TELLING OFF THE YOUNGSTERS

Here is a rather random excerpt from the archives at the University of Zambia that struck me as rather amusing. A very old man, recorded in the 1970s, relates to the researchers how he became rich from his hard work at fishing and reinvestment of fishing profits in cattle. He is speaking in front of some of his young relatives, who he chides for their laziness and drunkenness. Like good young men, they accept his insults, rather than be disrespectful and disagree. In the middle of the interview, the young men start telling the researcher how things used to be done, interrupting the elder and generally making the gathering of information difficult! [A sign of things to come when I head out into the village to do my own interviews??] It concludes with a satisfying session of male bragging. If nothing else, it gives you a sense of what I spend my days reading (trying to glean data about languages and food economies) and also what I will spend my days doing when we start going out to the villages.

Key to Speakers:
E= Elder, Mr. Mapulanga, who often refers to himself in his speech
YM= One of several young men present
R= researcher doing the interview

E: “This is what I did when I began spearing fish. I did this, young ones, that whenever I went out I came back empty handed. They were saying that I did not know fishing. Most of those days, I was coming back empty handed. I caught nothing. One day I caught five tens, after catching five tens, I brought them home and they cut them open and cleaned them. Eee, on another day I went out and caught two hundred, in a place I do not know. Eee, one time I traded and bought one cow. Yes, and on another day, I bought another cow, that’s how I began. Yes, this fish can bring riches, young ones, if one handles it well once can become rich. Yes that is how I began- from catching fish. It can bring plenty of riches. What you do these days, you only drink beer, it is bad. You of these days, when you get money, you only finish it on beer. It is really for beer. It is for beer, yes, we, when we began first worked very hard yes that is how we suffered for this name.”

YM: “Just as you said, Mapulanga, we young ones play cards only. It is for beer as you said- that’s where the money finishes. That’s where it finishes. That’s were it finishes father, on beer, these days, if you are not careful, you will be suffering and you will be dying without seeing anything at all. Eee, the things I am telling you today young ones, are the true things.”

E: “This money, Mapulanga, money it is no longer money whether one has ten pound notes [reference to colonial era currency], if he takes one pound out, that’s all, he has finished it. He has finished it! He has finished it! Do you think I am lying when I talk like that?”

YM: “No father, it is not… lying. We young ones…, no, you probably got rich long ago.”

E: “We of long ago were going well, you of these days, you- you only walk about [i.e. don’t work, just loaf around]. Ee, that how you walk, you of these days. You will see nothing at all. That is true you have spoken truly. My inlaw Josai are you listening?”

YM: “I have heard.”

E: “What is it that Mapulanga has said?”

YM: “What the old man has spoken is true, we only go drinking beer, whether you get two tens of pounds- you only finish it.”

E: “Ee, he speaks truly this Mapulanga.”

YM: “That is all the news I know.”

YM: “He was killing very little fish, killing little fish and he was preserving them, but we if you get then pounds, it is for beer only, it goes for beer or cards and it is finished, you talk well Mapulanga. The ancients were doing well.”

E: “We were doing well long ago.”

YM: “You speak well Mapulanga, I have also appreciated it, me who is Josai Moonga. You have spoken well, Mapulanga.”

E: “We suffered young ones, we suffered terribly and on certain occasions it made us sleep in this sand, in mud, in Namulamfwe all over, we suffered in all these rivers in Chizubo, yes, in Chigaga, in Mainde, all these are the rivers that we caught fish, spearing one by one, sometimes you finished a hundred. That is how we were spearing them, when ever it enters you speakr one by one by one and you put it into the canoe until you make up a hundred.”

R: “In what where you spearing them?”

E: “In yes, Nampongwe, the same one.”

R: “How did you see them in the water?”

E: “They were visible in the water- we were covering.”

YM: “What were you covering?”

YM: “Really Josai, it is dead there.”

YM: “A blanket, spreading it over the water. Spreading it over a mat, then you go under its shade so that you spear one by one and put it in the boat, you spear one by one and you put in the boat.”

R: ”Are they visible in the water?”

YM: “The fish are also visible.”

R: “Where is the blanket and the mat resting?”

YM: “It rests on sticks, you make them criss-cross on supports. Then you put a mat, over it you put a blanket, then you can see under the water.”

R: “So you can see through the water then?”

YM: “Then you kneel.”

E: ‘That, Josai, must be it because when we look in water, what prevents us from seeing the fish is the sun. Yes, once you cut off the glare of the sun, the fish become visible. I think that is the reasoning they used. Do you think Josai we of these days can do that?”

YM: “Aaa none can do that. I also believe that this thing can happen, if you are in a canoe and happen to look under the canoe you find that anything that passess there you will be able to see it—when the glare of the sun is cut off by the canoe. Hmmm, you can see everything under water.”

E: “Don’t you know that bird that does like this (demonstrating). The reason why that bird does that, why it covers itself is to do the same as the old Mapulanda used to do- the Katembo of Nakooze. Yes of Nakooze yes in the village of the old man of Haatembo, the people who pull canoes. Yes that is where we end, father, we are the one who is Mapulanga Nakooze, who lives in Haatembo, he is Mapulanga Nakooze- of those rich people. My other name is Mbeza, the doer of things.”

YM: “He is the doer of things.”

E: “I am Shankombo- I am Kupola, I am Shikongwa Makondo (he who can not be frightened in battles).”

YM: “He who went to the western side of Bweengwa.”

E: “Me who reached the western side of Bweengwa.”

YM: “Yes, that’s where we end, me who is speaking, I am Dimas of Museka- I am Dimas Kambalanje.”

YM: “Of Museka- where they laugh at table!”