Beyond ‘Great Marriage’: collective involvement, personal achievement and social change in Ngazidja (Comoros)

Abstract

The sumptuous ‘Great Marriage’ celebration in Ngazidja, Comoros, is a very dynamic social practice, but it is difficult to comprehend its attraction given the increasing cost. This paper argues that the ‘Great Marriage’ is the most salient part of an age system that should be carefully examined. The framework, in which collective commitment and individual achievement are managed simultaneously, and gendered conception of personhood and of human temporality are put into action, has no equivalent in Western life. Grounded in historical hierarchies, these institutions change under various influences without abandoning the core values on which they are based, which explains their enduring success.

Keywords:

• Comoros
• age system
• matriliny
• hierarchy
• city
• collective agency
• personal achievement

Acknowledgements

A first version of this paper was presented in the European Swahili Workshop, ‘Contemporary Issues in Swahili Ethnography’, organized by Iain Walker in Oxford, UK, 2010. The author thanks the participants for their comments; and the anonymous referees of this journal for their numerous suggestions.

Funding

Fieldwork conducted from 1995 to 2006 was funded by the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) with a total amount of €25,000.

Notes

1. Equivalent to €4000.

2. Video-registered observation, Dembeni, Ngazidja, 2003.

3. Ivanov, “Constructing Translocal Socioscapes,” 637.

4. These words of Arabic origin both mean tradition, custom. Ãda means customary payment, and mila, customary rank. Ada or adat is also used in Southeast Asia, mila in Eastern Africa; Caplan, “Boys’ Circumcision and Girls’ Puberty Rituals,” 30–2 and Junod, “Life of a South African Tribe.” The Comorian language, which has different forms on each island, is a Bantu language related to Swahili with many Arabic words.

5. See http://hdr.undp.org/.

6. It also underestimates positive effects on the informal economy analysed by Walker, “Les aspects économiques du Grand Mariage.”

7. Migrants, 99% from Ngazidja, sent back €93 million in 2011, used for living expenses, education, health and Great Marriages expenses estimated at between €25,000 and €40,000; Bourenane et al., Réduire les coûts, 15. See also Vivier, “Les migrations comoriennes” and Blanchy, “Les Comoriens, une immigration méconnue.”

8. For a summary, see Blanchy, Maisons des femmes, cités des hommes.

9. Wright, “Early Islam, Oceanic Trade.”

10. Martin, “Arab Migrations to East Africa.”

11. The population of the Union of the Comoros was 717,500 in 2012 (http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/dossiers-pays/comores/), according to The World Bank (http://www.banquemondiale.org/). Comorians living in France are estimated at around 260,000, half of whom have dual citizenship; Al Watwan, Interview of Soulaimana Mohamed Ahmed, ambassador of Comoros in Paris, 2008.

12. Walker, “What Came First?,” 599.

13. Shepherd, “Two Marriage Forms”; Shepherd, “Comorians in Kenya.”

14. Shepherd, “Two marriage forms in the Comoros.”

15. Shepherd, “Comorians in Kenya,” 173. Sharif is said in Comorian language sharifu pl. mazarifu.

16. Guy, Trois études; Le Guennec-Coppens, “Le manyahuli grand-comorien.”

17. Ben Ali et al., Traditions d'une lignée royale.

18. Abdourahim, “Mariage à Ngazidja”; Abdourahim, “Echanges des biens”; Chouzour, Pouvoir de l'honneur.

19. Le Guennec-Coppens, “Influence from the Mainland”; Blanchy, “Partage des boeufs”; Blanchy, “Seul ou ensemble?”; Blanchy and Youssouf, “Hiérarchie et égalité.”

20. Alpers, “A Complex Relationship: Mozambique and the Comoro Islands”; Bang, Sufis and Scholars; Walker, “Mimetic Structuration”; Walker, Becoming the Other.

21. Nansour-Riziki, L’évolution des institutions sociales mohéliennes.

22. Robineau, Société et économie d'Anjouan; Sidi, Anjouan.

23. Robineau, Société et économie d'Anjouan; Robineau, “L'Islam aux Comores”; Ottenheimer, Marriage in Domoni, does not describe hirimu.

24. Lambek, “Exchange, Time, and Person”; Blanchy, “Matrilocalité et système d’âge.”

25. Blanchy and Said Islam, Le statut et la situation; Blanchy, “Famille et parenté.”

26. Blanchy, “Cité, citoyenneté et territoire.”

27. The matrilineal descent group is called hinya, or daho (‘house’) or mba (‘belly’) depending on the context; Blanchy, Maisons des femmes, cités des hommes.

28. Ben Ali, “Approche historiques des structures administratives,” 25; Blanchy, “Cité, citoyenneté et territoire.”

29. Walker, “Is Social Capital Fungible?,” analyses the failure of a microcredit project.

30. Schneider and Gough, Matrilineal Kinship; Richards, “Some Types of Family Structure”; Beidelman, Matrilineal Peoples of Eastern Tanzania; Douglas, “Is Matrilinearity Doomed in Africa?”

31. Peters, “Revisiting the Puzzle of Matrilinearity,” 137.

32. Bernardi, Age Class Systems.

33. Simonse and Kurimoto, Conflict, Age and Power.

34. Le Guennec-Coppens, “Influence from the Mainland”; Le Guennec-Coppens, “Les Hommes accomplis.”

35. Directed by A. M. Peatrik and published in 2003 in L'Homme, a special issue entitled “Passages à l’âge d'homme”; Peatrik, “La règle et le nombre”; Peatrik, La vie à pas contés; Peatrik, “L'océan des âges.”

36. Blanchy, “Seul ou ensemble?”; Blanchy, “Cité, citoyenneté et territoire.”

37. Interview with Ali Chanfi, Djomani, 2004.

38. Shepherd, “Comorians in Kenya,” 173, 417.

39. Fieldwork was conducted from 1995 to 2006 in more than 30 cities. Regular meetings occurred with the men who had a good knowledge of their age system rules; Blanchy, “Seul ou ensemble?”; Blanchy, Maisons des femmes, cités des hommes, 157–211.

40. Interview with Boinaidi Youssouf, Dembeni, 1996.

41. An additional grade cleverly allows adjustment between the Son's coup and that of the Fathers.

42. Blanchy, Maisons des femmes, cités des hommes, 191–4.

43. Interview with Naesha Youssouf Abdulalik in Moroni, 1998.

44. Interview with Yahaya Ibrahim in Mdjoyezi, 1999.

45. J. Martin's history of Comoros is central but does not mention local institutions. I used Henri Pobéguin's photograph collection (1897–1899) with its precise captions during fieldwork. It helped people remember old practices and explicitly talk about hierarchies in everyday life; Blanchy, Grande Comore en 1898; Blanchy, “Une expérience de retour d'archives.”

46. Interview with Moussa Issihaka, Ikoni, 1995; information was confirmed by photographs from Pobéguin's collection.

47. Archives d'Outremer (AOM), Aix en Provence, 6 (8) D15; Kari-Ngama, Flamme vive (editing the manuscript of the Mdombozi royal matrilineage in Fumbuni).

48. Martin, Comores, quatre îles.

49. AOM, D 6(8) 15; AOM, 3D3, 49.

50. Saleh, “Communauté zanzibari d'origine comorienne.”

51. Fair, Pastimes & Politics, 260–1. Fair bases this on both Saleh, “Comoro Islands” and British archives. The shambe probably designated the elegant and gracious dance still performed during ãda feasts.

52. Blanchy, “Esclavage et commensalité à Ngazidja.” Romero-Curtin observes the same facts in Lamu where, despite different kinship and residence rules, former slaves ‘have continued copying their former owners and have placed less emphasis on rising economically and more on emulating rituals”; Romero-Curtin, “Lamu Weddings,” 152.

53. Interview with Ali ‘Shioni’ Moussa (born 1912) and Abdallah Himidi in Irungudjani, Moroni, 2005.

54. Interviews with Kassim Abdallah in Magodjuu, Moroni, 2005 and 2006.

55. Glassman, Feasts and Riots, 140.

56. Said Muhammad bin Sheikh Ahmed known as Al Maaruf.

57. Penrad, “Shadhiliyyah-Yashrutiyyah.”

58. Alpers, “A Complex Relationship: Mozambique and the Comoro Islands.”

59. Interview with Said Nassuir Said in Mdjoyezi, 1995. Blanchy, “Les Darwesh aux Comores.”

60. Bang, Sufis and Scholars; Loimeier, “Patterns and Peculiarities of Islamic Reform.”

61. This class of Kings of the Sons kept the power from 1976 to 1986, when the wazuguwa took it through a coup; Interview with Ahmed Ali by Moussa Said-Ahmed, Itsandzeni, 1986.

62. Very few studies have been done thus far about it; Mattoir, Comores de 1975 à 1990.

63. Interview with Msa Bwana, Mlali, 2004.

64. Collection of sermons written by Ibn an-Nubâta (946–984); Ahmed, Islam et politique aux Comores, 37, 79.

65. Blanchy, “Pouvoir et différenciation sociale.”

66. About Al Haramayn and other agencies in Comoros, see Ahmed, “Networks of Islamic NGOs.”

67. Interview with a man who had worked at the colonial sawmill established by Humblot near Djumwashongo, 2004.

68. Ranger, Dance and Society in Eastern Africa, viii, 18. The beni (from the English ‘band’) is derived from old dance companies from the Kenyan coast, which had an elaborate hierarchy and organized dancing and singing competitions between local factions in the towns.

69. Said-Ahmed, Guerriers, princes et poètes, 261–2; Graebner, “Twarab,” 42.

70. Blanchy, Maisons des femmes, cités des hommes, 65–6.

71. La Tribune des Comores no. 9 (15 November to 10 December, 2006); Interview with Mohamed Said Abdallah Mchangama. He was using a very well-known formula. Mkavavo, “the one who is there,” also designates the one who is actively committed to ãda and city life; mkandziani, “the one who is on the path,” also means he who makes an effort to achieve ãda goals.

72. Preparatory documents communicated by Chamsidine Turqi in 2005.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: Fieldwork conducted from 1995 to 2006 was funded by the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) with a total amount of €25,000.