Mandinka 101

Most Salikenni residents belong to the Mandinka tribe, the largest of several major ethnic groups in the country. The Mandinka language is rich, rapid and full of elaborate greetings.

When two people meet, one says says "Suumoolee." (su-MOH-lay) which literally means "Where are your people?" But it really means "How are your people?"

The second person responds, "I be jee." (ee-bay-JAY), literally "They are there." But the sense is "They are well."

"I la musolee" (ee la mu-SO-lee) says the first person, which means "Where (that is to say how) is your wife?"

"A be jee" (ah bay JAY) says the other, literally "She is there."

"Kortanante," says the first person, or "I hope there is no trouble."

"Tanante," says the second, "No trouble."

The first person continues the ritual, asking in sequence about the children, brothers, sisters, cousins and aunts. Then the flow of good will reverses, and the second person asks the same list of questions of the first. The eschange often ends with the exclamation "Alhamdulila!", which is the Arabic equivalent of "Hallelujah!"

When they visit a friend's house, Salikenni residents don't physically knock on the door. Instead they say loudly, "Kong, kong!" which sounds a bit like "knock, knock."

Another lovely phrase is "I nimbara," which roughly means roughly "Good work" or "Keep up the good work." Salikenni residents say it when they pass by someone who is working, perhaps turning over a garden or mending a fence. Some years ago, Abdoulie Jarju, a teacher at the Salikenni school was sitting with friends on a small bench made of round poles, beside a dirt road that leads into the village from the rice fields. It was evening, rapidly getting dark, and women, who in this society grow the rice, were walking back from the fields. They came single file, in bunches of two or three, not talking, carrying their tools, some with babies on their backs. As each woman passed, Jarju said "I nimbara." It was as though the secretaries in New York were streaming out of the subway on their way home at the end of the day and there were someone there saying, "Good work. Keep up the good work."

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Dinosaur at school

A few years ago, on a visit to the village, we took along two microscopes for the school, donated by schools in Vermont and New Hampshire. One of these donors added at the last moment an inflatable dinosaur. The Salikenni science teachers very much welcomed the microscopes. Their students had never seen one.

The dinosaur, when inflated, was an instant sensation. A teacher carried it from classroom to classroom to show it to the whole upper school. Some of the teachers had never heard of a dinosaur. One asked whether it was a kind of animal we have in the United States.

We explained that dinosaurs lived millions and millions of years ago and probably expired in some natural disaster.

"Was that in the time of Adam and Eve?" a teacher asked.

Alfusainy Jatta, one of the science teachers, later went to the school library and found an encyclopedia article and a book on dinosaurs. He worked up a lesson on dinosaurs and began including it in his science curriculum.

We hope to provide more science equipment for Mr. Jatta.