Abstract
It is not uncommon for a jeli to have a jatigi, literally, a host, someone with power who can call on his client for services. A jatigi is also a patron, someone who supports a jeli financially and is relied on to “get things done” (Ebron, Performing Africa. Princeton University Press, 2002; Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. W.W. Norton and Co., 2006). Jelis used to be hɔrɔn, nobles with upstanding moral behavior, but that is finished now. Meanwhile, when the American music student becomes culturally enmeshed, she may be primed to become a jatigi without understanding what rights and responsibilities this gives her. It is a hybrid role, at once an apprentice who respects and learns from her teacher, and a patron on which she is depended for support. When Americans, like myself, become jatigis, things get complicated.
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Notes
- 1.
Recall from Chap. 2, Kwame Anthony Appiah explains that “to get things done…you need to be someone or know someone with the social standing to work your will. Since most people don’t have that status, they need to find someone—a patron—who does. In a society like this, to ask someone for something is to invite him to become your patron. It’s a sign that you think he has the status to get things done. And so it’s a way of indicating respect ” (Appiah, 2006: 92).
- 2.
Barbara Hoffman clarified, “In Mali, hɔrɔn is used for everyone of that caste, even criminals. It can be a value-free status marker as well as an index of dignity as in “jelihɔrɔn” for griots who are very generous and kind.” Hoffman referred to Zobel 1996, “The Noble Griot” for another source (Hoffman personal communication 2021). Famoro Dioubaté likes to use hɔrɔn as not just the caste of “noble” but as a person with dignity.
- 3.
To recall the relevant history: the West African peoples, Guineans in particular, were enslaved in the sixteenth century and subsequently colonized between the 1850s to the end of the nineteenth century with the defeat of the Malinké war hero Samoury Touré. After decolonization and political freedom in 1958, Guinea and other former colonies remained economically dependent on Western economic domination which has had devastating effects on their cultures—and yet they persist.
- 4.
Mamady Djeliké Kouyaté blames the Arab invasions of West Africa before colonization and the slave trade, as the source of West Africa’s problems in development. He writes: “When all of the West began to discover this [Manding] beautiful civilization through Arab writers, one wondered why this civilization had not subsequently experienced a similar development to Europe’s. The cause is the Arab invasion of everything, particularly of gold and of slaves, our most able-bodied young men, which has stripped Africa of a significant part of its population, thereby damaging the civilization” (Kouyaté, Djelitomba Organization, 2021).
- 5.
For further detail on this history of European patronage, see https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/modern-europe/british-and-irish-history/artistic-patronage
- 6.
Jelis in Paris and New York I know have been dishonest, saying that they did not receive their payment when they actually had, hoping to be paid twice, or perhaps hiding money or taking a larger share given to them when it could arguably be shared equally with the other musicians. I know both African and European producers who refuse to do business with them. Jelis can even be crass enough to ask for money when having no prior relationship to a person. I have been asked by jelis to finance their projects, seemingly out of the blue. To be fair, there are also jelis who do not ask me for money when I might expect them to do so, and I have offered to help a jeli in difficulty who has bashfully refused.
- 7.
As an example, in B’s compound in Chap. 5, we resolved many of the tensions that had built up, but dealing with money disagreements was not one of them.
- 8.
- 9.
Raul believed in Famoro’s talent as much as I did then, and he still does now. He is the other American patron in Famoro’s life, and in that, we share comradery. Raul and I are both misunderstood at times by people in our communities. However, Raul explains, he would rather support an artist he knows directly than to donate to an organization where the rewards for both sides is not immediately felt.
- 10.
According to one jeli informant, Mamady Kouyaté, if Islam shall conflict with indigenous African values, it is the indigenous value system that generally takes moral precedent (2021 private conversations).
- 11.
“Allah m’an son” is what people say when street beggars ask for money that people cannot/will not give for whatever reason. It is a blessing: May God give to us all (Barbara Hoffman, Personal communication 2021).
- 12.
Lessons Famoro has taught me about time in various ways cycles back around again. “Take your time,” he says to me so that I respect myself and others, so that I do things correctly and with heart. “Respect the time” in the balafon music, a time that is intentionally challenging. Time also stands for love. Someone who has time for you loves you, has respect for you. If you take time for one another, to look deeply, to be sweet, and to try to understand one another, unwholesome behavior will become apparent and it will correct itself. This is the crux of the jeli–hɔrɔn relationship. Famoro and I take time to make sure we understand each other. We are witnessing the breakdown of respect for one another in our society today. When that happens, what does humanity have left?
- 13.
Mamady Kouyaté explained the word sabou as “the means.” The phrase means “no one can become a big personality without having the means.” Philosophically speaking, he adds, this is the rule of cause and effect (Kouyaté personal communication 2021).
References
Appiah, K. A. (2006). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. W.W. Norton and Co..
Ebron, P. (2002). Performing Africa. Princeton University Press.
Herzfeld, M. (2004). The Body Impolitic. University of Chicago Press.
Hoffman, B. (2000). Griots at War. Indiana University Press.
Kouyaté, M. (2021). Djelitomba Association. (Statement of Purpose Recorded and Translated by Lisa Feder, January 2021).
Parrot, G. (2007). Personal communication with author.
Zobel, C. (1996). The Noble Griot; the Construction of Mande Jeliw‑Identities and Political Leadership as Interplay of Alternate Values. The Younger Brother in Mande. Kinship and Politics in West Africa. Leiden, Research School CNWS, 35–47.
Discography
Dioubaté, F. (2014). Kontendemi. Wula Drum.
Jobarteh, Saikou. (2006a). Archive Disc 1, Disc 2. The Gambia (Recorded by Gray Parrot).
Jobarteh, Saikou. (2006b). Training Disc 1, Disc 2. The Gambia (Recorded by Gray Parrot).
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Feder, L. (2021). Patronage: Becoming a Jatigi. In: Jeliya at the Crossroads. Palgrave Studies in Literary Anthropology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83059-5_9
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