In Niger, ethnic jokes keep tensions down

NIAMEY – In Niger, a centuries-old custom that allows people to make jokes at the expense of their “cousins” from other tribes, far from exacerbating ethnic tensions, actually has a calming effect on them.

Abarchi is a taxi driver in the capital Niamey. A row suddenly breaks out with a customer who is refusing to pay for the ride, but a short time later the two men seem to be the best of friends and are sharing a kola nut.Only moments earlier the passenger had been screaming: “I am not paying for that ride.You’re a Mauri, I’m a Peul and I can do what I like”.The scene transpired to the amused gaze of passers-by.All people in this western African country participate in such verbal games and everyone prefers the role of master to that of slave, but the business is highly codified.Mock insults are most frequently exchanged between the Djerma people and the Tuareg or the Gobirawa, the Gourmantche people and the Tuareg, the Peul and the Kanuri, and the Mauri and the Peul.The practice is always reciprocal.So two days later Abarchi the Mauri taxi driver could sound his horn when driving past his former Peul customer and shout out his window: “You needn’t think I’ll be picking up a Peul in my car!” One tribal group recognises another through their ethnic scarifications, the dialect spoken or the way they dress, explained Ali Bida the head of cultural heritage at the Niger Culture Ministry.The practice is known in French – the official language in this former colony on the edge of the Sahara – as “cousinage à plaisanterie”, which might loosely translate to “joking cousins”.Under the accepted “rules”, the person targeted has to put a brave face on things and anyone who loses his temper or gets upset when “attacked” becomes a laughing stock within his own community, Ali Bida said.But at a time of heightened tension caused by a Tuareg rebellion in the north, some people in Niger find the practice increasingly difficult.Sidi, a Tuareg living in Niamey says he is sick and tired of hearing his Djerma “cousins” call him a “bandit” and tease him about planting anti-personnel mines.Historians say that the practice goes back to the various pacts signed between warring clans in the days of raids on villages and tribal wars.The playful side of the custom creates greater solidarity and social cohesion, said Hamidou Moussa, a professor at Niamey university.And Niger people firmly believe in the therapeutic virtues of ethnic jokes.Kadri Amadou, a psychologist, said that the practice keeps social tensions under control and that it has already been used to great effect in calming land disputes that could have turned into outright violence.”In a Hausa village where they were very hostile to the idea of putting girls in school, I used to use ethnic jokes to get into the huts and find the girls they used to hide under the beds and in the granaries,” reminisced an 85-year-old former school master who identified himself only as Maiga.Even parliamentarians sometimes have recourse to this practice after getting carried away during debates.But in the age of globalisation, it is getting increasingly difficult to hand down this this centuries-old tradition to young people, lamented Culture Minister Oumarou Hadari.In an attempt to prevent the practice from disappearing altogether, a group of Nigerian academics has just launched a major study on the subject.In April, Niger authorities even plan to organise a ‘National Week of Ethnic Jokes’ with radio programmes, conferences, joke competitions and cultural evenings.Nampa-AFPA row suddenly breaks out with a customer who is refusing to pay for the ride, but a short time later the two men seem to be the best of friends and are sharing a kola nut.Only moments earlier the passenger had been screaming: “I am not paying for that ride.You’re a Mauri, I’m a Peul and I can do what I like”.The scene transpired to the amused gaze of passers-by.All people in this western African country participate in such verbal games and everyone prefers the role of master to that of slave, but the business is highly codified.Mock insults are most frequently exchanged between the Djerma people and the Tuareg or the Gobirawa, the Gourmantche people and the Tuareg, the Peul and the Kanuri, and the Mauri and the Peul.The practice is always reciprocal.So two days later Abarchi the Mauri taxi driver could sound his horn when driving past his former Peul customer and shout out his window: “You needn’t think I’ll be picking up a Peul in my car!” One tribal group recognises another through their ethnic scarifications, the dialect spoken or the way they dress, explained Ali Bida the head of cultural heritage at the Niger Culture Ministry.The practice is known in French – the official language in this former colony on the edge of the Sahara – as “cousinage à plaisanterie”, which might loosely translate to “joking cousins”.Under the accepted “rules”, the person targeted has to put a brave face on things and anyone who loses his temper or gets upset when “attacked” becomes a laughing stock within his own community, Ali Bida said.But at a time of heightened tension caused by a Tuareg rebellion in the north, some people in Niger find the practice increasingly difficult.Sidi, a Tuareg living in Niamey says he is sick and tired of hearing his Djerma “cousins” call him a “bandit” and tease him about planting anti-personnel mines.Historians say that the practice goes back to the various pacts signed between warring clans in the days of raids on villages and tribal wars.The playful side of the custom creates greater solidarity and social cohesion, said Hamidou Moussa, a professor at Niamey university.And Niger people firmly believe in the therapeutic virtues of ethnic jokes.Kadri Amadou, a psychologist, said that the practice keeps social tensions under control and that it has already been used to great effect in calming land disputes that could have turned into outright violence.”In a Hausa village where they were very hostile to the idea of putting girls in school, I used to use ethnic jokes to get into the huts and find the girls they used to hide under the beds and in the granaries,” reminisced an 85-year-old former school master who identified himself only as Maiga.Even parliamentarians sometimes have recourse to this practice after getting carried away during debates.But in the age of globalisation, it is getting increasingly difficult to hand down this this centuries-old tradition to young people, lamented Culture Minister Oumarou Hadari.In an attempt to prevent the practice from disappearing altogether, a group of Nigerian academics has just launched a major study on the subject.In April, Niger authorities even plan to organise a ‘National Week of Ethnic Jokes’ with radio programmes, conferences, joke competitions and cultural evenings.Nampa-AFP

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