An African World: The Basongye Village of Lupupa Ngye

by Alan P. Merrian

This is an engrossing account of ethnographic field work carried out in Lupupa Ngye, a Basongye village of central Zäire. The author's general aim was to know Basongye society and culture, and also to study music and the other arts. This volume provides a vivid descriptive sketch of the daily lives of the villagers and an understanding of their belief system. Professor Merriam's field-work in Lupupa Ngye was intensive and capable; his report on it is illuminating.

Genres: Anthropology

Hardcover

First published December 22, 1974

Reviews

[Bob Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Ethnographer's Ethnography

I first heard of Alan Merriam many years ago, as one of the foremost ethnomusicologists in the USA. Not being very familiar with the field, when I saw his book, AN AFRICAN WORLD, in a bookshop some years ago, I bought it right away, without looking through it. I've just read it. I was disappointed to realize that it had nothing to do with music, but that is hardly the fault of the author !

This study of a small village in Eastern Kasai in the country now known as Congo, but for many years as Zaire, is written about a sub-division of the people known as Basongye. Merriam undertook to write it because "...music can only be understood when society and culture are understood and thus that understanding can only be achieved along with a general ethnographic competence." The village of Lupupa Ngye, described in mind-boggling detail here, serves, then, as a typical place in a larger Basongye society, whose music Merriam must have described elsewhere. I found Merriam's writing very clear and extremely well-organized. His data seems amazingly complete as well. There are a few interesting photographs included and the historical introduction is excellent, the most interesting part of the book to me. However, three factors lead me to say that I think few readers would find this book a pleasurable experience, unless they were students of Central African history or anthropology, in which case AN AFRICAN WORLD would surely be absolutely necessary.

First, Merriam loaded his text with literally hundreds of Kisonge terms (and even gave the plurals in most cases !). This breaks up the text considerably. I doubt if many readers, even the most earnest, need to know that "fate" was called "kwelampungulu" by the villagers. Second, Merriam seems to have had a laundry list of a huge number of traits, characteristics, and institutions found among the cultures of mankind. Could these have been taken from the old HRAF system ? [Human Relations Area Files] I found it a little annoying to be told very often that such and such custom or habit is not found among the villagers. It smacks of Monty Python. (The larch is not a tree common to Paraguay!) Third, and last, this is an ethnography for the record. It stands as (I would bet) one of the few ever written about the area, an area that has doubtless gone through, and is still going through, the cruel vicissitudes of civil war and national breakdown. But the villagers have no voice in the book. We meet nobody, we hear nobody, we feel nothing. Merriam connects us to no anthropological theory, he is totally absent from his work---we don't know what he felt about any of it, we don't learn much about how he did the work. It is a steady march through the List. Magic, sorcerers, agriculture, kinship, hunting, the political system, oaths and ordeals, marriage, divorce, death, slavery, social groups, funerals...... I missed feeling, I missed compassion, I missed drama. If you are researching the Congo or Central Africa, you must read this book. If you are searching for a book that will give you pleasure, look for something else.