Fulbe Voices: Marriage, Islam, And Medicine In Northern Cameroon

Fulbe Voicesis based on everyday conversations in the West African village of Domaayo, Cameroon, where men and women struggle with the multiple cultural contradictions and social tensions emerging from their varied perspectives as farmers and entrepreneurs, schoolboys and elders, married and free women, rulers and ruled, Muslim scholars and spirit workers. Though sharing many terms of debate, Fulbe persons passionately argue about Muslim ideals and "pagan" practices, about Fulbe tradition and national reform, and about local histories and global flows. In Fulbe culture, social worlds are articulated and transformed through narrative and embodied performance.

Helen A. Regis is assistant professor of anthropology at Louisiana State University. She is coauthor (with John Bartkowski) of Charitable Choices: Religion, Race, and Poverty in the Post-Welfare Era and is currently writing a book on race, politics, and performance in New Orleans.