Speech as a means of education : the case of traditionel songs among the wassolonka of Mandiana in Guinea

Abstract

This paper aims to highlight the educational significance of the words in the traditional song of the Wassolonka people of Mandiana in Guinea. The scarcity of research on the orality of these people, and in particular on their traditional song, motivated the choice of this subject. Perceived as a privileged means of expression, singing plays a key role in this community, particularly in education. In terms of methodology, this study takes a multidisciplinary approach. Firstly, the ritual and initiatory framework of education is analyzed using an ethnolinguistic approach, highlighting the differents contributions to the educational system specific to the Wassolonka of Mandiana. Secondly, it is shown that the main actors in the performance of the traditional Wassolonka song, including the sènèdjély (the farmer's singer), the donsodjély (the hunter's singer), and his acolyte the naamunamina (the respondent), make a major contribution to the internalization and appropriation (by the audience) of the educational message conveyed, thanks to the power of the spoken word, which they handle with elegance, art and dexterity. Finally, as a body of literary discourse, the corpus of songs collected in the field, after transcription and translation, required thematic and stylistic analysis.