Time Consciousness and Growing up in Bamana Folk Drama

Abstract

LOCAL VILLAGE CELEBRATIONS among the Bamana (Bambara) of Mali are often marked by performances that selectively merge verbal and nonverbal expression with action and mimicry to create conventional representational forms, which may be called folk dramas.1 The most versatile and widely performed of these dramas is produced by the village's youth association, the kamalen ton.2 The young people's drama utilizes the combined talents of persons drawn from the male and female age-sets of the association, and it can be described generally as a comic satiric farce which obtains its expressive form principally through the integrated use of music, song, dance, characterization, dialogue, masquerade, and puppetry. It provides an important setting for the young male actors to develop mastery of various social and communicative skills commonly associated with mature, adult males. Among the Bamana of north-central Mali, the young people's drama is known as kotb-tlon, play, game, or entertainment of the youth association. The kote-tlon exhibits in its general features the content, style, and organization of the dramas young people traditionally perform in other Bamana areas; the main difference is the omission of masks or puppets as means of expression, which is more common in the youth dramas near Segou in northeastern Mali (cf. Arnoldi 1977) and in the area of Bougouni in southern Mali (cf. Prouteaux 1929). Kotk-tlon is performed to honor visits made to the village by political dignitaries and by other village youth associations, to accompany marriage and funeral celebrations, and to contribute to the nocturnal festivities of the youths' annual feast. But it occurs most often for no other reason than to pass moments of a dry season's evening time in a way that villagers have found pleasurable and entertaining for generations. An evening of kote-tlon on the public place of the village may consist of the performance of 10, 15, 20, or more plays ranging roughly from 1 to 15 minutes in duration, each developing a different comic theme, and each produced, directed and acted by a team of boys belonging to one of the five or six male age-sets of the youth association. Completing the troupe of performers for each drama are the boys who accompany the songs and dances of the plays on the association's four drums and the girls who provide the choral and handclapping accompani-