Interesting read about an anthropologist's trip to try to witness a circumcision ritual and all the problems and stories along the way. ( )

Este libro es la continuación de El antropólogo inocente, y no recomiendo su lectura sin haber leído antes el primero. Ambos libros narran las aventuras y desventuras de un antropólogo social, Nigel Barley [NB], en su intento por estudiar a los Dowayo, una tribu casi desconocida en el oeste de Camerún.

El primer libro relata el choque cultural que sufren muchos viajeros al llegar a la llamada África negra. NB nos habla de la corrupción de los funcionarios, de los interminables papeleos, de los pequeños sobornos y grandes discusiones que tiene que sufrir hasta que, al fin, consigue llegar a la aldea de los dowayo. Una vez allí, comienza a estudiar a un pueblo que, sin saberlo le cambiará la vida. El libro es en realidad un gran anecdotario, pues los malos entendidos y la diferencia entre lo que dan por supuesto el antropólogo y los dowayo ante el mismo hecho llevan a un sinfín de situaciones hilarantes.

En este segundo libro, NB regresa a la tribu de los dowayo para presenciar la ceremonia comunitaria de circuncisión de los jóvenes de la aldea, que sólo tiene lugar cada varios años y sólo si se dan ciertas circunstancias. Hay más anécdotas y más diversión. Cuenta, por ejemplo, la reacción de los dowayo la primera vez que ven una película de cine, con efectos absolutamente diferentes a los que él esperaba, cuenta la visita al Hacedor de lluvia de la tribu, que siempre vive alejado en la montaña, cuenta cómo discurrió la última cacería de la temporada… Todas estas actividades terminan cómicamente, sin que el autor se lo proponga.

NB hace buen uso de lo que siempre se ha definido como fino humor inglés. Su estilo es claro, directo y conciso, y uno casi siempre se lo imagina con una media sonrisa torcida mientras le narra aventura tras aventura. Los libros sirven como buena introducción a la labor cotidiana de un antropólogo social, y para entender un poco más a África, sus devenires y pesares.

Como el autor dice cerca del final del libro, “cuando nada en la cultura que estudias te parece ya extraño, es el momento de dejarlo”. NB se fue de Camerún tras haber hecho muchos amigos, en dos viajes que le sirvieron para conocer a los dowayo y a sí mismo.

Como anécdota final, NB no hizo más estudios de campo tras sus visitas a los dowayo. Entró a trabajar en el Museo Británico, que publicó su primer libro como una curiosidad, casi para uso interno. Pero el éxito arrollador provocó su publicación por una editorial de las grandes, además de servir para que NB relatara la segunda parte de su viaje.

Mi nota: Imprescindibles ( )

Having failed to see the circumcision ceremony which marks the men of the Dowayo tribe transition from child to adulthood when he was there previously, Barley hears that it is due shortly to take place. Hot-footing it out to Cameroon again, he heads back to the village to see if he can witness this first hand. Re-installed in his square hut, that has been carefully ‘guarded’ by Zuuldibo, he picks up life there once again. It was almost like he had never been away, the friendly familiar faces popped by hoping for him to be a generous as he was the first time he visited…

However, details on the wince-inducing process of circumcision, like where it was going to take place and when, are very elusive so whilst waiting for the nod that it was on, he finds other things to do to fill the time. One on the list to do was a visit to the neighbouring Ninga tribe. It was said that the men did not have any nipples, but he felt that he needed to see this for himself and to endeavour to elicit some of the reasons behind this practice. However, his assistant, Matthieu continued to advise against travelling to this other village, but he persisted and finally got to meet the chief. He understood Barley’s desire to learn the customs of the village, but payment would be required; perhaps a large sum of francs for a goat?

This mini-adventure along with taking a primate to the cinema, the possibilities of solar power, a novel repair to his teeth, seeing the response of the village when the UN showed a short film about the perils of malaria and the influx of insects that gave the book its title. It has the same sharp wit of the previous book where we were first introduced to the Dowayo, but with a few more funny anecdotes and is a Thoroughly enjoyable sequel to his first book Like with all societies, what seems barbarous and cruel to us, is a way of life to another people. In the same way, a lot of our routines and habits are equally strange and mysterious to them and the humour that lies in the cracks and fissures of misunderstanding. ( )

Mildly amusing tale of anthropologist returning to a tribe in the Camerons to witness the circumcision rite which he has theorized is a key to the culture's entire ritual cycle. His initial investigation of the tribe and the reasons for his theory are laid out in an earlier book, _The Innocent Anthropologist_. His investigations are frustrated by bureaucracy, cultural differences and the land itself. ( )

A trip to the remote North of Cameroon, February 21, 2015

This review is from: A plague of caterpillars: a return to the African bush (Paperback)
An account of the author's return to Cameroon for a second anthropological study. He has come to study the rare circumcision ceremony, which only occurs every seven years or so.
Most of the book is a waiting game, during which time the author mixes with the locals, giving a picture of a very alien culture:
"There, disappearing at speed into the scrub, was a bizarre, bulky figure. At first sight it was approximately conical and about six feet tall. A tall cone of wickerwork, covered with leaves and creeper, possessed of two arms and two feet, it swayed perilously as it rusehed into the bush...It was a boy, circumciosed some months previously and moving round shielded from the gaze of women by this head to foot covering."
The light, humorous style of writing put me in mind of Gerald Durrell's lesser works. I got a picture of Cameroon but didn't find it 'grabbed me' particularly. ( )