Sori Saba Jaaje Camara is Professor of Social Anthropology and Ethnology at the University of Bordeaux II in France. His studies of oral tradition, the nature of utterance, and the “Masters of Speech” include Gens de la parole (1975, reprinted 1993) and Paroles trés anciennes (1982). His current research builds on ten years of interviews in eastern Senegal on incantations, legends, and myths, to discern Mandinka conceptions of the nature, function, and status of speech.