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Videos in Punu – GABON
A word on the Punu language…
Punu is the language of the Bapunu, the second largest ethnic group in Gabon in terms of population. It is a Bantu language, spoken in the Tchibanga area. There are around 132,000 speakers of Punu today, but an increasingly important movement of Bapunu people towards the larger urban areas is causing a gradual loss of their language and cultural knowledge.
Read more on the Punu language
In June 2009, Sorosoro went filming on the Punu language in the area of Tchibanga, in southern Gabon. Our team was there with linguists Jean-Marie Hombert (Lyon 2 Louis Lumière University) and Patrick Mouguiama-Daouda (University of Libreville) to collect sound and visual material. Some of this material wasn’t the easiest to produce, especially that on the Mumbwang epic.
The videos in Punu
The state of the language
Presentation of the Punu language by linguist Jean-Marie Hombert
Linguist : Jean-Marie Hombert
Image and sound: Luc-Henri Fage
Editing: Caroline Laurent
The decline of the Punu language
Sorosoro asks Punu speaker Kwenzi Mickala what he believes is causing the decline of his language.
Linguist: Jean-Marie Hombert
Image and sound: Luc-Henri Fage
Translation: Marie-Josée Awanhet
Editing: Caroline Laurent
Tales and narratives
The Mumbwang : an epic of the Punu, Gabon
Sorosoro was granted the rare opportunity to film one of the main founding narratives of the Punu ethnic group. Nowadays very few storytellers are able to provide a full version of the Mumbwang epic.
Linguist: Jean-Marie Hombert
Image and sound: Luc-Henri Fage
Translation: Marie-Josée Awanhet
Editing: Caroline Laurent
Rites and ceremonies
The Mukuji Rite
The Mukuji Rite is a ceremony of dances and masks of the Punu culture.
The Niembe ceremony
Linguist : Jean-Marie Hombert
Anthropologist: Thierry Nzamba Nzamba
Image and sound: Luc-Henri Fage
Translation: Marie-Josée Awanhet
Editing: Caroline Laurent
The Punu mourners
The following video illustrates mourning as a social expression. The chant performed by the Punu women on this occasion expresses grief and perplexity facing the death of a loved one.
Linguist : Jean-Marie Hombert
Image and sound: Luc-Henri Fage
Translation: Marie-Josée Awanhet
Editing: Caroline Laurent
Little words of everyday use in Punu
It is interesting to compare languages through their use of daily words and expressions which are (too often !) held as universal. Our shooting teams were requested to gather names of colours, numbers from 1 to 10 (although we know all populations do not necessarily use the same counting systems) as well as daily phrases from all their interlocutors in their respective languages…
Numbers
Colors
Body parts
Daily phrases
New words
Linguist : Jean-Marie Hombert
Image and sound: Luc-Henri Fage
Translation: Marie-Josée Awanhet
Editing: Caroline Laurent
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