Narrative
Le Ginnili, devin, poète et guerrier afar
Not translated into English
Didier Morin · 1991
Synopsis
A study of the ginnili, “he who has the demons”, an Afar figure who is at once diviner, poet and warrior, in Ethiopia and Djibouti. The book describes and explains the ceremony in the course of which he prophesies, and gives the texts in Afar with their French translation, preceded by a presentation of the Afar language. It focuses on a tradition kept secret, which the author says is threatened with oblivion, in which divination, oral poetry and war are intertwined.
Context
The book was published in Paris in 1991 by Peeters, in the Langues et cultures africaines series of the Société d'études linguistiques et anthropologiques de France. It runs to one hundred and forty-six pages, with illustrations, a map, a bibliography and summaries in French, English and Somali. The Afar texts are published in it with their translation, and one section deals with the past, “Dúmah”.
Who it is for
A scholarly study, with bilingual texts and critical apparatus; it is aimed first of all at ethnologists and linguists.
Prizes and reception
The book opens a series of works by the author on Afar poetry, continued in 1997 by a collection of traditional poetry.
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