OLAC Record
oai:www.mpi.nl:1839_00-0000-0000-0021-7C81-3

Metadata
Title:Song5 - Men Songs1
Song5__Men_Songs1
Akie in Tanzania – documenting a critically endangered language
Contributor (researcher):Christa
Contributor (speaker):Bahati
Madawa
Naminti
Nevumba
Nkauli
Nkoiseyyo
Nkokooyai
Nkuyaki
Saalome
Shani
Coverage:Tanzania
Date:2013-01-30
Description:Men Songs
The Akie of Tanzania are a traditional hunter-gatherer society whose language is seriously endangered. The language, presumably a member of the Kalenjin branch of the Southern Nilotic languages, is still actively spoken in three villages of northeastern Tanzania, but the majority language and culture in the Akie-speaking area is Maa (speaking the Maasai dialect), which belongs to the Eastern Nilotic branch of the Nilotic family. The total number of Akie people is estimated at roughly 2500 people, but the number of people still speaking the language is presumably below 200. The massive impact of Maa language, culture, and life style plus the increasing influence of Bantu languages, including Swahili, the national language of Tanzania, contribute to a rapid erosion of the linguistic and ethnic identity of the Akie, as the people themselves are well aware. The present project aims at documenting the Akie language, which is virtually unknown. The project will involve two core researchers, the principal applicant (PA) being Karsten Legère, Universität Wien, and the co-applicant (CA) Christa König, Universität Frankfurt. Both have extensive experience of language documentation in East Africa, and both have contributed to the documentation of endangered African languages in Kenya, Tanzania and Namibia. Whereas the PA has contributed mainly to the documentation of Tanzanian Bantu languages, the PA has contributed to the description of the Maa language (which was the topic of her M.A. and Ph.D. dissertations). In addition, the project will involve intensive cooperation with and participation of colleagues in East Africa, mostly of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This participation will involve such domains as linguistics, history, sociology, and musicology. Finally, the project will also involve a Ph.D. student of the University of Dar es Salaam, and a number of Tanzanian field assistants, most of them being Akie people. At the center of documentation work will be the (manual, audio, and video) recording of texts of different genres, conversations, folktales, fables, songs, oral traditions, proverbs, riddles, etc..A second component of field research will be devoted to lexical documentation of semantic fields, in particular of kinship terms, body parts, material culture and artifacts, traditional economy (hunting and gathering), toponyms, greetings, etc. Various special documentation studies within the project will deal with the intimate interaction of Akie people as hunter-gatherers with nature (bees and gathering honey, plant names and uses), gender based issues (food and its preparation, child care and traditional medicine, initiation rites). Furthermore, the project will aim at devising a practical orthography of the Akie language and at preparing a bilingual Akie – Maa dictionary. The original Akie texts to be collected will be edited and translated into the national language Swahili. The project is designed for a three-years’ period. In the first and the second year, both the PA and the CA will be carrying out field research in the Akie-speaking area, while field work is restricted to a shorter research visit to Tanzania.
Traditional Akie songs sung, Leadsinger: mainly Bahati, Madawa
Actors are gathered outside for the performance Women Songs First row: Salome, Madawa, Nevumba, Nevuma, Naminti, Nkokooyai; Second row: Johanna, Bahati, Lempoko, Mtari, Nkuyaki, Nkoiseyyo, Shani, Nkauli
Bahati Nkuyaki is the son of Nkuyaki and Nkokooyai. He is one of two Akie who are able to read and write. Although he went to school for 7 years he - unlike many other Africans in similar situations - has a tremendous traditional knowledge of hunting, collecting honey. He is the main informant of the project
Daughter of Nkoiseyyo, married, one child
Old Akie Woman
Nevumba is the second wife of Nkuyaki. Originally she is born in a Kisankare speaking area.
Nkauli is an unmarried man of lower social status among the Akie
Nkoiseyyo is a family father with many children. He is one of two Akie who know how to read and write. He has a huge traditional knowledge in theory and practice
Nkokooyai Kalisya is the first wife of Nkokooyai and the mother of Bahati. She is very knowledgable. She knows all the traditional songs, has a tremendous knowledge of all women affairs, plants. Among the women her knowledge sticks out in theory and practice.
Nkuyaki Leikibigo is married with two wifes, Nkokooyai Kalisya and Nevumba Karuwa. This is quite exceptional for the Akie men, since there are many who are not able to marry once. They cannot pay the bride price. Nkuyaki is too old to acitvly participate in honey collection in the wilderness or hunting. His status in the society is one of a respected elder. He is the father of Bahati Nkuyaki
Traditional healer of the Akie, doesn't speak Akie any longer; married to Lempoko
Shani once worked as a in a game park
Format:audio/x-wav
video/x-mpeg1
Identifier:oai:www.mpi.nl:1839_00-0000-0000-0021-7C81-3
AZ 86405
Publisher:Karsten Legère
Universität Frankfurt a. M.
Subject:Singing
performance
Mosiro language
Subject (ISO639):mwy
Type:audio
video

OLAC Info

Archive:  The Language Archive at the MPI for Psycholinguistics
Description:  http://www.language-archives.org/archive/www.mpi.nl
GetRecord:  OAI-PMH request for OLAC format
GetRecord:  Pre-generated XML file

OAI Info

OaiIdentifier:  oai:www.mpi.nl:1839_00-0000-0000-0021-7C81-3
DateStamp:  2017-02-14
GetRecord:  OAI-PMH request for simple DC format

Search Info

Citation: Bahati (speaker); Christa (researcher); Madawa (speaker); Naminti (speaker); Nevumba (speaker); Nkauli (speaker); Nkoiseyyo (speaker); Nkokooyai (speaker); Nkuyaki (speaker); Saalome (speaker); Shani (speaker). 2013-01-30. Karsten Legère.
Terms: area_Africa country_TZ iso639_mwy

Inferred Metadata

Country: Tanzania
Area: Africa


http://www.language-archives.org/item.php/oai:www.mpi.nl:1839_00-0000-0000-0021-7C81-3
Up-to-date as of: Wed Apr 12 6:20:44 EDT 2017