protection
Theme 3: the act of personally protecting animals
6.4.3 Transformations between people and nature: shapeshifting
After having discussed the informative knowledge found in stories with respect to animals and other aspects of the environment, the final theme I will discuss here regards the relationship between people and their environment including animals.
The most obvious point here is the evanescence of the boundary between animals and people. This can first be seen when considering fiction stories. Many stories deal with animals behaving and acting like humans. This account in the first place for the metaphorical level in which animals represent human characters. Although it provides a natural basis for intertwining these two worlds, it is not merely symbolic. However, non-fiction stories also show that the human world and the natural world are not as separated as perceived in the scientific world. The clearest examples are stories that deal with shapeshifting.
Shapeshifting as a phenomenon is described by many authors in different cultures (Köhler, 2000; Richards, 2000) and may have different contexts. There are different reasons for shapeshifting as well as different categories of transformed animals (see figure 6.1). In the case of Richards in Sierra Leone it is put into a social-political context. This can also be found in many stories in Cameroon. Take, for example, the incident that was discussed in section 5.5.3 about a group of nomadic pastoralists, the Mbororo, and sedentary peasants in the region of Moutourwa. I will discuss it a bit more in detail here12.
The nomadic pastoralists used to spend the dry season with their cattle in the yaéré, the floodplain of the Logone-Chari. Every year in the rainy season, when the floodplain was inundated, they moved to a camp in the bush near Moutourwa. They always paid tribute to the traditional leader, the Lamido, to gain access to the pastures. There was always a peaceful and reciprocal relationship between the people from the village and the Mbororo. However, in the dry season of 1996 the herders found their camp converted into cotton fields. They immediately complained to the traditional authorities but it appeared that these authorities had not given permission for the clearance of the fields. Customary practices appeared to have been overruled by modern law; the sous-prefet had given permission for the cultivation of cotton, regardless of the nomadic herders. The sous-prefet, who himself appeared to possess one of the new cotton fields, explained to the herders that this was part of a developing policy in which wandering people could not have any rights to the land. Moreover, in the same year, the leader of the big herder group, Issa Djibrilla, was jailed on a charge of cattle theft. Finally the nomadic group was forced to move away without its leader.
11 Prof. Cecile Abega is one of the most famous anthropologists in Cameroon who has done a lot of research in the area.
They did so without much resistance. After Issa was bailed out by his family he joined his group stating that they would never return to Moutourwa again. But he added that the sous-prefect would regret his decision. Only two weeks later, a big herd of elephants invaded the village. It was the first time in fifteen years that elephants were spotted near Moutourwa. The elephants walked straight into the village and paused a few minutes in front of the office of the sous-prefect. They displaced some obstacles, including the car of the sous prefet, before going to the rain-fed sorghum fields. However, they did not touch a leaf there. Instead, they continued their way straight to the cotton fields that had caused such turmoil. These fields were completely destroyed. In the morning the elephants vanished, leaving the terrain tramped and barren. After this incident neither the elephants nor the group of Issa Djibrilla were ever seen again in Moutourwa.
For the villagers there was no misunderstanding: the elephants were no ordinary animals on their yearly search for food. This was a typical case of wailourou. Mbororo in particular
are known to possess the power to transform. Although the story does not literally say that elephants are shapeshifted Mbororo (in fact these elephants can also be seen as animals operating under the command of Mbororo) this is the general conclusion of most people. It agrees with numerous other stories in which elephants or lions have characteristics that betray their human origin or even stories in which people have witnessed the moment of transformation. The story of Moutourwa perfectly illustrates the role of animals in political issues. Many other stories abound in which on an individual level or a more general level people have been transformed into animals in order to take revenge or solve a conflict. This includes animals destroying crops or attacking people.
Shapeshifting is only one of the common beliefs that show the indistinct boundary between the cultural world and the natural world. Another example is the common phenomenon of mysteridjo, of which the origin is discussed in chapter 5.
The fact that it is commonly believed that animals and humans can transform into each other is of course directly linked with a deeper level of knowledge with respect to the position of people and the environment. Moreover, as we shall see, this knowledge strongly influences the ideas on environmental conservation. Environmental issues cannot be considered as separated from what happens in the social world. I will return to this theme in later sections of this chapter.
In this section I have discussed some issues that are related with the level of concrete knowledge. In the next sections I will deal with the deeper level of knowledge relating to worldview and underlying assumptions. In order to do so, I have made a thematic division partly inspired by the questions of Milton (section 2.6). In the first place, it may be useful to consider the concept of place and time in local stories. Furthermore, I will discuss two basic emotional values: care and compassion on the one hand, and respect and fear on the other. Finally, I will deal with the issue of responsibility.