http://africraigs.travellerspoint.com/129/
On Apr 25, 2013, at 5:39 PM, samuel andema <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi George you have just made my day with this hilarious piece by the dutch > lady struggling with Lugbara. It is amazing! She really knows how to write > reflections. I would be glad to access her blog if you don't mind. I would > like to follow the discourse. > > Regards. > > Sam > > --- On Thu, 25/4/13, George Afi Obitre-Gama <[email protected]> wrote: > > From: George Afi Obitre-Gama <[email protected]> > Subject: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a > good read! > To: "A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile" <[email protected]> > Date: Thursday, 25 April, 2013, 14:12 > > A new year, a new language, more confusion > > Why can't everyone speak English? > 16.01.2013 30 °C > Learning a new language and culture is like discovering a new world, opening > your eyes and mind to completely amazing and strange ideas, some shocking, > some fascinating, most unexpected. > Since the beginning of the new year, we have a new teacher, Eunice, who is > hoping to make us into fluent Lugbara speakers within a few months… Lugbara > is the local tribe in Arua, one of the 10 largest tribes in Uganda (out of a > total of 34 ethnicities). The Lugbara are a tribe descended from Nigeria to > settle here. Their territory extends around Arua and into the Democratic > Republic of Congo, so families have been split by the arbitrary political > boundaries drawn by the Europeans in Berlin in 1884. > Disconcertingly, we seem to be a source of great amusement for most of the > ex-pats when we tell them we are taking this time to study Lugbara. “Good > luck”, they tell us. They then go on to tell you a story of someone who has > been attempting the language for many years and haven’t gotten very far. Some > compare the language to Chinese, saying it is one of the most difficult > languages in the world to learn. It is quite depressing hearing this, > obviously… Additionally, having grown up in Congo and learning Swahili there, > having lived in Malawi and Kenya and trying to learn the languages there, > while being exposed to various other African languages, it is frustrating to > have to start at zero like a baby once again….those languages are nothing > like Lugbara! > Most whites don’t even bother to learn Lugbara especially since this tribe is > only one of 5 in the close vicinity of one another. For example, the Alur are > settled on the outskirts of Arua town. Their language is close to the Luo > language which we were learning in Kenya. To make it even worse, there are > sub-sections of the Lugbara tribe with variations in the way words are said. > Whoopee to learning a difficult language which is only spoken by a few and > which is nothing like any other language we have ever heard! > > Eunice, in action, confusing us > > Eunice is a good teacher, though, having patience with us as we sit on the > veranda trying to repeat what on earth she has just said. As a Lugbara, she > is also good at turning up late, demonstrating how a Lugbara should act. As > Lilian, another Lugbara who works for us says, “Lugbaras is not following > time, ha!” and laughs out loud. So, anyway, she is almost an hour late today, > but since we live in Africa, you never know what may have happened. It could > be a relative has just died and she has to go to the funeral. > Despite the issue of time-keeping, which especially bothers Emma, Eunice has > been effective at moving us on in the language. Emma and I already feel more > confident using some simple phrases and greetings. For example, I was > particularly proud when I asked for 10 eggs the other day in the local wooden > duka close to our home. “Ife mani augbe mundri”. The word for egg 'augbe' is > spoken as though you are swallowing an egg... > One of the problems of learning Lugbara is that the same words can mean > completely different things. So, for instance, the word for sauce, “tibi”, is > the same word for ‘beard’, just with a different tone. Emma wonders if this > has anything to do with someone’s long beard dragging in their gravy once > upon a time. There are other examples, though the best so far is the word > ‘ago’, which if intonated differently, can either mean ‘husband’ or > ‘pumpkin’. A phrase like ‘my beautiful fiancée’ can also come across as ‘my > beautiful warthog’, so any wannabe suitors need to be pretty careful in this > town… > Emma also uses a lot of imagination when it comes to remembering the Lugbara > phrases or words. So, for instance, the word for peanuts is ‘funo’ (foon-oh). > Emma thinks of little peanuts bouncing around and having a lot of fun. It can > be a bit of a tentative or weird link at times. She is constantly whispering > to me how I can remember a word. Awupi (A-whoopee) is the word for Aunt on > your dad’s side. Obviously, this conjures up thoughts of playing a trick with > my Auntie Barbara with a whoopee cushion…’Fetaa’ (feta) means gift and so it > is remembered by thinking of giving someone a gift of cheese. I often wish I > had had Emma as a study partner for my IGCSE or IB exams in Holland as I > would not have spent so many lost hours staring blankly at walls trying to > cram boring information into my struggling mind. > Alongside Emma's visual mind, we are also discovering that Lugbara is quite a > visual language. The word for ‘fingers’, for example, is ‘hand-children’. > This also works for ‘toes’ (foot children). The word for door translates > directly as ‘house-mouth’. The floor is the ‘house-stomach’. Today, we learnt > that veranda is the ‘joeti’ or ‘house buttocks’!! You can’t make this stuff > up, eh? It’s great! > Onomatopoeia is often used as well in the language. 'Kulukulu' > (koo-loo-koo-loo) is the name for a turkey and on hearing the sound a turkey > makes the other day when passing a homestead, I really thought it described > it well. Barking is ‘agbo-agbo’, crying is 'owu- owu' (oh-woo) and laughing > is 'ogu- ogu' (oh-goo). I can’t remember any of these sound words properly > and instead guess by making any noise that I think would fit. It > unfortunately doesn’t work. One of our favourite onomatopoeiatic words is the > word for butterfly ‘alapapa’, just like the sound of little wings beating! > Language can also be an intimate doorway into the culture. We couldn’t > believe t, when Eunice explained the word for ‘girl’ is made up of 2 words in > Lugbara, ‘za’ meaning ‘meat’ and ‘mva’ meaning ‘child’! 'Meat-child!' Girls > have been seen as great little earners in a family by providing a dowry of up > to 20 head of cattle and 15 goats and extras like bows and arrows and hoes. > However, so many of the traditions have been changing here as the pressure of > our Western culture pervades and invades. Loin cloths have been out since the > 1950s or 60s (Maybe this is a good thing. I can’t see the Craig family > sauntering down the road semi-nude in Arua, and it would make an embarrassing > family photo). Instead, though, everyone is wearing second-hand Western > clothes. Out is the tradition to remove your 6 front teeth using only a > hammer and some herbs to encourage healing of your mouth afterwards (I’m also > thankful this is not practised anymore), and marking the skin by cuts with a > razor in adolescence is now stopped. However, as Eunice explained, the rather > exaggerated buttocks size in women is still favoured by the culture, > especially if the buttocks also jiggles while walking. > All-in-all, though pretty tiring, it is really interesting learning the > language and culture. It definitely does show how very different we > Westerners are (especially compared to the recent past) and so will help us > understand how to approach people more effectively. We are hoping knowledge > of the language can help us build relationships and get alongside people > better (until we meet others from the next tribe along who don’t have a clue > what we are saying…). > > Eunice, Lilian and all of us outside on the 'house-buttocks' in the > 'house-mouth' > > > Amelie in the jokoni > > -----Inline Attachment Follows----- > > _______________________________________________ > WestNileNet mailing list > [email protected] > http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet > > WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including > attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. > _______________________________________________ > _______________________________________________ > WestNileNet mailing list > [email protected] > http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet > > WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including > attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. > _______________________________________________
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