Chants, blâmes et paroles scandaleuses : les kaɓɓitooji chez les Fulɓe du Borgou (Nord-Bénin)

• Main Author: Martine Guichard
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université de Provence 2004-06-01
• Series: Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/remmm/1205

This article deals with collective sanctions imposed on or threatened to offenders who have expressed disagreement and hostility by verbally insulting their opponents. The focus will be on a kind of punishment that can only be inflicted on the members of certain social categories within the Fulɓe society of northern Benin. This punishment, which is normally imposed at the request of young men and which takes initially the form of songs, inspires a great fear in their potential addressees, namely women and elders. The negative implications of such songs effectively discourage many of them from defending strongly their position and from getting into heated altercations with young men. Because the latter have the privilege of songs of blame, they are particularly able to structure other people’s actions. As will be suggested in this contribution, this ability is rooted in the socio-sexual division of emotions and nourished by the masculinization of the right to anger.