Marco Contextual 1 Síndrome

That slave descendants of the Kau family are still considered to be the property of the freeborn person they are linked to is explained by informants from different back- grounds in Dalla through references to animals: The owner of the cow is the owner of its calves. As Olivier de Sardan (1975: 117) noted for the Songhay society in Central Mali, this comparison is commonly used in informants’ discourse and in juridical

24 _{She specifically refers to the asymmetrical institutionalization of work relations in which inequality} remained and became part and parcel of making a living in daily life.

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Islamic prescriptions (Brunschwig 1960).25 _{Another freeborn informant described how}

the rope (French: la corde), which used to tie slaves together is still present (de Bruijn

& Pelckmans 2005).

This idea of slave descendants being personalized property belonging to individuals

is institutionalized by important Fulɓe families. Most freeborn youngsters in the royal

and imam families26 _{are given and/or appointed someone of slave descent and often of}

the same age.27 This is what I propose to call a ‘link-up’, an arrangement either made

officially at birth or as a present at the time of circumcision. Link-ups used to be publicly announced on major ritual occasions and today such linked-up pairs (a young- ster of slave descent from the Kau family and a royal youngster from the Dicko family) will spend most of their youth playing together, going hunting, learning how to seduce girls, sharing their secrets and in their teens sleeping together in so-called boys’ houses. However within these friendships, each person is expected to behave according to stylistic performance: The link-up can be seen as the ultimate institution that matches two individuals who ideally end up performing in stereo style.

Most of these linked-up pairs remain close friends for the rest of their lives. An example of a link-up from the older generation in Dalla is that between Macca and the former chief (†2009). As a child, Macca was linked up with the chief and they went out herding together and typically adhered to the same political party (called ADEMA). Macca performed the loyalty style by hosting the chief’s visitors and in 2002 when Macca assisted the chief on his annual taxation tour in Dalla, the chief performed the patriarchal style by rewarding Macca with a goat for his loyalty.

Another example of a link-up in the younger generation is that between Samba Dicko (Yerowal Dicko’s grandson) and Suleymane Dauda (Kau’s grandson). Suleymane and Samba both emigrated but engaged in different trajectories: Samba Dicko left to study while Suleymane went to work. Samba these days works for the World Bank in Bamako, while Suleymane worked as a cultivator in Burkina Faso and then returned to Dalla to educate his children at home. They are still in touch but as they do not live in the same locality, Suleymane started to assist Musa Dicko, Samba Dicko’s father and the former mayor. After the mayor’s own link-up assistant died, Suleymane became the mayor’s right hand and he engages in more or less the same tasks as Macca: Guiding taxmen in the villages near Dalla, hosting the mayor’s personal visitors, supporting the same political party (PSP) and so on.

Another task that most of the male linked-up slave descendants of the Kau family provide the Dicko family with is ritual assistance. On important occasions in the Dicko family, descendants of the Kau family help with typical ‘slave’ tasks: Butchering and

25 _{Both cattle and slaves are symbols of wealth and are metaphorically interchangeable. Many stereo-} types draw an analogy between slaves in their relations with Fulɓe masters.

26 _{This historical link-up as forged between former masters and slave descendants is not applied between} masters and slaves of all status groups. In Dalla, the religious elite of the imam’s family and the ruling Dicko family follow this tradition. Among the freeborn traders’ families in Dalla, there is only one family (Alu Bah Kaado & Umaru Boolo Bocoum) who also have their own Maccuɓe linked up. During Tabaski celebrations, their link-ups will, for example, butcher their sacrifice for them.

27 _{Interviews with Amadu Amiiru (aged 26), Seydu Dicko (aged 29), Aai Dicko (aged 18), without inter-} preter, Bamako, Mopti 2007.

barbequing an animal, cooking and fetching wood and water. Like their male counter- parts, noble Dicko women are also linked up with a personal slave descendant from the Kau family.

In Dalla, noble Dicko women may be assisted by their link-up assistant at important

transitional points in their lives: When they become a widow28 or after giving birth. Not

only the linked-up peer but often also older women of slave descent are asked to assist the noble mother for at least 40 days with the feeding, dressing and care of the baby. In

2002 they received the then standard reward of a length of cloth29 and FCFA 500 for

such assistance.

Maintaining good link-up relations and demonstrating one’s loyalty can be done by greeting and visiting one’s link-up partner regularly. Many slave-descending woman of the Kau family greet the royal Dicko family every morning and in many ways the linked-up couples look like friends, but legacies of master-slave relations have remained in these stereo-styled relations. The exchange of labour is not reciprocal but uni- directional. A Dicko woman would never assist her slave-descending link-up friend when she gives birth to her first child. Assistance in the form of labour is typical for the loyalty style and will be rewarded by the patron in kind. Slave-descending men and women claim that they are not ‘formerly enslaved’ by this link-up relation because they are not rewarded in cash. Most of them, on the contrary, express pleasure in maintaining close relations with ‘their’ patron and appropriate the loyalty style as a source of pride.

The elite are conscious of the asymmetry of this link-up relationship. This is under-

lined by Amadu,30 who explains that it is increasingly difficult to openly claim in public

that a certain person is being ‘given’, and thus belongs, to you. This is why his father and other members of the Dicko family now use a different vocabulary when official- izing the link-up between two persons. They avoid offending slave descendants by

calling them Maccuɓe in public and use different, less shocking words to talk about

those they consider their slaves. They speak of ‘those we own’ (FF: JeyaaBe) or more

euphemistically ‘those we see’ (FF: Jiyaaɓe). Such language reproduces the cultural

field of hierarchy precisely because it is so implicit and the contestation by those stigmatized is less overt. This use of language demonstrates how hierarchy became increasingly delegated to the sphere of less tactile and more subtle social boundaries. And although the cultural field of hierarchy may have been relegated to the sphere of secrecy and taboo, it is omnipresent but with a subtlety that is difficult for outsiders to interpret.31

Not only the older generation but also freeborn Dicko youngsters in their twenties used to be linked up with personal assistants. Some have migrated and are no longer in touch on a daily basis but, even in the diaspora, the majority of freeborn men and women from the royal (and Islamic) court in Dalla have been linked up with at least one

28 _{Chapter 7 describes how Kumba, a noble woman whose husband died, was supported by her linked-} up female former slave during the period of mourning.

29 _{Known as pagne in French (FF: Disaare), this is a length of printed cotton cloth. The cheapest quality} printed cotton in Douentza cost FCFA 1500 in 2002.

30 _{Amadu Amiiru Dicko, interviews in Bamako, Mopti and Dalla, 2006-2007.} 31 _{See also Zempleni (1996).}

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personal slave descendant at birth or at their circumcision.32 _{The children of intellectual}

members of the royal family who live in the mayor cities of West Africa and in Europe remain linked up with such an ‘assistant’. There is flexibility as to who exactly is going to fulfil the function of the linked-up partner. This becomes clear if we look at the case of Amadu, the son of the chief of Dalla who is studying in Bamako and Mopti, who was

linked up with ‘his diimaajo’ at the time of his circumcision. However since this person

lives in Torobani (Map 4) they did not often spend time together. Over time Amadu got along better with his schoolmate Nou, who is of slave descent. Today, Amadu always hangs out with Nou and both of them became stereopartners.

Nou is working for the customs in Mopti and whenever Amadu is on a visit to Mopti they spend time together. Nou shows his loyalty by accompanying Amadu for hours or while waiting at the bus stop to return to Bamako or to travel on to Douentza. By so doing, Nou risks losing his well-paid job but explains that being with Amadu is more

important. Many people consider them to be the typical diimo-diimaajo pair and they

behave in stereo style.

Another example of the same generation (youngsters in their twenties in 2007) is that of freeborn royal Moustique Dicko who is studying in Bamako and his linked-up assistant Alou who is studying in Segou. When we visited Segou in 2007, Alou offered us his services, insisting on his loyalty by saying he was prepared to do ‘anything’ for us. He arranged a motorcycle for Moustique and helped us trace and arrange interviews with informants from Dalla. When we spent time together, he would invariably be the one making the tea, bringing water and so on.

An example of a link-up in the diaspora is the relationship between Ibrahim and Bilal. Ibrahim is the 12-year-old son of Oumar Dicko, an important politician from the royal Dicko family of Joona, and was linked up with Bilal, the son of a slave-des- cending Tambura family from the village of Joona. The two children are always to- gether and could be considered best friends, but their friendship is embedded in structural differences. Ibrahim Dicko (Oumar’s freeborn son of royal descent) is study- ing and wears smart clothes, while Bilal (his linked-up friend of slave descent) does domestic work in the service of Oumar’s family (like his parents) and is dressed far less well.

The link-up relationship between the Dicko and Kau families continues to be attri- buted a great deal of importance: It is an institutionalized way of perpetuating the cultural field of hierarchy by matching pairs of people who are ideally expected to perform in stereo style. If the link-up is successful, affective stretches and the social promotion of slave descendants can result.