A Guide to Malinke Signs and Sounds

During pre-service training I did a post about my reflections on learning an African language, but since being at site, I've come to appreciate how much of Malinke expression is not found in the words themselves, but in subtle (or not) noises and gestures.  It's pretty fascinating to me that, not only are gestures and sounds different, but that they often exist for concepts that American culture apparently does not see a need to create a gesture for.

In the following videos, my Malinke family will walk you through sounds and gestures that I've picked up on (and since making the videos, I have thought of a lot more, such as the gestures for farming, work, and "you lied!").  We had a blast making these videos, and I hope you have a similar experience watching them!

Let's start with the basics.  "Come here" is similar, except with the hand flipped over.  This is sometimes confusing when you wave at kids and do the floppy hand wave--they think you want to come over to them.  Moussa will show you.

The following sound, demonstrated by Fily, is definitely my least favorite, used to get people's attention from far away.  I didn't usually respond to it because it sounds rude, but then I was trying hard to get someone's attention and was surprised by how effective it is with very little output.

The following series of videos will focus on reactive noises:

Sadio doesn't find what her conversation partner has just said to be of value:

Sambaly (rapper name Xhaki Blow) is mildly surprised....

Dande is quite displeased with what she just heard...

Ibrahima is quite surprised...

And then there is an expression of shock, as shown by Diounkounda (although it is often much higher pitched than this).

Someone has asked Sambou a question that he does not know the answer to...

Ansoumani is agreeing to what he has been asked to do (perhaps too reluctantly to express with actual words.)

Moving on to other signs and symbols, Sora wants to know: "What happened?"

What Sambou is saying with his voice is that he is coming back tomorrow.  With his hands, he is specifying that he is coming in the morning.  (Because the morning is when you wash your face).  

When we filmed this, Diounkounda said it meant that you didn't want to see the person you were talking to.  But then I saw it in action the next day, when the person was telling me something that I knew was a lie and wanted me to play along.

If you see or hear the following when in Malinke-land, watch out.  It means that you're doing something that probably isn't a very good idea, but that the person doesn't want to come right out and say it.

Sadio: It is the same.  Boulandy: It is not the same.

This is one of my favorites. The first word that children often learn is "Mban", which means, "I refuse".  It is accompanied by the following motion, demonstrated enthusiastically by Kounadi and Alamuta. 

The opposite of "I refuse" is "I accept", as seen here with a demonstration by Ansoumani.

I'm going to let readers guess the meaning of this one.  It means what you think it does, and Alamuta, in her terrible twos, has started doing this if anyone tells her to do anything.

If someone offers you a blessing and you do not respond correctly, you get chastized, so watch Dande and Sadio show you how it's done.

Blessings and Merry Christmas from Senegal (amina), where the women are strong (seriously, they spend a good proportion of their time carrying water and pounding things), the men (especially the Peace Corps Volunteers) are good looking, and the children, especially in my family, are cuter than average.