Monday and Tuesday of this week I spent in Siby, a small village about an hour and a half outside of Bamako by car. The people there were incredibly nice and taught us how to play the djembe and dance a little bit. We spent the evening with families and helped them draw water out of their wells. They also had giant turkeys walking around everywhere, so we should be all set for Thanksgiving. The next day, we got to hike up a plateau and hear a little bit about the history of the area and how an ancient prince carved a huge arching rock formation with his knife. The highlight was standing under a huge waterfall. It was amazing.
The fun continued on Wednesday when my luggage finally arrived just in time for me to move in with my family. They are very nice, and they all call me by my new Malian name, Safi. My family name is Traoré. My older sister, Jolie, has been leading me around the city by the hand, showing me all sorts of interesting things. Walking around the city, it's not uncommon to hear people chanting Tubabu! Tubabu! which loosely translates to Whitey! It's all in good fun, though, and our professors told us we could yell back something that sort of means Blacky! if we want to.
Besides being basically a local celebrity, by far the most interesting thing I have come across so far is a custom called joking cousins. Your joking cousin is someone who, according to your family name, is linked to your descendents. Many people have the last name Traoré, and we're from the Bamana tribe originally, so anyone else with about three other family names all from the Bamana tribe would be my joking cousin. The way joking cousins works is that, if I meet anyone who is my joking cousin on the street, I can poke fun at them and insult them, and it's all a big joke. Even if I've just met the person, it works this way. The favorite insult is telling someone that he eats beans (Get it? Farting joke.), and then the common reply is, No, no, it is you who eats beans. It's hilarious, and people say it all the time.
Tomorrow, I'm going to hang out with my family. I could watch La Madrastra dubbed in French, or even Care Bears. Then, I might play a little football with the kids down the street and get called Tubabu by some neighbors. It's going to be a big day!
2 comments:
Safi means "clean" in Swahili.
On the slight chance that the words are related, you're kind of like a super whitey.
Maybe you should buy stock in Clorox.
That's awesome. If no other part of me can be clean, I at least have my name!
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