Living a Kulango Life: Examples of Socialization under the Shadow of the Laasagyo

The Kulango of Nassian, a Gur people living mainly in the North-Eastern territo- ry of modern Ivory Coast, with a few villages scattered along the border in Gha- na, are sedentary horticulturalists, whose relationships with the plant-kingdom they live in, share many characteristics with those typical of the Abron-Akan groups, but also of some Gur/Voltaic communities they live in contact with. Aim of this paper is to provide some examples of how these bi-dimensional cultural influences melted together giving life to the present day Kulango cultural identi- ty. The discussion is divided into three different parts. Paragraph 2. contains an overview of the two most important ceremonial events of the Kulango agricultural calendar: a) the typically Akan yam feast and b) the typically Gur pearl-millet feast. In paragraph 3. the focus moves towards the peculiar role of a tree, which the Kulango call the laasagyo and of two other vegetal elements which are still very important in the modern Kulango social world: a) palm wine, or taŋa in Kulango, and b) the kola nut, or pɛsɛ in Kulango. Paragraph 4. will be devoted to an ethnolinguistic study of the conceptualiza- tions of what is a plant and what is a mushroom according to the Kulango Welt- anschaauung.