OLAC Record
oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1101830

Metadata
Title:Rite of Blessing
Kell_Blessing_01
A Documentation of Bati Language and Oral Traditions
Contributor:MAKON
ASSOMO
Contributor (consultant):BONG
BETINE
MBESSI MAKONDO
Contributor (researcher):NGUE UM
Coverage:Cameroon
Date:2017-06-17
Description:The rite of Blessing is performed in view of dispelling any misfortune that could be looming on a person's life. Blessing is also perform to propitiate good luck and happy events.
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 blessing session has occurred as a 'gift' to the research team by Bong Bong Paul in recognition for the valuable work being undertaken by the research team. In order to perform the rite of blessing, a number of items have been requested by the priest who happens to be Michel Bong, the Chief of Mbog Bikom quarter in Kelleng village.
Kelleng is used to perform blessing throughout the session. Casual usage of French and Basaa occur when the priest or other participans address either the Principal investigator (Basaa) or the the PhD students (French).
Bong Bong is one of the village elders who is credited with sound knowledge of the historical, cultural, social and religious life of Bati as a community. He is a widow, and suffers from blindness. He was born in Kelleng, but later on moved to Yaoundé, where he had lived for many years before coming back to his native village.
Gwladys Makon is a team research member for the Bati projet. She is enrolled in the PHD programme at the Department of African Languages and Linguistics. Makon is a PHD fellow for the Bati projet, and she is mainly concerned with providing a comprehensive grammatical description of Bati language, all three dialects inclusive. During her undergraduate study at the Department of African Languages and Linguistics at the University of Yaoundé I, Gwladys Makon has red, among others, the followingn subjets: Introduction to general linguistics, phonetics, phonology (with special emphasis on Bantu languages), introduction to sociolinguistics, language teaching, language planning, etc.
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.
Betine has lived continuously in Kelleng since the return of her mother from Yangben following the death of her husband. Prior to coming in Kelleng, Betine has spent his chilhood in Edea with his parents. After the death of his father, her mother first moved to Yangben the native village of her husband. She eventually had to leave Yangben to come to Kelleng her native village due to harrassement from her family-in-law. Betine claims to have lived close to elder people, which is in justification for his knowledge of the cultural, social and religious life of the Bati people. I addition, he is a catechist fot the Protestant Church in Kelleng, which exposes him to regular interaction not only with Bati inhabitants, but also outsiders.
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.
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).
Format:video/mp4
audio/x-wav
image/jpeg
Identifier:oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1101830
MDP0332
Identifier (URI):https://lat1.lis.soas.ac.uk/ds/asv?openpath=MPI1101830%23
Publisher:Ngué Um Emmanuel
International Center for Research and Documentation on African Traditions and Languages (CERDOTOLA)
Subject:Ritual/religious texts
Blessing
Type:Video
Audio
Image

OLAC Info

Archive:  Endangered Languages Archive
Description:  http://www.language-archives.org/archive/soas.ac.uk
GetRecord:  OAI-PMH request for OLAC format
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OAI Info

OaiIdentifier:  oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1101830
DateStamp:  2019-03-31
GetRecord:  OAI-PMH request for simple DC format

Search Info

Citation: BONG (consultant); MAKON; ASSOMO; BETINE (consultant); MBESSI MAKONDO (consultant); NGUE UM (researcher). 2017-06-17. Ngué Um Emmanuel.


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Up-to-date as of: Mon Oct 18 20:17:48 EDT 2021