And when my father, after having soldered the large grain of gold that crowned the summit, held out his work to be admired, the griot would no longer be able to contain himself. He would begin to intone thedouga, the great chant which is sung only for celebrated men and which is danced by them alone.
Thedouga or the "dance of the vultures"[1] is a ceremonial dance (and song) among theMandinka people of West Africa.[2]
According to religious scholar Ada Uzoamaka Azodo, its relevance operates on three levels: it is "performed only occasionally at great events, [and] marks the religious revival of this Guinean community; "it shows the dominion of human knowledge, creative skills, and wisdom over matter and bestial instinct", and it "demonstrates ... the promise of resurrection of the dead to life".[2] According to Christopher Miller, it reflects "the hierarchical, casted order of traditional Mande society" (of which the Mandinka are a part) and in essence forms a chain going back to the emperorSundiata Keita.[3]
There is, however, some doubt about to which extent the douga "belongs" to the Mandinka or theMandé people more generally. Uzo Esonwanne casts doubt onFrantz Fanon's claim thatFodéba Keïta'sAfrican Dawn assigns a kind of ownership to the Mandé, or Christopher Miller's assumption that it belonged to a Mandé elite.[1]
Notable works of literature in which the douga is danced include Fodéba Keïta'sAfrican Dawn andCamara Laye'sThe African Child. In the latter, the narrator's father, a blacksmith who sometimes works with gold, dances the douga after making a piece of gold jewelry for a customer.[3] Literary critic Jacques Bourgeac says that the blacksmith's smelting of gold nuggets and the creation of the piece of jewelry is a symbolic repetition of the birth of the Mandinka and asserts their power. Thegriot, who had mediated between the customer and the blacksmith, also mediates between the blacksmith and the gods in his singing of the douga.[4]
The douga was recorded by Mory and Madina Kouyaté, Guinean griots, in 1960, and that recording was reworked in the 1960s by the Ensemble National de Guinée "as a praise song to the Guinean army". That version, "Armée Guinnéenne", was in turn adapted by the Guinean jazz ensembleBembeya Jazz National,[5] in what is said to be an updated version of the douga, "an ancient Malinké [or Mandinka] warrior song".[6]
The song is linked to thering shouts of theGullah people of the US Atlantic coast, and specifically thebuck dance the "Buzzard lope" (a well-known element ofAfrican-American dancing of the 19th century, and later incorporated into theminstrel show)[7] is said to be "resonant" with the douga.[8]