Goor yombul, or a man is worth dear |Seneplus

As soon as she heard the word "Takk", Buguma, lost foot.‘’ Takk ’’, literally, ‘tantage’, ‘chain’, as well as the other terms wolof relating to marriage, put it back.She had always found these words so little poetic and revealing the sexist terms of the marriage institution compared to the young bride, despite the explanations of her mother.

Serign-Kemtaan-Men-lep [1] straightened up on his carpet and scraped his forehead as every time he was perplexed.It had been half an hour that the man who came to visit him told him how much he needed his help to get immunity.The man had produced an important land transaction with mercenary, the representative of a company from Dëkk-Bi-Fog-Ni-Moo-nu-Moom, the former colonizer of the Galguisen.The Lamaan-Boromsuuf [2] of Figaalgiteene, a village in the river valley reproached him for not having consulted him because he had authority on earth, all the earth around the river valley: Walo and Jeeri [3].Only man thought that this authority was now in the hands of rural communities with the laws on the decentralization of the 90s and had therefore not paid him from Ndaalu [4].In response, the Lamaan-Boromsuuf had sworn that man would never get the earth and threatened to "work" so that he was not re-elected.

In this pre-electoral period, the man was afraid that the Aakimoo-Suuf contract [5] that he had concluded with mercenary would cost him his post and he did not want the scandal to burst.The marabout scratched his head even more nervously in front of the presentation of the situation.Then he stopped his gesture when he realized that it could betray his disorder.His mother prohibited him this gesture when he was little.Then when he had become a man: ‘a man must do this, he must avoid this, etc..'And the list of what a man was,' a real 'according to his mother, was long: it was necessary to have a decent job, to be able to solve the problems of his family, to know how to be respected of women, in short,' to be able'of everything, in all circumstances.She always concluded her long tirades with: ’Goor Yombul’ [6].

To calm down, the marabout began to think of the ponder he will claim for this operation.His smile suddenly caught was preposterous.His mother would be proud of him if she saw him today.He had become a powerful man, listened to, respected and obeyed.The population of Galguisen, religious and believer was a great consumer of marabout services.He then played on fear, the intangible, the nonexistent because in this world, everything was possible.Serign-Kemtaan-Men-Lepp had become more than capable and he wanted to signify it by choosing his marabout name: ‘the marabout-omnipotent-miracles’ ’miracles’.

He ordered man a list of sacrifices to be made and printed an invoice with the amount of the fees for the consultation.In contrast to many other marabouts, Serign-Kemtaan-Men-Lepp had studied university and had a real desktop with a laptop and a printer.He had a secretary and spoke four foreign languages for his business. Il disait avoir abandonné son affaire ‘B&B’ pour se consacrer à la noble mission qui lui avait été révélée car un tel pouvoir ne saurait rester caché et il se devait de l’utiliser pour abolir les souffrances des personnes qui l’entouraient.

Serign-Kemtaan-Men-Lepp to put an end to the interview, addressed the man in a tone which himself made him cold in the back: ‘Melal nor Say Aajo Fajuna’ [7].

****

Three months later, in the Patdwa district, located inndakaaru, was held this exchange:

- Ndayu-Mbilligi, thank you for the warm welcome.However, I start to get impatient because Buguma is not even there to welcome me and marriage has still not been celebrated.I hope to formalize the union before my tour inside the country.I will officially send my loved ones to ask for her hand before the end of this month.

- Buursaayna, na sa xel dall.Yonnel Say Mbokkma May La Jabar.[8]

By getting along such a promise, Ndayu-Mbilligi junta, panicked.What would she do if she lost this ideal son-in-law who occupied an important place in the committee of the Nguur de Galguisen? She herself had put the double bites for her guest: Cuuray [9] in Gogo, put deliciously cooked and whose smellWelcomed you at the door, served in the dishes she had brought back from her trip to Dubaay, she left nothing to chance.Fish had to bite the hook, better to be strangled with it!

As soon as he entered the house of Ndayu-Mbilligi, Buursaayna, accompanied by his griot and Kanté advisor, had spread out his generosity to the inhabitants of the house: a Fara-Fara cuub [10] specially ordered from Mali for the mistress of the place, twoIPad for Saer and Yunuss, then followed a long distribution of banknotes.

What would she do if she lost this financial windfall that her friends in the neighborhood envied her?Buursaayna for two months now had been the same age that she came to visit her about her 26 -year -old daughter, Buguma.He now wanted a firm answer because the latter was going to return to Figaalgiteene in fifteen days to finish his field survey as part of his doctoral thesis.Ndayu-Mbilligi did not understand Buguma, the latter was too educated and they never managed to communicate.Why was Buguma not like Maajigeen her little sister who had married during his second year of license and who had given him from a beautiful little child, Taawbugoor.Maajigeen had not been asked, however, because she wanted to enter the very "run" circle of her young girlfriends of girlfriends.

Buguma she put more sticks on her wheels: she spoke of rights, revolution and equity!She was obsessed with her research and never listened to her when she told him that menopause was approaching grandpa.She didn't want to get married before the end of her doctorate.

Recently returned to Ndakaaru for a month, she stayed with her mother for two weeks, and stayed in Kolaudel the rest of her stay before returning to Figaalgitee soon.She had stood him firmly since she had prohibited her the Fann-Point-E-Plateau area and monitored her least trips for fear that she would start to frequent her lover of political opponent again.Ndayu-Mbilligi thought that "Immigration Seslois" if firm would do to her young Ndate Yalla languish with her belle-like bonus and let the ring put on the finger by the Reveé Buursaayna!

His daughter's friend was a young Ngembican Nadem Nademademdem, an idealist who had no respectable profession if not that of opponent to the regime in place in ngembique that he hoped to overthrow one day.Buguma seemed indifferent to the blackmail of his mother and worse seemed to have all her time to take up the challenge that this one had launched!She went to her Wolonteeru-Non-remunéré-But-en-Contrepartie-de-laquelle-Au Aur would-a-Grande-Experience-du-Plaidoyer-au-Sein-d'un-Grande-Ong every day, face hertwo supervisors who operated it and overwhelmed it.She was coming back exhausted but Ndayu-Mbilligi did not allow herself to be fooled by this feigned fatigue because she knew her daughter excited by her immersion in this organization which defended freedom of expression and human rights even if she complained that the NGO in questionhad forgotten the rights of his employees, 'di Digle Cangaay te Dugnu Sanggu' [11].

****

Ndayu-Mbilligi sighed thinking about the ingratitude of her daughter who, instead of staying by her side to resume her 'Bizness' [12] that she had started a few years earlier, only spoke of returning to Figaalgiteene to do herinterviews.In recent years already, Malamin his youngest had taken care of the siblings but has passed the burden from him upon his return by invoking the right of birth and had enlisted in the Galguisennaise army, tired of his life as an unemployed.He had been sent on a mission to Mali and gave very few news.Surrect in the army?It was the Nguur's fault which could not create jobs for graduates-seconds, sent them to die to reduce their number!Ndayu-Mbilligi, bitter as every time she thought of Malamin, could not understand that her son did not succeed by following the path she had traced her.

‘Tchiip’, Ndayu-Mbilligi emitted this sound that was worth all the words when it was disappointed and angry.She thought back to Buguma again.She couldn't make him understand that there was much more important in the life of a young woman than studies!She herself had married at sixteen! In addition, Buguma was likely to scare away the few sighs she had by being so graduated.What was she waiting for?Had not she learned from her own experience?She, Ndayu-Mbilligi, the widowed businesswoman had had as a coronation of a life, two "sisters" one who did not go very far in studies and older than her, and another 'intellectual'who was a year less than Buguma at the time of marriage; that her husband, Alaaji Zolikeer during her lifetime, was going to join two nights on seven, in turn, in turn.But it was to her, granddaughter of Albury Njaay, Buurba [13] Jolof that her husband granted three nights.And that after she bought her a car on the return from the third ‘haj’ [14] that she had offered her and added another floor to their three -level house.

GOOR YOMBUL, OU UN HOMME VAUT CHER | SenePlus

The number of floors is an external sign of wealth, it doesn't matter if the foundations of the house allowed.Alaji Zolikeer had gone two years ago, who died of a heart attack in the arms of a youngster but that, she Ndayu-Mbilligi had obviously watched that nobody never knows anything.Buguma was therefore not aware of all the sacrifices she had made for their well-being because she had stayed with Alaji Zolikeer for the family balance.

Or was it?What did she prepare for him?She was the only one who did not answer the marital call: the whole family was there for the occasion and was waiting to play his score, except her.Saer-Bënële felt to read while keeping a benevolent eye on the sumptuously erected table, from time to time he turned to his younger Yunuss dëgër-bopp, the latest who did not stop falling from his bike to go back to fall back.She then thought of Maajigeen her daughter who assisted her in her business.Maajigeen, his favorite who was going to settle in her in-laws, as the custom wanted.She had given him a beautiful grandson but Ndayu-Mbiligi expected more than all the grandchildren that his sons would give him, to whom he was coming to perpetuate the family patronym.

Ndayu-Mbiligi sighed.All day long, Buguma had only appeared to eat, had helped her a little to do the accounts of the week for the store of the Achalem market and the two in Sindaga, then withdrew "in his apartments".Resolutely, NDAYU-MBILLIGI promoted in an even firmer tone in Buursaayna: Alxames bi MUJJ SI WEER BI NGA Yonne Ma Say Mbokk Ma Mayla Jabbar [15] she hammered, to get up to add twice as much incense in the"And [16]" as if it could ward off the spell certainly thrown on his daughter.Because it could not have all its reason!

Buursaayna thanked her before taking leave.Once in his car, he died of relief.He was going to unite his way to that of ‘the elected’.His concerns would soon be completed.

****

On Bus 23 which brought her home to Patdwa, Buguma thought back to her activities of this busy May and which she was eager to see the end.More than a few days she is said.She could have taken bus 6 or the P1 which were faster but preferred the 23 which allowed her to have plenty of time to read or daydream.On the radio, Professor Jallo Joob spoke on the political party he led and which had been created clandestinely by the illustrious anthropologist, historian and politician whose name was given at the University of Ndakaaru.His thought then went to another blond brother Joob, who died at the same age as her, in his prison cell in Gorée.She was fascinated by Omar, this brilliant young revolutionary whose circumstances of death were still unclean even if the prison administration and the political authorities of the time had advanced the hypothesis of a death by hanging on the night ofMay 10 to 11, 1973.

For her part, after having dissected all press articles, the Nguur White Paper at the time and the letter from Ndakaaru published in 1978, she was convinced that Omar had been assassinated.Building on this conviction, she had proposed an article in the newsletter of her NGO, in the form of an open letter to the new Nguur Galguisennais, asking her to reopen the files of Omar Blondin Joob and Suus Baabakar Sey, another personalitymurdered.She was still waiting for her supervisor to find out whether the article would be published or not.

A few minutes later, Bob Marley hummed ‘Redemption Song’.Was it not ironic, could she not help thinking, that Bob Marley and Omar Blondin Joob were both died on the same day and that the Galguisennaise youth famous more Marley than their compatriot.After all, she thought what matters is the conclusion of Thomas Sankara, former Buuru Dekku-Gor-Yi [17], another of the figures that inspired him: "Individuals can be murdered, not ideas".This thought comforted her little.

The bus that suddenly braked up to the Demba Joob stadium brought it back to reality.Now he was going to roll gently to the sitedeezo from where he was going to start down quietly to the guaranteed-medin mobile station where his journey stopped.And she would end her way by taking a taxi ‘Kalando’ [18].Sometimes when she was more "fit", she stopped in the police of the plots-yi-dessee-set then walked the rest of the journey.For the moment, she thought more of those who were at the front of the vehicle.As she was sitting behind, she did not suffer as much as the latter, confronted with the "moods" Be active bodies at rest seeking to invest each piece of space available.

The bus had now arrived at the Rond-Point Liberté 6 and had immobilized, she saw a poster of Ellari Kiris-Koros, sent from Dekk-Bi-Epp-Dole-Yepp, the most powerful country, certainly during herVisit to Ndakaaru at the beginning of the month and had an uncontrolled pout.She thought back to her speech full of hope 'on the radiant future promised to the Ganguisenis democracy and could not help but parallel with the paternalistic and humiliating speech held by the Buuru Dekk-Bi-Fog-Ni-Mo-NU-Moom Nitki Sarkastik in Ndakaaru in 2007.She was fed up with this neo-imperialism and thought that only Nguurgurafet, a fair and endogenous mode of government, could allow the Galguisen and the other African countries to go ahead and not the revenue of 'good governance' allMake imported and imposed by the large nio-associated institutions based in Nioko-Yor.At that time, she heard on the radio, M.Politik return to last Sunday incidents in ngembique.Three Galguisennais had been executed by the Buur de Ngembique, a small landlocked state near Galguisen.The NGO for which she worked had already published several dispatches, reports and made communications purple the Nguur Galguisennais to react firmly to this new affront of the Buuru Ngembique which thought itself all-powerful.She herself had spent her day in a sit-in in front of the Ngembique Embassy and was frustrated by this affair.

**** Buguma closed her eyes and preferred to think about the subject that concerned her: her research on the Aakimoo-Suuf contracts which had taken place in Figaalgiteene last October.These Aakimoo-Suf contracts focused on more than 18,000 hectares granted to a private investor for the production of sweet potatoes and ethanol and 4,500 hectares granted to another investor whose identity remained to be determined to establish a farmNamed Saa-Baay-A-Gën-Sa-Bos near Figaalgiteene.These contracts which had dispossessed certain populations of the land which they cultivated or had forced them to move had pushed the local populations to lift themselves violently against the rural committees representing the Nguur at the local level since decentralization.These repeated uprisings with the support of local NGOs had left four dead and several injured binding the NGUUR to temporarily suspend the activities of investors.Buguma sought to document the processes, actors and results of the Aakimoo-Suuf contracts in Figaalgiteene from the agricultural policies which were to allow food self-sufficiency in Galguisen.

However, her field survey that she had started over 6 months ago gave her a hard time: if she had been able to obtain information on the first case of 18,000 hectares, she was silent and lack ofCooperation of investors and workers from the Saa-Baay-A-Gën-Sa-Bos farm.They refused to respond to her phone calls, did not want to receive it or participate in the discussion group which she had organized six months ago when she developed sonquestaire that they now refused to inform.She didn't know what to do.She feared the moment when she was going to meet the delegate of the rural committee of Figaalgiteene who had signed the contract.Not out of fear because Buguma was not afraid of anything, but she wanted to have the tact that was so lacking, for that day to bring delegate to answer her many questions.

The long rattle of the bus that braked came out Buguma from his torpor, pointing out that it was time for her to descend.Buguma was greeted by Bajjan, the sister of her late father who hugged her saying that her mother, Ndayu-Mbilligi had responsible for transmitting a message to him.Buguma Opina of the chef and allowed himself to be guided by his aunt to the family home.She was surprised that Ndayu-Mbilligi charged Bajjen with something because the two women were rarely talked about, Ndayu-Mbilligi saying Bajjan evil every time she could, accusing her of pushing her brother Alaji Zolikeer to himfind 'sisters'.Bajjan for his part reproached Ndayu-Mbilligi to his many trips abroad and his sudden wealth.Buguma did not understand how these two women who were the best friends in the world had become so distant.The last time she had seen Bajjan was the baptism of Taawbugoor and before that the marriage of Maajigeen.

- Buguma, my daughter, my elder, I waited so much today that I thought he would not happen.Your Mayekat-Bi uncle and I discussed last Thursday after I was informed by your mother that the event would take place today.He for his part contacted the head of the Kilifë-Kogn-Bi and Xaritu-Benn-Bakkan district, your father's friend so that they can do the ‘takk’, marriage.

As soon as she heard the word "Takk", Buguma, lost foot.‘’ Takk ’’, literally, ‘tantage’, ‘chain’, as well as the other terms wolof relating to marriage: ‘maye’: giving in marriage, giving it downright, rebuilt it.She had always found these words so little poetic and revealing the sexist terms of the marriage institution compared to the young bride, despite the explanations of her mother.According to the latter, wanting to judge a culture with foreign concepts and realities was an empty initiative of meaning.In the past, marriage was a way for two families to strengthen their ties and ally.Despite this Buguma spoke of "objective" of the young woman and hated these words.There was also the expression that he had just heard Bajjan pronounce as through a nightmare: 'So demea his Ker Jekker, Bul Seyi, Seeyil': 'When you will set up in your husband's house, do notBe not only his wife, but only trains one with him and his family ', echoing these words, she heard:' Fund.

****

During this afternoon in November, the delegate of the Ruraleit Committee took panic.He had just finished a committee meeting with the Buuru Galguisenn who had just told him that if he could not justify that there was no Aakimoo-Suuf contract in the following week to silence the rumors, hewould not hesitate to separate from him.The delegate did not have immunity despite his accumulation of functions and he wanted to keep his two positions.He pretended to go and get Serign-Kemtaan-Men-Lepp to bring him to his meeting at 2 p.m..Since the start of their collaboration, Serign-Kemtaan-Men-Lepp has been very unpredictable.The latter had given him the order to achieve a human sacrifice and then changed himself to ask him to marry this young woman whom he had described precisely to him.This woman was elected, according to Serign-Kemtaan-Men-Lepp, and marry her would allow her to have immunity to be invincible in the next elections.

****

Buguma nervously reread his questionnaire.She forced herself to hold back to grab the delegate as soon as he crosses the door of this office or his assistant had installed him a few minutes earlier.She checked her appearance in the mirror in front of her and watched her puffy eyes by dint of white nights.Her big eyes that she had inherited her mother Ndayu-Mbilligi who had disinherited her since she had told her before the parents of Buursaayna that she would never get married with the latter.That she did not want a husband of whom she would not be equal.A husband who covered her with gifts when he could not do her honor to consider her, to speak to her, to ask her what she thought of the "takk".A husband who would only show it to political meetings or to inaugurate chrysanthemums as a famous general.She did not want a husband who would exhibit her like a trophy but who would ask her her opinion on the electoral campaign.

At the end of his long tirade, his mother got up and howled her: ’and you take yourself for a woman!A intellectual!You don't know anything about life my little buguma.You think you can be equal to men!Are you no longer believing?I wonder how you could get out of my bowels and look so much like it!I no longer understand this world where women want to be men and men are no longer able to be real men.Have you forgotten the story of Malamin?Your own brother who preferred to attend men who satisfied his slightest desires instead of finding a job and a woman!?Malamin, who preferred to join the army surely to have more men around him?Do you want to be the second shame of this family?The good Lord gives you the chance to have a real man, able to take care of you and definitively settle the needs of our family, and you want to spit on it?Buguma, don't you understand that ‘Goor Yombul’ [19]?As long as you don't come back to reason, I don't want to see you anymore.I want you to get out of my house and above all leave no crumbs of your ideas as Western feminist disoriented in this house.’Then she spit in his face and had come out.

****

Bugumainspira deeply thought in his heart: 'If being feminist, it is to refuse to be foreign to my own marriage and to my life, if being feminist is to fight so as not to be a second class citizen, ifTo be a feminist is to refuse to be treated as shit by a patriarchal society which establishes privileges for some and enslaves the other half of the population, so I am a feminist mother.’Bugumase still looked in the mirror, she had wrapped her long locks in a scarf matching her Wax‘ Woodin ’outfit that her brother Malamin had offered her.She thought of him nostalgic, Malamin the unemployed to whom his mother spent all the whims.Malamin, her little brother who had the right to go out anytime and came back at times undue while her curfew was 7:30 p.m..Malamin, whose clothes she washed before Ndayu-Mbilligi decided to find her a little good as he grew up.Buguma and Maajigeen was their own good, because they were young girls 'called to be respectable wives', moreover Buguma was against the principle of having a good at home, because the latter were paid for misery, and treated withvery unfairly by patrons who sought to maximize their budget. Malamin, qui dormait jusqu’à 13h tous les jours et ne se réveillait que pour manger dans la maison familiale qu’il appelait son ‘B&B’, son ‘Bed & Breakfast’[20].Tears blinded her sight when she thought how much her brother was missing.She thought of the fact that she had not had any news for more than two years.Since her mother threw her on the street when she had discovered her secret.This is how Ganguisennaise society managed what it did not want to understand: flight, contempt and rejection instead of promoting the dialogue where to seek to understand.Understand that some ‘evils’ of society are not.That these are the words that create the evils.

The door suddenly opened.Buguma was not coming back.Malamin was there in front of him, in marabout clothes.He was accompanied by another person probably the delegate who set him intensely.The delegate of Figaalgiteene, Buursaayna could not detach her gaze from Buguma, the young woman whom Serign-Kemtaan-Men-Lepp had recommended him to marry.‘The elected representative’ which had to solve her problems but who had humiliated her parents the day they presented themselves atndayu-Mbilligi, her mother, to celebrate their union.

Text initially published in 2016 on Pambazuka News.

Dr. Rama Salla Dieng is a conference masters in international development and African studies at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom.She is the author of "The Last Letter" published by Pésence Africaine editions.

Lexicon of proper names: [21]

SERIGN-KEMTAAN-MEN-LEPP: The Marabout-Imipotent-Miracle Faisseur ’

Figaalgiteene: where everything is worse

NDAYU-MBILLIGI: The main concerned, the culprit

Buguma: female first name, literally: ‘I refuse’, ‘I don't want it’

Buursaayna: the king is dead

Nguur: Wolof government

Taawbugoor: the male elder

Maajigeen: female first name, chosen in this text by what it contains the word woman in wolof: ‘jigeen’

Ndakaaru: Imaginary City, Dakar in Wolof

KOLODEL: University residence for imaginary girls built on a Wolofization of the current Claudel residence in Dakar

NDATE YALLA (MBODJ): Last Linegeer (Queen) of the Walo Kingdom, an ancient kingdom of Senegal.She was a fighter, an educator, a mother and an emblematic figure of the colonial resistance.

NADEM NADEMADEMDEM: WOLOF refrain generally chanted in political or public demonstrations and meaning: ‘that he (or she) leaves!Let him (or her) go!Let him (or her) go!(We don't want it anymore as leader.

Alaaji Zolikeer: Elhadj is the title given to every man who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca, this term is wolofise in this text and as well as ‘Zoliker’: Joli-Coeur in French, Seductorsaer-Bënële: Saer-le-Gourmand

Yunuss dëgër-bopp: yunuss-le-têtu

Patdwa: Imaginary district, which can be considered a Wolofization of the current ‘Patte d'Oie’ district in Dakar

SiteDeezo: Imaginary district, which can be considered as a wolofization of the current district of the ‘Cité des Eaux’ in Dakar

Guarantor: Imaginary district, which can be considered a Wolofization of the current ‘Grand-Médine’ district in Dakar

Plots-yi-dessee-set: Imaginary district, built as opposed to the current district of the suburbs of Dakar, ‘Les Parcelles Saniies’ which are not as clean as their name suggests.

Buur: king (queen) or president

Ellari Kiris-Koros: Imaginary name, Kiris-Koros is a Wolofization of the American rap group from the 90s, Kriss Kross

Nitki Sarkastik: Imaginary name, literally: the man sarcasticsa-bay-a-gën-sa-bos: imaginary name, literally: ‘my father is better than yours’ ’

Bajjan: the godmother

Mayekat-Bi: the market holder (the wedding donor)

Kilifë-Kogn-Bi: the district manager

Xaritu-Benn-Bakkan: longtime friend

Goor Yombul: Literally: "A man is expensive" means that all men are not considered "men", refers to the construction of masculinity as a function of "capacity" to be man.This capacity is socially defined in terms of economic and social power, the ability to be respected of women and especially his own.This capacity is also sexually defined through the concept of virility and its ability to "have" several women.

In contrast, the femininity which defines the social construction of the attributes specific to women refers to submission, obedience, sweetness, etc..If these notions of masculinity and feminineness are somewhat relative because defined spatio-temporally, some attributes are universally recognized as "male" or as "female".This text illustrates these concepts in the company ‘Wolof’.

[1] A lexicon of proper names is available at the end of the text.

[2] Master of the earth

[3] The Jeeri is the name reserved for non -floodable land on the edge of a river as opposed to the Walo, the floodable and cultivated land.

[4] Symbolic and ritual offering to be paid to the master of the earth by the assignments of land.

[5] Land grabbing

[6] is not a man who wants it

[7] You can consider your resolved problems

[8] Be quiet.Send your parents and I will give you his hand.

[9] Incense

[10] Batik fabric sewn in very expensive patchwork

[11] The NGO recommended what it did not apply.

[12] ‘Business’ Wolofise