Mask chants in Northeastern Brazil and in central and West Africa; traces for a comparative analysis

Abstract

Language data and oral literature data are contrasted here, to focus African and Afro-Brazilian lyrics related to mask characters. I selected one chant from my previous field research in Maranhão state (Northeastern Brazil), a poem from Angola and a chant from the Dogon of Mali. The first is in Brazilian Portuguese with Kimbundu words; the second is in Angolan Portuguese with Kimbundu words; the third is in Dogon language including local Sigi-so initiation language. Linguistic borrowing of the African word cazumba in Brazil is shown (from kimbundo kanzumbi). The coherences in meanings and in narrative details, from both sides of the Atlantic, are consistent and evoke new steps of comparison to be done. The theoretical key of the "monstruous" and "monitor" or initiation master, as used by N. Sega Touré (in Baumgardt & Ugochuku 2005), helps establishing this comparison, to link concepts from ethnology, language and literature studies. And detailed notes on the Brazilian example of bumba-boi dance drama in context emphasize local dynamics of oral transmission.