OLAC Record
oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1105299

Metadata
Title:First interview session held in Mbougue on Bati's cultural life
Mbo-Anthropology-01
A Documentation of Bati Language and Oral Traditions
Contributor:ASSOMO
Contributor (consultant):NSUMB MBOG
BIMOGA
MAYEM
MBESSI MAKONDO
NGO NSUMB
Contributor (researcher):NGUE UM
Coverage:Cameroon
Date:2016-07-27
Description:The interview aims to collect data dealing with the cultural life of the Bati community as a whole, and specifically of Mbougue village, and the families which are settled there. As a rule of thumb, the interview starts with practical ethical aspects of research, namely request for consultant's consent. The interview proper is monitored by Mbessi Makondo Gilbert, a native of Kelleng village, who as been trained as research assistant for the present research. Questions which have been set by the research team and handed down to the research assistant evolves around the following points: the history of Bati people, the ancestral name of Bati, the historical relationships with their close neighbors, kinship in Mbougue, etc.
The project to Document aspects of Bati language and oral traditions is an original idea of Dr Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso, who had initially surveyed the Bati speech area as part of a pilot research project granted by the Ministry of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation of the Republic of Cameroon. Based on the results of this pilot research which have revealed a situation of critical endangerment of Bati language and ancestral practices, the idea to submit a major documentation project to ELDP has matured. The project has eventually been submitted during the 2015 funding round with Dr Emmanuel Ngué Um as Principal Investigator, and Dr Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso as co-applicant. The project started in October 1st, 2015, and will run till the 30th of September in 2018.
The interview aims to collect data dealing with the cultural life of the Bati community as a whole, and specifically of Mbougue village, and the families which are settled there. As a rule of thumb, the interview starts with practical ethical aspects of research, namely request for consultant's consent. The interview propor is monitored by Mbessi Makondo Gilbert, a native of Kelleng village, who as been trained as research assistant for the present research. Questions which have been set by the research team and handed down to the research assistant evolves around the following points: the history of Bati people, the ancestral name of Bati, the historical relationships with their close neighbors, kinship in Mbougue, etc.
The interview is conducted in Bati (Mbougue and Kelleng varieties). There are casual shifts to Basaa, namely when the researcher addresses the participants. French is also used when the host adresses his children.
Emmanuel Ngué Um is the Principal Investigator for the Bati project. He is mainly employed at the University of Yaoundé one where he holds the position of Senior Lectuer of Linguistics, in the Departement of Cameroonian Languages and Cultures at the Higher Teacher Training School. Ngué Um is also Associate Researcher at CERDOTOLA, where he is charged with the responsibility of Archive Manager for ALORA (Archive of Languages and Oral Resources of Africa).
His Majesty Nsumb Mbog André is the Chief of Mbougue village. His is married, father, grand-father, and grand-grand-father. In spite of his old age, he is still in full possession of his mental abilities, and actively participates in the research session. He has worked as administration clerc in Nyanon for many years. After retiring, he came back to the village along with his wife, who suffers from impotence, and has not shown up while the research team was undertaking their survey. His Majesty Nsumb Mbog André's residence is host to the recording session.
Assomo Celestine Ghislaine is a PhD student who is enroled in the Linguistic program at the University of Yaoundé I, Department of African Languages and Linguistics. She has completed her gratuade program in the same Department, and later on graduated with a Master's Degree in descriptive Linguistics in 2015. Ghislaine Assomo is part of the research team working on the documentation of Bati language and Oral traditions. She works on the project on a part-time basis; the remaining part of her schedule being devoted to her PhD research, which deals with aspects of Multilingualism within the broader area covered by the overall Bati Canton.
Bimoga is a native of Mbougue village. After pursuing his primary and early secondary education in his native area, he moved to the city where he worked for several years. He has lived continuously in the coastal region and more specifically in Kribi for many years, and had married a woman from Batanga ethnic group in the Kribi region. Upon retiring from his work in the city, he has returned in his native village, along with his wife and children. He is a close dignitary to the village chief's court, and is very active in the course of survey sessions that the research team has conducted in Mbougue
Mayem Jerôme is a close relative to the village chief. He lives just a few meters away from the Chief's house. He was born and has lived continuously in Mbougue. He as attended primary school up to the sith year. His father and mother were also natives of Mbougue. He is married, and a father.
Mbessi Makondo Gilbert as acted as one of the key informants for the research team during the first year of the project. Due to his extensive multilingualism coupled with a high sense of public network and relations, he has assisted the research team in most of their whereabouts throughout the various consultants who have agreed to lend themselves to research exercises. In some cases, Mbessi Gilbert has acted as the interviewer. This approach has been privileged in surveys dealing with anthropological, cultural and religous aspects. He had been trained by the research team in the monitoring of interviews, and in questionnaire administration, and has proven to be a talented and committed research assistant.
Ngo Nsumb is a daughter to Nsumb Mbock André, the village Chief. She was born in the Bati Canton, but has not lived continuously in Mbougue, as her father was assigned to clerical work in Nyanon, the headquarters of the present Sub-division to which Mbougue belongs. However, she has grown up speaking her ethnic language, along with other languages which are part of the areal repertoire. She has attended secondary education, and has moved to the city where she has lived for several years. Her coming back to the village has been motivated by her mother's impotence on the one hand, and her father's old age on the other hand. Ngo Nsumb is not actively participating in the research sessions, in comparison with other participants.
Format:image/jpeg
video/mp4
audio/x-wav
text/x-eaf+xml
Identifier:oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1105299
MDP0332
Identifier (URI):https://lat1.lis.soas.ac.uk/ds/asv?openpath=MPI1105299%23
Publisher:Ngué Um Emmanuel
International Center for Research and Documentation on African Traditions and Languages (CERDOTOLA)
Subject:Interview
semi-guided interview
Anthropology
Type:Image
Video
Audio

OLAC Info

Archive:  Endangered Languages Archive
Description:  http://www.language-archives.org/archive/soas.ac.uk
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OAI Info

OaiIdentifier:  oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1105299
DateStamp:  2019-03-31
GetRecord:  OAI-PMH request for simple DC format

Search Info

Citation: NGUE UM (researcher); NSUMB MBOG (consultant); ASSOMO; BIMOGA (consultant); MAYEM (consultant); MBESSI MAKONDO (consultant); NGO NSUMB (consultant). 2016-07-27. Ngué Um Emmanuel.


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Up-to-date as of: Mon Oct 18 16:01:26 EDT 2021