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Introduction to a Fang oral art genre: Gabon and Cameroon mvet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Pierre Alexandre
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Extract

Mvet is used, in the A 70 languages, both for a type of musical instrument and for the special genres of oral literature played or delivered to its accompaniment.

As the name for a musical instrument mvet has been variously translated as ‘musical bow’, ‘cithar-harp’, ‘native guitar’, and so forth. It is, technically speaking, a chordophone with resonators. The commonest type consists basically of a dry ‘bamboo’ (Wes Kos name; in fact the stem of a palm frond, nnen zam, Raphia sp.) about four feet in length, an inch and a half in diameter, and slightly curved. The bark is slit, on the convex side, into four thin strips left attached at both ends, then raised on an indented wooden peg, set slightly off centre. These strings (minsam) are adjusted for tuning by bark or leather rings sliding along the stem. Calabashes are tied underneath as resonators, the biggest, central one being considered male, the others female.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , February 1974 , pp. 1 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1974

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References

Bibliographical Notes

Tessinann, G., Die Pangwe, Berlin, 1913. Brief mention of instrument and players.Google Scholar
Largeau, V., Encyclopédic pahouine, Paris, 1901; V. Largeau and H. Trilles, Le totémisme chez les Fang, Münster, 1912, and Proverbes, légendes et conies fang, Neuchâtel, 1905, quote passages of biban bi-ekaŋ as factual history. Similar confusion in P. Alexandra and J. Binet, Le groupe dit Pahmtin, Paris, 1958, which, however, gives a summary description of mvet as a genre.Google Scholar
Grebert, F., Au Gabon, Paris, 1948; ‘L'art musical chez les Fang du Gabon’, Archives Suisses d'Ethnologie, V1, 1928, gives a technical description of the ohordophone.Google Scholar
Towo-Atangana, G., ‘Le mvet, genre majeur de la littérature orale des populations pahouines’, Abbia, 9–10, 1965, 163–79, gives the best introduction.Google Scholar
For musical structure, see Belinga, M.S. Eno, Littérature et musique populaire en Afrique noire, Paris, 1966.Google Scholar
, G. and Towo-Atangana, F., ‘Nden-Bobo, l'araignée-toilière’, Africa, XXXVI, 1, 1966, 37–61 (mvet engubi).Google Scholar
Awona, S., ‘La guerre d'Akoma Mba contre Abo Mama’, Abbia, 9–10, 1965, 180–1, and 12–13, 1966, 109–210 (eban ekan, in Angono Mana style).Google Scholar
Tsala, T., ‘Minlan mi mved (chants lyriques) reeueillis par l'Abbé Tobie Atanga’, Becherches et Études Camerounaises, 2, 1960, 35–63 (mvet bibdn and engubi).Google Scholar
, P. and de Wolf, P., Un mvet de Zwè Nguéma, Paris, 1972 (the longest eban ekaŋ ever published in a bilingual edition).Google Scholar
Ndoutoume, P. Ndong, Le mvett, Paris, 1970 (an eban written in French by a Fang mbomo mvet from Gabon).Google Scholar
Ze, M. Nko'o, Le mvet, unpublished M.A. dissertation (with a 17 minutes' film and sound tract) gives a full description of the making of a mvet, interviews of several master bebomo mvet about their initiation, and a short eban ekaŋ with French translation.Google Scholar
Towo-Atangana, G. has transcribed and translated a 2,915 lines eban ekaŋ (intended for use in a Ph.D. thesis).Google Scholar
Belinga, M. S. Eno has transcribed two, one of 3,700, the other of 1,200 lines.Google Scholar
Apart from private recording collections, there are several long sessions on tape in the archives of the Centre Linguistique et Culturel in Yaoundé.Google Scholar