The material in this Collection comprises audio recordings, audio visual recordings and images documenting the structured narratives recited within the Bagr ritual context between May 1994-Nov 2002. The ritual narratives solidified over time to consist of two categories of compositions that were only spoken sequentially in ritual context. The two categories were the black bagr and the white bagr narrative compositions. The black bagr was one long narrative audition (the longest oral narrative composition ever to be identified in Africa and spoken continuously by one voice). The white bagr narration was further sub-divided into four narrative sessions, namely, the white bagr of black beans, the white bagr of white beans, the white bagr of bambara beans and the white bagr dance. These rituals are performed out of public view in the large homesteads of the few remaining Dagara kin members not yet touched by Catholicism or modern education. The original material is a combination of audio cassettes, VHS audio-video mini tapes and photographs.
Endangered Archives Programme
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