| 3.9 TRADITIONAL OCCUPATION
The major identified occupation are farming and goldsmith. The making of a trinket in the goldsmith’s shop is the centrepiece of the most impressive occupation in The African Child (1953). It’s a typical example of African technology. There is a mythic patter implicit on the technical process; there is also goldsmith’s incantation for creative invocations in the novel:
Where they are not the spirits of fire and gold of fire and air, air breathe through the earthen pipes, of fire born of air, of gold married with fire – were not these the spirits he was invoking? (p.25)
This is the form the incantation takes during and after the whole process, the praise singer sing praises of the goldsmith and the beautiful gold. The praise singer is over present during the period of such work, because it’s another form of occupation, they are paid for such work.
Also, farming becomes interest during the harvest period whereby the whole village starts harvest the same time with the beating of tom-tom and everybody dances to the same rhythm, which makes the work easier.
This kind of harvest is unlike the modern day farming where by one plant and harvest at anytime. The rice harvest episode presents a sense of community but not in the same way as the goldsmith’s shop sequence. In The African Child (1953) there is pleasure in working because it’s done harmoniously. Laye says:
Our husband men were singing, and as they sang, they reaped; they were singing in chorus, and reaping in unison, their voices and their gesture were all harmonious… savoring the common pleasure of accomplishing a common tack.
Considering the kouroussa’s occupation, which is a replica of a true traditional African setting, one can say that African adds values and pleasures to their work.
Everybody has his own language, his own arts, and his own planting, his religion and his own way of looking at the work and interpreting it into reality. Everybody have their peculiar customs and traditions, their own code of moral laws and their own view of the universe and man’s place in it. In short, everybody and society has its own tradition norms and value.
Share with your friends: | 
