Joking relationships - The foundation of humour in Cote D’Ivoire?
To any tourist in Ivory Coast, it is all but impossible to not acknowledge Ivorians exceptional sense of humour. Humour entwines itself through all aspects of daily life and often serves as the underpinning for many human interactions. This humour and apparent light-hearted approach to situations has always fascinated me as a fellow West-African. One must note that due to Ivory Coast’s hegemonic position in Francophone West Africa, its urban culture and language has always found a way to export itself to neighbouring countries. Thus, most people on the west coast of Africa understand basic nouchi words, and for many youths Abidjan has long been a preferred city for immigration due to its superior infrastructures and vibrant lifestyle – but also perhaps because of Ivorians legendary sense of hospitality? The national anthem – L’Abidjanaise – depicts this central value very early in its first stanza
We salute you, O land of hope,
Country of hospitality;
To many interlocutors that I have encountered, this hospitality the work of Ivory Coast’s first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny. “He instilled in us a sense of hospitality and respect for one another”, I am often told. Yet, to an outsider the manifestation of this respect is at times done in a very atypical manner. Between ethnicities, groups, nationalities and friends, stereotypes abound. “You see these Bété people are this way…” “Baoulé people are that way…” “You Sénoufos are just like that!” While this stereotypical manner of categorizing individuals is present in almost every culture (thinking of stereotypes associated with races, nationalities in the West) including my own, the way it is handled in Ivory Coast has always intrigued me. It is only recently that I was introduced to the concept of “joking relationships” apparently very present in Cote D’Ivoire due to its cultural diversity.
What are Joking Relationships
The anthropologist Radcliffe Brown (1940) defines a ' joking relationship ' as a relation between two persons in which one is by custom permitted, and in some instances required, to tease or make fun of the other, who in turn is required to take no offence. He further identifies between two types of such relationships – symmetrical and asymmetrical. These relationships are found among many world communities ranging from Africa to North America. However, the circumstances of their occurrence and their function vary widely. They can occur between the members of the same family, between families (patronymic or matrimonial), or between clans (inter-ethnic). Unfortunately, for many of the instances that occur in West Africa, the term ‘joking relationship’ poorly captures the meaning and function of the phenomenon. Unfortunately the term “parenté à plainsanterie” used in French does not do a better job to capture the depth of the term. This is because, more than mere relationships, these social conventions are often pacts adopted by ancestors of previously warring factions, and in effect resemble alliances or covenants. Professor Urbain Amoa provides a few examples:
a) Nan is the abbreviation for Nanan in Agni or in Baoule. Nanan (grandfather or grandmother or ancestor) yields the phrase "ye nin bè di nan” which means we have a covenant with them"; such allies refer to each other as "nanan" and to each nanan, every person from the other group is "his slave" as prescribed by the practices of language juggling between grandparents and grandchildren.
b) According to Professor George N. Bouah "Toukpê" is an institution from ancient times designed to resolve social conflicts and to manage peace perpetually. "Toukpé, means "tou" as "jump" and "kpè" which means “cut” or “go through”; in other words “Toukpê” means “transcend”. (Amoa,2009)
The term ‘Joking relationship’ or “parenté à plainsanterie” proves too vague to describe the specifics and particulars of these kinds of alliances found all over West-Africa. In terms of function, these alliances through humour, serve primarily a peacekeeping purpose. Amongst the 8 objectives listed by Yacouba Kouadio relative to the rationale for the existence of these alliances, I am of Prof. Urbain Amoa’s opinion when he points out that one of the most important functions of these relationships is the obligation to defuse or make less alarming nascent or existing conflicts amongst peoples observing the pact. Prof. Alain Joseph Sisao further adds to the definition by elegantly noting that joking relationships could be defined as the social management of various sources of possible tensions through laughter. It is a question of evoking linkages to defuse tensions, to play on know-hows to let one know what was or what is, and to situate the Other at the optimal distance, close enough to be the same, yet far enough to remain Other. (Sissao, xxxx). In this sense, Sissao’s emphasizes the use of humour and ridicule as powerful agents in the social management of conflicts and other dramatic incidents such as war or death. Thus, practices such as Sanankuya which is synonymous to Toukpê (previously described) are ways for allied peoples to “play war so as not to make war” and to “act crazy so as not to become crazy” (Konate, 1977). Tense situations then become defused through humour and ridicule in the sense that social communication through humour aims at the rehabilitation of morality when it has been affected by a violent incident or one that is difficult to bear and forget. Insofar as the act to forgive is a decision that is taken by the offended party, the act of forgetting, ever more difficult to make, takes from a constant and continuous social practice. Therefore through play, one magnifies the facts (hyperbole) by voluntarily exaggerating and distorting the initial act to comical or even ridiculous extremes (Amoa, xxx).
Toukpê as a key to understanding the success of Coupe Decale?
Going back to the definition of the word toukpê (synonymous with Sanankuya), Amoa defines it as semantically made up of two verbs “tou” (which means remove, jump, fly, or take away) and “kpê” (which means “cut”, “sever”, or “go through”). According to him, Toukpê would then literally mean “cut” and “jump” (i.e. “break away from” and “get on top of” or “transcend”). Notwithstanding the apparent similarity that already exists between the literal translation of the phrase Coupe Decale (literally Cut and Shift) and Toukpê, other elemental parallels exist between the two. From my discussions with various artists, DJs, producers, journalists and other informants there is an unshakable truth about Coupe Decale: it served as an outflow of social tensions through music and dance, a form of cathartic mechanism shortly after the failed coup of 2002 and the ensuing state of emergency. “You see, before Douk Saga came, we were way too sad” declared an informant, “he really brought us joy”. Additionally in one of his songs, it is noted that Douk Saga “has put joy in our hearts and makes us forget about our worries”. Coupe Decale’s function as identified by its aficionados thus implies a liberating and gathering function through a transcending approach. By at times dramatizing war (prudencia, cacher-regarder concepts by Don Mike le Gourou), or simply evoking the daily (colgata), Coupe Decale, through its pantomimic approach has offered Ivorians during that time more than a simple distraction, but a channel through which social, political and economic frustrations could be released. In addition, as the overt political message often associated with its counterpart, Zouglou, was silenced Coupe Decale crowded dancefloors by welcoming everyone, regardless of political affiliations. Could Coupe Decale and Toukpe thus function in the same fashion as mechanisms of social release and social alliance activated through the social subconscious? It may be hazardous to affirm it without further pushing the research.
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