University of California Press. 1968. 280 p.
One might ask why a former serf village was chosen for this study. I wanted a Fulbhe village. A former serf village was chosen by chance. There are no obvious physical or visible signs to distinguish former serf from Fulbhe villages. Only much later in my stay did I come to perceive the differences between the two. The differences were more the carriage of the body, dress, and bearing than actual physical differences. The government officials who took me to visit villages were not willing to discuss social distinctions which are no longer supposed to exist. Thus when I asked those accompanying me whether Hollaande was a Fulbhe village, the answer was an unhesitating yes.
Fieldwork always includes various elements of chance. In this case living in a former-serf village gave me access to a population I would not have had if I had been in a Fulbhe village. The former serfs suffered most from French colonial rule, so they are much more suspicious and reserved with whites than are their former masters. If I had been living in a Fulbhe village, they would have classed me with all the other whites who hobnobbed with the chiefs and would have assumed I would adopt the attitude of the Fulbhe toward them. By living in a former serf village I avoided these problems. However, it did not close off the world of the Fulbhe to me. Exactly why this was I am not sure. It was due, at least in part, to the Fulbhe's desire (particularly on the part of the elders) to indicate that they knew more about the history and religion of the Fouta-Djallon than did their former serfs They were also anxious to let me know their views in order to balance the opinions of the former serfs.
Information was obtained through informants, participant-observation, and research in the National Archives of Guinea and Senegal. Most of my informants were inhabitants of the village of Hollaande, and were of every age and sex category - children, young men and women, adults, and elders. In addition, I interviewed some former serfs of neighboring villages. I also had several Fulbhe informants. Most Fulbhe informants were elders from nearby villages. This was necessary because I was most interested in gathering information on the history and social organization of the area prior to and during the early part of French rule. The two young men who worked with me as assistants and translators were Fulbhe. I also did an economic survey of Hollaande to obtain basic information on the amount of seed planted, the extent of marketing, the extent of labor employment, and the number of animals. The survey was taken of every male household head in the village.
Participant-observation made up the most extensive - the time-consuming - part of the fieldwork. This catch-all category includes many hours spent with friends, and attendance at all ceremonies, occasions marked by cooperative labor, markets, and so forth. I found that to ask questions during ceremonies was impolite and disruptive; to ask questions during work prevented the work from being completed. Participant-observation meant observation to verify predictions about expected behavior (for example, between father and son at public occasions), or raising further questions (why did X behave to Y in such a manner, or why did X bring so much food and Y none at all).
The former serfs and their village could not be studied in isolation. The relation of both individuals and groups to the dominant social group had to be studied, because there were, and are, many essential ties and relations with the Fulbhe. Therefore, some time was spent in the surrounding villages where the former masters of the villagers of Hollaande lived.
In order to obtain the needed historical information I read most of the archives
available for Labe catalogued in the Institut National de Recherches et Documentation
de la République de la Guinée at Conakry. The most valuable of
the archives were the monthly reports of the French regional governors.These
reports were written specifically for other administrators and, in their candor,
were the most interesting. Of the various administrators Gilbert Vieillard stands
out for his interest in all aspects of the life of the Fulbhe. His most valuable
collection of manuscripts is available at the lnstitut Fondamental d'Afrique
Noire (IFAN) at Dakar. Although it would have been preferable to have travelled
more in other areas of the Fouta-Djallon, this was not possible. However, for
additional comparative data I have used the work of Gilbert Vieillard from the
region of Timbo (where the head of the entire Fouta-Djallon formerly resided),
the 1954 French Demographic Study for the region of Pita, and the work of the
geographer Jacques Richard-Molard, who travelled widely in the Fouta.
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