The Caste Hierarchy of the Manden
In the Manden system of thought, speaking is regulated. Members of the higher subcategories speak only in the absence of the lower subcategories. Thus, in the presence of the fina, the jeli does not speak.
Giving also follows rules. Thus, between a jeli and a fina, when giving gifts, one always starts with the fina, because his blessings are worth more than those of the jeli.
If a Malinke farmer wants to offer the jaka (a share of the food crops set aside for distribution right after the harvest), he gives it to the numun (blacksmith) or, failing that, to the fina. The jeli is not entitled to it.
The noble, the horon, does not offer millet to a jeli, as this could harm agriculture: the harvests would fail, it is said among the Malinke. If an animal is slaughtered, its head is reserved for the blacksmith, while the share reserved for the fina is the tanbakala (part of the ribs). Nothing in particular is set aside for the jeli, who will make do with whatever he is given.
Img: A Jeli
Konatesalifou
And it was really great
Евгений
19 The approach can prove enriching. Thus, a troupe that brings together, for example, Mossi, Fulani, Bobo and Marka allows its various members to enrich their personal repertoire while becoming aware of their own specific features: it encourages intercultural exchange. Yet the risk remains of favoring synthesis too much at the expense of differences: this is in fact the great flaw of the socio-cultural policy of most West African governments, concerned above all with giving their respective countries the image of unified nations, an image they consider incompatible with that — realistic and obvious though it is — of ethnic and cultural mosaics. The formal concern of the “synthesis” ensemble therefore tends to favor the assimilation of different elements for the benefit of a whole that is as well organized as it is unrepresentative of cultural realities. There again, the griot holds the place of an instrumentalist, but he is closely pressed by all the new non-caste musicians, who give him ever greater competition. He no longer has the musical and oratorical monopoly that made him the herald of West African society. And while he keeps his privileges and his social role in regions where traditional life still holds sway, urban Africa, by contrast, tends to grant the griot only a very modest role compared with the importance he had in the time, still so recent, of the great Manding.