Freetown

Freetown is probably my favorite West-African city so far. It's in a beautiful area, situated by the see, at the mouth of a river. In a (distant) way it reminds me of Rio de Janeiro, because you can climb up the hill and have spectacular views of the different parts of the city and the sea.

[Insert photo of views]

I'm not sure what makes me think so, but Freetown seems to be more developed than Conakry. It still has unpaved streets and no electricity or running water in many areas, but there's something about it that just feels 'more advanced'. I noticed, for instance, that even outside of downtown the great majority of buildings are made of bricks, except those of Krio people, which by choice are made of wood. That generalization excludes, of course, the slums.

[Insert photos of krio houses]

Traffic is horrible. All day. Pretty much everywhere. It makes me not want to move from the place we're staying at...

Talk and formalities at Fourah Bay College

Fourah Bay College is at a great hill-top location over-looking Freetown. I loved the drive up, Sillah avoiding traffic by taking narrow streets in the neighborhoods between Texaco and campus, me intaking every single bit of city I could see. 

This morning Tucker and I gave a talk to 2^nd year students, per request of the Head of the Linguistics Department. Our aim was to encourage them to do language documentation in the future, talking about multilingualism and language endangerment, and sharing some of our experience in the field. Since Tucker took care of the more theoretical part (diglossia, particular cases, metrics in Sierra Leone), I concentrated on comparing the different situations I encountered doing fieldwork in West-Africa, California and the Amazon.

Then Tucker introduced me to several big people at the university and we finally collected a couple of batteries to be used with the solar panels we purchased for the project. Tucker had donated these and other batteries to the College awhile back, after concluding one of his projects.

Now, it turns out that the wi-fi system we ordered from E-magine is not ready yet -as of yesterday it hadn't been put together in the US, nevermind shipped over to Sierra Leone. So we're probably going to head to Moribaya / Tangbaya on Monday without the full equipment. Tucker has arranged for someone else to go to the post office to pick up the remaining equipment as soon as it arrives to Freetown.

PS1 I'm writing this on my laptop a restaurant next to an Internet Cafe, which is out of action due to lack of electricity.

PS2 OK, now we're in a different Internet Cafe with electricity, but the connection is so slow... it's unbeliveable. Well, except because yesterday's connection was even worse! Gmail on HTML wouldn't always load :(

PS3 I'll start to carry a USB cable around so I can (try to) upload low resolution images as I publish blogposts. (I got my camera with me but this laptop doesn't have a card slot).


Update: added the image above -impossible to add any more due to poor connection :(

Departure and arrival

Everything was smooth yesterday at Dublin's airport after the AirCoach dropped me off: no lines to check in or go through security check, no shoe removal, no manual scan. I quickly found the couple of things I wanted to buy before taking off too, a pair of headphone splitters and a photography mag (no photo books to be seen). I even got myself a bargain hat to avoid the equatorial heat for 4,5 EUR at Monsoon.

My plane landed late last night at Freetown due to a stop-over in Marrakesh to fuel up. According to other passengers' explanations, since not that many people were flying, they put us in a smaller plane which couldn't fit enough gas for the otherwise direct flight from Heathrow to Freetown. The detour extended our trip for about two hours. Upon arrival, customs check was very smooth and my bag was already on the baggage collection belt. And the best of all was the temp: 27C. Then the long waits came: bought a ticket for the Pelican boat to take me to the other side of the river, gave my large bag away and stood there. Before my receipt and change came, my bag had already been loaded to a van, then I was led to an almost empty air-conditioned (!) bus. I was told that bags and passengers traveled separately, so I followed. Air conditioning was appreciated because the shuttle didn't fill up for awhile. Then we were taken to the boarding area, but the ferry wasn't there. They invited us to wait at an area full of tables unsurprisingly located by a bar; it had the look of a typical infrastructure built to please tourists, dim lights and stones paths with plants alongside –smart business, I thought: after the long flight and forced to wait in the humid heat, a drink sounded like heaven :)

I was the last one to fit in the first boat, phew! The pier was only a few steps away, on the beach. I enjoyed a short and peaceful walk on the wooden structure -hit by the ocean breeze, I loved the sound of water reaching the sand in a soft movement, and I observed the line of people in front of me moving slowly between occasional lights on the pitch dark background. At the end of the pier was an interesting floating structure, which you had to walk on for a few yards to then climb into the boat. Easy-peasy.

Most of the people on the boat were foreigners. There is a cheaper transportation alternative to go from the airport to Freetown, but it gets crowded and it is potentially less safe. Using the life-vest wasn't easy, for it had plenty of untied straps, so a did a quick fix to it but preferred not to give it a second thought. The ride was smooth compared to open ocean rides, but it felt very long and I tried to snooze for a bit. Other passengers guessed it took 45', which is longer than usual, and observed that the boat took a different, less/straight route than usual. We reached the boat landing around 11pm and I was exhausted. Luckily someone was waiting for me there :)

Sillah, our driver for a few days, took Tucker and I to Ali's place, where we will be staying until we head to Mani land. Tucker is the PI of the project and Ali had worked with him on another language a few years ago. Ali has been very kind to offer the place he's building for us to stay. Ali offered some food and I ate my first West-African meal in years: rice with cassava leave sauce. Very yummy for a day or two, very boring for any longer than that ;)

Video-documenting the endangered Mani language of Sierra Leone

Mani singers in N'Kompan, Guinea Conakry

I'm back in West Africa to continue the documentation of the Mani language. I can't wait to see the people in the community!

I'm copying below a non-technical one-page explanation of what the current project aims:

The work to be undertaken continues the documentation of a dying West African language and pilots a revitalization effort on a remote island where children still grow up speaking the language. The Mani language is still vital on Tangbaya, whose children won a special Mani cultural competition sponsored by a preceding project in 2009. They, their parents, village elders and chiefs were provided the first Mani books during that visit and are now ready to continue the revitalization effort, all of which will be documented by Voice of America’s senior producer, Bart Childs, brother to the PI.

      Few documentation projects can afford the equipment and even fewer have benefitted from such expertise as that provided by VOA. Preliminary videos have already been circulated to high praise. The language of focus is Mani, as it was of the Mani Documentation Project (MDP, 2004-06), a language closely related to Kim and Bom, the twin foci of the Project Documenting the Kim and Bom Languages (DKB, 2007-10). Combining VOA resources and personnel with five years of fieldwork create a rich symbiosis with high-quality production values.

      VOA resources were made available for only two days on the Mani side in 2009 (the main focus was on another project), but have been generously offered again in the form of high definition video and personnel. A special feature of this proposal is that it will be the first time an endangered African language has been part of a revival effort and the first time the process will be documented. Furthermore, it will pioneer the E-MAGINE wifi field station, provide computers and internet access to Mani learners, with access to the expertise at the PI’s home university, Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.

      The key object of the documentation effort is language revitalization on the island of Tangbaya, the one place where Mani is still learned by children. What makes the project unique is its use of the pioneering technology of E-MAGINE, an initiative launched to bring the internet to remote areas throughout the world. The basic component is a stand-alone, solar-powered wifi station with a range of nine miles and a set of basic and durable computers for the students. Not only will students become familiar with computers and the internet, but they will also be learning how to read and write their language using computer-assisted technology developed interactively in real time with colleagues and students at PSU.

      The other highlighted object of the documentation effort is the fantastic dancing and music of the Mani-speaking Pamalap acrobat-dancers (The PI has seen them perform twice and is still mystified by how a man dives into a small chicken basket.) They represent the best of the few performing groups left, groups that used to circulate within the once more extensive Mani-speaking area in fierce competition. Undoubtedly other groups will want to participate, as they did at the previous festival, but the Pamelap performers are the most well known and popular and have already agreed to be filmed. Other targets of video documentation are the diurnal activities of Mani speakers, including everyday interactions and activities, such as the traditional practice of “salt-cooking”, the processing of sea water for its salt.

      VOA has two hour-length programs planned, one on the language documentation effort itself, the other on project RAs Hannah Sarvasy and Marta Piqueras. These videos will help in future recruiting efforts as well as in disseminating general information about the projects, about documentation projects in general, and about the perilous state of many minority languages.

      The filmed documentation and the use of the internet will model what can be done by other fieldworkers. Furthermore, both VOA and the language documentation community are keen on showing how recent technological innovations (miniaturization, digitization, satellite telephony and broadband access) can modernize their operations, extend their global reach, and save money. Because VOA has such a well-established distribution network, the urgency and practice of documenting endangered languages will reach a wide audience. As broadband access becomes cheaper and more available, the project has implications for Africa leapfrogging the earthbound, equipment-intensive technology of current systems going straight to broadband internet access via established cell-phone technology, as has been done with telephones. Another major impact is the experience and training that the young fieldworkers will undergo, especially the local assistants: training of locals is central to the project; their experiences could be leveraged for future documentation undertakings, as well as the linguistics program at the country’s major university.