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Further Adventures of Hyena and Rabbit: The Folktale as a Sociological Model1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

T. O. Beidelman
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Extract

In a previous article published in this journal analysed one East African folktale in terms of its sociological significance. In this article I present a second, similar tale which deals with the same characters and which provides additional illustration of some of the points I tried to make in my earlier work.

This folktale is in Chikaguru, the language spoken by the Kaguru, a matrilineal Bantu people living in northern Kilosa and Mpwapwa Districts. The Kaguru have cultural traditions similar to those of other matrilineal peoples in this region of Tanganyika, such as the Luguru, Ngulu, Zigua, Sagara, and others. They are organized into about ioo non-localized, exogamous matri-clans (ikungugo or lukolo), each of which is divided into many matrilineages which cannot actually trace common descent. Traditionally, political rights over land and rights to perform certain ceremonies of rainmaking, purification, and fertility descend to men through women. The traditional system has been greatly disrupted and changed by colonial rule, missionary activity, and the introduction of a market economy, but this has little relevance to the significance of the material discussed in this paper, which is concerned primarily with the traditional system.

Résumé

AUTRES AVENTURES DE LA HYÈNE ET DU LAPIN; LE CONTE FOLK-LORIQUE EN TANT QUE MODÈLE SOCIOLOGIQUE

Les Kaguru sont un peuple bantou matrilinéaire, habitant la partie est-centrale du Tanganyika. Le prèsent article cherche à analyser un conte folklorique kaguru concernant une hyène et un lapin et à indiquer de quelle façon ce conte reflète certains rapports sociaux qui intéressent plus particulièrement les Kaguru. Dans un article précédent, un conte semblable concernant certains conflits au sein des matrilignages kagurus a été raconté. Tant dans ce conte que dans le conte actuel, l'hyène est le frère de la mère du lapin qui fait abus du pouvoir dont il est détenteur en raison de son ancienneté au sein d'un matrilignage et, dans les deux cas, l'hyène est, à son tour, dupe de son parent moins ancien, le lapin, qui lui inflige une punition à cause de sa conduite anti-sociale semblable à celle d'un sorcier. Le conte précédent se rapportait tant aux conflits entre les rôles des hommes et des femmes au sein d'un matrilignage kaguru qu'aux conflits entre les hommes les plus et les moins anciens d'un matrilignage. Le conte actuel concerne presque entièrement cette dernière série de problèmes. L'hyène fait abus de son autorité, qui lui confére un pouvoir économique et rituel, afin d'exploiter les enfants de ses sœurs, y compris le lapin. L'hyène le fait principalement au moyen de la déception dans les rites de la propitiation des ancêtres, car lui seul a le droit de diriger ces rites, qui pourtant sont effectués pour le bienfait de tous ses parents: c'est au moyen de ces mêmes rites que l'hyène devient dupe du lapin et reçoit la punition de cet abus. Par des contes folkloriques semblables, les Kaguru obtiennent des modèles sociologiques qui les aident à inculquer les valeurs et croyances traditionnelles dans l'esprit de leurs enfants et à réaffirmer ces croyances aux personnes d'âge mûr. Par la considération de tels contes, nous pouvons gagner un aperçu plus approfondi de la manière dont les Kaguru envisagent leur propre société.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 1963 , pp. 54 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1963

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References

page 54 note 2 Beidelman, T. O., ‘Hyena and Rabbit: a Kaguru Representation of Matrilineal Relations’, Africa, xxxi (1961), 61–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Since publishing this it has come to my attention that Werner published a somewhat similar tale which, however, ends differently with Hyena detecting Rabbit's (Hare's) ruse and then slaying Rabbit's mother: Werner, A., Myths and Legends of the Bantu, London: Harrap, 1933, pp. 265–7.Google Scholar

page 54 note 3 For further information on the Kaguru see the article cited above and also Beidelman, T. O., ‘Right and Left Hand among the Kaguru: a Note on Symbolic Classification ’, Africa, xxxi (1961), 250–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Kaguru Justice and the Concept of Legal Fictions ’, Journal of African Law, v (1961), 5–20Google Scholar; ‘Beer Drinking and Cattle Theft in Ukaguru: Intertribal Relations in a Tanganyika Chiefdom ’, American Anthropologist, lxiii (1961), 534–49.Google Scholar

page 54 note 4 ‘Hyena and Rabbit … ’, loc. cit.

page 56 note 1 In my previous article I translate chibuga, small creature, as ‘rabbit’. However, I realize that actually this creature is a hare. As I explained in the previous article, I used the word ‘rabbit ’ because it seemed better to convey the idea of smallness. I have since decided that ‘hare ’ may be preferable since it biologically correct, but I have continued to use the term ‘rabbit ’ since it was the one used in the previous tale.

page 56 note 2 Hyena constantly mispronounces the word ‘bread’, but I could not successfully render this in translation. This mispronunciation appears to be one of the reasons that Hyena's ruse is eventually detected.

page 57 note 1 A mother's brother may call his sister's child ‘Mother's Brother ’ when he is asking a favour from such a junior. Such address is used to remind a junior of the reciprocal nature of authority relations.

page 58 note 1 The text does not state that this was done in secret, but we shall see that this had to have been done without Hyena's knowledge. Otherwise, Hyena would not have tried to trick Rabbit by sending him out after these roots.

page 58 note 2 This is a good example of Hyena's evil stupidity. He is so annoyed at having to share the food and having his ruse detected that he won't eat any of it himself.

page 59 note 1 I discuss the position of women within a matrilineage in some detail in my previous article on Hyena and Rabbit, loc. cit.

page 60 note 1 The struggle for food is a recurrent theme in Kaguru tales. (This will be better appreciated with my publication of further texts in the near future.)

page 61 note 1 Such symbolism of water for the matrilineage is, however, used in certain female initiation rites by the matrilineal Ngulu, neighbours of the Kaguru. I have little corresponding information on such rites for the Kaguru and it may well be that such symbolism is to be found among the Kaguru as well, since the Ngulu and Kaguru are culturally extremely similar. I did obtain comparative information on both Ngulu and Kaguru male initiation, and here the symbolism was very similar indeed.

page 61 note 2 Lukolo is also sometimes said to derive from ngholo, sheep.

page 62 note 1 See T. O. Beidelman, ‘Hyena and Rabbit …’, loc. cit., and ‘Witchcraft in Ukaguru ’, in the forthcoming symposium on African witchcraft edited by E. H. Winter and J. Middleton (Kegan Paul, London).

page 63 note 1 I have collected texts in which this is pronounced kamai and kame. In this text I use kamai, but I have used the other spelling elsewhere.

page 63 note 2 A wild beast; here an animal possessed by one of the spirits of the dead.

page 63 note 3 makache (Swahili, mkate; Kaguru pronunciation of Swahili, makate); the hyena is a clumsy fellow and cannot pronounce the word correctly.

page 63 note 4 A polite form of address.

page 64 note 1 He uses the second person plural. Some Kaguru elders use the plural form in this manner to signify their own personal importance.

page 65 note 1 Plural form of goloko.

page 65 note 2 To make sense in English, I used the opposite meaning in my preceding English translation, viz. ‘I had forgotten him.’

page 66 note 1 Swahili word.

page 67 note 1 Note that, when condemning Rabbit, Hyena returns to addressing him by the junior term.