My New Name

I have a new name.  It is Khadijah (or Kaja for short) Malle.  No more BaUmu Kante.  I decided to change it because I just didn’t feel like the BaUmu fit me.  I really liked Kante as my last name, but my entire village that I will be living in is pretty much Malle’s.  As a side note…last names are super important here in Mali.  There is this whole thing called ‘joking cousins’.  I think it’s a really cool concept here.  This joking cousinship goes back centuries.  The whole idea is that certain ethnic groups can joke with each other- ex: the Coulibaly’s joke with the Kante’s.  I can say “Coulibaly be sho dun” "Coulibaly eats beans" (meaning they fart).  It’s really funny because it is a way to get people to laugh at the white person making jokes…in Bambara.  Coulibaly can say “I be n ka jon” “you are my slave.”  I am told the Coulibalys at one time were big landowners and the Kante’s were blacksmiths…so the Kante’s worked for them.  This was also told to me by my teacher who happened to be a Coulibaly!

In my language village, everyone was a Coulibaly- even the 4 vols I was with.  I was the lone Kante.  I got made fun of all the time, people telling me that I was a bean eater, and that Kante is ‘a mein’ (sp).  Meaning Kante “is bad”.  These jokes are always said with a smile.   Now, those guys get made fun of all the time by people because Coulibaly just gets ragged on by everyone!  Payback guys!

Your last name can be very useful here.  When bargaining at market, if you are getting a really high price for something, you can mention your last name and you may get a big discount.  If someone has the unfortunate luck of getting into a fight, I am told they may break out the last names and if they are joking cousins, they will stop the argument.  Really.  This is one that I will have to see to believe.  However, I do believe in the strength of the joking cousin philosophy. 

Now that I am a Malle, I have to learn who my joking cousins are.  I can no longer tell a Coulibaly that they eat beans because we are not joking cousins, and rule is you have to stay within your joking family.  Malle is a Malinke name-I think.  That is another ethnic group of Mali.  Coulibaly and Kante are Bambara.

Another interesting fact about my name is that it is Muslim.  Khadijah was Muhammads (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) first wife.  She was also the first person to convert to Islam.  Anyway, my village has a good number of Christians.  They asked me what religion am I?  I told them Christian.  I don’t know if anyone will mention the fact that my name is not Christian, and I am not a Muslim.  We shall see.  It will be a great conversation topic.  Also, I figure may help in the future when working with the community. I chose my name.  I really like it...I'm stuck with it for the next 2 years, so I better.  

Posted is a picture from our swear in ceremony.  It is myself and the bean eaters (Coulibaly's) of Tamala.

 

So there you have some Malian culture.  Hope you liked it!  Feel free to leave comments on my blogs.  That way I know people are actually reading this thingJ