of membership, and information from their
Cameroonian identity card. Figure 4.2 presents an example of such a card.
35 Most members also belong to other tontines that may serve their financial ends more directly.
Interestingly, in 2003 DAKASBA leaders considered instituting a rotating savings contribution in order to
exert pressure to ameliorate their sometimes erratic attendance (Djiafeua 2003a). The new leadership
team implemented such a tontine in August 2004.
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Figure 4.2. DAKASBA Member Information Card
Of the thirty-seven member folders maintained by DAKASBA, only three did
not contain this card. Of the remaining thirty-four, virtually every category was filled
except that of the Date of Membership (Date d’Adhésion); none contained this
information. I here present a composite analysis of the group based on the parameters of
age, birthplace, profession, and current residence, noting the relevance of each to the
functioning of DAKASBA, and its place in the broader Ngiemb!!n community.
First, DAKASBA members were all born between 1951 and 1972, placing them
in the age range of 32 and 53 years in 2004. Almost half–including the founders–were
born between 1965 and 1970. Figure 4.3 contains this information.
139

Figure 4.3. Birth Years of DAKASBA Members
Number of
Members
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
51 55 59 63 67 71
Year of Birth
Figure 4.4 attests to a predominance of members born in Batcham, not surprising
since DAKASBA was created by Batcham natives with a primary goal of expanding
awareness and appreciation of Batcham and Ngiemb!!n cultural production. The other
birth locations, however, reflect both the reality of the migrations I described in Chapter
Two, and the continued identification of Ngiemb!!n people with their ancestral homes.
All of the places listed in the chart except Batcham and Balessing are outside of the
Ngiemb!!n region. 36
36 Though officially recorded and acknowledged, the data on these cards should be understood as
potentially malleable. To take advantage of government programs with age or birthplace restrictions,
some Cameroonians officially alter the facts of their birth date or location. Some of the members showing
non-Ngiemb!!n birthplaces may actually have been born in a Ngiemb!!n village.
140

Figure 4.4. Birth Places of DAKASBA Members
Number of
Members
25
20
15
10
5
0
A B C D E F G H
Birth Place
141
A- Batcham
B- Kumba
C- Small Kombe
D- Balessing
E- Mbouda
F- Melong
G- Douala
H- Tombel Bakossi Kumba
DAKASBA members' lives also reflect the Cameroonian historical trend of
migrating people searching for family, ethnic, and linguistic connections when they look
for a place to live in urban areas. Thirty of the thirty-four members for whom I have
information live in contiguous neighborhoods on the western side of Yaoundé (see
Figure 4.1 above). These neighborhoods include Carrière, Cité Verte, Mvog Betsi,
Biyem Assi, Madagascar, Dakar, and Etoug Ébé, and are commonly recognized by
Yaoundé citizens as containing high concentrations of various Bamiléké groups. A man
I met in the Carrière neighborhood affirmed that his father was the first Ngiemb!!n
person to settle in Yaoundé in the 1930s. Others joined him, and thus a diasporic
community was born. Physical properties of the neighborhoods may also have added to
the attractiveness of kin familiarity in these new encampments: butting up against steep
hills on the most western edge of Yaoundé’s populations, they bear a strong physical
resemblance to many areas in the Ngiemb!!n homeland.

Figure 4.5. Yaoundé Residences of DAKASBA Members
Number of
Members
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Social Infrastructure
A B C D E F G H I J
Yaoundé Domicile
142
A-Carrière
B-Cité Verte
C-Mvog Betsi
D-Mimboman
E-Biyem Assi
F-Madagascar
G-Dakar
H-Etoug Ébé
I-Mbankolo
J-Mballa II
In this section, I detail social expectations and concomitant structures that guide the
activities and attitudes of DAKASBA members. I begin with the initiation and
maintenance of membership and functional organization of the group. I then explore
DAKASBA's performance contexts. A view emerges in which performances serve as
the primary activities of the group, with codified internal organization a necessary
supporting background.
Initiating and Maintaining Membership
The by-laws present three conditions to apply for membership in DAKASBA: to
be Ngiemb!!n, to be a native of the Ntúmlépf+% sector or not, and to submit a written
request to the president of DAKASBA. If a special commission views the request
favorably, the applicant receives full membership only when he or she has paid all
appropriate financial contributions. These non-negligible payments include 5,000 FCFA

towards purchase of equipment (including instruments), 25,000 FCFA enrollment fee,
10,000 FCFA for trip insurance, 2,000 FCFA for travel, and the purchase of 24 bottles
of beer and ceremonial dress; the group estimated the cost of buying new regalia in
2004 to be 25,000 FCFA. Thus, the financial cost of joining DAKASBA could reach
75,000 FCFA, approximately 115 Euros, $142US (at 525 FCFA per dollar). With a
membership consisting of small merchants, just four or five government employees
(who earn more than 100,000 FCFA a month), and the unemployed, this amount
represents a significant investment. As Prosper Djiafeua explained to me, the group has
purposely made membership costly in order to weed out opportunists. 37 After being
accepted into the group, the by-laws present only two possibilities for losing
membership: death, or expulsion. I joined DAKASBA in November 2004, becoming the
first non-Ngiemb!!n member.
In addition to the financial requirements for entrance into DAKASBA, the
commission studying applicants’ dossiers also takes into account their morality,
honesty, and probity. The by-laws expand on these qualities when discussing the
atributes that members must show to avoid sanctions. These include punctuality,
regularity, calmness, humility, respect for the hierarchy and time limits on payment of
contributions, and cleanliness (Article 42). Sanctions may be imposed for failure in
these areas, as well as for fomenting discord, throwing insults, starting fights,
drunkenness, and absenteeism. The group may expel a member for a “serious offence
37 As I describe below, people have attempted to join for short periods of time, enlisting DAKASBA to
perform at a parent's nkem legwé and discontinuing their involvement soon after. These people wanted
the high-value product–performance at a nkem legwé–without paying the social cost.
143

such as black magic, or all others who after having been sanctioned for an offense,
cause offense for the third time” (Article 44). Exceptions for payment of contributions
and attendance are made for people who become seriously ill or are required to travel or
move for their job.
Since DAKASBA’s inauguration in 1992, at least three members have been
officially expelled from the group, one of whom subsequently underwent a process of
reintegration. DAKASBA enforces members’ responsibility to demonstrate loyalty to
the group through a system of fines, warnings, and exclusion. Examination of the files
that the group maintains for each member reveals a common recourse to formal
warnings, written in legal style, and presented with the imprimatur of the president of
the group and his special counselors. Here, for example, is an excerpt from a letter
written to a member, which I have translated from French:
The commission of sages of DAKASBA, seated on the date of 5 May 1999,
Considering the letter of warning addressed to you the 13 th of August, 1997,
reminding you to procure ceremonial dress for yourself,
Considering the resolutions of the commission of 17 November 1998, asking
you to pay your membership dues as well as your fines and penalties,
The commission of sages of DAKASBA notes with bitterness your systematic
refusal to conform your behavior to the by-laws. Consequently, you are
suspended from all activities of the group until complete payment of all of your
obligations, at the latest, by the end of the month of September 1999.
In case of subsequent offense, you expose yourself to even more severe
disciplinary sanctions.
144

For the commission of sages,
The President
The recalcitrant member failed to satisfy the leadership of DAKASBA, who
expelled him through the perlocutionary force of the following document:
Decision No 002/COBY/DAKASBA.
Containing the expulsion of Monsieur X,
sympathetic member of the dance Kana du secteur Balena.
THE PRESIDENT OF DAKASBA,
In view of the texts governing the dance Kana du secteur Balena,
In view of the resolutions of the commission of 5 May 1999 reminding you in
part to acquire ceremonial dress and summoning you in addition to pay
your arrears to DAKASBA before the end of the month of September
1999,
In view of your irregular absences at different rehearsals and the non-payment of
your membership dues and other sanctions stated in the commission of
10 May 2000.
Considering that you remain indifferent to these multiple calls to compliance,
HAS DECIDED:
Article 1: Monsieur X, sympathetic member of the dance Kana du secteur
Balena, is to take as given from the date of the signature of the present decision,
that he is expelled from this cultural group.
Article 2: This decision will be recorded and communicated wherever needed.
145

Another case highlights how seriously the group regards attitudes that reinforce
solidarity. After DAKASBA had traveled to and performed at the nkem legwé of one of
her close relatives, a member stopped attending rehearsals. The president responded
with a letter containing the following warning:
The work commission seated on the date of 13 August 1997 states the following
reproaches, among others:
• Your absenteeism;
• The disinterest shown toward the group.
After our participation in the funérailles of your close relation, this behavior
betrays your calculating spirit and does not honor you.
Consequently, I must address this present letter of warning to you. This is to put
you on guard against this type of action. In case of recurrence, you will expose
yourself to even more severe disciplinary sanctions.
A final example of disciplinary correspondence shows that reconciliation is
possible and negotiable. After interactions that ended in his expulsion, one member
appealed for reinstatement. A final letter from the president of DAKASBA contains the
following text:
I have the honor to bring to your knowledge that after an extensive study,
the commission of 28 June 2000, despite several departures from appropriate
146

language contained in your request, has approved your reintegration into
DAKASBA.
Furthermore, as a precondition, you will write for me–in a more polite
manner–a note requesting pardon, directed to the group as a whole.
As of the middle of 2004, this reinstated member was an active participant in all
DAKASBA activities.
As these examples demonstrate, like village associations, DAKASBA demands
group solidarity, primarily demonstrated through attendance and participation. However,
this urban organization adds modern means of enforcement to the body of oral-moral
axioms I described in Chapter Three. These include written shame-inducing
communications, carrying symbolic references to formal authority such as legal
vocabulary and injunction-like letter format.
Internal Organization
Men who fill more than a dozen positions direct the association and consist of
two primary groups: the executive bureau, and the Conseil des Sages, also referred to as
Les Sept ("The Seven"; DAKASTUM 2004). Within the executive bureau, five
positions are elected by direct secret ballot. These include the president, the vice
president, the general secretary (with two assistants), two account representatives, and a
treasurer. The executive bureau also contains a number of people named by the
president, comprising the public relations officer, the censeur (responsible for imposing
sanctions and maintaining discipline), technical counselors, special counselors, musical
147

directors (Choreography Master, Choral Master, Drum Master), those responsible for
the domaine réservé (secretive activities related to the masked dancer, the ma%ku*m),
people responsible for food and drinks, a small group given the tasks of negotiating
prices for transport, payments for performances, and food and drinks, and the protocol
chief. Tchinda Moïse fills a supplementary role as President of Honor (perhaps because
of his greater age, prestigious employment as a public works technician, his role as
leader of the Ntúmlépf+% sector in Yaoundé, and the fact that his home constitutes
DAKASBA’s administrative and performance seat). Prosper Djiafeua serves as Special
Counsel by virtue of his extensive knowledge of Ngiemb!!n history and culture. 38
In theory, all DAKASBA members constitute the General Assembly and vote
people into these positions in bi-annual elections; terms for each position last two years,
and are renewable. In actuality, the most recent elections before those in June 2004 took
place in 2000; because no major issues weighed heavily at the time, the 2002 elections
never occurred. In addition, there is not much turnover in many of the positions. For
example, former President Melataya began as Vice President before becoming President
and has been in power for almost ten years.
In addition to the Executive Bureau, the Conseil des Sept serves as an organ
prepared to study specific problems that arise in the administration of DAKASBA. It is
constituted by the president, a member from each of five neighborhoods in the
Ntúmlépf+% sector of Batcham, a non-native representative of the sector, and a special
38 After the elections in June 2004, former president Bernard Melataya remained in the group, and was
also given the title of Special Counselor.
148

counsel. Since 1997, DAKASBA has called the Conseil des Sept to meet for a special
commission more than fifteen times, to study issues including disciplinary conflicts
(Registre 98-7 39 ); official by-law revisions (98-10; 00-20); the need to clarify the
amount and occasions for specific fines (98-17); needs for an unusual performance (for
example, at the National Museum; 98-21); dossiers of people applying for membership
(98-25; 00-13); proposals to avoid problems, for example, dividing the group into two
during busy performance times (99-06); the recording, production, and sale of a cassette
(99-10); DAKASBA’s financial situation (99-22; 01-04); membership composition (00-
07); future goals (00-11); and problems with musical performance and instruments (01-
05).
Performance Contexts
I place DAKASBA performance contexts into three primary categories:
rehearsal sessions (most notably the bi-weekly Saturday night meetings); events related
to mortality, almost exclusively tied to a DAKASBA member's close familial relation;
and performances often accepted for payment that result from connections with people
outside the immediate DAKASBA membership and its close relatives. As in the
discussion of village music in Chapter Three, I examine each performance in terms of
salient infrastructural patterns: its associated participants, the music produced, its
location, and its stated purposes and social functions.
39 My conventions for referring to DAKASBA's written documents consist of two numerals specifying the
year (here, 1998), and a number dependent on the order in which I processed the document (here, 7).
149

Figure 4.6 presents all of the performance contexts noted in the official
DAKASBA register between late 1997 and mid 2003. Though some events may not
have been recorded and certain accounts may be incomplete, the leadership’s intent and
practice are to be as thorough as possible in keeping records. Thus, I can assert that this
figure represents the vast majority of non-rehearsal performances of DAKASBA from
November 1997 through July 2003. A superscript '?' indicates that some information
was incomplete, and that I was thus obliged to make reasonable inferences.
Figure 4.6. DAKASBA Non-rehearsal Performance Events
Date Occasion Type Occasion Details Place
1997
November
Mortality Funérailles for the father of M.
Manfouo Thomas
November Mortality Funérailles for the father-in-law of Mr.
Kenné Flaubert
December Outside Event Invited by the elites of Bamboutos to
perform at their end of the year party.
150
Balessing
Batcham
Yaoundé, Palais de
Congrès
December Mortality Visite de condoléances for Mme Folem Yaoundé?
1998
July
Outside Event For the installation of the leader of the
Balena (in Batcham) sector in Yaoundé
Yaoundé
September ? Mortality Visite de condoléances for Tido Robert Yaoundé
October ? Mortality Visite de condoléances for Fotio
Samuel
Yaoundé
October ? Outside Event Festival ? Yaoundé
December Mortality Three Funérailles: For the father-in-
1999
February
law of M. Wagoum Paul, the father of
Yemetio Timothé, and the mother-in-
law of Mr. Tindo Robert.
Outside Event Nomination of Mme Aman as associate
director of Crédit Foncier (bank)
February Mortality Funérailles for Mr. Folem ?
Batcham, in the
neighborhoods of
Banguie, Bataki,
Balefeua
Yaoundé

Figure 4.6, continued
June Outside Event Perform for the visit of the King of
Batcham, Tatang Robert, in Yaoundé
October Mortality Perform during preparatory activities
for the funérailles of Mr. Manfouo
Josué
October Mortality Visite de Condoléance for M. Tchinda
Moïse.
October Mortality Funérailles for the mother of Kuete
Fogang Emmanuel
November Mortality Funérailles for the guardian of M.
2000
January
Lontchi Martin
Outside Event Invitation by COBY to take part in the
annual Day of Purifaction for the
Batcham community in Yaoundé.
151
Yaoundé
Yaoundé, Chappelle
d’Obili.
Yaoundé
Batcham, Banguie
Yaoundé ?
Yaoundé
March Outside Event Sortie. ? Yaoundé, Famille Bar
April Outside Event Special trip to Mbalmayo for the
funérailles of the father-in-law of M.
Sonkwe Joseph.
April Outside Event Performance at the Cité Verte hospital,
requested by AMIRO. (l’Amicale des
ressortissants de l’Ouest, members of
RDPC political party)
May Mortality Visite de condoléances for Djou
Christophe
August Mortality Visite de condoléance for Mekadjung
Daniel
in Nkomkana.
Mbalmayo
Yaoundé, Cité Verte
neighborhood
Yaoundé, Carrière
neighborhood
Yaoundé
November Outside Event Invited by the Sub-chief of Ebolowa Ebolowa
December Outside Event ? Yaoundé, Tsinga
2001
July
Outside Event Perform for the coming out ceremony
of the Chef Supérieur (king) of
Batcham, after his La’akem initiation.
October Mortality Visite de condoléances for Tilong
Isidore
neighborhood
Batcham
Yaoundé

Figure 4.6, continued
November Mortality Funérailles for the mother of M.
2002
January
Tametsa Jean-Pierre
Mortality Funérailles for parents of M. Tchinda
Moïse.
February Outside Event Invited by the president of the sub-
section of the RDPC (political party).
June Outside Event Installation of the leader of the
Batcham community in Douala.
November Mortality Funérailles for the mother of M.
Melataya Bernard.
November Mortality Funérailles for the father in law of M.
2003
May
Tsapi Augustin
Mortality Obsèques for the wife of M. Tametsa
Jean-Pierre.
July Mortality Visite de Condoléances for M.
Tametsa Jean-Pierre
July Mortality Visite de Condoléances for Tsangning
David
152
Batcham
Batcham, Banguie
neighborhood
Yaoundé, Famille
Bar, Nkomkana
Douala
Batcham
Batcham, Bamela
neighborhood
Yaoundé ?
Yaoundé
Yaoundé
Rehearsals. DAKASBA by-laws stipulate that the group must meet every other
Saturday, from 6 to 8:30pm. Prototypical elements of these meetings include an initial
gathering period at Liberté Bar down the hill or in Moïse Tchinda’s compound; 30 to 60
minutes of drumming, dancing, and singing; and then group discussion led by the
president. Though the by-laws spell out a minimal fine of 25 FCFA for tardiness, it was
unusual for more than a few people to have arrived by 6pm, and the register entries
often cite a starting time of after 7pm. Ending points range from 8:30 to 9:30 or 10pm.
Other occasional components comprise listening to a recording of the group and
critiquing it, receiving a speech of introduction from a visiting relative, or drinking the
beer and soft drinks given by a new member or visitor (as I once provided).

Dance associations with whom I interacted in the village of Balessing, and
ceremonies I attended in Yaoundé, often relegated the dancing to the last item on their
agenda. In contrast, DAKASBA always begins with dancing and singing. This musical
production differed from DAKASBA’s other performances in at least three ways. First,
the time they devoted to musical production was often less than that during other
performances. This also meant that they enacted fewer songs. Second, a larger number
of people played the instruments and led songs than would normally have taken those
roles. This may have resulted in part from the periodic absence of key performers, but it
also reflected a less pronounced focus on perfection; Saturday night rehearsals are a
place for people to practice and learn. Third, members didn’t wear their ceremonial
dress or bring ceremonial machetes.
I witnessed very little explicit musical instruction or correction during these
sessions. Instead, the sometimes small group of members present at 6:30 or so would
start playing, singing, and dancing, with other members joining in as they arrived. One
of the leaders–often Bernard Melataya or Étienne Nota–would call out a song, and then
he or someone else would continue with another, sometimes seamlessly, sometimes
with a period of percussion without singing, until he or another leader would mark the
end of the performance with a vocal signal. Sometimes the Master Choreographer or
Master Percussionist would show a step or correct another player, but the majority of
these bi-weekly meetings consisted of individuals recommitting to body and mind what
they already knew, moving through the sonic infrastructure of Ka"n!"!n percussion and
the kinesthetic infrastructure of the circular dance. The sounds and movement create an
153

environment where the participants can listen and watch, modifying their own behavior
to bring it into concordance with the others.
A telling departure from this autodidact-within-sonically-and-spatially-structured
learning environment occurred one evening when the group was preparing for a studio
recording. During a session several months earlier that I had recorded in a studio, the
group performed essentially as they would at an outside context: several songs
seamlessly produced sequentially. After listening to this, they decided that another
studio recording was in order, this time separating out each song into a unit three
minutes in length. In order to do this, the group had to devise a way to communicate to
everyone to stop at the same moment; distinct endings on individual songs were not part
of their previous performance practice. They ended up with a system in which Prosper
Djiafeua held up first three fingers, then two, then one, and then a downward hand
swipe denoting that everyone should cease playing and singing at once. They had to
practice this for quite awhile before it became natural. Audio Clip 5 shows the fruit of
this practice, demonstrating the addition of a performance practice standard associated
with popular recordings to their repertoire.
After musical performance in the open, earth-floored area of the compound,
members migrate to the tin-covered open patio attached to the main house. They sit in
an elongated oval on benches, stools, and short upended logs. The president–or his
representative if he’s absent, usually the vice-president–begins by stating the items to be
covered in the discussion. Then the give-and-take commences. Following is a common
order of business:
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1. A word from the president
2. Roll call of the members
3. Family news and correspondence
4. Finances
5. Miscellaneous
Minutes, financial records, and correspondence are written in French, but by and
large, these discussions take place in the Ngiemb!!n language; my presence increased
the amount of spoken discourse in French.
DAKASBA conversations exhibit a rich combination of expressed solidarity and
empathy on one hand, and pointed dissension and bickering on the other. The “Family
News” period is replete with empathetic reception of news of the deaths of family
members, thefts or physical attacks in the neighborhood, babies being born, and
expressions of gratitude for attending funeral events (sometimes accompanied by a ten
liter bottle of raffia wine or case of beer). These expressions of familial concern and
unity are liberally interspersed with moments of disorder and discontent. The following
excerpt from the March 7, 1998 minutes is not unusual:
Mme X asked for the floor to say this to the members: “Because of the distance
that separates my home and the seat of DAKASBA, I ask that from now on I
would come one Sunday out of two. The president retook the floor to ask Mme X
to make a written request to give to the office of DAKASBA. Mme X retook the
floor to ask if it’s only she of whom DAKASBA requires a written request, or if
they ask others for that also. The president retook the floor one more time to ask
M. Y, who was in the process of making trouble to be quiet. If not, he could send
him outside. That was when M. Y got up to ask the president if he was able to
make him leave DAKASBA. If so, he should reimburse him for everything that
he’d already spent, and that if so, that he should do it right now. The meeting
ended in a fish tail [that is, unresolved] (98-5)
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As in the case in which a member was reinstated into DAKASBA at the
organizational level, reconciliation may also occur during face-to-face interactions. At
one rehearsal I attended, the president of the group responded to accusations of
mishandling the master copy of a studio recording by acknowledging blame and asking
forgiveness. After some discussion, a spokesman for the rest of the group granted this
pardon. At another rehearsal, when one of the members arrived late, someone referred
to him with a term to which he took offense. The man stated his displeasure several
times, and though some snickered at the interchange, he and the other members
eventually became reconciled. As the special counsel stated once in the course of a
heated argument, “Love of your neighbor and respect for a person within DAKASBA
must be in the forefront” (01-15).
Mortality-related Performances. Figure 4.7 demonstrates the preponderance of
DAKASBA performances related to death. The group is implicated in virtually all of the
death ceremonies I delineated in Chapters Two and Three. I here expound on the two
most frequent performance contexts in this category, shy*o% legwe% (condolence
observances) and nkem legwe% (funeral phase of joy).
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Figure 4.7. Distribution of DAKASBA Non-Rehearsal Performance Contexts
A shy*o% legwe% occurs after the initial period of mourning following a person's
death. When an intimate family relation of a DAKASBA member dies–the spouse,
parent, or child, for example–the group gathers with the member in Yaoundé until the
body is taken from the morgue to the village. A small delegation accompanies the
member back to his village, buys raffia wine, shoots seven gunshots over the tomb, and
sings one or two songs. When the deuil, this initial period of mourning, is over, the
aggrieved member returns to Yaoundé, and he or she and the group decide on a date for
the entire association to travel to the person's Yaoundé home for the shy*o% legwe%.
Ngiemb!!n people not in dance groups also make condolences visits, but do not benefit
from the musical performance or warmth produced by a large number of visitors;
usually only neighbors and close family members attend in such a case.
A shy*o% legwe% flows prototypically through the following steps:
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1. DAKASBA members, bedecked in their ceremonial finery, arrive at the
aggrieved person's home, and occupy a large room on the compound. Here,
they drink beer, sing funeral songs, including those emanating from
Ngiemb!!n churches.
2. A close friend chosen by the mourning member stands to greet and welcome
the guests.
3. The member in mourning then stands and describes the person who died, the
details surrounding the death, and special remembrances.
4. A representative of DAKASBA rises to express the group's solidarity and
sadness at the member's loss. He then presents an envelope containing
money that the group had collected, and a bag of soap with which the
mourning member is to wash his or her mourning clothes (which,
traditionally, he or she would have been wearing since the death).
5. Women who are not members of the group then serve kon chop, a cooked
mixture of beans and corn. The name originates in Cameroonian English-
derived Pidgin: kon ['corn'] chop ['food'].
6. Everyone then exits the room to begin dancing in the largest space available
outside.
I attended two shy*o% legwe%s,
and was the mourning member in a
third, following the death of my
paternal grandfather on the 19th of
April 2004. Two aspects of these
performances provide insight into
the mechanisms of and worldview
behind Ngiemb!!n solidarity in the
face of death. First, family
Photograph of the Deceased at a Shy*o% Legwe%
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members of the deceased carry a picture of the person who died as they dance. The
picture here shows DAKASBA members Martin Lontchi (left) and Étienne Nota
holding a picture of Jean Pierre Tametsa's wife, Mme Dorothée Tametsa, on July 15th,
2003, when the group paid Jean Pierre a condolences visit. When I asked Nota about the
photograph, he said it was a way of affirming that “les morts ne sont pas morts"; that is,
“the dead are not dead.” This phrase, perhaps most famously evoked by the Senegalese
scholar and poet Birago Diop (1961), comprises multiple significations in this
Ngiemb!!n context. It is primarily a consolation, a visible reminder for the bereaved
person that death does not break relationship with the living forever. The photograph
also permits people who never knew the person to have at least a visual introduction.
In addition to the soothing effect of the photograph, however, the belief that the
dead are not truly dead reminds the people remaining behind that the deceased can still
act, that a father can still punish a son if the son fails to fulfill his posthumous
responsibilities to his father (Yonta 2002b). The photograph, thus, also serves as a
catalyst for family members to fulfill their final obligations, to assuage any negative
feelings the dead person might still be harboring.
A second aspect illuminating the mechanisms of solidarity is that the aggrieved
person moves freely through the inner circle of the dance space. At the ceremony for
my grandfather, Moïse Yonta guided me with his hand on my shoulder through this
space, at times walking, at times jogging, at times dancing. This tactile expression of
support, moving through the sacred inner circle, serves as another kind of comforting
balm. To be alone at a time of grief would be horrible. However, the physical presence
159

of friends and family–almost as if the inner area serves as a protective womb–enacts
powerful evidence of solidarity.
The most important part of an event like this is to show that the mourner is not
alone: family and friends attend the event; a friend addresses the audience in the
mourner's name; a friend accompanies him through the dance space; and the picture of
the lost loved one underlines the belief that he or she is not truly gone. Though there is
an element of paying respect out of fear of reprisal, shy*o% legwe%s primarily serve as
reinforcers and enactors of solidarity with the DAKASBA community.
In contrast to the shy*o% legwe%, which usually takes place in the Yaoundé
neighborhood in which the implicated DAKASBA member lives, the nkem legwe%
happens in the village neighborhood of the deceased. It represents the most frequent
performance context, and that cited as the most important element of mutual aid for
DAKASBA members. 40 Traditional Ngiemb!!n life patterns virtually require the
performance of the Ka"n!"!n dance at the ceremony (Yemmene 2003). When a member
of DAKASBA arranges a nkem legwé, all members are expected to attend. Because
virtually all such ceremonies take place in the deceased's village of origin, the group
hires one or two buses and travels there, usually on a weekend. They occur between
November and the end of March, when dry season allows for easy travel and less
likelihood of rain interruptions during the celebration. During this season, nkem legwés
take place every weekend and most weekdays. This expanding popularity has led the
40 Funerals represent primary performance contexts for other sub-Saharan dance groups as well. See, for
example, Koetting 1980:xiii.
160

kings of Batcham and Balessing to ordain that all nkem legwés must be completed by
March 31 to allow people to devote more time to work in their fields.
Performances Tied to Outside Events. Examples of this category have included
performances at the Cameroonian Cultural Center, Cameroonian Independence Day
celebrations, the enthroning of a village king's representative in Yaoundé, and a
ceremony at a Yaoundé hospital. DAKASBA by-laws divide these into two categories.
The first, "Public Performance Contexts" ("Scènes d'Exhibition"), consists of public
contexts in which DAKASBA performs in order to gain notoriety, such as political
rallies or as part of the pomp surrounding the visits of dignitaries. In these cases,
DAKASBA requires no money, but "does not exclude any gesture of encouragement"
(DAKASTUM 2004:11). The initiator of an invitation in the second sub-category,
"Invitations or Bookings" ("Des invitations ou locations") must, however, fulfill a long
list of requirements. These include a written request, the provision of two chickens, two
cases of beer (twelve bottles in each), more food and drink depending on the event, and
all transportation and lodging. This second category may include events tied to
mortality, but that of someone not connected intimately to a group member. This case
may swell the percentage of mortality-related performances even higher than presented
in Figure 4.7.
Ka"n!"!n
DAKASBA performs one type of dance, Ka"n!"!n. The Ka"n!"!n dance originates not
among the Ngiemb!!n, but in Bamoun, a non-Bamiléké language group found in the
161

extreme southeast of the Bamboutos Division, West Province. Several warriors from the
La%$a%ts!%!n kingdom (referred to by non-Ngiemb!!n people as Batcham) spent a period of
time within the Sultanate of Bamoun to develop friendship and political relations. They
learned and brought back the Ka"n!"!n dance, which they integrated into their
celebrations of military victories, and which exists now in all of the Ngiemb!!n
villages. 41 Associations that perform the Ka"n!"!n and other warrior dances–such as Pw!
Ma"nzo")–are descendants of military societies that protected kingdoms from attack
during pre-colonial times. Such warrior societies were found throughout the Grassfields
region (Jindra 1997:26). See Appendix B for a fuller history of the dance.
Dancers and instrumentalists exhibit strong emotional involvement during
performances. The dance retains the intensity and bravado of its warrior roots, with
participants engaging in stylized mock battle encounters, emitting whoops of exultation,
climbing on top of a blazing fire during night performances, and improvising vigorous
dance steps. One member said that when he is dancing, he loses track of who and where
he is (Djiafeua 2003d). I never witnessed members entering trances or extreme alternate
states of consciousness, though people told me that this occurs in village contexts where
interaction with local spirits is especially pronounced.
41 Fargion (1993) recounts a similar process when the Omani Sultan of Zanzibar sent a musician to Egypt
to bring back a musical form which eventually became the widespread taarab genre.
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Navigating Authenticity and Modernization
The lack of experiences of alternate states of consciousness during dances represents
just one of many changes resulting from cosmopolitan values informing this urban
manifestation of a village dance. Or–stated in a way more in keeping with the
communication model presented in Chapter One–DAKASBA members are navigating
through both traditional and cosmopolitan infrastructures, depending on the momentum
of life patterns that have become natural through living in Yaoundé, as well as
conscious decisions they have made to choose one infrastructure over another. They call
village patterns "authentic" and urban ones "modern." Infrequent and mild tensions
between traditional and urban infrastructures in the village–for example, in requiring
choices between following a seven- or eight-day week–become common and stark in the
city. DAKASBA has chosen to retain certain infrastructures characteristic of the home
region, and has modified others according to cosmopolitan patterns and the expectations
of the people with whom they wish to communicate. I will look at some of those
choices related to musical and social infrastructure.
DAKASBA codifies the traditional/cosmopolitan tension in its by-laws,
explicitly stating that the group's goal is to perform the Ka"n!"!n dance authentically,
while allowing room for departures: "DAKASTUM is copied exactly from authentic
Ka"n!"!n. Some modifications may be accepted, however, without distorting its nature"
(By-laws, Article 3). A conversation I had with members after a rehearsal illuminates
this approach:
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Brian Schrag (BS): Where did this song come from? Did someone here compose
it?
Bernard Melataya (BM): No - it's an old song.
Another member (AM): We work to make the songs better. They're old songs.
We didn't compose them. But . . . we fix them up. So, it's a traditional Ka"n!"!n
song.
BS: And when you make them better, do you change the lyrics?
BM: No.
AM: We make them better. Those of us who have been to school can do it. But
someone who is in the village isn't the same thing. We try to modernize things.
BS: What do you mean by 'modernize'?
BM: OK, it's like this. The foundation is the same. Even the lyrics–they're the
same words. The same messages. With the only difference that we add a degree
of seriousness. Because, for example, in the village, when you sing for a
mourning ceremony, at the occasion of a mourning ceremony, well...everyone
does what he wants. We wouldn't want to. . . how shall I say . . . we don't want
to completely alter it. But we want to give people a chance to understand that
there's something serious going on. That's what we're looking for here.
AM: To be able to repeat what we've done. To do the "play back," if there's a
cassette. . . . So that people would be able to sing along with the cassette. That's
the goal of our work.
BM: It's like what [professional urban] musicians do. That is, that we would be
able to repeat what we sang yesterday. And we'd like to have the drummers be
able to do the same work on the drums. In a way that, if one day, an occasion
presents itself to put our cassette somewhere, doing a "play back," that the
drummer would be capable of repeating what he had played. It shouldn't happen
that he hits two strokes when he had performed only one hit before, etcetera. So
that's what we want to do, without changing the basic nature. (MDNG03-04)
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DAKASBA adheres to the traditional musical infrastructure through elements
such as maintaining the language, the lyrics, and the message of songs, and using the
instruments traditionally reserved for the Ka"n!"!n dance (see Appendix A). Accessing
cosmopolitan patterns–what members would call modernization or improvement–
includes the addition of public performance settings; transforming seamless
concatenations of songs in performance into shortened, discrete songs for recording;
sometimes employing a faster tempo, and different tsétsá' pattern; regularizing dance
steps and fixing the order of songs in a performance; and introducing cosmopolitan
themes in new songs (for example, AIDS). The group also reinterprets acts of physical
prowess without recourse to spiritual realities.
In terms of social infrastructure, DAKASBA represents a rhizomorphous
conglomeration of patterns influenced by village realities. As an example, its internal
organization bears at least a superficial resemblance to the homeland hierarchical
structure:
Figure 4.8. DAKASBA's Hierarchical
Structure Compared to That in the
Homeland
DAKASBA Homeland
President Fu"! (king)
Executive Bureau K'i$ fu"!
Les Sept Les Sept
In the Ngiemb!!n homeland, Les Sept plays organizational and policy roles,
whereas Les Neuf functions more in a spiritual capacity. In DAKASBA, the role of Les
165

Sept seems also to be that of a body that provides practical help to the president. The
only spiritual element explicitly stated within the DAKASBA hierarchy is that of the
ma%ku"m, which I discuss in Chapter Five.
A Road to Nkem Legwé in Batcham
In 1915, Maurice Tagoundjou Tsasse was born, and lived in the Bameffo neighborhood
in Batcham. His death on June 23, 1998 set in motion a series of events that culminated
in a nkem legwé in his honor, January 9 and 10, 2004. His son, Samuel Fotio–not the
first-born–became Tagoundjou’s successor as head of the family. Fotio, a DAKASBA
member, graciously invited me to attend the funeral ceremonies, film the dances that
took place on Saturday, June 10, and ask questions about the proceedings.
I devote this section to description of the trip that DAKASBA took to perform at
the nkem legwé, seen as an ambulatory musical communication event. The Liberté Bar
in Yaoundé marks one boundary of the location, and the Batcham neighborhood where
the event took place constitutes the other limit; the majority of the musical event
occurred on the road between the two places. Its nucleus spanned from Friday night to
Saturday morning. I will first provide an overview of the preparations that led to the
event, and then document in detail DAKASBA’s involvement. I draw the majority of
the background information from an interview with Jean Claude Keula and Prosper
Djiafeua that I conducted on a bus, returning from Batcham to Yaoundé after the nkem
legwé (Keula and Djiafeua 2004). Neither of these men was at the rites that took place
before the celebration, but they have each experienced similar events themselves.
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In 2002, Samuel Fotio called on his brothers and sisters to attend a réunion
familiale in order to discuss future steps for the family. They decided that the time had
arrived to travel to Batcham to perform the mb#%#nte% two% mpfo% ceremony for their
father. This consists of unburying the father’s body, which had been interred outside his
house, removing the skull, burying it inside the house, and marking the place with a
stone or pot (there may be many skulls buried there, so it is important to be able to
mark it with a recognizable symbol). During this ceremony, each child of the dead man
brings a sack of salt, a packet of oil, and a chicken, and gives it to the successor. As
each child approaches with his or her gifts, the successor prays to the departed person,
and sprinkles earth from around the skull onto the person. The dirt is also believed to
hold healing power and can be exploited, for example, to heal a child that becomes sick
with an unusual disease.
After the ceremony to rebury his father’s skull, Fotio called another meeting of
his brothers and sisters, as well as members of his mother’s family and some friends, to
make plans for the nkem legwé. Every son-in-law of the deceased is expected to
contribute food (for example, oil and a goat), and money (perhaps 50,000 FCFA), and
each son must also provide goods (for example, wine and a pig's leg) for the functioning
of the ceremony. The family chose the dates of January 9 and 10, 2004 for the
celebration. They then began communicating this date to their close friends and family
members, and especially to any dance associations in which they were involved. It was
in this vein that Fotio informed DAKASBA of the dates, and gave out computer-
generated invitations. Figures 4.9 and 4.10 show the four pages of this document.
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Figure 4.9. Front and Back Pages of Invitation to Nkem Legwé of Tagoundjou Tsasse
Maurice
Samuel Fotio’s family decided to honor two other people in this nkem legwé:
Daniel Yemdji, who died in 1989 in Bandounga, and Samuel's sister, Agathe Nestelle
Foutchoum, who died in 2003 in Bangangté. Organizers of such ceremonies may take
advantage of the occasion to honor family members who had died young, without
children to remember them.
The front page of the invitation places Tagoundjou Tsasse Maurice in a
predominant position, with the largest photograph, reflecting the fact that he was the
central figure in the nkem legwé drama. Also interesting are the biblical references on
this front page: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the Kingdom of God is theirs”
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(Matthew 5:3), “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching
when he comes” (Luke 12:37), and “Commit your way to the Lord” (Ps 37:5;
mistakenly referred to as “SP 35:5”). During the ceremonies, I saw no other references
to Christianity, and Prosper Djiafeua suggests that the verses are stylistic rather than
substantive inclusions. The back page simply provides a cleanly crafted, though only
roughly iconic map to the site of the nkem legwé.
Figure 4.10. Inside Pages (Two and Three) of the Invitation to Nkem Legwé of
Tagoundjou Tsasse Maurice
Page two lists sixteen individuals and families who are the hosts for the nkem
legwé. These include the families of the dead man’s mother and father, their children,
some spouses of family members, and grandchildren who carry the same name as the
169

man who died. The third page outlines a schedule for the three days of the celebration;
members of DAKASBA and I were present only for the final day, January 10, 2004.
Two non-DAKASBA friends accompanied me on this trip to Batcham. Roch
Ntankeh–a Cameroonian percussionist and sound technician, and Steve Rehn–a
Canadian literacy consultant. Both played important roles in helping me with
DAKASBA Members Waiting to Leave for a Nkem Legwé
at the Liberté Bar
170
photographic and video
recordings, and
keeping me aware of
social requirements.
When Steve,
Roch, and I arrived at
the Liberté Bar at 8pm,
Friday, January 9, one
DAKASBA member
was there; about five
more had arrived by
9:30pm. We waited at the bar, listening to makossa and bikutsi music on the bar’s
speakers, and greeting DAKASBA members as they appeared with figurative and literal
kola nuts, symbols of friendship. 42 At approximately 11pm, our thirty-passenger bus–
called a coaster–pulled in and we began a loading process that allowed an 11:30pm
departure.
42 A handshake can communicate the friendship symbolized by the gift of a kola nut.

The bus was filled slightly beyond capacity, and members laughed and joked as
they jockeyed for comfortable places to sit. One man brought a small child, warning
her, “Tell me if you need to throw up.” I sat next to Prosper Djiafeua, who alternated
between singing and reading a French text on semantics. Throughout the trip, I took
brief notes on events that occurred and the times when people began new songs, and
recorded excerpts using a small minidisc recorder. Figure 4.11 presents an overview of
the journey, for which I provide details below.
Figure 4.11. Traveling to a Nkem Legwé as a Temporospatial Musical Event
Sub-
Event
Location Beginning
Time
A Liberté Bar, Yaoundé 10pm, Friday
171
Activities
Gather, drink beer, greet one
another, load bus
B road 11:35pm Sing, converse
C Makenene 2:20am,
Saturday
D road 3:30am Sing
E Border between Central and West
Provinces
Drink beer, buy hats, converse, eat
3:40am Converse, sing, sleep
F road 4:05am “Wake up!”, sing, doze
G Balessing 5:45am Eat, drink beer & whiskey
H road 7:00am Wave and call to people on road,
sing
I Bameffo, Batcham 8:00am Leave bus
As soon as we left Yaoundé, members began singing and playing shakers, slit
drums, and a double bell; this continued unabated until we reached Makenene (Sub-
Event C), except for brief stops to pick up additional people or buy fuel. At toll stops,

children attempted to sell us peanuts, oranges, and other foods geared toward
perambulatory ingestion, and danced to our music. There was a general feeling of
jocularity and liberty. Two excerpts from DAKASBA minutes recording a 1997 nkem
legwé trip reveals the freedom from normal social constraint experienced by many of
the participants:
[A] member in the person of Monsieur Daniel M entered the bar [in Bafia, on
the road to Batcham] that was still open, and started to dance with the women in
the bar, forgetting that he was part of a delegation. It took the intervention of
several members to get him back in the bus.
Second stop. Gendarme control of Bafia: There, our behavior dropped to zero
level. The gendarmes, having stopped the two vehicles, invited the two drivers to
follow them for negotiations. It was at this precise moment that the members of
Dakasba left the buses. Certain of them took themselves directly to the place
where the gendarmes were negotiating. We’ll never know what really happened
between them. We saw M. Daniel M grabbed by the collar of his shirt by the
gendarmes. M. Romuald F intervened. An altercation took place between the
gendarmes and him and Daniel M. It took a while for things to calm down.
After this altercation, the gendarmes asked the leader of the group to
leave with his 'drug addicts' and, given this kind of behavior, if something
happens up ahead, he could not in any case help out. . . .
[A]t the moment when the car was getting ready to leave [Batcham], L.
got down to climb onto the branch of a tree just at the entry of the compound.
No one knows what he went to find in the top of this tree, and M. Romuald F
during this time gesticulated at the foot of the tree, as though he was offering
alms to the god of the ancestors. This kind of behavior should be banned in
Dakasba, because we must learn to respect ourselves before others will respect
us. ("Rapport général sur le déplacement de la Dakasba à Balessing pour
assistance et préstation aux funérailles du père de M. Manfouo Thomas, prévu
pour le 15/11/1997" [97-01])
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Makenene, approximately 220 kilometers from Yaoundé, serves as a stop for
numerous bus companies that cater to people traveling between Yaoundé and the West
Province. Scores of vendors sell braised goat, fish, and plantains, and at least ten bars
serve various alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. DAKASBA members split into two
or three groups in Makenene, and gathered at different bars. Almost all drank at least one
large beer, and a few bargained with men who sell hats created in the Northwest or North
Provinces of Cameroon; I did not see any such interactions result in a purchase.
Though the group began to sing again after reentering the bus in Makenene, they
soon drifted to sleep. It was during this quieter period that Prosper Djiafeua remarked
that we had crossed the border from the Central to West Province, and that it was
possible to feel the air become cooler. Soon after this point, singing ceased completely,
with only a few people conversing, while most slept. Then at 4:05, a woman said loudly
and firmly, “Que les gens ne dorment pas!” “Nobody should be sleeping!” She began
to lead a song, with only
a small number
responding to her
summons.
We left the last of
the paved road, entering
the doorway to the
Ngiemb!!n homeland in
Balessing at 5:45am. The
Taking a Break in Balessing, the First Ngiemb!!n
Village of the Trip
173

market area just off the pavement provided a chance to buy a breakfast consisting of
bread, chicken, and beans, and to drink more beer or whisky at a bar. When we took the
unpaved road toward Batcham at 7:00am, DAKASBA members began singing with
renewed vigor, waving and shouting to people they recognized walking along the road.
We arrived in the Bameffo neighborhood of Batcham at 8:00, Saturday morning. Figure
4.12, first shown in Chapter Three, presents the performances taking place throughout
the rest of the day. The dances, excerpts which appear in Video Clip 9, took place
between noon and 4:45pm that day.
Figure 4.12. Dances Performed at Nkem Legwé
for Maurice Tagoundjou Tsasse, January 10, 2004
Group Name (if one exists) Dance Genre
“Kana de Bangangte” Ka"n!"!n
174
Zí)
“Jeunesse des Femmes” Jeunesse
! Ke%ya"' 1 and Ke%ya"' 2!
Zí)
“SAHLE de Bafoussam” Ka"n!"!n (Sale%)
Zí)
Women’s groups
Children’s group
“Ngninwole won de Mbouda Ville” Unknown
“DAKASBA” Ka"n!"!n
Woman’s group
“Moumazon. Batcham Bameffo” Mu&! ma%nzo")
“Mally. Chez Fouodjo. Bataki I” Sàmalí
“Ndandzi” Nda"nzı"
Zí)e ngà) mb#"a

Musically, this performance shared many characteristics of DAKASBA’s
stationary presentations: usually seamless movement between songs, a cross-section of
the DAKASBA repertoire in Ka"n!"!n call and response style, and the familiar shakers,
slit drum, and double bell. In Audio Clip 6, led by Bernard Melataya, a listener can hear
voices and instruments, as well as the sound of the bus’s engine in the background.
Divergences from other performance characteristics were also evident. Aside from the
obvious restrictions on the dancing and playing of the larger drums imposed by the
limited space of the bus, the repertoire in this location included not only songs in the
Ka"n!"!n genre, but also those from other Ngiemb!!n styles. Audio Clip 7, led by a
woman, is an instance of a song sung primarily by women. This song is characterized
by a call and response form of three repetitions of an underlying duple rhythm of eight
beats, and a descending melodic contour.
I envision DAKASBA's journey as a sociomusical performance: a mobile
community; gathering, congealing to move; communicating through song while moving;
intersecting sporadically with outside communities to respond to their exigencies, or to
satiate internal desires; finally arriving intact and energized in the Ngiemb!!n
homeland.
Summary and Reflection
Argument, reflection, and negotiation emerge as common themes throughout
DAKASBA’s internal conversations. Leaders and some members complain of disorder
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and disrespect for the hierarchy, while other members criticize perceived unfairness and
mistakes in leadership. However, the members almost always resolve problems, and
I’ve seen ample evidence of personal reconciliation. Participants’ positive motivations
for membership–most significantly, help in times of bereavement, involvement in a
form of enacted culture that solidifies their connections to the Ngiemb!!n homeland,
and enjoyment of the dance–serve to keep them coming back. Discipline by the
hierarchical structure tends to correct behaviors and attitudes that might undermine this
solidarity.
DAKASBA accesses, exploits, and interacts creatively with both cosmopolitan
and traditional social and musical infrastructures to communicate with muntu in their
home region as well as those in Yaoundé and beyond. A view of a DAKASBA
communication event that encompasses several years and a broad swath of territory
containing Yaoundé and Batcham reveals an indispensable component: the road. It is
paved from Yaoundé to Balessing, and thus smooth enough to allow extended periods
of singing, playing instruments, and sleeping. From Balessing to Batcham, the road is
unpaved and fairly rough. However, proximity to the homeland generates enough
energy to allow revitalized singing and interactions with the local community. Quick,
inexpensive access to the location where traditional Ngiemb!!n social and musical
infrastructures flourish allows the frequency of interactions necessary to create feedback
resonance.
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Chapter 5
Communication Through
Musically Structured Space
Locational scope: Yaoundé and Batcham
Temporal Scope: 2002-2004
Communicators: DAKASBA members
Infrastructure: Musical Performance
Soon after I met the members of DAKASBA, they decided to perform a full,
two-phase dance for me in Mr. Moïse Tchinda's courtyard. The day phase began at
about 5:30pm on a Saturday, followed by half an hour of rest, refreshment, and
business. Then several of the men gathered wood and lit a fire, people started filing off
of the porch, laughing and singing, to gather around the drums and fire to begin the
night phase. By this time, darkness had fallen completely.
Most aspects of the two performances were identical: Songs composed of solo
vocal calls and choral responses, sung over the background of a mostly unvarying
metric framework produced by percussionists, and dancers resolutely circling the fire
and drums in a counter clockwise direction. However, the night phase fire became the
focal point for acts of individual physical eloquence, historical allusion, and numinous
daring not evident during the day. Several men climbed unhurriedly up, over, and down
the blazing fire (see Video Clip 10). Others raised swords to the clouds of sparks
ascending in response to purposeful kicks to the embers. The performance culminated
177

with the arrival of the ceremonial chicken, carried, plucked, and cooked alive, evoking
the group's warrior roots when combatants might have returned from battle with an
enemy's severed head.
When members of DAKASBA perform, they create unique musical
infrastructures through which they instigate reciprocal communication with Ngiemb!!n
muntu. In this chapter, I focus on the shapes and dynamic nature of these musically
structured phenomena, teasing out the features that feed into Ngiemb!!n cultural
dynamism. I analyze musical materials I have collected to erect a scaffolding of
supports–redolent of Blacking's "floating resources" (1983)–that DAKASBA members
access whenever they act musically. After laying methodological and theoretical
groundwork, I describe in detail the DAKASBA performance from which my
representations of its music ultimately emanate, that which begins this chapter. I then
present these musical analyses in two categories: those phenomena related most directly
to performance of percussion instruments–rhythm infrastructure, and those tied most
closely to song production–song infrastructure. Though singers and instrumentalists
depend on each other during a performance (in some cases singers play instruments
while singing), each of these groups of emetteurs follows internal requirements and
performance patterns that can be described separately. I will look at these materials
through lenses that have frequently helped musicologists in their analyses, including the
broad categories of rhythm, melody, song form, and lyrics.
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Methodologies
Members of DAKASBA contribute to an already rich Cameroonian musical
soundscape. Widely popular musics such as the Douala-originating Makossa, Bikutsi
from the Central Province (including Yaoundé), and Bend Skin from the anglophone
Northwest vie for attention in the West Province with Bamiléké artists such as Saint
Bruno and Talandré. Churches–most of the DAKASBA members have some affiliation
with Catholicism–incorporate European hymns in French, English, or sometimes local
languages, and occasionally include songs composed using traditional styles and
instruments. At a local level, Ngiemb!!n musicians add their voices to those of over
250 other distinct language groups.
Ngiemb!!n musical production integrates performers, their interactions with
each other, and an awareness of their physical context and audience. I discovered that
the musical sounds that emerge–including basic categories such as melody, rhythm, and
tempo–depend a great deal on these contexts. I relied on a combination of analyzing
audio and visual recordings, observation, and participation to ascertain the patterns of
music-making, i.e. Ngiemb!!n musical infrastructure.
The history of ethnomusicology is replete with stories of how characteristics of
media or a recording process have substantially affected representations and
understandings of recorded music; the two- to four-minute limits of early wax cylinders,
for example, resulted in perceptions of Native American songs by outsiders as
unnaturally short (Bergh 2000; Warner and Warner 2000; Browner 1999). Just as the
condition of a road affects the speed, comfort, and frequency of travel, so the degree
179

and breadth of musical and social infrastructure affect a group or person's musical
production. When I recorded three competent DAKASBA members singing songs
without instrumental accompaniment, their musical output differed markedly from that
of a full contingent singing the same songs: their tempos were often slower, temporal
consistency more erratic, upward pitch shift less pronounced, and the notes of some of
the most stable parts of songs–the refrains–changed.
As I devised and implemented numerous types of audio and visual recordings–
some of which ended up being useless–a rubric of the recording as an event emerged. I
drew insights from performance models of musical analysis such as that of Regula
Qureshi (1987), as well as those I discussed in the context of feedback resonance in
Chapter One. Figure 5.1 summarizes the parameters that became significant in my
research, and which I use to determine the uses and limitations of my collection of
recordings; Figure 5.2 illustrates these concepts with an example from my research.
Figure 5.1. Recording Event Parameters
Parameter Clarifying Question Contrasting
Performance Context Who controls the establishment of the event,
Mechanisms of
Researcher's Recording
Effects of Researcher's
Presence and Actions
and for what purposes?
How do the recording devices and their use
filter or otherwise modify the totality of the
recorded event?
How would the event differ without the
researcher?
180
Values
Integral, Analytical
Holistic, Selective
Inhibiting,
Intensifying,
Neutral

A recording event's Performance Context may exhibit characteristics I have
bundled into the contrasting values of Integral and Analytical. These attributes include
whether or not the context constitutes a type familiar to the performers, and the degree
of completeness of components of its normal social and musical infrastructure. Another
way of describing Integral performances may be as those most coincident with the
participants' culture's structuring structures (Bourdieu 1977). In the case of the
DAKASBA dance group, performances at a nkem legwé in the village of Batcham and
rehearsals at their normal meeting place are highly familiar contexts. If all of the best
performers attend a given nkem legwé, for example, and all of the expected instruments
are available, then the musical infrastructure would be complete, and the event would
qualify nicely as Integral.
Analytical performance contexts, on the other hand, are designed by the
researcher in order to isolate elements of musical production. Simha Arom's painstaking
dismantling and rebuilding of complex vocal and horn polyphonies of central Africa
may represent the acme of analytical recording endeavors (1991). Though the process of
capturing musicians playing their individual parts while listening to a recording of a full
performance might be almost trivial in a studio, his patient manipulation of two stereo
reel-to-reel tape recorders in a rural location required significant imagination and
discipline. In the end, Arom was able to use his recordings to develop a powerful model
of central African polyphony and polyrhythm (Schrag 1996a).
The second parameter, Mechanisms of Researcher's Recording, describes what
roles recording equipment and its use play in determining what is recorded. A digital
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video camera was my usual device of first choice. It allowed the possibility of acquiring
representations of phenomena most fully experienced and analyzed visually, such as
dance steps and drum strokes, as well as those best accessed aurally, such as song texts
and melodies. The video camera, then, carries in itself the potential of recordings
leaning more toward the Holistic–that is, including as many components of an event as
possible–than an exclusively audio or visual device. The nature of the recording device,
along with the researcher's use of it, combine to determine whether the resulting
recording is primarily Holistic or Selective in the phenomena it captures, and what form
the inevitable selectivity takes.
In contrast to the focus on the contents of the record of the second parameter in
Figure 5.1, the Effects of the Researcher's Presence and Actions attempts to assess the
consequences of the researcher's participation on the event as a whole. The kinds of
effects I highlight here are those that result in certain elements of a performance being
inhibited or intensified. My overall experience in recording Ngiemb!!n performances
was one in which my presence was either neutral–other people's opinions played a
greater role in the performers' minds than mine–or generally invigorating. The first time
I videotaped a DAKASBA dance, the participants responded to my attempts to remain
unobtrusive by coming closer to me, performing virtuosic movements directly in the
view of the camera, and even taking the camera so that they could videotape me as well.
They wanted to present their best to the world that my camera and I represented. Figure
5.2 contains a sample analysis of a recording event using these parameters.
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Figure 5.2. Sample Analysis of a Recording Event
Event Nkem legwé of Samuel Fotio's father, January 2005, Batcham.
Performance Context Integral. Performing at a nkem legwé honoring a parent constitutes a
Mechanisms of
Researcher's Recording
Effects of Researcher's
Presence and Actions
Possible Uses of the
Resultant Recording(s)
core activity of DAKASBA.
Aurally selective. I videotaped DAKASBA's performance, but the
microphone was held by the song leader.
Microphone inhibited movement by song leader. Otherwise, my
presence was neutral–DAKASBA's primary audience was the crowd of
their compatriots.
• Transcriptions of song leaders' lyrics and melodies (using audio
recording)
• Progression of the dance as an event (using video recording)
In the discussions that follow, I will draw on these categories to explain and
support my conclusions about Ngiemb!!n musical production.
Theoretical Considerations
While in Papua New Guinea, Chenoweth developed a method of emic analysis of
melodic structure based on the thought of her mentor in linguistics, Kenneth Pike (Pike
1954-55 contains the definitive statement of his philosophy). As an example of its
initial application to linguistics, the two sounds [p, p h ]–aspirated and unaspirated ‘p’–
mark no difference in lexical meaning in English. To determine whether such a
distinction is meaningful in a language–as is true in some cases–Pike’s method requires
painstaking phonetic [hence, ‘etic’] transcription of words, noting the sonic contexts in
which they occur. The researcher then compares each context to determine whether it
encodes meaning.
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Chenoweth applied a similar procedure to structural relationships between
intervals in songs. Through this analysis, she is able to determine the melodic contexts
in which each interval can follow all others, resulting ultimately in a transformational
grammar of melody. This approach (see also Avery [1997], and Ellis and Barwick
[1987]) reveals regularities and competences that often remain opaque to performers
and outside learners of a tradition, such as the mastery of melodic patterns and rhythmic
expectations that form part of the aggregate of musicality. I applied this methodology to
Daasanech music of northern Kenya in 1987 (Schrag 1987).
I would like to highlight two assumptions that underlie this approach. First, it
presupposes that creators of music, such as Ngiemb!!n performers, produce music
according to certain conventions. A given musical genre exhibits a unique
conglomeration of characteristics that helps define a prototypical exemplar. Many
factors result in variation from the norm, or even contradictions of the norm, including
mistakes, and intentional deviations for aesthetic or other reasons.
Second, musical production in this perspective is generative. As in language,
human beings access a finite number of rules or conventions to produce a theoretically
infinite number of valid musical products. As I have suggested throughout this
dissertation, this generative process is essentially communicational, and influenced by
myriad factors, including the producer's agency, interactions between multiple
participants, and physical and social characteristics of the event's location. In Bourdieu's
terminology, the social and musical infrastructures impinging on and defining musical
production form part of the structuring structures "... that can be objectively adapted to
184

their outcomes without presupposing a conscious aiming at ends or an express mastery
of the operations necessary in order to attain them" (Bourdieu 1990:53; see also Lizardo
2004).
Ngiemb!!n communicators navigate shared systems composed of infrastructures
to succeed in their communications. Musical success may be defined by coordinating
textual, rhythmic, structural, and motoric production of a song sequence without
interruption, or by affirmation by listeners. In the remainder of this chapter, I expose
some of the enduring forms that DAKASBA members follow and manipulate when
making music. I begin with higher level phenomena such as musical events, and then
focus on smaller chunks, like songs and their underlying structures. My rhythmic
analysis is detailed, but I have left meticulous examination of melodic structure for the
future. I have chosen modified Western music notation to represent the sounds produced
by DAKASBA musicians with their instruments; this representational system captures
the elements I wish to highlight, and helps to "de-exoticize" African music (Agawu
1992; see also Agawu 2003).
A Musical Event
Overview
DAKASBA offered to put on a special performance for me with the
understanding that I would videotape it, an occasion similar to others where their target
audience may not be Ngiemb!!n. They expressed the goal of presenting a complete,
animated version of the Ka"n!"!n dance, and made sure that as many members as possible
185

would attend. This consisted of two parts–la phase du jour and la phase de la nuit–
wherein they performed sixteen songs drawn from their current repertoire, and wore
their gandouras (three-piece flowing robes) and multi-colored woven hats. Performances
for most other occasions would not include such a complete repertoire.
Bernard Melataya identified six of the sixteen songs they performed as very old,
perhaps having been part of the original repertoire when the Ka"n!"!n dance was first
imported from
Bamoun (songs 1, 4,
6, 7, 14, 15); see
Appendix B. He and
other members often
did not know the
composers of songs,
usually citing a
dance association or
generation as
originators.
Exceptions include
Interaction Between a DAKASBA Dancer and the Ma%ku"m
one composed by DAKASBA member Jean-Pierre Tchiaze (nicknamed "Terre
Mondiale"; song 3), one by Martin Teufa (a member who died in the late 1990s), and
another by a man in Batcham nicknamed "D Skin" in English, "Na" in Ngiemb!!n.
Melataya suggests that D Skin is a little like a griot, in that he composes songs alone,
186

and sings them to beg for money; because of a deformity in his legs, D Skin is unable to
perform other work.
DAKASBA uses six instruments in its performances. These include tse%tsa%’
(metal and raffia shakers), nd#"’ (wooden slit drum), mu! nka" and ma& nka" (small and
large cylindrical drums, respectively), k'i' fu"! (double metal bell), me%sh#a (wooden
overblown vertical flute), and the ndo%) (metal umpire's whistle); I discuss these
instruments in more detail below. In addition to instruments, other objects play
significant roles in performance. For example, dancers use machetes and machete
holders in stylized battle interactions and carry kola nuts in woven sacks. Photographs
of the deceased person who is the focus of a ceremony also play a part, as I described in
Chapter Four.
For some performances, including this one, a masked dancer makes an
appearance. The dancer who wears the mask is called ma%ku"m, and the mask is called
shy*o% ma%ku"m, "face of" the mask. It is constructed of a hard, black wood, and shows two
faces. In previous generations, the ma%ku"m served as a kind of policeman, exploiting his
bizarre appearance and mystique to frighten people from misbehaving. DAKASBA
maintains a degree of secrecy surrounding the functioning of the ma%ku"m, and only
certain members can wear the mask and costume. Though the masked dancer doesn't
become or represent a specific spirit, he plays a mystical role that inspires trepidation in
people in and around the performance venue.
Progression through the performance is controlled at three levels. At the level of
the total event, one formulaic song always marks the beginning and the end, "Sa'a
187

Ka"n!"!n," the text of which I presented at the beginning of Chapter One. The song leader
marks internal progression between songs by several sharp whistle blows, verbal calls,
and rapid movements of the shaker (tse%tsa%’). Finally, the song leader or master
choreographer calls for changes of dance steps and sections within songs through
gestures and vocal instructions. Figure 5.3 overviews a DAKASBA performance
event. 43
Figure 5.3. A DAKASBA Performance Event, July 8, 2002, Yaounde%
Preparatory Activities Introduction Main Body Ending
Arrival, donning regalia,
drinking beer, heating drum
heads on fire, hitting machete on
wall or post, ululation!
Movement
• Introductory
formula: "Sa'a
Ka"n!"!n"
• Instruments enter
188
Songs 2-16
[ma%ku"m enters with
song 6, "Y!!n y!%!n
mie n" ndeen mbı%]
• Sung solo
introduction
• Call & Response
song body
• Verbal, whistle, or
shaker cues mark
movement to next
song
• Ending
formula:
"Sa'a
Ka"n!"!n"
Performers and instruments interact in regular patterns in a Ka"n!"!n diurnal
performance (see Video Clip 11 for illustrations of this description). Area 1, the most
central in Figure 5.4, is occupied by the ma& nka", mu! nka", nd#’, me%sh#a, and their
players. All performers except that of the ma& nka" remain at their instruments during a
43 See Heth (1979), p. 133 for a parallel musical event description.

presentation; the improvising ma& nka" player has freedom to roam in close proximity to
his drum. In Area 2, the song leader, k'i’ fu"! player, and me%sh#a players stand or move
in approximate coordination with the dancers in Area 3; the song leader and the k'i’
fu"! player may be one and the same. Area 2 also seems to be a space where individual
dancers may improvise. As in many Ngiemb!!n dances, Ka"n!"!n association members
rotate slowly around the two inner spaces–in Area 3–while performing various ancillary
movements with their feet; most dancers simultaneously play a tse%tsa%’. Some steps are
associated with particular songs and help to mark transitions between the songs.
Figure 5.4. Division of Space at a Ka"n!"!n Performance
In Area 4, outside the regular circular movement of the majority of dancers,
single and paired performers periodically remove themselves to engage in stylized
interactions. An individual may exit the dance circle to hit his machete on a wall or
189

other solid object in order to make a loud sound. This is also the space in which dancers
meet in the mock battles I describe below. Though all of the areas are permeable–and
there is frequent movement between spaces–spectators (Area 5) seldom enter into the
dancing areas. In a night performance, association members build a fire next to the
inner percussion ensemble.
Rhythm Infrastructure
DAKASBA members contend that the sound that differentiates the Ka"n!"!n dance from
all other music is the rhythmic gestalt created by its two drums with skin heads
(DVNG03-08). In order to approach an understanding of how they conceive of and
generate these complex rhythms, I relied on insights gained from existing analyses of
rhythmic patterns of percussion ensembles, studies on the perception of rhythm,
interviews with performers, and multi-media supported analyses. In a discussion on
African rhythm, Nicholls (1992) states that "an exclusive focus on musical sound in
isolation, not only from dance but also from pertinent sociocultural factors such as
language and world view, may not only prevent an adequate understanding of the
African perception of musical time but also hinder the development of a framework of
analysis" (147). Though I now focus on musical sound, I heed Nicholls' warning by
grounding my treatment in performance, and bringing insights from previous chapters to
bear on my analyses.
Throughout these investigations, my own participation in musical events proved
an invaluable heuristic tool and touchstone. My primary involvement as a musical
190

contributor was as dancer and tsétsá’ player at DAKASBA rehearsals. Members view
this as the most basic level of participation, and they are all expected to be able to
perform adequately without individualized instruction; dancers normally play the same
six-pulse pattern on the tsétsá’ throughout an entire performance. However, as I
elaborate below, even this basic series of strokes requires command of intricate hand,
arm, and wrist movements, and not all members have mastered it. Rehearsals in which I
followed a simple dance step while playing the tsétsá’ allowed me to concentrate on
different elements of the performance, usually for uninterrupted periods of half an hour
or more. When Étienne Nota began giving me lessons on the drums, however, I knew
that I would not reach a level of expert knowledge that would allow a performer’s
intuition of rhythmic organization.
Thus, though my participation was necessary, it was not sufficient to arrive at
fundamental explanations; I turned to other researchers' insights to understand and
portray DAKASBA’s rhythmic production. Koetting (1986), for example, proposed a
“fastest pulse” model for the analysis of African rhythm. His approach suggests that
African musicians conceptualize the underlying pulse of their music according to the
shortest interval in a time cycle, and construct patterns by additive processes. Research
into rhythm perception (see, for example, Povel and Essens 1985; Fraisse 1978, 1982;
Eisler 1976) have shown, however, that people possess an underlying pulse clock that
best fits rhythmic patterns of medium duration that are then either subdivided or
concatenated. According to these studies, then, performers of African percussion
191

generate rhythmic patterns derived not from the shortest divisions of time, but from
divisions of medium duration, like those associated with dance steps.
Kofi Agawu, in a lecture at UCLA (1999), supported the importance of
attending to dance movement. He exhorted his listeners to avoid complicated concepts
such as additivity, cross-rhythm, and polymeter to describe African rhythms. Instead,
Agawu encouraged the researcher to look first at the dancers’ feet; therein lies the most
salient and useful cue for extracting the underlying pulse of the time span. Parncutt
(1994) and Todd and Lee (1994) have profitably incorporated this kind of motoric
component into their research on rhythm perception.
Listeners also use other cues to make sense of rhythm. Simha Arom (1991; see
also Rivière’s 1993 extension of Arom’s work) posits the existence of three basic
phenomena that mark rhythmic structure in African music: alteration of timbre,
alteration of intensity, and alteration of pitch. Other researchers have shown that
subjects, including infants, use these and other cues to structure their conceptions of
rhythmic grouping and phrase structure in music (see, for example, Deliège 1987;
Jusczyk and Krumhansl 1993).
Building on these insights, I took the following steps, capsulized in Figure 5.6.
On July 8, 2002, I videotaped the performance that DAKASBA arranged for my benefit,
which I describe above (DVNG02-01). Three weeks later, I watched this videotape with
three of the group’s leaders–Prosper Djiafeua (conseiller spécial), Bernard Melataya
(président), and Jean-Pierre Tametsa (maître choriste). Whenever the videotaped
performance moved to a new song, I stopped the video player and recorded these three
192

men singing that song. To initiate the rhythm analysis, I chose one song, “Gw!% goon
mba !% ju%’” (“Don’t speak unless you understand”) to serve as a referent for the
percussion parts. On a later date, I videotaped Étienne Nota, the group’s maître batteur,
playing each instrument while listening to this recording. In this way, I was able to
listen to each instrument in relationship to the same points in the same song.
Figure 5.5. Genetic Relationships of Recordings Used for Musical Analyses
Recorded Event A Features Uses
DAKASBA Day and Night Phases,
normal meeting site. July 8, 2002
Medium: Digital videotape (DVNG02-
01)
Integral, holistic,
intensifying
193
• Determine markers of progression
through event
• Determine material objects
• Determine configurations and
movements of participants
• Watch with selected participants
for explanations, reactions
Recorded Event B Features Uses
Three DAKASBA leaders sing songs originally
performed in videotape above. July 27, 2002
Medium: Digital audio to hard drive (CDNG02-01)
Analytical, selective,
inhibiting
Recorded Event C Features Uses Recorded
Event D
Étienne Nota plays
all instruments
while listening to
one song. May 4
& 11, 2004
Medium: Digital
video (DVNG04-
06)
Analytical,
selective,
inhibiting
Analyze
rhythm
Étienne Nota
plays tsétsá'
while listening
to all songs.
Oct 30, 2003
Medium:
Digital audio to
hard drive
(CDNG03-01)
• Transcribe lyrics
• Transcribe melodies
Features Uses
Analytical,
selective,
inhibiting
Transcribe
lyrics and
melodies

I initially hoped to use this process to distill basic, prototypical rhythmic patterns
for each instrument, following Arom's treatment of Banda horn ensembles (1991).
However, I found that players may produce a number of valid patterns during a
performance, governed by their abilities and the aesthetic requirements of responding to
other players' strokes. In fact, Nota has developed hierarchies of sequences that he uses
in teaching novice drummers, ordered by degree of difficulty. For this analytical
exercise, I asked Nota to play one or two patterns consistently throughout the song,
neither the simplest nor the most complex. He was able to do this with every instrument
except the ma& nka" (large drum), on which he felt compelled to elaborate; this confirmed
my understandings of this drum as requiring a greater level of improvisation than other
instruments. Thus, when taken together, the patterns shown below represent one
possible rhythmic configuration at a given point during a performance, but reveal
nothing about flow and variability throughout the development of a song.
For each instrument, I will describe the construction materials, playing
techniques, a representative rhythmic pattern, and any special roles it plays in the
ensemble. Where relevant in presentations of the rhythm patterns, I describe the point of
articulation (where on the drum contact is made), the manner of articulation (which part
of the body is used, and what the player does with it), dynamics, timbre, and pitch.
194

Underlying pulse
Because of the complexities involved in perceiving rhythm discussed above,
deriving the underlying structure required continual switches of perspective between
instrument patterns, song structure, and dance steps. I began with the predominant
dance step as my primary time division. The following figure depicts the solid, regular
placement of the feet, during the simplest, unelaborated dance step, illustrated in Video
Clip 12.
Figure 5.6. Simple Dance Steps
Right Up Right Back Left Up Left Back
I then listened to the various instruments and vocal melody to determine the
smallest time units into which these steps could be divided; the time taken for each step
corresponded to at most three pulse realizations by another instrument or voice. I then
looked for patterns of repetition in the instruments, and found that the longest consisted
of twelve pulses. Thus, the foundation upon which all of my analyses of rhythm,
melody, and form rest is a time span divided into twelve equal pulses, as represented in
Figure 5.7. Nketia (1974) and others present such spans as fundamental organizing
chunks, and my research confirms this in the case of DAKASBA performance.
Figure 5.7. Basic Time Span
= 138
195

The three DAKASBA members whom I recorded in a removed context
(Recorded Event B) sang Song 12 (“Ngw! goon mba !% ju%”, Audio Clip 8) at this tempo;
Audio Clip 9–the same song performed with all group members–reveals a faster speed,
Nd#"$
= 152.
The nd#"$ is a wooden slit drum played with two wooden beaters (pu"$u). The nd#"$
player sits on a low stool, holding the drum between his knees or steadied on the ground
between his feet, striking its two lips with the beaters. He hits the closest, highest
pitched lip with the stick in his left hand, and the farther, lower pitched lip with that in
his right. I have documented instruments whose two pitches differ by a major second
and another by a major third. Nota enumerates a base number of eight rhythmic patterns
realizable by a nd#"$ player, with more possible, depending on his skill. The patterns
cover a range of between six and twelve underlying pulses. Figure 5.8 shows his third
pattern, illustrated in Video Clip 13:
Figure 5.8. Nd#"$ Pattern
196
Legend
R = Right hand
L = Left Hand

My listening to nd#"$ playing during a performance suggests that there is
normally little variation or development of the patterns. In other words, when a player
begins with a certain rhythm, he is likely to continue it throughout that song.
Samuel Fotio Playing
the Tsétsá'
Tse%tsa%’
Prosper Tane Playing the
Nd#’
The tse%tsa%’ is a metal or raffia shaken idiophone, played either in pairs or singly.
This is the only Ka"n!"!n instrument that I’ve seen played by women. I here describe
DAKASBA’s predominant shaker pattern, as seen in Video Clip 14.
197
Mu! Nka" and Ma& Nka"

Figure 5.9. Tse%tsa%’ Pattern
Legend
marcato accent dry, staccato roll
down movement down then up movement
This notation describes a downward movement of the hand with an abrupt stop,
resulting in a marcato accent. The hand then pushes quickly down and up and slightly
around, producing a quick, dry, staccato stroke. The sequence concludes with a roll. The
player bends his or her wrist very little.
Mu! nka"
This cow-skin covered, hand struck wooden drum–along with its larger partner,
the ma& nka"–occupies a physically and symbolically central place during a performance.
Together they create the rhythmic pattern that defines the Ka"n!"!n sound to Ngiemb!!n
listeners. The mu! nka" is referred to as the accompanist, in contrast to the solo ma& nka".
198

Figure 5.10. Mu! nka" Pattern
Legend
slap ghosted
open (tone) accented open
The mu! nka" player begins this pattern by hitting the drum head about an inch
from the center with the fleshy part of the top two sections of his fingers on his right
hand. The fingers rest on the head for a brief moment, letting high frequencies sound,
but suppressing the fundamental. Percussionists commonly call this a slap (see, for
example, Kofi and Neely 1997:7). The second stroke consists of the left hand hitting the
head about an inch from the center with the fleshy part of all of his fingers, with
increased force, and immediately removing it. This allows all frequencies to vibrate, and
following convention, I refer to it as an open, or tone articulation. After this open
stroke, the drummer touches the head lightly with the tips of the fingers of his right
hand, producing a muted, or ghosted, sound; this stroke is also referred to as floating
hand. The smallest sequence concludes with a non-accented open stroke by the left
hand. Video Clip 15 shows Étienne Nota playing this pattern.
Ma& nka"
Members refer to this large drum as the soloist, and its player enjoys the greatest
degree of freedom in improvisation of movement, playing technique, and rhythmic
199

sequences. During a performance, the player may leave the instrument for periods of
time to dance or interact with other participants, and sometimes uses flamboyant
movements or sudden volleys of fast strokes that draw attention to his virtuosity. To the
fairly limited strokes of the smaller drum, the ma& nka" player may add elbow
articulations and subtle modifications through finger damping, including those that
allow various clearly-pitched formants to emerge. Nota enumerated nine patterns for
this instrument, but said there could be many, many more, depending on the drummer’s
competence. I’ve here noted the fourth pattern in his hierarchy, as shown in Video Clip
16. Notation conventions are the same as those for the mu! nka".
Figure 5.11. Ma& nka Pattern
K'i’ Fu"! or Nzeme Mmo%
The k'i' fu"! is a metallic idiophone with two bells, struck by a wooden beater.
The pitches of the two bells are typically an interval close to a major second apart (for
example, B and Db). Though its name as an isolated object is nzeme (‘behind’) mmo%
(‘thing’), people more often refer to the instrument as k'i' fu"!, a reference to its sacred
use in royal dance ensembles (fu"! = 'king'). When the king wishes to announce his
arrival for a traditional ceremony, for example, one of his counselors will play a k'i'
fu"!. Both the entrance to the Balessing kingdom and King Fouamene's welcome house
carry paintings of this instrument. Nota lists only one rhythmic pattern as part of his
200

instructional repertoire, though he acknowledges that performers at less advanced levels
of competence produce others. Video Clip 17 presents this pattern.
Figure 5.12. K'i' Fu"! Pattern
L R R R
Bernard Tenzem Playing the
K'i’ Fu"!
Figure 5.13 presents a composite view of the rhythms produced by percussion
instruments in a DAKASBA performance.
201

Figure 5.13. Composite View of Instrument Patterns
Nd#"’ (slit drum)
Ma& nka" (large drum)
Mu! nka" (small drum)
Tse%tsa%’ (shaker)
K'i' fu"! or nzeme mmo% (double bell)
Predominant beat for dancers
Underlying pulse
Occasionally Sounded Instruments
In addition to the percussion instruments described above, three other sound
producing objects play important roles in the performance of a Ka"n!"!n dance: the
wooden me%sh#a vertical whistle, the metal whistle (ndo%!, or sifflet in French), and pairs
of machetes (nne'). The me%sh#a can produce two pitches, normally a minor third apart
202

(F# and A, G# and B, F and G# – from instruments
on three DAKASBA recordings), controlled by
covering and uncovering two small holes on the side
of the instrument. It is used as a signal for dancers to
congregate and begin dancing, and sounds throughout
the performance as a symbolic call to arms;
proficient performers can produce a piercing timbre.
The metal whistle, manufactured for use in refereeing
sporting events, produces one pitch, and is used in
part to signal the beginning of a new song or dance step.
In addition to their clear historical reference to the Ka"n!"!n dance’s warrior roots,
dancers also exploit machetes to produce sonic and visual signs of power. Throughout a
performance, dancers will occasionally meet in mock battle interactions. In this
simulated skirmish (an example of which appears in Video Clip 18), two dancers
approach each other with machetes raised in their right hands, and hit them together to
make a clang. One of the dancers then moves his machete between the arm and head of
the other, into his left hand. The two perform this process once or twice more. After the
final hit, they release each other from their crossed arms by each taking their machete in
their left hand and parting. Prosper Djiafeua describes the effect this way:
Generally, when we cross iron on iron, sparks fly. That shows the power of the
group, the warriors. Because if we continue to place ourselves in the logic of the
warrior dance, when we have power, the enemy is scared! Sparks fly up!
Because today there is no longer war in that sense, this gives a coloration,
203
Robert Tido Playing the
Ldærgÿ`

gestures permit the dance to have a certain hauteur, nobility. It accentuates the
dance, and differentiates it from a smooth dance like women’s dances. This is a
virile masculine dance! (Djiafeua 2002a; translation mine).
Thus, the occasionally sounded instruments in the ensemble play functional
roles–such as marking movement between sections or calling dancers together–and in
Stylized Battle Interaction
204
evoking associations with warrior
themes. They may share "similarly
shaped" (Bourdieu 1977:95) structuring
structures with the occasional musical
events I discussed in Chapter Three.
That is, instruments like the whistle are
played in part to mark movement from
one section of a performance to another,
always on the backdrop of the rest of
the percussion instruments. In a similar
way, the nkem legwé is performed to mark passage in a person's life from society with
earthly beings to that with ancestors, on the background of regular, periodic events.
General comments on rhythm.
As in many West African percussion ensembles, attending to an individual
instrument foregrounds its duple or triple feel, a phenomenon common in the resulting
multiple rhythmic gestalt (see Kofi and Neeley 1997:15). Musical roles of individual

instruments in this Ka"n!"!n ensemble, however, contrast markedly from those of other
"hot" ensembles in West Africa (Merriam 1958). For example, instead of playing an
invariant pattern that serves as a constant reference throughout a song (Kubik
1998:310), the Ka"n!"!n double bell plays only an accompanying role. Consistent,
organized, accurate performance depends, rather, on the chronometric consistency of the
mu! nka" player (Nota and Keula 2003).
Another observation about rhythmic production relates to a second bell pattern,
audible in Audio Clip 10:
Figure 5.14. Coincident Bell Pattern
It may be that this sequence requires less cognitive mastery of the rhythmic organization
of the Ka"n!"!n percussion: it consists of only a three-stroke repetition over six pulses, at
the beginning of the time span. As evident in the figure above, this results in soundings
coincident with the beginnings of each of the other rhythmic elements; Nota’s first bell
pattern covers twelve pulses, and depending on the point in the cycle at which he begins
this pattern, it may seldom line up with the other sequences.
Song Infrastructure
DAKASBA instrument players create a rhythmic foundation upon which singers anchor
the performance of the group's songs. These singers access another structured floating
205

esource, DAKASBA's song repertoire, that relates to the instrumental foundation, but
that possesses its own internal logic as well. In this section, I delineate the features and
ranges of variation that characterize DAKASBA's actualization of the Ngiemb!!n
Ka"n!"!n musical genre. I will do this through analysis of its songs' overall forms,
melodies, tempos, pitch shift, vocal techniques, improvisation, harmony, and song texts.
I base this presentation on transcription and analysis of the corpus of sixteen songs that
I recorded in Recording Event B (see Figure 5.5 above and Appendix E), the analytical
recordings of these songs in Events C and D, and additional performances of eight of
them. I also watched the primordial integral Recording Event A from which the other
recordings emanated to note variations. I begin with the full transcription of one song,
to which I will refer in subsequent discussions. Appendix E contains summary
information of all the songs on which I base these analyses.
One Song
In the following transcription, I use a modified form of Western notation, which
requires only a few explanatory comments. First, the key signature does not imply a
diatonic or other scale with concomitant roles (for example, dominant, sub-dominant);
the flats simply describe the notes’ positions in relation to each other in aural space.
Second, the time signature does not imply that notes falling on specific beats will be
expected to express certain accents, as they would in some music with roots in
European art music. Third, the dotted lines demarcate the time span, and should not be
read as measures. I've included the tse%tsa%4 strokes at the top of each page in order to
206

give a rhythmic touchstone to the melody. Finally, my purpose in including this
transcription is to give a glimpse of the structure and time organization of a song. I have
thus not notated slight variations in pitch, vocal timbre, or ornamentation. Audio Clip 8
is the analytical recording of the three DAKASBA members from which I produced this
transcription. Audio Clip 9 is another recording of the same song, with the entire group
performing.
207

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Figure 5.15. Transcription of Melody of Song 12 (“Ngw! goon mba !% ju%”)
÷
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(CDNG02-01:12)
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DAKASBA 2002
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5 Section 2
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J
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.
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ngw! g!!n mba ! ju$ ee gwa g!!n lee ngw! g!!n
mb!! gwa g!!n gwa g!!n lee ngw! g!!n
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!
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J J
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mba ! ju$ o mb!! gwa g!!n ke% ngw! g!!n mba !% ju%$ e gwa g!!n lee
mba ! ju$ o mb!! gwa g!!n gwa g!!n lee
7 Section 1
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bb bb 8
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÷
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ngw! g!!n mba ! ju$ o mb!! gwa g!!n
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ke ngw! g!!n mba ! ju$ o
!
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ke ngw! g!!n mb!! ju$ o o nna meshu
mb!! gwa g!!n mb!! gwa g!!n
!
Û Û Û . ! Û.
Û Û Û . Û.
209
÷ ? Û Û Û .
Û Û Û .
Û. Û. Û Û Û .
Û Û Û .
Û. Û. Û Û Û .
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bb bb œ J
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Figure 5.15, continued
9
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DAKASBA 2002
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f!- g! mb!! gwa g!!n mag so) so) o mb!! gwa g!!n
10
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11 Section 2
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12
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gwa g!!n lee gwa g!!n mba ! ju$ o mb!! gwa g!!n
210
- 4 -
- 4 -

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DAKASBA 2002
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21 11
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Figure 5.15, continued
13
14 Section 1
15
16 Section 2
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17
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DAKASBA 2002
- 6 -
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212
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gwa g!!n lee gwa g!!n mba ! ju$ o mb!! gwa g!!n ke ngw! g!!n
gwa g!!n lee gwa g!!n mba ! ju$ o mb!! gwa g!!n
mba ! ju$ e gwa g!!n lee gwa g!!n mba ! ju$ o
!
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gwa g!!n lee gwa g!!n mba ! ju$ o mb!! gwa g!!n
Mi- nute!
Figure 5.16 contains translation of a portion of the lyrics.
œ J œ J œ œ

Figure 5.16. Text Excerpt from Song 12 (“Ngw! goon mba !% ju%”; choral response
indented)
Ngiemb!!n English
Ngw# g##n mba # ju’ oo Don’t speak unless you’ve understood
Mb## gwa g##n Why have you spoken?
Ke ngw# g##n mba # ju’ oo Don’t speak unless you’ve understood
Mb## gwa g##n Why have you spoken?
W# g&a maya ma’a lem oo Who will announce our news to Maya?
Mb## gwa g##n Why have you spoken?
Shwo! pape pap#b# Tell our companions
Mb## gwa g##n Why have you spoken?
Tametsa’ ya loo Tametsa saw
Mb## gwa g##n Why have you spoken?
W# l#g pa ngy.e ma’a lem oo Who will announce the news to Pa ngy3e?
Mb## gwa g##n Why have you spoken?
Njy.o mejwo! ne ju’oo Chomejoung is listening
Song Form
Each song that DAKASBA members perform consists primarily of an
individual call marked by various degrees of improvisation, and an essentially uniform
response by the rest of the members. Structurally, the leader's improvised texts in this
corpus last longer than the response in four of the sixteen songs, shorter in nine, and
take up the same amount of time in three. Overlap between calls and their responses
may take several forms. First, the caller may anticipate his entry point, intoning a
vocable a few pulses before the response is completed (as in Song 10). Second, the
responders may anticipate their entry point by joining the caller at the end of his section
(Song 12, shown in system 3 of the transcription above; Audio Clip 8). Finally, some
songs include structural overlap, wherein the call section continues into the response
(Songs 2 and 5).
213

Ten of the sixteen songs in this corpus exhibit a simple form in which an
introduction followed by a repeated call and response pattern constitutes the entire body
of the song. The analytical performance of "Yi)e le% kwo mbo)o"–"Go with a good
foot," or "Bon voyage" (Song 3)–for example, consists of the following overall form:
Figure 5.17. Form of Song 3 ("Yi)e le% kwo mbo)o")
Intro Song Body
Call A A B A B B B B B
Rsp A A A A A A
Song Body
Call B B B B B
Rsp A A A A A
Figure 5.17 describes the song as beginning with two iterations of phrase A,
followed by phrase B, which is derived from phrase A. The singers then respond with
phrase A, and the B call/A response pattern repeats nine times until the end of the
performance. This figure does not show the song leader's improvised modifications of
phrase B.
The transcription in Figure 5.15 above illustrates another form category
represented in the corpus, that of compound songs. In addition to the call and response
sections in simple songs, compound songs include one or two additional segments,
which may include extended melodic phrases without call and response. Song 12
consists of call and response sections interspersed with a homorhythmic, usually unison,
refrain.
214

Figure 5.18. Form of Song 12 (“Ngw! g!!n mba ! ju”)
Section 1
Call A A A A A A A
Rsp B B B B B B B
Section 2
Call C A C A
Rsp DB DB
Section 1
Call A A A A A A A
Rsp B B B B B B B
Section 2
Call C A C A
Rsp DB DB
Section 1
Call A A A A
Rsp B B B B
Section 2
Call C A C A
Rsp DB DB
In this presentation, the song leader and responders immediately begin a series
of seven phrase A calls followed by a B response. The leader initiates Section 2 with
phrase C, which is derived from phrase A; the other singers respond with the new
phrase D, followed by phrase B. The sequence is then repeated twice, with variation in
215

the number of call and response pairs in the penultimate performance of Section 1.
Again, this figure does not reveal variations in the leader's improvised calls, which are
evident in the transcription in Figure 5.15.
An interesting textural variation related to form occurs in Song 12. The end of
system 7 in the transcription marks the beginning of the second instance of Section 1.
During an integral performance of this song, the instrumentalists all cease playing, and
the leader sings a series of proverbs, giving counsel to the listeners. Figure 5.19
includes examples of proverbs sung during this section in Song 12.
Figure 5.19. Proverbs in Counseling Section of Song 12
Ngiemb!!n English
Nna meshu laa
f!g!.
Mbw!$ nde) la
mag so) so).
Lefa) zse nta)a
magum.
"A friend's back is never empty." I.e. A person with friends can never truly be
alone.
"When a stalk of bamboo is pulled, it slowly diminishes until it is gone." I.e. Every
person's life will come to an end.
"The sky is witness to the crow." As a crow flies with his back always to the sun,
so a person must trust someone at his back. The wounds we sometimes see on the
crow's back remind us that we should be trustworthy friends.
DAKASBA drew on the same structural reinforcement of an anti-AIDS message
in a song derived from this one, Song 13. When they sing this idea–in French–the
accompanying percussion stops: "To avoid AIDS, let's use the condom."
Other notable textural contrasts occur between the melody's call and response
sections. The caller performs in a higher register, makes more step-wise intervallic
movements, and utilizes more notes than the performers singing the more stable
216

efrains. This underlines the different characteristics of each infrastructure, with the
simpler vocal response providing a stable support to the more dynamic, flexible call.
The singers terminated each song I recorded in analytical Recording Event B by
calling out, "Minute!" This is a shortened form of "Cinq Minutes!", which, during an
integral performance, marks the beginning of an animated period of instrumental
improvisation and dancing, without singing. Bernard Melataya says that during this
period between songs, "each dancer must give their all, because the lyrics are finished.
Strike the machete, shake the castanets–it's time for instrumental music. In the case of
Ka"n!"!n music, when someone says 'cinq minutes,' we say that we're in another world.
Everyone will use their own, personal music to attract the attention of spectators, and to
add 'magic' to the milieu" (2004).
DAKASBA members adapt their production to the contexts in which they
perform, which allows song leaders to change and add call phrases, and revisit
homophonic sections when such exist. This resulted in integral performances being
significantly longer than analytical ones.
Melody
Melodic rhythm. Every phrase that DAKASBA vocalists sing references the
underlying pulse produced by the instrumentalists. Because some patterns of the ma& nka"
and tsétsá' are spread out over twelve pulses, I have chosen to present the instrumental
patterns in relation to a twelve-pulse cycle (see Figure 5.7 above). Melodies, however,
follow a rhythmic organization that suggests a basic cycle of six pulses. Figure 5.20
217

shows that five of the songs have call and response patterns that are divided into odd
segments, namely three cycles for the call, and five for the response.
Figure 5.20. Rhythmic Organization of Call and Response Groupings
(Song 1 is non-metric)
Number of 6-pulse Cycles
Call Response Total
(Call + Response)
218
Found in These Songs
3 5 8 2, 3, 11, 14, 16
4 4 8 4
2 6 8 5, 8, 10
10 8 18 6
2 2 4 9, 15
2 1 3 7, 12, 13
The internal divisions of a phrase are determined in part by the number of
syllables that the improvising song leader wishes to complete within the phrase length
of the call. Normally, the placement of each syllable corresponds to an actualization of a
point in the six-pulse cycle. The second call in System 3 in the transcription above is an
example of a melodic line in which each of the six pulses coincides with a sung
syllable. Two exceptions to this basic practice exist. First, as evidenced in the initial call
of System 2 above, the singer may ignore the individual pulses and simply squeeze the
desired number of syllables into the cycle length; in this case, four syllables are sung in
the space normally reserved for three pulses. Second, song leaders may maintain a
direct connection to the six-pulse cycle, but divide it in two, thus producing twelve fast
beats–16 th notes–over three pulses.

Tonal inventory. To discover the meaningful intervals used in DAKASBA song
melodies and exploited by improvising vocalists, I analyzed my transcriptions of the
melodies of the sixteen-song corpus of Recording Event B, aided by melograms of the
recordings produced with a computer program called Melody Analyzer. 44 In my
transcriptions, I represented notes using the closest points on standard Western staves. I
then employed Melody Analyzer to determine the frequencies of these pitches (in
Hertz), and the distance between the notes (i.e. intervals, expressed in hectocents).
Because DAKASBA performers never refer to a fixed pitch instrument when
performing, absolute pitch reveals nothing of the structural resources and patterns of
Ngiemb!!n melody; the frequent rise in pitch during a song also attests to the relative
nature of pitch. Following Chenoweth (1972) and Avery (2004), then, I take the
interval–the aural distance between two pitches–as the fundamental manipulable unit of
melodic grammar.
This process entailed several complicating factors. First, because Melody
Analyzer–like perhaps all melody analysis technologies–works well only with
monophonic sounds, I was restricted to Recording Event B materials. As I mention
above, three DAKASBA musicians sang the sixteen songs without instrumental
accompaniment, which resulted in both metric inconsistency and even intervallic
anomalies when compared to more integral recordings of the same songs. As a further
hurdle, occasional harmonies rendered those sections undecipherable by the computer
program. Second, of the two singers who led the songs–i.e. who performed the
44 Dr. Tom Avery developed the software.
219

improvised call phrases–one was more competent than the other, according to other
DAKASBA members who listened to the recordings with me. Thus, some parts of the
recordings may contain mistakes. Third and finally, because performance of a song
often includes occasional and irregular movement of the tonal reference point (usually
in an upwards direction), performers produce unusual, unstable intervals during
transition periods.
I was able to counteract these problems by selectively choosing the objects of
my study. Specifically, when I came across uncommon intervals or other features, if I
found that they were produced in a structurally unstable portion of the song, or by a less
competent singer, I did not include the anomaly in my analysis. In some cases–for
example, when I encountered an irregular rhythmic pattern in a melody–I referred to an
integral recording of the same song to disambiguate a section of a recording.
I found that the most common tonal inventory drawn upon by these songs was a
set of five tones (excluding octave duplications), containing no semi-tone intervals. In
other words, the Ngiemb!!n often draw on an anhemitonic pentatonic scale to create
melodies. Figure 5.21 shows the inventory from Song 1, with the notes on the Western
staff in the bass clef (the range in which the men sang), the tonal center (TC) marked
with a rectangle, the actual frequencies of the vibrations of the notes in Hertz (number
of vibrations per second), and the distance between these notes and the TC, given in
hectocents. In 1885, Alexander Ellis published an article presenting his logarithmically-
based formulation of measurement of distances between pitches, in units he called cents.
A hectocent is simply 100 cents, which results in shorter numbers (1 hectocent versus
220

100 cents), and corresponds to semitones (i.e. the distance between contiguous notes in
a twelve-note chromatic scale).
Figure 5.21. Tonal Inventory of Song 1
Freq (Hz) 138 155 180 204 230
Hectocents 7 5 2 0 2
Determining the tonal center of a piece–the tone that acts as a primary reference
point for melodic movement, and plays important functional roles in a piece–helped me
understand the syntactic structure of Ngiemb!!n melodies. Following Chenoweth (1972)
and Avery (2004), I looked for the tone (or tones) that occurred most frequently, had
the longest durations, and occurred in important places, such as the beginnings and
endings of phrases and songs. I will analyze the melodic grammar of these songs in
future endeavors.
Ornamentation. Glides up to and down from stable pitches occur most frequently
during ascending movement in choral responses. For example, movement from the Bb
to the F in the response "mb!! gwa g!!n" depicted in Figure 5.15 above invariably
involves an upward glide. Audio Clip 11 contains an example of the responders in
Song 1 gliding both up and down.
Tempo
Tempo was constant for the duration of each song that I recorded, and ranged
from = 126 to = 160. When DAKASBA sang some of these songs with a full
221

musical contingent in the studio, some were at a faster tempo, some were slower, and
some were identical. The correlation between tempo and integrality of a performance is
thus uncertain.
Pitch Shift
Eleven of the instantiations of the DAKASBA repertoire exhibit upward
movement of the pitch framework from the beginning of the song to the end. The
modulation ranges from a few barely discernible cents, to 300 cents. Studio recordings
of Songs 8 and 15 show the repeated pattern of a steady pitch rise followed by a drop to
a point near the first pitch. The song leader does this by periodically starting his call at
a slightly higher point; those who sing the response follow his lead. This practice is
more common in integral performances, which leads me to believe that raising the tone
is a means (or result) of adding emotional energy to the performance. When the song
leader reaches an uncomfortable limit in his vocal range or endurance, he brings it back
down. I hope to perform further research to test this hypothesis. Seeger's discussion of
rising pitch in Suyá songs suggests other avenues for exploration, especially that of
Ngiemb!!n musical aesthetics (Seeger 2004:88-103).
Vocal Techniques
While the most common vocal timbre is relaxed and clear, singers modify their
production in two ways. First, common to both DAKASBA and Pu! Manzo) singing is
a vocal quality that I label glottal flutter, in which the singer rapidly opens and closes
222

his glottis. 45 Audio Clip 12 presents an example of two singers creating this effect.
Yodeling, as exemplified in Audio Clip 13, is a second, less frequent technique.
Extra-melodic vocal products include ululation, which both men and women
accomplish by emitting a single, high pitch while hitting their hand gently on their
mouth. Performers and observers ululate both to exhibit joy and to communicate
encouragement to other participants. Video Clip 6 of the Lene)e Mbo) dance
association includes many examples of ululation. I will also note here that the intensity
of production seldom varies in DAKASBA performances. Members maintain a
relatively loud volume throughout.
Improvisation
The song leader appears to approach his improvised call logogenically–that is,
conceiving a poetic idea to verbalize, imagining a melodic structure that can hold the
idea, and then performing it. This improvisatory freedom allows the song leader to
adapt his lyrics to his context, as well as to show off his capabilities. He may sing
words or phrases in several languages to demonstrate his mastery of poetic language.
Harmony
DAKASBA performers produce more than one concurrent note in two primary
contexts. First, overlap between the end of a call and the beginning of a response often
results in harmonic coincidence. Second, responders sometimes sing lines that move
45 The effect resembles that of the sound made by young boys imitating machine gunfire.
223

parallel to the melody refrain, conforming to the song's tonal inventory. These
secondary lines sometimes rejoin the melody to produce a unison. I have not yet
investigated how Ngiemb!!n performers conceptualize the relationships between the
simultaneously sounded notes.
Song Texts
In order to hear lyrics and melodies clearly, I rely on analytical Recording Event
B. Ferdinand Doumtsop transcribed the song texts, translated them into French, and
provided some commentary.
Muntu References. Lyrics of the sixteen songs that comprise DAKASBA's
current repertoire refer by name to numerous people, both living and dead. The
improvising caller in one song, for example, invokes names eleven times (some are
repeated), constituting over half of his singing time (CDNG02-01:07). Among those
mentioned in the songs are living members of DAKASBA, living and dead kings of
Batcham, kings important in the distant history of the Ngiemb!!n people, and figures
related to the development of the Ka"n!"!n dance.
The muntu chosen by the Ka"n!"!n song leaders reflect and reinforce two of the
foundational characteristics of Bamiléké cultures. First, they call on authority figures–
royalty and gods, both living and dead; these focus on hierarchical relationships.
Second, the list contains people related to Ka"n!"!n. This does not refer exclusively or
even primarily to the dance itself, but to the lu"), the group that performs the dance and
helps each other; here, the focus is on solidarity relationships. People whose social roles
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contain major elements of both hierarchy and solidarity bring the imprimatur of an
authority figure to bear on DAKASBA. The group must pay homage to the current
authorities, but can gain even higher authority by appealing to respected rulers who
originally brought Ka"n!"!n to Batcham. Figure 5.22 presents this analysis.
Figure 5.22. Muntu Addressed in DAKASBA Songs
Name Description Living/
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dead
Fu! So)kw+( Current king of Batcham Alive !
Tata) Former king of Batcham, who died
in 2002 after 36 years in power
Fu! Bamoun An unnamed leader of the Bamoun
people
Fu! Sa"’a Chief of the Batcham community in
Yaoundé
Ke(mdo) Renowned dancer in Batcham
Pank'i nkem
nda%’a
(Bazinmbab neighborhood)
Dead !
Hierarchy
Focus
Dead ! !
Alive !
Dead !
Neighborhood leader in Batcham Alive? !
Ma%lem Ndı%ku%n Warrior who brought Ka"n!"!n to the
Ngiemb!!n
Ma%lem Nkazı%lı% Warrior who brought Ka"n!"!n to the
Ngiemb!!n
Dead ! !
Dead ! !
Fy*a Nte"mpf#% Elite from Batcham Dead 2002 !
Ti‘ ngem fu! Tiguemfouo. Tametsa's (singer)
mother
Dead !
Fu"! Maya Name of god at a sacred water flow Alive !
Prosper Nj#’a%f#"a Special counsel, DAKASBA Alive !
Mela%’ta’ngya%
Bernard
President, Master Choreographer of
DAKASBA
Alive !
Tsinda Moi*se President of honor, DAKASBA Alive !
Solidarity
Focus

Figure 5.22, continued
Yimet#!’ also
known as njy*o
mejw!%)
Tametsa' Jean
Pierre
An influential member of
DAKASBA
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Alive,
living in
Douala
Treasurer, choral master, DAKASBA Alive !
Manpla nt#’lo) A renowned Ka"n!"!n dancer Alive,
living in
Batcham
M!!nfu! Ti’nd!(’ A renowned Ka"n!"!n dancer Dead !
Te&njya mbe%) Bernard Melataya's father in
Dy*e fu"! ndua)a
nj#’
Sakali&+ Yemnz'e(
(Yemze Isaac)
Batcham
Alive ! !
Famous man in Batcham Dead !
A renowned Ka"n!"!n dancer in
Batcham
Yesy+%b Tangetch# An important merchant Alive,
Alive !
living in
Bafoussam
The manner in which the singers refer to these personalities highlights the fact
that regardless of their status as alive or dead, or where they are geographically, they
are part of a process of communication: "Fon Sonkwa is listening," "Tchinda Moïse is
listening" (CDNG02-01:02). The exact nature of this communication remains unclear.
When I asked two DAKASBA members whether, for example, a dead king was actually
present and listening when they sang his name, they responded negatively (Nota and
Keula 2003). For them, he was only present in the sense that his memory remains in
their minds. However, traditional beliefs include the continued existence of ancestors
and spirits, and their occasional interaction with the living (Ngouane 1983).
!
!
!

Furthermore, many people in the closely related cultures of the Northwest Province
attest to the presence of ancestors at their death celebrations (Jindra 1997). Thus, I
expect that further investigation would reveal a wide range of individual
conceptualizations regarding the exact nature of the ancestors' involvement in
performance, related to parameters of cosmopolitan and traditional values.
My explicit questions regarding why certain people's names are called resulted
primarily in assertions that those people deserve honor. Djiafeua (2003b) offered a
comment that partially unpacks what it means to honor someone: "L'évocation n'est pas
gratuite!" ("Calling someone's name isn't a free gift!") In other words, the song leader
doesn't have to take anyone else into account when he calls someone's name. He takes
stock of where he is and who is there, and invokes the names of the people he feels are
most important to the occasion. Thus, naming someone in a song attests to the two
Bamiléké strains of competition and solidarity, a core tension engendering Bamiléké
dynamism. A muntu must earn the right to be invoked, but within a highly cohesive
social context.
Values Communicated. In addition to transcribing song texts, Ferdinand
Doumtsop isolated both direct references to proverbs and other value-rich language, and
statements that refer obliquely to Ngiemb!!n ideals. Many of the songs explicitly state
that they are communicating advice and warnings to their listeners: "Love each other.
Who will take this message to Batcham? Who will take this message to Balena?"
(CDNG02-1:02). A brief survey of these themes, most of which I list in Figure 5.23,
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eveals an overwhelming emphasis on promulgating attitudes and actions that lead to
social harmony.
Figure 5.23. Themes and Proverbs in DAKASBA Songs
He who detests another's children is bound to suffer.
Everyone is destined to die, so there is no use hating someone else's children.
A friend can be more than a brother, though friendship can be ephemeral, and brotherhood is eternal.
Understanding between people liberates the world.
May the dead have a good voyage to heaven.
Man destroys man.
At least build a house, otherwise you'll be buried in the field.
Share happiness with your brothers, because life has many obstacles.
Human beings are good, and we have many good examples to follow.
If you hate other people's children, you will have a bad end, as will your children.
Everything on earth is destined to die. You can't avoid death.
A person's death should be marked by music and dancing.
There is joy for those born Ngiemb!!n.
When someone dies, the whole community must take care of those who are left.
What curse caused this death?
Whoever you are, death has no favorites and takes the good as well as the bad.
A person loves his village.
Only the jujube [an afromomum, in the family zingibarcea], called ndend#m is the mystical force of
the Ngiemb!!n. It symbolizes peace and simplicity.
Don't do sorcery.
Money brings a curse and misfortune.
Be just and honest, avoid treachery. Give witness only to what you have seen.
Avoid everything that undermines the value of human life.
Avoid AIDS.
Control what you say and you'll live a long time.
Be tolerant.
Don't die angry, or you'll cause curses for your family.
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Locational Differences. When I traveled with DAKASBA to perform at the
nkem legwé in Batcham in January 2004, I created an analytical video recording of this
integral performance, with the goal of clearly capturing the lyrics of the song leaders.
To do this, I connected a microphone by a long cable to my digital video camera, which
the song leaders held while performing. As in analytical Recording Event B, Ferdinand
Doumtsop's translations of these texts reveal scores of references to people and places.
However, performers in this case appealed many more times to the king of Batcham, his
notables, and spiritual consorts (k##n). They also referred to many more Ngiemb!!n
neighborhoods, as well as foreign sites such as Yaoundé, Douala, Bafoussam, Bafia, and
America. Though I have not performed an exhaustive comparison of these song lyrics
with those produced elsewhere, the location and its people appear to exercize a
significant influence on song leaders.
Summary and Reflection
Several observations arise from examining musical performance as part of
communication patterns. First, by attending to participants and their perceptions and
cognizance of their intended listener(s), we see song leaders improvising context
relevant lyrics, citing local people, gods, and topics. My analytical recording of
DAKASBA (Recording Event B) captures song leaders citing names of other
DAKASBA members more often than in the integral nkem legwé performance. This
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situationally tailored music-making results in buttressing the solidarity of the
relationships at hand, while simultaneously appealing to the historical and social
framework that makes innovation sustainable.
Second, by attending to the infrastructures, we see the best performances in
contexts that are most deeply embedded in, coincide most completely with, are most
integral to the structuring structures, the habitus of Ngiemb!!n social practice. On a
cognitive level, analytical performances may require participants to invest energies into
creating elements of the gestalt that would normally be provided by others. For
example, in Recording Event B, the lack of percussion instruments may have forced
singers to audiate the rhythm infrastructure, thereby reducing their available resources
to dedicate to melody production and lyrical improvisation. 46
The correspondence between integral performances and habitus allows for
frequent, nearly frictionless communication feedback, encouraging social and musical
resonance. In sum, the frequency of a social action, combined with its integrality in a
community's shared habitus, affects performers' enacted competence, emotional
involvement, and freedom to innovate.
46 Research into this admittedly speculative idea may receive support from Gordon 1994, Gabrielsson
1999, and other articles in Deutsch 1999.
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Locational scope: World
Temporal Scope: Now
Chapter 6
Roads Home and Back
Communicators: Ngiemb!!n, Bamiléké, Researchers, Waldo Menno Schrag of Pretty Prairie,
Kansas
Infrastructures: Roads, nations, social theory
In preparation for La Journée de la Protection du Patrimoine Routier National on
October 29, 2004, the Cameroonian Ministère des Travaux Publics instituted a
competition for a logo; the top prize was 500,000FCFA (Zambo 2003). A friend, Hervé
Amoa, submitted the design below, symbolizing with shapes and colors the importance
of roads for economic development. 47
This contest shows that Cameroonian leaders recognize a direct link between
physical infrastructure and material well-being. If the roads are good, people can more
easily and inexpensively transport their produce to markets, and thus make more money.
However, the effects of roads and other forms of communicational infrastructure go
well beyond the economic. In this study, I have envisaged Ngiemb!!n musical events as
inhabiting a primordial position in complex, multilayered communication processes.
Sliding up and down the temporo-locational viewfinder brings various components of
47 Green, yellow, and red–the colors of Cameroon's flag–are shown in the hands and the curved section
with the star. The hands protect the road, which is depicted primarily as a triangle, the popularly
understood shape of the country.
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the communication model into relief, including the importance of good roads for the
economic and cultural vitality of Ngiemb!!n and other Bamiléké cultures. I devote this
final chapter to a review of this and other insights obtained through my research and
analysis, suggestions for further research, and an exploration of implications of the
study for ethnomusicology theory and practice.
Figure 6.1. Depiction of the Importance of Roads in Cameroon
Music and Ngiemb!!n Communication
The most significant insight I gained about Bamiléké culture through this study was that
the dynamism that characterizes its economic and cultural production results in large
part from members' mastery of the most plastic of their infrastructures in strengthening
the most rigid. In the domain of music, Bamiléké people exploit the homologous
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correspondence of musical performance with other cultural domains to periodically
revisit and restabilize the regularly recurring components of their habitus (for example,
dance associations, percussion backdrop, solidarity), on which they can perform
dynamic, recreating, innovation-producing activities (for example, nkem legwé, vocal
and percussive improvisation, competition).
Figure 6.2. Examples of Infrastructures in Terms of their Plasticity
Stable Malleable
Events dance association rehearsals nkem legwé
Music percussion backdrop vocal and percussive improvisation
Values solidarity competition
Physical paved road bus
Stability begets situationally-adapted innovation, which feeds back into stability
and more innovation, a pattern of feedback and resonance that produces dynamism. The
only basic communicational infrastructure not clearly created by the Bamiléké–and
further research could show that I am wrong even in this–is the road system put into
place by the colonial and Cameroonian governments.
Stating that cultural dynamism requires both stability and innovation is nothing
new; the social sciences and popular culture are replete with studies in the "continuity
and change" vein (a Google search in early 2005 for "continuity and change" resulted in
235,000 hits). However, this study exposes some of the mechanisms and forces at work
behind these processes that are only visible when attending to the communication
components of Communicators, Infrastructures, Messages, Resonance and Frequency.
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Application of the model has produced several other insights that flesh out and extend
this first insight, and suggests possibilities for further research. I summarize these here.
Insights
Solidarity Channels Competition. In Ngiemb!!n society in general, and musical
production in particular, well-ordered structures provide a background for creative
activities in which solidarity is a more effectual and significant organizing force than
competition. In social structures, the hierarchy whose pinnacle is the king serves as a
backdrop in the context of which individuals and groups can confidently negotiate their
daily and ceremonial lives. Dance associations enlist musical, financial, and other means
to instill and protect a system of community and mutual aid when faced with their
ultimate challenge, death. Though competition between members and dance groups for
recognition plays an important role, solidarity is a higher value.
Musical production in dance associations functions analogously to this social
organization. Instrumentalists create an aural percussive backdrop that vocalists traverse
to produce their improvised messages, emphasized with relatively constant refrains. The
messages, in their turn, consist almost exclusively of appeals to behave in ways that
promote solidarity. The consistency of the royal hierarchy and rhythmic fabric is
certainly not absolute, but is essentially predictable and durable. Solidarity seems to be
the highest Ngiemb!!n value and requires constant negotiation and reinforcement. The
well-traveled paths between singer and ancestor, as well as those between Yaoundé and
Batcham, testify to the importance of this message.
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Reinvigoration Requires Roads. Paved roads and reliable transportation systems
allow Ngiemb!!n residents of cities to easily satisfy their inclinations to travel to their
homelands, thereby increasing the frequency of their direct intercourse with compatriots
who are continually surrounded by and navigating through traditional social organs.
Dance associations like DAKASBA learn village-composed songs during trips, and
renew their understandings of and integration into their families and kingdoms. Village
residents, on the other hand, also see these urban dance groups as messages in
themselves: the groups arrive in their regalia, sing songs in the Ngiemb!!n language
that are laced with traditional moral teachings, and enter into traditional social events.
These groups become visual and musical symbols that validate and energize traditional
social structures and values.
Reciprocity May Be Asymmetrical. Movement through infrastructures to places
is often more contained, energized and efficiently channeled than the way back.
DAKASBA's trip from Yaoundé to the nkem legwé in Batcham in January 2004, for
example, exhibited multiple signs of focused vigor. Virtually all of the members
traveled together in a single bus, where they sang almost continuously, engaged in
friendly bickering, and drank and ate together at a stop along the way. These solidarity-
enhancing activities combined with the metal and plastic cocoon of the bus to channel
the group's energies along the road to Batcham. On the return trip, however, members
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traveled at different times and days, on different buses, and in groups of varying sizes.
The energy was unfocused and dispersed. 48
Singing the names of ancestors by dance associations presents another instance
of asymmetric communication arcs. During a typical nkem legwe% performance, for
example, dance groups call names of current and former kings, other ancestors, and
gods, in the context of energetic dancing and singing. However, the personalities they
call on usually remain silent. Their response consists primarily of the static weight of
their authority imbuing songs' moral messages with more credence.
Given these examples, it may be necessary to examine the size and nature of all
segments of the circular arrow in the model. Not only may the communicator who
initiates the communication event produce a more focused and energized navigation of a
message through the infrastructures, but the communication event generated in response
may also be different in kind; different segments of a communication arc will likely
consist of different infrastructures and carry different messages.
Money Trumps Music. Musical performance plays important motivational and
instructional roles in invigorating traditional lifeways through dance association
activities, but financial incentives are usually necessary to keep the associations going.
By the time I first encountered DAKASBA, they had let the tontine element of their
meetings lapse. Some saw this as partially causative of a general increase in
absenteeism and tardiness, and talked about reinstituting it. When new leadership was
48 Stone (1998) notes that Kpelle (Liberia) events and songs "both are drawn out, and endings are often
abrupt" (139).
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elected in June 2004, they discussed and started a rotating savings scheme in which
everyone contributed 3,000 FCFA each month, and three or four people divided the pot.
In November, the leadership instituted a rule that restricted anyone arriving at the
rehearsal more than 30 minutes late from participating in the drawing that month.
Village dance associations also cited their financial systems as exercising a decisive
influence on members' attendance. In short, in Ngiemb!!n dance associations, money
trumps music as a motivational factor.
Future Research: Language, Shapes, and Music
My study takes one or more instances of communication–that is, conversations
writ large–as the primary context of musical performance. That is, wherever music
occurs, I assume that the people involved are implicated in communication events, and
begin investigating them according to the elements and processes outlined in this model.
This approach flows easily from the observation that human beings are inherently social
creatures, a contention that is not only a regularly corroborated fact of daily life, but one
that enjoys both philosophical and empirical support.
In The Language Instinct (1994), Stephen Pinker powerfully argues that children
are predisposed not only to communicate, but to do so through constructing increasingly
complex, coherent systems that become language. Though elements of his arguments
have provoked some controversy (see, for example, Sampson 1999 and 2005),
psycholinguistic studies of infants show that humans are bent on communicating from
the earliest ages (see, for example, Yale et al 1999, Murray and Trevarthen 1986, and
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Smith 1998). And as Rice points out in his brief review of philosophical support for
inherent human sociality, "experience begins with interaction with a world and with
others" (2003:157); physical and symbolic interaction is a basic part of the human
condition.
Dowling argues for similar predisposition and development in the musical
domain: "[W]e can find elements of adult cognitive structures for music in young
infants, and can watch them develop in complexity under the influence of culture and
individual experience. In both speech and music, then, there are specific patterns of
behavior that emerge in infancy that bear the unmistakable stamp of 'speech' or 'music'
behavior" (1999:603). People are driven and equipped to communicate, through
interactions that may rightfully include language and music. If humans are drenched in
conversation, connections between their means of communication are inevitable. I here
briefly examine Ngiemb!!n music's potential relationships with language and shapes.
Two research avenues linking language and music appear immediately
promising: interactions between linguistic tone and melody, and conversation formulas
at multiple levels. As I mentioned in Chapter One, Ngiemb!!n language production
requires mastery of an unusually complex tonal system. Though ethnomusicologists and
linguists have occasionally explored relationships between tone and melody (see, for
example, Richards 1972, Catlin 1985, Chan 1987, Makler 1999), I am not aware of any
exploiting recent theoretical and methodological innovations in linguistic tone analysis.
Register Tier Theory (RTT) represents one of the approaches–just presented with others
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in the first English textbook devoted exclusively to tone (Yip 2002)–that promises
insights into understandings of both music and language.
Another intriguing research domain ties language and music together at the level
of dialogue and identity. The word "Ngiemb!!n" means "I say that." 49 When listening to
conversations in the home kingdoms and in Yaoundé, I noticed that Ngiemb!!n
speakers use "Ngiemb!!n" to convey that they have something to say, a way of
interrupting the speech flow to get others' attention; once they have this attention, they
say what they have on their mind. The term "Ngiemb!!n" thus serves as a conversation
marker that constitutes one element of the set of rules that govern turn-taking in
conversation (see also Sacks et al. 1974).
This function of "Ngiemb!!n" is filled by other words, depending on the social
context. "Ngiemb!!n" serves as a conversational turn-marker in a general context where
everyone is speaking the Ngiemb!!n language. When initiating a greeting or address to
an entire group, a general marker is "nd!!n nd!!n," an expression of encouragement.
However, a conversational participant may choose to use a more specific marker,
depending on his or her perception of the salience of a surrounding sub-group. Thus, for
example, at a general assembly of people from Balessing who reside in Yaoundé, a
person who wants to speak may say, "Lesh#%)," the Ngiemb!!n name of Balessing. I
recorded David Tiozang yelling out, "Meta', Meta', Meta'," the name of the
neighborhood in which they live and meet, during a Samali dance. A participant in a
49 Surrounding language names such as Ngomba and Yemba also signify "I say that."
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meeting of Batcham natives might say "Ts!%!n," and a woman in a group of women,
"Nzwe( nga")." 50
An analogous phenomenon occurs among Ngiemb!!n groups producing music.
When a dance association such as DAKASBA begins a performance, they recite a
formulaic, "He he he salé" (Salé is a synonym for Ka"n!"!n; Audio Clip 1), a Sa"malı%
group says, "Mali," and so on. Ngiemb!!n use of group-identity indicators as discourse
markers in conversations and musical events could provide insight into conversation
analysis (as discussed, for example, in Heritage 1989), and the ethnography of
communication (drawing on both linguistics and anthropology, developed by Hymes;
see Hymes 1974).
Finally, I am interested in investigating relationships between musical form and
production and the physical objects created by Bamiléké cultures. Ndongo, whose
thoughts sparked the communication model I developed for this project, saw the
metaphor of circularity as pervasive and meaningful in all areas of African life,
including the shapes of crafted objects. Roberts and Roberts (1996) identify many of the
same dynamics–for example, multireferentiality, contextual idiosyncrasy, and the
creation of culture in multiple domains–surrounding Luba (Democratic Republic of
Congo) objects that I have found in the domain of music:
Luba memory devices do not symbolize thought as much as they stimulate and
provoke it. Their multireferential iconography affords a multiplicity of
meanings. The reading of these visual "texts" varies from one occasion to the
next, depending on the contingencies of local-level politics, and makes
50 Further research is necessary to confirm and expand on this.
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manifest the objects' abilities to instigate processes of politics, economy, and
religion (1996:44).
Several research avenues offer the promise of discovering and explaining similar
metaphors and cultural dynamics in Bamiléké contexts. Because of their substantial
activities in creating and preserving stools, masks, regalia, and other objects, the king of
Batcham and the artisan's workshop in Balena present great potential for basic research
contexts among the Ngiemb!!n. Ancillary resources include Notué's studies of masks
from Batcham (1993), Knopfli's descriptions of craft-making in Western Cameroon
(1997, 1999, 2001), Gutek's applications of mathematical topology to Bamiléké objects
(2004), and Dr. Fongot Kinni-Yen Kinni's comprehensive knowledge of symbologies of
Bamiléké arts as the creator and curator of the African Arts/Handicraft and
Environmental Management Institute (AFHEMI) museum in Yaoundé (Ventura 2005).
Groundings and Scholarly Connections
By framing this study in the metaphor of communication, and grounding it in particular
instances of conversation, I highlight musical practice as social practice. And by
emphasizing the ability of music-makers to navigate and modify the various
infrastructures through which they move, I show that music can be drawn on to
construct culture. I here briefly compare and contrast these characteristics with other
studies.
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Like formalist studies of musical works (such as, for example, those discussed
by Dahlhaus 1987), I look for patterns and structures that help define the internal
cohesion and genius of elements of musical production, like songs. However, instead of
focusing on this as an autonomous, unchanging artifact, I view it as something that a
community has co-created, that allows and encourages communal music-making and
consumption. Furthermore, though musical objects result from communally shared rules
of production, their forms will change depending on the performer and performance
context. Similarly, as in functionalist understandings of cultures, I see the human
groupings that make music as organisms marked by internal cohesion and coherence,
whose elements work generally toward homeostasis. However, I view the structures and
resources that members of a group share as constantly in the process of being relearned
and modified, sometimes minimally, sometimes dramatically. In contrast to the “reified,
static givenness of the culture concept” (Rice 1994:33), I concur with Ricoeur in
characterizing tradition as “. . . not the inert transmission of some already dead deposit
of material but the living transmission of an innovation always capable of being
reactivated by a return to the most creative moments of poetic activity. . . . [A] tradition
is constituted by the interplay of innovation and sedimentation” (1984:68). Innovation
draws on cultural sediment to continually re-create tradition.
As such, my study shares many characteristics of those that demonstrate how
music-makers actively construct and reconstruct culture. Paul Willis' (1978)
ethnographically-grounded analysis of how "bike boys" and "hippies" forged
connections between certain styles of music and their social values showed how "music
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does much more than 'depict' or embody values. It portrayed music as active and
dynamic, as constitutive not merely of 'values' but of trajectories and styles of conduct
in real time" (DeNora 2004:48). In her study of Peruvian Andean music, Zoila Mendoza
(2000) shows how members of dance groups performed similar culture-producing
activities. One group, the Majeños, "associated local concepts of decency, elegance,
maturity, masculinity, and modernity with bodily stiffness, swaying movements, long
noses, 'white' features, wide-brimmed hats, horseback riding, bottled beer, and brass-
band marching music" (235); their performances helped define what it meant to belong
to a specific social class.
Another example of this kind of constructionism bears an organic relationship to
my study. Paul Greene (2003) describes the annual pilgrimage of Newar Buddhists in
Nepal during the month of Gunla, in which they travel each morning to sacred sites,
performing music as they walk. "In so doing, they also re-center and re-order the sacred
terrain of the Kathmandu Valley. Physical space is collapsed and reconfigured in favor
of a mental terrain that is shaped by the musical program of pilgrimage..." (205). As
with dance groups like DAKASBA, practitioners' frequent, regular, musically
invigorated movement plays a central role in creating conceptions of and associations
with their physical and social landscape.
Greene's analysis, however, reflects a tendency in studies influenced by
symbolic anthropology to overlook insights that attention to the physical underpinnings
of communication might bring. In suggesting that physical space "is collapsed and
reconfigured in favor of a mental terrain," Greene privileges symbolic reality over the
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physical; however, the former could not have come to exist and continue to develop
without the latter. Similarly, though Appadurai's recognition of an increasingly
"deterritorialized" world, one "increasingly made up of wandering migrant laborers,
political exiles, war refugees, transnational businessmen, hopeful immigrants, and
bourgeois tourists" (Rice 2003:153), has triggered a great deal of profound reflection,
dirt, rocks, buildings and the like remain indispensable. Ngiemb!!n conceptions of
place, for example, continue to be highly territorial and connected to the corporeal.
Movement to cities has in some ways even served to accentuate the importance of the
physical village, or home kingdom: Members of groups like DAKASBA explicitly
attempt to relate their conception of authentic performance to that which their forebears
produced as close to the originating time and place as possible. A focus on "routes
rather than roots" (Rice 2003:153, citing James Clifford) may in fact ultimately result in
a greater appreciation and understanding of the roots in their native soil. 51
Intersecting Horizons and Social Agency
An event occurred toward the end of my research that triggered profound reflection on
the human, spiritual, and social implications of my research. When my grandfather died
on April 19, 2004, I knew that I would have to make an uncomfortable choice. The
death of a close family member would be a normal event to share at the DAKASBA
51 Merleau-Ponty provided a similar corrective to cerebro-centric approaches to philosophy, reminding
thinkers that we are first and always beings with bodies. See Merleau-Ponty (1962), Bermudez et al
(1995), and Hermans (2002).
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meeting a few days later. However, I was unsure about what obligations I would assume
by revealing this information. I decided to tell the group, and during the nouvelles de la
famille section of a regular bi-weekly meeting of DAKASBA, I told the members about
Waldo Menno Schrag's death. After some discussion about how good it was that he had
reached a full age (he died at 93), they proposed coming to my house for a visite des
condoléances. I told them that I would reflect on the kind offer, letting them know my
response at the following meeting.
After two weeks of contemplation, I had decided that it would take too much
time and work to arrange such a ceremony, and that it was too difficult to meld my
worldview with those held by DAKASBA members. I am a follower of Jesus Christ,
who I believe requires my unblinking allegiance when in the company of ancestors,
spirits, and gods such as those populating the Ngiemb!!n spiritual universe. I also knew
that, were he still alive, my
extremely conservative
Mennonite grandfather would
have been incensed to be the
focal point of a percussion
saturated ceremony paying him
homage as an ancestor; he had
at one point in his life stopped
listening to a Christian radio
station when they began adding
Jean-Pierre, Brian, Étienne, and Photo of
Waldo and Elma Schrag
245

ock-influenced songs to their organ and choir repertoire.
However, during the meeting, Bernard Melataya reiterated the group's sorrow for
my loss, thanked me for help with their recordings, and repeated his hope that they
could comfort me with a condolences visit. The strength of Bernard's sentiments
diminished the importance of my qualms to the point that I agreed to the visit. We
decided on a date, and briefly discussed what would happen. I subsequently met
individually with Étienne Nota to ask about spiritual and social symbolism of various
aspects of the ceremony. I also conferred with Moïse Yonta, a man with whom I share
Christian beliefs, for advice. In the end, I introduced a few elements into the
proceedings that allowed me to communicate my understandings of the metaphysical
world, while still respecting the intent of the ceremony. These new components
included Moïse Yonta reading from the newly translated Ngiemb!!n Bible and leading a
Ka"n!"!n song that he had reinterpreted to speak a God-specific message, and my
recounting the foibles and faith of both my grandfather and me; all of these
modifications were amplifications of elements already integral to the ceremony. 52
Reflecting on these experiences in light of my communication model yields
several observations. First, the model helps me understand my interactions with
DAKASBA members as mutual navigations through disparate social and musical
infrastructures, instead of conflict between static, incompatible worldviews. DAKASBA
52 The most awkward point in arranging this event arose from my choice of venue. My house did not have
an area large enough for DAKASBA to dance, so we held the ceremony at a nearby training center that
happened not to allow the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Because beer normally plays a major role
in preparations for dancing, several members were discontent. I gave some extra money so that they
could stop at a bar on the way home, which seemed to lessen their discomfort.
246

members were already engaged in multiple conversations. I entered into these
conversations, which resulted in reciprocal adaptation.
Second, forging a space for co-creation required personal vulnerability for all of
us, and because of that, trust. Though performing a condolences ceremony constituted
an integral DAKASBA activity, the context was foreign, and I was introducing new
elements; they risked being misunderstood, or even mocked. For my part, I committed
to an event that could have undermined my sense of integrity as a Christian, and could
be perceived negatively by family and friends of my grandfather.
Third, as I have noted above, adopting the concept of "muntu" emphasizes the
potentially wide range of categories of communicators involved in an event, including
objects, deities, and other beings. However, the researcher must also acknowledge the
actors that he or she believes exist. In my case, I asked God to be involved in my
research, and I believe he was.
This consideration of the personal ramifications of research relationships leads
naturally into a discussion of benefits that Ngiemb!!n communities might derive from
my study. I here suggest three. First, a number of dance groups now have audio and
visual recordings of their performances. They may convert these into financial or
cultural capital, thereby reinforcing their positions in local and national communities.
Second, my verbal affirmations of their traditions at least made them feel good for a
moment, and may also encourage them to further commitment to traditional creativity.
Third, my entrance into various conversations introduced ideas and perspectives that
affect and inform the thought processes of people who are already reflecting on changes
247

and directions of Ngiemb!!n social structures. King Fouamene, Prosper Djiafeua, and
Moïse Yonta, for example, now have the benefit of the questions I asked and my results
as they make decisions that affect their communities.
Ethnomusicologists hoping or planning to do good through their research–an
endeavor sometimes referred to as applied ethnomusicology or musical agency–may
profit from these insights. The change agent must carefully determine her own belief of
what is good, and then enter into conversations with others through multiple
infrastructures, benefiting from insights gained from multiple temporo-locational views.
Throughout her interactions, she must build a sense of trust, in part by purposefully
making herself vulnerable.
If the present model results not only in insights into existing phenomena, but
also produces those with some predictive value, then it may well serve applied
ethnomusicology initiatives. For example, does the model account for enough of the
underlying reality to suggest possible outcomes if DAKASBA's CD becomes widely
popular within the Ngiemb!!n community? Would it be possible to determine the
characteristics of this medium, the routes it might travel, and the communicators
involved, to make reasoned guesses as to the resultant effects on other elements of
communication events?
As interest in and activities related to applications of ethnomusicology grow,
change agents need models to help evaluate benefits and negative consequences of any
particular course of action. Anthony Seeger reflects, "[i]deally, applied ethnomusicology
should include theoretical reflection, and theoretical ethnomusicology should be
248

applied–but in spite of many impressive endeavors, we still have a long way to go"
(2003). When informed by other models and approaches–for example, Barnett's insights
into cultural change (1953), and those of studies in popular music on the effects of mass
mediation (for example, Negus 1996)–ethnomusicologists hoping to do something good
can use this model to inform their entrance into various conversations, times, and
places, and with different communicators. I hope that this study can deepen and refine
these conversations.
Tune and Tarmac as Communicational Infrastructure
In 1926, the French colonial government finished transforming a path between Yaoundé
and a point near the Ngiemb!!n region navigable only by foot and mule into a road that
motorized vehicles could travel in any season (Dongmo 1981b: 69; Archives Coloniales
2961926). The road from Yaoundé to Bafoussam–about 32 kilometers from the
Ngiemb!!n village of Balessing–was paved by1986 (Jindra 2003), and the road from
Bafoussam to Balessing by 1988 (Doumtsop 2003). With tarmac roads available up to
the southern-most Ngiemb!!n area, DAKASBA members can now complete a trip from
Yaoundé to Batcham in less than six hours, for a cost of less than 5000 FCFA.
Like the paths that allowed Ngiemb!!n ancestors to travel to their current home
in Cameroon’s West Province, and the economically-motivated improvement of roads
that now permits frequent movement between urban and rural areas, Ngiemb!!n musical
culture provides a symbolic infrastructure that facilitates socially invigorating
communication. Ka2n!!n rhythmic patterns provide a consistent aural background upon
249

which song leaders can call out the
names of figures germane to the song's
message and performance context, in
an improvised call-and-response
melodic structure. When members of
DAKASBA sing exhortations to live
in harmony, they open conversational
doors to King Sonkwa, King Bamoun,
and other members of their space-time
community that provide structural and
historical footing.
The New Harvard Dictionary
The Smooth, Solid Road to the
Mfhdla——m Homeland
of Music defines resonance as "the large oscillatory response of a system to a weak
driving force whose frequency matches precisely one of the natural frequencies of the
driven system" (Randel 1986:8). In their improvised calls, DAKASBA singers perform
small acts of communication to named symbols of hierarchy and solidarity, within an
undercurrent of competition. These symbolically potent personages respond figuratively
or actually in a manner that buttresses the "large oscillatory response" of traditional
values and attitudes–the "natural frequencies" vibrating throughout Bamiléké cultural
systems. This kind of reciprocal musical communication occurs regularly, in the context
of hundreds of Bamiléké dance associations active throughout Cameroon, each of which
looks to the soil, structures, and muntu of their home in the West Province as sacred
250

touchstones. This cannot help but strengthen these cultures' abilities to negotiate the
rapid cosmopolitan and modernist changes in the world in which they live. Though
certainly not the only medium facilitating communication among Bamiléké communities
writ large, musical performance plays a vital role in expanding le dynamisme bamiléké.
251

Appendix A
Dance Associations in the Kingdom of Balessing
This summary is drawn from all reports of the existence of dance groups in Balessing.
Several of the groups are represented only by an association name and neighborhood.
Women's Dances (lu)o panzwe) 48 Groups
Djamassale
Number of Groups in Balessing 4
Instruments Ndo%), nza(), se"m, nka", cu(, ke%jya%ga, ndii, làmbì, mbanc#a'%
Musical Characteristics Vigorous dance steps, rhythmically ordered by nza()
(xylophone)
Historical Notes Both Bafoussam and the Ngiemb!!n neighborhood of Balena (in
Batcham) are cited as origins. The first groups in Balessing arrived in the 1960s or
earlier.
Jeunesse
Number of Groups in Balessing 3
Instruments Làmbì, cu(, ndo%), ke%jya%ga
Musical Characteristics Vigorous dance steps, rhythmically ordered by the ndo%)
(whistle)
Historical Notes King Ganno Daniel outlawed the Jeunesse dance in 1984,
believing it led to infidelity. At least one Jeunesse group began in 1992, and others
that had changed their identity in response to the king's edict have recently
reassociated themselves with the genre. A Jeunesse group in Bambi that changed to
the Kenzem style, for example, now calls itself Jeunesse Ke)nzem de Bambi.
252

Ke)nzem
Number of Groups in Balessing 7
Instruments Ma& nka", mu! nka", ma& se"m, mu! se"m, k!"!n, ndo%), nd#"', làmbì, ke%jya%ga,
cu(
Musical Characteristics Rhythmically ordered by the ndo%) (whistle), fast tempo,
energetic dance movements
Historical Notes One group cites the non-Ngiemb!!n village of Bamendou
(several kilometers to the south) as the origin of their dance. Another group began
dancing the Jeunesse, and changed to Kenzem when King Ganno David outlawed
Jeunesse in 1984; this group now refers to itself as Jeunesse Kenzem. The earliest
group in Balessing began in the 1950s, the most recent in 2000.
Nkwo)e c#a nkab
Number of Groups in Balessing 1
Instruments Ndo%), cu(, ke%jya%ga, làmbì
Musical Characteristics Dance steps determined by song lyrics. They draw
heavily on Manty*!, Lene)e mbo), and Ny+lo&) songs.
Historical Notes The one example of this dance in Balessing was inaugurated in
1981.
Kw!'!nza)
Number of Groups in Balessing 6
Instruments Mendii, nza(), se"m, ndo%), tse%tsa%'
Musical Characteristics Energetic dance, whose steps are determined by the
nza(), (xylophone), with movements articulated by both feet and hips. Related to a
dance called Ngongué in the Moungo Division of the Littoral Province
Historical Notes. One of the oldest dances in Balessing, probably dating much
earlier than 1940. In 1986, one group transformed itself from Jeunesse to Kw!'!nza)
when Jeunesse was outlawed by King Ganno Daniel. Another group began as a
maènzab, performing at a sacred place, switching to Kw!'!nza) so that they could
meet at the neighborhood chef's house each ng#ash#a. One group imported their
dance from Batcham in 1995.
253

Lene)e mbo)
Number of Groups in Balessing 3
Instruments Ndo%), làmbì, cu(, ke%jya%ga
Musical Characteristics Gentle, relatively slow cadence, given by the ndo%)
(whistle). Song lyrics motivate gestures.
Historical Notes Existed since long before les troubles of the late 1950s and early
1960s. One group asserts that it has existed since the early 1900s.
Mamba)
Number of Groups in Balessing 4
Instruments Cu(, ke%jya%ga, ndo%)
Musical Characteristics Dance steps are articulated by the feet, and hands
sometimes communicate what is sung in song lyrics.
Historical Notes One group imported this dance from Batcham in the 1920s.
Mant#!'
Number of Groups in Balessing 6
Instruments Làmbì, ke%jya%ga, ndo%), cu(
Musical Characteristics The ndo%) (whistle) provides rhythmic direction, and the
dance consists of foot and hand movements. Because most members are older
women, dance movements are gentle and slow.
Historical Notes At least one group began during the troubles d'indépendence in
1956, and is of Ngiemb!!n origin. Two groups were launched soon after
independence in the early 1960s, and two others began in the 1970s.
254

Nja)
Number of Groups in Balessing 3
Instruments Làmbì, ndo%), cu(, ke%jya%ga
Musical Characteristics No information.
Historical Notes Imported from Batcham. Balessing groups began between the
1970s and early 2000s.
Nkembw!’
Number of Groups in Balessing 4
Instruments Làmbì, ke%jya%ga, ndo%), cu(
Musical Characteristics Very similar to Mant#!', Nja), and Nylo). However,
they use more hip movements, because members are generally younger than those in,
for example, Mant#!' groups.
Historical Notes One group was formed in 1975, motivated by a need for women
to resolve common problems together. Another began in 1956.
Ntse mb#)
Number of Groups in Balessing 3
Instruments Làmbì, ndo%), ke%jya%ga, cu(
Musical Characteristics Messages in songs determine the dance steps and hand
gestures. Very close to ny+lo&) and Mant#!'.
Historical Notes Balessing groups founded before 1960.
255

Ny+lo&) (Nylo))
Number of Groups in Balessing 8
Instruments Ke%jya%ga, ndo%), cu(, làmbì
Musical Characteristics Unique, fast rhythm with energetic dance movements,
given rhythmic form by the song and ndo%) (whistle). Composed mostly of younger
women, who are able to make both foot and hip movements.
Historical Notes One respondent asserts that the dance originated in Balessing,
appearing as an alternative to the Jeunesse dance, outlawed in 1984. Another group
member states that their association emerged out of a family meeting in the early
1970s. Three Balessing groups were formed in the period just before and after
independence, around 1960.
Mixed Dances 34 Groups
Ka"n!"!n
Number of Groups in Balessing 11
Instruments Ma& nka", mu! nka", (also known as ma& se"m and mu! se"m), nd#"', tse%tsa%',
nzeme mmo (kwi' fu!), ndo%), mb!"!n. The ke%jya%ga and laketa were each cited only
once.
Musical Characteristics The dance is energetic, elegant, and includes many
gestures, such as raising swords.
Historical Notes The dance originated among the Bamoun, and was first imported
to Batcham. People introduced it to Balessing beginning in the 1940s, and a new
group has formed as recently as 1970.
256

Kwa"kwa"
Number of Groups in Balessing 1
Instruments Nd#"', ma& se"m, mu! se"m, k'ı' fu"!, mbanc#a'%, mb!"!n
Musical Characteristics The dance is elegant, with song lyrics prompting
gestures from the dancers.
Historical Notes This dance group began before les troubles of 1956.
Ntsèbe
Number of Groups in Balessing 3
Instruments Nd#"', ma& se"m, mu! se"m, k'"ı"' fu"!, mbanc#a'%, mb!"!n, ndo%),
làmbì
Musical Characteristics The dance is articulated by the feet, while participants
bend a little. The whistle orders the rhythm.
Historical Notes The Balessing dance groups were formed in 1997 and 2001.
Pu! ma"nzo")
Number of Groups in Balessing 5
Instruments Nza(), ndo%), ndii, pu'u, ma& nka", mu! nka"
Musical Characteristics It's an athletic, well-ordered dance, allowing for
individual improvization in movement, and dominated aurally by the nza()
(xylophone) and mendii (leg shakers).
Historical Notes Groups appeared in Balessing beginning before independence in
1960, with the most recent being created in 1996. One group states that it imported
its Pu! ma"nzo") from Batcham.
257

Sa"malı%
Number of Groups in Balessing 13
Instruments Mbanc#a'%, ma& se"m, ma& nka", mu! se"m, mu! nka", ndo%), làmbì
Musical Characteristics Saèmalïù is an energetic dance, with numerous steps
associated with different songs. They use the phrase, n&'& sa*malı%, which means,
'shake the samali,' instead of the normal, 'dance the samali.' Other hand and body
gestures also are determined by song lyrics and the vocal leader.
Historical Notes Groups cite Bansoa (a non-Ngiemb!!n region in the West
Province) as the origin of the Sa"malı% dance, though two state that they imported
theirs from Batcham. Sa"malı% groups didn't appear in Balessing until 1996, but have
become one of the most common types.
Ta" no" p#"a w!%!n ngy*o w!%!n
Number of Groups in Balessing 1
Instruments Nza(), ndo%), ndii
Musical Characteristics Repertoire and costumes similar to those of Pu!
ma"nzo"), but their dance steps differ.
Historical Notes A representative from the one Balessing group in this genre
stated that it is a very old Ngiemb!!n dance that is disappearing, ceding its place to
Pu! ma"nzo") groups.
Children's Dances (lu)o penk#) 3 Groups
Lepa")nda&)
Number of Groups in Balessing 1
Instruments Ndo%)
Musical Characteristics It's an energetic dance, similar to those of women's
groups, directed by three people in the middle with whistles.
Historical Notes This type of dance is disappearing, ceding its place to Saèmalïù
penk# groups.
258

Ma"la"nte& (Var.: me"la"nt+&)
Number of Groups in Balessing 1
Instruments Ndo%)
Musical Characteristics Dancing is not ordered by the group, with members
jumping, shaking banana leaves, and performing other movements that they choose
individually.
Historical Notes This group was founded in 1997.
Sa"malı% penk#
Number of Groups in Balessing 1
Instruments Mbanc#a%', ma& se"m, mu! se"m, ndo%), làmbì
Musical Characteristics The music and dance for this group bear close
resemblance to women's groups, though the women's groups reproach these dancers
for the rapidity of their movements.
Historical Notes No information.
Dances for the Initiated (lu)o la’) 6 Groups
Fw!"' sse%
Number of Groups in Balessing 5
Instruments Nd#"' metu%tu%, kwi' fu!, se"m, nkoon, to%on, nd#"'
Musical Characteristics No information.
Historical Notes One group imported its dance from the Ngiemb!!n kingdom of
Bangang around 1958.
259

Ku"$nga")
Number of Groups in Balessing 1
Instruments Nd#"', se"m
Musical Characteristics An acrobatic dance for men.
Historical Notes. No description.
Other Dances for the Initiated, Not Represented in this Sample
Se%s!g. A war dance.
Mankwi) (ma"nkw!$?). No information.
Ku tsw+’. No information.
Kwa) mezwe fu!. A group consisting of the wives of the king.
M!'!temi. A war dance.
"A Description of Fw!"'sse% and M!'!temi Dances"
King Pascal Fouamene Ganno of Balessing, as told to Ferdinand Doumtsop
The creation of Ngiemb!!n villages was the fruit of numerous battles between
the different Ngiemb!!n villages, which wouldn't put up with losing the smallest portion
of their territory at the expense of another.
The Fw!"'sse% and mo'o temi are now two dances, whereas before, they were
armies. The members of these groups were soldiers.
The Fw!"'sse% began under the reign of King Yonta, and it was the group that
vanquished Batcham under the direction of the celebrated Taloon Tatswanglong. Some
people say that this is the reason why this group exists only in Balessing.
The M!'!temi was instituted to create a certain competition between the two
armies. In effect, each group was supposed to show itself stronger while fighting the
enemy. It wasn't about two groups who had to destroy each other, but two groups that
each must show that it was worth more than the other. The two groups had the same
260

enemies, but didn't fight together. Each one celebrated its victories alone, and guarded
these jealously.
Each of the two groups had its own war fetishes, and its own special materials.
Nevertheless, the two groups both wield machetes, arrows, fetishes, and dress in the
same fashion.
In effect, these are secret dances that they execute while masked, this because
it has to do with what many people call, "a bad dance, a dance of killers," and it gave
no pleasure to a child or a woman to know that their father or husband was part of this
group.
These groups meet only at night. The membership is voluntary. Nevertheless,
there is a form of obligatory membership when someone succeeds another member of
the group. This means that as soon as you've been chosen to be the member of this
group, you are a member forever, and even your principle inheritor must be a member.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to quit the group Fw!"'sse% to become a member of
M!'!temi because the relationship between these two groups is rather antagonistic, each
one wanting to show itself stronger than the other. Even today, when the goals have
changed somewhat for the two groups, the relationships between members of the two
groups are still quarrelsome. It's still this way because each one wants to convince the
other that he belongs to the more powerful group.
Women are excluded from this type of group. Rarely, you'll see several women
specially chosen because of mystical consideration that is known about her family. This
may be because they have inherited from a member of the group because there was no
man.
Long ago, it was forbidden to a pregnant woman and children to see this dance.
Today, many things have changed. The Fw!"'sse% is no longer a mystical thing, but it's a
traditional dance group like the others, even if some rites subsist.
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Appendix B
History of the Ka"n!"!n Dance
Written transcript of audio recording made by Prosper Djiafeua, 9 December 2002
(author's translation).
Ladies and gentlemen, following the songs that you have just listened to, I
would like to give you a history of the Ka"n!"!n dance, as it emerges from Ngiemb!!n
oral tradition.
We can place the birth of the Ka"n!"!n dance in the Ngiemb!!n region near the
middle of the 19 th century. Batcham, La%’a%ts!%!n, is the village where the Ka"n!"!n dance
originated in the Ngiemb!!n region. This was during the period when the reigning king
was Fu! Fomekwo) Malo)nzwe, from the dynasty of Fu! Patwa, who had founded
La%’a%ts!%!n-Batcham–around the middle of the 18 th century. Oral tradition reveals that Fu!
Fomekwo) Malo)nzwe was a conquering king, expansionistic. His ambition was to
extend La%’a%ts!%!n all the way to the Noun River, reputed to separate the Bamiléké people
from the Bamoun kingdom. Fu! Fomekwo), had cordial, respectful relations with the
Sultan of Bamoun, who was also expansionistic.
King Fu! Fomekwo) wanted to extend his territory all the way to Bale), from
Fu(ale) in the Menoua, and to the Noun River. It is said that there was a tacit
understanding between Fomekwo), Shufwa(mom, and the Sultan of Bamoun. In order to
assuage his thirst for territorial expansion, Fu! Fomekwo) created an intrepid army.
Certain of these warrior leaders, such as Malem Ndikun, Malem Kazili, and Mbe( Tant!’
spent a period of time in the Bamoun region, perhaps under agreements between this
kingdom and that of La%’a%ts!%!n. The terms "malem" and "mbe‚" are borrowed from the
Bamoun language.
During their stay in the Bamoun country, these leaders adopted the models of
life of their hosts, including folk dances and marriage unions. It is even said that these
leaders married daughters of Bamoun. Moreover, they learned to enjoy and dance the
Ka"n!"!n, a warrior dance of the Bamoun people.
At the point when they returned to Batcham village, they gave gifts to their
hosts so that they would authorize them to export and import the Ka"n!"!n dance in the
262

Ngiemb!!n region. People say it might have been balls of couscous, a kind of food
highly valued by the Bamoun.
When they arrived back in La%’a%ts!%!n, that is, Batcham, they were welcomed
and installed in a camp next to a water course named Z'iag Z'ia"g below the current
Batcham Fon's concession, on the road to Bats'+(t#!’. It is possible that the camp was a
military camp, from whence Fu! Fomekwo) waged his expansionist battles.
The Ka"n!"!n dance, as a warrior dance, was the means through which he
celebrated his successes. Thus, people recount that after a victory, the warriors returned
from the conquest, gathered again around the fire with the spoils of war: goats, pigs,
etc., even human heads–they wanted to celebrate all aspects of their victory. They drank
and sang, and danced to the rhythm of the Ka"n!"!n.
Since the time of German colonization, expansionist wars have diminished in
intensity. The local army was reduced to silence, and the warriors dispersed in the
village. From that instant, Ka"n!"!n left its essentially warrior nature and acquired a civil
status. The former leaders, returned to civil life, created Ka"n!"!n dance groups, while
retaining the archetypical elements, by which the Ka"n!"!n still resembles a scene of war.
These signs include machetes, the chicken, the mask, the rhythm, the rites that bring
together, I would say, this dance from a scene of war.
From a global view, a dance scene begins with a cry to call people together.
The same is true at the end. The mask and the chicken, present during the day (the
chicken, at night), bring to mind the spoils of war. The fire around which they dance
during the night brings to mind the return of the combatants, brought together to
celebrate their victory. Thus, we burn the chicken on the braziers or in a basin full of
red oil, palm oil. All the dancers, and even some spectators, share the chicken that plays
the role of the spoils of war.
Some dancers, up until a recent period, practiced magic during the dance
scenes at night, to send away the non-initiated from the area. That is where this
expression comes from: "ndendem n na%a ng#%)", "That the neophytes should depart from
the circle." Not just anybody can approach the warrior scene.
In our days, the Ka"n!"!n has become an expression of the Ngiemb!!n region.
At joyful as well as sad ceremonies, at the occasion of wakes, mourning watches, and
funerals, the Ka"n!"!n is present. At celebrations, happy ceremonies, like national
holidays, at the return of prodigal sons to their home territories, the Ka"n!"!n is present. It
263

is danced everywhere in the Ngiemb!!n region. In Balessing, in Bamougong, in
Bangang, in Balatchi. Nevertheless, when you ask for the original Ka"n!"!n, people will
direct you quickly to La%‘a%ts!%!n, its birthplace in the Ngiemb!!n region.
264

Rhythmic Idiophones
Ke%jya%ga
K!"!n/Nky*oon Mefag
Appendix C
Ngiemb!!n Instruments
Physical description Bent metal strip, with metal
pieces inside.
Playing technique Two or more are attached to the
performer's leg, just above the ankle. When she
stomps her feet, the instruments strike each other,
producing a noise.
Used in these contexts
Dance Associations: Djamassale, Jeunesse, Ka"n!"!n,
Kembw!', Ke)nzem, K'ı"' fu"!, Kwo)e, Lene)e mbo),
Mamba), Manty*!', Nja), Ntse mb#), Ny+lo&)
Physical description Two connected woven
rattan pouches containing small, round, dried
seeds that create a noise when shaken.
Playing technique The performer holds the
handle connecting the two pouches and shakes
them.
Used in these contexts Dance
Associations: Ke)nzem, Fw!"' sse%, M!'!temi,
Lefemé
265

Lekwo) Lu%) or Lekwo) Ntswa%'a
Mbanc#a%' or Tse%tsa%'
Used in these contexts
266
Physical description Stick with metal
spear tip on one end, containing small
metal ball.
Playing technique The performer may
hold the stick with the spear tip either up
or down. He makes a swift jerk up or
down, allowing the instrument to stop
quickly, and causing the spear tip to
quiver.
Used in these contexts: Some
Catholic services, and ndy3!"g dance.
Notes 'Lekwo)' means 'arrow'
Physical description Woven rattan
or metal pouches with raffia or
wooden handle, containing round,
black seeds in the pouches.
Playing technique One or two held
in the hand of the performer, who uses
different movements to cause the
internal elements to hit each other and
the pouch wall, producing sound. See
Chapter Five for a detailed description.
Dance Associations: Ke)nzem, Kwa"kwa", Kw!'!nza), Ntse"be, Sa"malı%, Ka"n!"!n

Mb!"!n
Ndii
Physical description Hollowed bamboo
length with slit on one side, and regularly
placed grooves on two sides.
Playing technique Performer scrapes a piece
of metal up and down over the grooves, along
the length of the instrument to create a sound.
Used in these contexts
Dance Associations: Ka"n!"!n, Kwa"kwa", Ntse"be
Physical description Dried seed pods
tied in bundles with twine.
Playing technique Performer ties the
instrument to his calf, producing sound when
movements cause pods to hit each other.
Used in these contexts
Dance Associations: Kw!'!nza), Djamassale,
Pu! ma"nzo"), Ta" no" p#"a w!%!n ngy3o w!%!n
267

Nd#"'
Other kinds of nd#"':
Nd#" Ka"n!"!n
268
Physical description Cylindrical
hollowed log, with a wide slit on one face.
The slit is divided into two equal parts by
a section of wood, itself split into two parts
by a thin slot. The slit is cut in such a way
that disparity between the thicknesses of
the two lips produce different pitches when
struck.
Playing technique The performer uses
two wooden sticks (pu"'u) to strike the near
and far edges of the lips.
Used in these contexts:
Dance Associations: Ka"n!"!n, Ke)nzem,
Kwa"kwa", M!'!temi, Ntse"be, Ku"'nga")
Nd#" Metu%tu% (no photo)
has a human head carved
into the top of the
instrument, and human
feet on the bottom. It may
be used in the Fw!"' sse%
dance.

Leleme%
K'i’ Fu"! or Nzeme Mmo%
This drum has very specialized uses, employed to
send a message to a wide population by
representatives of the king, or as part of secret
association activities. The k!"!n secret society uses it,
though I never saw it employed in context.
Physical description Two attached metal
bells.
Playing technique Performer holds the
instrument by the fiber covered connecting
handle, and strikes the bells with the wooden
beater (pu"'u).
Used in these contexts Dance associations:
Fw!"' sse%, Kwa"kwa", Kw!'!nza), Ka"n!"!n,
M!'!temi, Ntsèbe (no women's dances). Also
employed in special ceremonies associated with
the kingship.
269

Melodic Idiophones
Ndeenge
Used in these contexts:
270
Physical description
Melodic lamellophone, with
hollowed bamboo body, and
bamboo strips attached to the
top.
Playing technique The
performer holds the instrument
in both hands, plucking the
bamboo strips with thumbs and
fingers.
Individual expression, mang!' (single man) and l!%!n nda% (marriage) songs.
Nza()
(pu"'u) to hit the edges of the wooden strips.
Used in these contexts
Physical description Hardwood
strips are placed perpendicularly
across two thick banana stalks. The
wooden strips are held in place by
small sticks inserted through holes
on the end of each strip, and
pressed into the banana stalk below.
Playing technique A performer
sits on each side of the instrument,
each using two wooden sticks
Dance Associations: Djamassale, Kw!'!nza), Pu! ma"nzo"), Ta" no" p#"a w!%!n ngy3o w!%!n

Aerophones
Cu(
Laketa
271
Physical description Chinese bamboo
or plastic tube, open on both ends.
Playing technique Performer blows
into one end, vibrating his or her lips,
like a trumpet.
Used in these contexts Dance
associations: Djamassale, Jeunesse,
Kembw!', Ke)nzem, K'ı"' fu"!, Nkwo)e
c#a nkab, Lene)e mbo), Mamba),
Manty*!', Nja), Ntse mb#), Ny+lo&)
One Ka"n!"!n dance group reported that they play a curved aerophone called a laketa.
They described it as a powerful expression of joy by men, and often used to relay
messages.

Ndo%) or Me%sh#a
I found no uniformity in names for the three types of whistles used in Ngiemboon
music: wooden overblown whistle, the police whistle, and the umpire's whistle. Ndo%)
was often used interchangeably for all of these. DAKASBA members called the wooden
whistle they used, me%sh#a.
272
Physical description Carved wooden
piece with two vertically protruding tips,
and a hole proceeding from between the
two tips through the bottom end of the
instrument. Two additional holes are found
on each side of the whistle, below the
upper section.
Playing technique The performer blows
over the hole between the two protruding
tips, holding his fingers over the two side
holes. He may produce another pitch by
uncovering one of the holes.
At least one of the three types of whistles may be used in these
contexts:
Dance Associations: Djamassale, Jeunesse, Ka"n!"!n, Kembw!', Ke)nzem, K'ı"' fu"!,
Kwo)e, Kw!'!nza), Lene)e mbo), Lepa")nda&) , Mamba), Manty*!', Melant+, Nja),
Ntse"be, Ntse mb#), Pu! ma"nzo"), Sa"malı%, Ta" no" p#"a w!%!n ngy3o w!%!n

"Umpire" whistle during R`"l`kÕ#!dance
273
"Police" whistle during Kdmdœd!dance

Membranophones
La"mbı"
Physical description Hourglass wooden
body, with goat skin head on one end, attached
with nylon cords. Exerting pressure on the
cords changes the tension on the head, thus
modifying the pitch produced when hit.
Playing technique The performer holds the
drum under her left arm, and hits the head with
her right hand. More research is necessary to
determine whether pitch changes play a
significant role in musical production.
Used in these contexts
Dance Associations: Djamassale, Jeunesse, Kembw!', Ke)nzem, K'ı"' fu"!, Nkwo)e
c#a nkab, Lene)e mbo), Manty*!', Ntse"be, Ny+lo&), Nza)g, Sa"malı%
Ma& se"m (Ma& Nka") and Mu! Se"m (Mu! Nka")
Physical description The small (mu!) drum is
made of hollow, cylindrical wood body, with goat
skin stretched over one end, fastened with nails
and a strip of heavy rubber. The body of the large
(ma&) drum is barrel-shaped, and forms one piece
with the lower section, carved into four legs
standing on a round base. The only opening into
the barrel portion is a rectangular hole, or narrow
slit.
274

Playing technique Performers strike the heads with their hands. See Chapter Five for
a more detailed description.
Used in these contexts
Dance Associations: Ka"n!"!n, Kwa"kwa", Kw!'!nza), Ntse"be, Sa"malı%, Djamassale,
Ke)nzem
Notes Drums are played in the small-large pairs shown in the photo, notably Ka"n!"!n.
A drum may be played singly in other dance contexts.
275

FRENCH VERSION
Appendix D
Village Association Questionnaire
FICHE DE RENSEIGNEMENT
Autorisation No. 035 MINREST/BOO/DOO/D10/D12
Province de l'Ouest
Région Ngiemboon
Enquête sur les groupes de danse du pays Ngiemboon:
Organisation, Constitution et Fonctionnement.
Veuillez répondre aux questions suivantes
1. Quel est le nom du groupe de danse ? ________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Quels sont les fondateurs et l'année de fondation ?
a) Fondateurs _________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
b) Année ______________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Quels sont les objectifs déclarés du groupe ? _______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Quelles sont les positions des dirigeants ?
276

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. Donner la fréquence normale des réunions/jour/lieu et heure
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
6. Donner les heures et dates des réunions pour le mois précédent ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7. Quelle est la constitution approximative des adhérents ?
a) Femmes _______________________________________________________
b) Hommes _______________________________________________________
c) Enfants _______________________________________________________
8. Décrivez brièvement la musique et la danse.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
9. Quelle est la ressemblance avec les autres groupes de danse ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
277

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
10. Quels sont les instruments musicaux utilisés ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
11. Donner un ou plusieurs exemples de chants exécutés lors des réunions.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12. Est-il typiquement Ngiemb!!n ? Oui _____ Non _____
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
13. Y-a-t-il une tenue spéciale pour ce genre de chants ? Oui _____ Non _____
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
14. Y-a-t-il des matériaux spéciaux ? Oui _____ Non _____
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
278

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
15. Comment sont composés les chants ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
16. Quelles sont les connotations sociales ou religieuses de ce genre de chant ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
17. Quelles sont les émotions qu'éprouvent les danseurs ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
18. L'association fonctionne-t-elle en tontine (contribution individuelle des membres et
conditions que doivent remplir les bénéficiaires) ? Oui _____ Non _____
Si oui, quel est le montant des cotisations, et les conditions de distribution ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
19. Y-a-t-il d'autres activités du groupe ?
279

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
20. Y-a-t-il d'autres occasions pendant lesquelles le groupe danse?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
21. Quelle est l'origine de ce genre de danse ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
22. Autres informations concernant le groupe.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
23. Rappelez-vous des autres groupes de danse qui ne sont plus actifs ? Si oui, lesquelles ?
C’était en quelle époque ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
280

Enquête menée par
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Le ____________________________________________________________________________________________
A _____________________________________________________________________________________________
Nom(s) de(s) Informateur(s) _____________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
281

ENGLISH BACK TRANSLATION
Please respond to the following questions
1. What is the name of the dance group?
2. Who were the founders, and what year did they found the group?
a) Founders
b) Year
3. What are the declared objectives of the group?
4. What are the positions of the leaders?
5. Give the normal frequency of meetings, day, place, and time.
6. Give the time and dates of meetings in the preceding month.
7. What is the approximate constitution of members?
a) women
b) men
c) children
d) [Ferdinand added 'mixed' as a category here]
8. Briefly describe the music and dance.
9. How does this resemble other dance groups?
10. What musical instruments are used?
11. Give one or more examples of songs performed at meetings.
12. Is it typically Ngiemboon? Yes ___ No ___
13. Is there special clothing for this kind of song? Yes ___ No ___
14. Are there special materials? Yes ___ No ___
15. How are the songs composed?
16. What are the social or religious connotations of this kind of song?
17. What emotions do dancers feel?
18. Does the association function as a savings association (individual contribution of
members and conditions that the beneficiaries must fulfill)? Yes ___ No ___. If
yes, what is the amount of contribution, and the conditions for distribution?
19. Are there other activities of the group?
20. Are there other occasions when the group dances?
282

21. What is the origin of this type of dance?
22. Other information concerning the group?
23. Do you remember other dance groups that are no longer actives? If so, which
ones? In what time period?
Research performed by:
Date:
Place:
Name(s) of responder(s):
283

Appendix E
Description of Corpus of DAKASBA Songs
I present these songs in the order in which they occurred in DAKASBA's July 8, 2002
performance. The Tonal Center (TC) for each song is encased in a rectangle.
1. Sa$a ka"n!"!n
Synopsis This song functions as a call to ka"n!"!n association members to come and be
energized to dance, and for others to draw closer to listen. It initiates each performance
of a ka"n!"!n dance, and reminds listeners that death is never final: a person's spirit
continues to live among people.
Origins Imported to Batcham from Bamoun by Malem Ndikun and others, probably in
the mid 19 th century.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:01 (Analytical)
• CDNG03-02:01 (Integral)
• DVNG02-01: 5:18 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Non-metric Not applicable G# 3 m2 ascending compound
Tonal Inventory
Hectocents 7 5 2 0 2
Freq (Hz) 138 155 180 204 230
284

2. Lye% me%m!"!
Synopsis The refrain of this song, "Love your brother reciprocally," underscores its
themes of solidarity and love. It counsels listeners through proverbs on how to do this
practically. "He who hates the son of his neighbor is bound to suffer" constitutes one
such proverb.
Origins Composed recently in Batcham by younger people.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:02 (Analytical)
• DVNG02-01: 11:50-14:40 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 3
Response: 5
Tonal Inventory
Notes
= 138 E 3 no simple
Recording of integral performance reveals a tempo of = 152 and a m2 ascending
pitch shift.
285

3. Yi) le% kwo mbo)o
Synopsis This song wishes bon voyage to a traveler. Metaphorical extensions include
hoping for a life without obstacles for a living person, and sending a deceased person on
his way to paradise.
Origins Composed by DAKASBA member Jean-Pierre Tchiaze in the late 1990s. He
currently lives in Bafia.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:03 (Analytical)
• DVNG02-01: 14:59-19:37 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 3
Response: 5
Tonal Inventory
Notes
= 120 C 3 no simple
The note 'G' plays a secondarily important role, beginning each call phrase. Recording
of an integral performance reveals a tempo of = 144.
286

4. Pu"$ ngwo)
Synopsis This song reminds listeners of their certain demise, and the sad state in which
their death could leave their children. It mocks people who die without having built a
house.
Origins An old song–perhaps imported from Bamoun by Malem Ndikum–sung by all
ka"n!"!n dance groups.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:03 (Analytical)
• CDNG03-02:02 (Integral)
• DVNG02-01: 20:15-23:59 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 4
Response: 4
Tonal Inventory
Notes
= 132 F# 3 M2 ascending compound
Recording of integral performance reveals a tempo of = 152 and a m2 ascending
pitch shift. Singers use the C natural to create tritones, a phenomenon apparently unique
to this song.
287

5. Ng'+ nyi)
Synopsis This song states that the seed of a man is good, affirming the value of human
beings.
Origins Composed recently in a Ngiemb!!n village, and introduced to DAKASBA by
Martin Teufa, who died around the year 2000. Sung by many ka"n!"!n dance groups.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:05 (Analytical)
• DVNG02-01: 24:40-27:58 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 2
Response: 6
Tonal Inventory
Notes
= 138 E 3 m2 ascending simple
Recording of integral performance reveals a tempo of = 152 and a M2 ascending
pitch shift.
6. Y!!n y!%!n mie n" ndeen mbá
Synopsis This song is a treatment of death, a fate that no one can escape. This sentiment
is expressed in the lyric, "K! te po) m%b#%!g aa w!," which states that everything is
288

destined to die. Our lot is not hopeless, however, because our dance associations will
come perform, marking our passing.
Origins An old song, perhaps dating to the importation of the ka"n!"!n dance from
Bamoun.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:06 (Analytical)
• CDNG03-02:04 (Integral)
• DVNG02-01: 28:30-32:40 (repeated at 56:29) (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 10
Response: 8
Tonal Inventory
Notes
= 144 Undetermined M2 ascending simple
Recording of integral performance reveals a tempo of = 152.
7. Ngiemb!!n gie(mb!!n
Synopsis This song teaches that we must get along with each other, and expressed the
joy of being Ngiemb!!n.
Origins An old song, perhaps dating to the importation of the ka"n!"!n dance from
Bamoun.
289

Recordings
• CDNG02-01:07 (Analytical)
• DVNG02-01: 33:10-36:45 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 2
Response: 1
Tonal Inventory
Notes
= 144 Undetermined M2 ascending compound
Recording of integral performance reveals a tempo of = 152, and sing 'Yamba"
instead of "Ngiemb!!n."
8. M!!nfu"! Tin"d!($
Synopsis This song addresses the passing of Manfuo Tindo in particular, citing proverbs
commonly used when someone dies as well. These aphorisms include, for example,
"T!(!n nd# mbo)o laa kwab ts'+," ("Even a good liana doesn't rest on the vine"),
"Leke) le$ po) nza%g k'i)" ("A good cooking pot that lacks wood"), and "Mbw!$ k'i) la
ma% so) so)" ("A stick of wood finishes as it is pulled out").
Origins Composed within the last thirty years by a noted ka"n!"!n dance group in
Batcham, "Kana Zimegong." The group produced this song for after the death of one of
its influential members, Manfuo Tindo, and it is now performed by many ka"n!"!n
groups.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:08 (Analytical)
290

• CDNG03-02:03 (Integral)
• DVNG02-01: 38:00-44:20 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 2
Response: 6
Tonal Inventory
Notes
= 126 F 3 slight simple
Recordings of integral performance reveal tempos of = 138 and 160, and repeated
patterns of ascending pitch shift, pitch drop, and reascension. Also, the melodic rhythm
of the DVNG02-01 integral recording differs markedly from that of CDNG02-01:08.
9. Laaye% ("lie," in English)
Synopsis Unclear.
Origins Composed recently by a citizen of Batcham, D Skin Na.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:09 (Analytical)
• CDNG03-02:07 (Integral)
• DVNG02-01: 44:20-47:05 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 2
Response: 2
= 126 C 3 m2 ascending simple
291

Tonal Inventory
Notes
Recording of integral performances reveal tempos of = 152 and 160, and a M2
ascending pitch shift.
10. Ndend#m
Synopsis This song asserts that the power of the people of Batcham rests in the use of
the ndend#m, a fruit (jujube). This fruit is used to ward of evil spirits and calm babies.
Origins Recently composed in the Ngiemb!!n village region.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:10 (Analytical)
• DVNG02-01: 47:52-52:00 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 2
Response: 6
Tonal Inventory
Notes
= 152 Ab 3 M2 ascending simple
Recording of integral performance reveals a tempo of = 160.
292

11. Ndoon two nka%b
Synopsis This song warns people throughout the world that money brings curses.
Origins Recently composed in the Ngiemb!!n village region.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:11 (Analytical)
• DVNG02-01: 52:35-57:00 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 3
Response: 5
Tonal Inventory
Notes
= 144 E 3 M2 ascending simple
Recording of integral performance reveals a tempo of = 160, and a M2 ascending
pitch shift.
12. Gw!% g!!n mba ! ju(
Synopsis This song gives presents much advice to its listeners. For example, the lyrics
warn people to be honest, avoid treason, and refrain from judging someone before all
the facts are in.
Origins Recently composed in Batcham by the group "Kana Bafoussam de Batcham."
293

Recordings
• CDNG02-01:12 (Analytical)
• CDNG03-02:09 (Integral)
• DVNG02-01: 59:50 thru DVNG02-02 1:00 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 2
Response: 1
Tonal Inventory
Notes
= 138 Db 3 no compound
Recording of integral performance reveals a tempo of = 152 and a slightly
ascending pitch shift.
13. SIDA
Synopsis This song was adapted from song 12 to present an anti-AIDS message. It
states that AIDS has entered the whole world, and to avoid it, men must use a condom.
Origins Recently composed by the group "Kana Bamoungong" in Mbouda, outside the
borders of the Ngiemb!!n kingdoms.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:13 (Analytical)
• CDNG03-02:09 (Integral)
• DVNG02-02:1:00-4:40 (Integral)
294

Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 2
Response: 1
Tonal Inventory
Notes
= 138 Db 3 Slightly ascending compound
Recordings of integral performances reveal tempos of = 132 and 152, and a
slightly ascending pitch shift.
14. P!%!n ncwo gu%
Synopsis Lyrics of this song present proverbs counseling people to control their
tongues.
Origins An old song, perhaps dating to the importation of the ka"n!"!n dance from
Bamoun.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:14 (Analytical)
• CDNG03-02:08 (Integral)
• DVNG02-01: 4:55- 11:45 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 3
Response: 5
= 138 E 3 slightly ascending simple
295

Tonal Inventory
Notes
The C# and G# may be realized as C natural and G natural, respectively, when the note
is repeated before a descending major 2nd. Recordings of integral performances reveal
tempos of = 132 and 152, and a m3 ascending pitch shift.
15. Ma%lem Ndı%ku%n
Synopsis This song evokes the original importers of the ka"n!"!n dance, such as Malem
Ndikun. While most of the text consists of vocables, lyrics allude to the masked dancer
makum, and the song as a whole has mystical overtones.
Origins An old song, dating to the importation of the ka"n!"!n dance from Bamoun.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:15 (Analytical)
• CDNG03-02:05 (Integral)
• DVNG02-01: 17:00-21:15 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 2
Response: 2
Tonal Inventory
= 138 Bb 3 m2 ascending compound
296

Unanalyzed, complicated pitch fluctuations leave this inventory in a very tentative
status.
Notes
Recordings of integral performances reveal tempos of = 160 and 152, and repeated
patterns of ascending pitch shift, pitch drop, and reascension.
16. P!%!n le% gi)a lo%)
Synopsis This song warns listeners to control their anger. People who die angry become
a source of malediction to their family after death.
Origins Recently composed in Batcham.
Recordings
• CDNG02-01:16 (Analytical)
• DVNG02-01: 12:00-16:50 (Integral)
Cycle Divisions Tempo Tonal Center Pitch Shift Form
Call: 3
Response: 5
Tonal Inventory
Notes
= 138 C# 3 none simple
Recording of integral performance reveals a tempo of =152 and a m2 ascending
pitch shift.
297

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