The Manding/Fula relations as reflected in the Manding song repertoire

Abstract

Music in both Fula and Manding societies is almost exclusively the province of professional musicians or griots, whose concern has always been not only with providing music for various occasions, but with chronicling the achievements of notable people and maintaing the genealogies of the ruling or otherwise influential families. Since many historical and genealogical facts have found their expression in songs composed by the musicians, it is possible to gain insights into these matters by examining the song texts of either group. In the Manding repertoire, a topic that comes up frequently is the subject of Manding/Fula relations, and it is this topic that will be addressed in this paper, after taking a more general look at the song texts of the jali, as the griot is known in Mandinka.