A movie on the life of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther?

Bishop Crowther, 1888
Source: Wikipedia

Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (c.1809-1891) was a remarkable figure in West African history, whose life bridged the end of the Atlantic slave trade era and the beginning of the period of European partition of the continent. Could his story be the basis of a major film production?

A compelling life story

Captured at age 12 or 13 in what is today Oyo State in southwest Nigeria, separated from his family, and sold into slavery, he was "recaptured" by a British anti-slaving force and eventually found his way back to his homeland and became prominent as a linguist and a member of the Anglican clergy (becoming in 1864 its first African bishop) in what was to become Nigeria. Towards the end of his life, however, this success collided with increasingly racist attitudes associated with the imposition of colonial rule.

This compelling story deserves more attention, and it is easy to imagine it being the subject of a major motion picture production. The idea is in no way new. From some contacts in Nigeria, notably Dr. Tunde Adegbola, and through him, filmmaker Tunde Kelani, I learned some years ago that there is interest in the production such a drama. There is at least one published dramatization of Crowther's life, a play focusing on his difficult later years, written by Prof. Femi Osofisan.¹

Certainly the most dramatic episode in Crowther's life was the unexpected reunion with his mother in 1846, which he himself recounted in these words (as presented in an 1892 biography):

"August 21. The text for this day in the Christian Almanac, is 'Thou art the Helper of the fatherless.' I have never felt the force of this text more than I did this day, as I have to relate that my mother, from whom I was torn away about five-and-twenty years ago, came with my brother in quest of me. When she saw me she trembled. She could not believe her own eyes. We grasped one another, looking at each other with silence and great astonishment, big tears rolling down her emaciated cheeks. A great number of people soon came together. She trembled as she held me by the hand and called me by the familiar names by which I well remember I used to be called by my grandmother, who has since died in slavery. We could not say much, but sat still, and cast now and then an affectionate look at each other--a look which violence and oppression had long checked--an affection which had nearly been extinguished by the long space of twenty-five years. My two sisters who were captured with us, are both with my mother, who takes care of them and her grandchildren in a small town not far from here, called Absika. Thus unsought for--after all search for me had failed--God has brought us together again, and turned our sorrow into joy."

Although a figure of the 19th century, Crowther's life story resonates beyond that period so critical in African history. The theme of separation and reunion is universal and powerful. His encounter with some of the worst aspects of racism, which unfortunately is still a very present problem (it was not until 2014 that the Church of England finally apologized for the treatment he received). Crowther's efforts in the area of Christian-Muslim dialogue reflect an important ongoing process. And his work with African languages, particularly but not limited to his native Yoruba, have an ongoing influence.

Ajayi Crowther, translation, and transcription

Early in his time in what is now Sierra Leone, where he was settled after reacue by the British, Crowther took an interest in languages and linguistics. Aside from his mother tongue and the English he learned in Freetown, he also learned Temne. In the course of his education leading to clerical vocation, he learned Latin and Greek, which later were essential in translating the Bible into Yoruba. He also learned Igbo (and contributed to work on translating the Bible into that language), Hausa, (in the context of a trip to the north), Nupe (for which he also published a grammar and vocabulary), and Igalla (which is closely related to Yoruba).

Character combos for open-e, open-o, & /sh/
in Yoruba. The small line is the "classic" look;
a dot under seems more often used these days.

Apparently much of the early work on writing Yoruba in the Latin alphabet (an older Ajami transcription already exised, likely used mainly by Muslim Yorubas) was begun by missionaries in Freetown working with Yoruba speakers who had been settled there, and Crowther collaborated with them. The system Crowther used to write Yoruba, including marks under e and o to denote open vowel forms of them (the language having a 7-vowel system), presumably built on those early efforts. With some modifications, such as tone markings, that orthography is still in use today, a significant contribution to the written forms of African languages.

When back in what was to become Nigeria, Crowther worked on A Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language, (1852), which was apparently the first linguistic work published by an African. His translation of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and Bible into Yoruba came later.

Ajayi Crowther's place in African history

Although I had learned some basics about Bishop Crowther in my limited study of and reading on African history over the years (it is relevant to my work, but not my field), I first took an interest in his story due to his role in establishing the Yoruba orthography.² I hadn't realized until later that opinions of his role in Nigerian and West African history varied. In Prof. Osofisan's words (from prefatory notes to his play):

"Crowther has been much vilified by African scholars and historians, who accuse him of having been merely a lackey to the white colonials. His work as a pioneering missionaery who travelled widely and extensively along the River Niger, establishing missions and, above all, putting up a staunch fight against slavery, is hardly even appreciated. Even his works as translator and scholar, who established schools in many parts of the mission, and worked out the first written alphabets and primers for not only Yoruba, but also Igalla and Igbo, is always glossed over."

Maybe it's time - already a few years after the Church of England's apology for what was done to him late in his career - to "rehabilitate" Bishop Crowther's image in history more generally, and to provide the current generation with a new perspective on a complex and influential life and life's work?

A film on the life of Ajayi Crowther

Crowther achieved several firsts, as a clergy in his adopted religion, and as a prominent early linguist specializing in African languages. He engaged with African cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity. He was one of the first students at the famous Fourah Bay College. He personally experienced both slavery and the institutionalized racism of colonialism, but rose above them. He left a legacy that has perhaps been underappreciated.

So, could this story, to which the above sketch does not do full justice, be the basis for a major feature film production? One involving Nigerian and international producers and actors? Could it fully, accurately, and appropriately treat the linguistic aspects of the story?

The market is there for big Africa-themed productions - including ones in which African languages figure prominently. The action film Black Panther is a recent example. The 1997 historical drama Amistad did well. Language, transcription, and translation may seem like a harder sell, but the recent sci-fi film Arrival had linguistics as a central component of the plot.

Ethnic dimensions might need care to navigate. Crowther was obviously a Yoruba figure, but also spent formative years in the Creole community of Freetown, and later traveled and worked widely in what was to become Nigeria. The episode of his capture into slavery is said to have involved "Muslim Fulani" as well as eventually Portuguese slavers - so how to be historically accurate without feeding stereotypes should be a priority.³

The biggest challenges are that there is no script or even script treatment on the subject, and that research on the subject might yield more than one reasonable plot line to tell the story, with the potential for conflict between commercial imperatives (especially the bigger the production) and the importance of historical and linguistic accuracy, and sensitivity to the people groups treated.

So this post is intended to give a little more lift to an idea that merits consideration and, hopefully, action.

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1. Femi Osofisan, Ajayi Crowther: The Triumphs and Travails of a Legend, Bookcraft, Ibadan, 2006. The play was first performed in Lagos in 2002.
2. This was about 10-15 years ago when I was focusing on support for African writing systems on computers and the internet.
3. There are currently reports of conflicts in Nigeria between herders, mainly Fulani (Fulɓe), and farmers of other ethnic groups, which have led to fatalities.

Extended Latin in Lonely Planet's Africa Phrasebook

Among phrasebooks for African languages, there are some that focus on individual languages - Amharic for English speakers¹ and Bambara for German speakers,² for example, are in my collection - and some that cover several languages. Among the latter, my personal favorite has Wolof, Fula, and Manding (actually Bambara) for English and French speakers, and has the African languages in their correct orthographies.³

Berlitz, which is famous in this category of publications, first published in 1996 an African Phrase Book with Arabic, French, Hausa, Malagasy, Portuguese, Shona, Swahili, Tswana, Wolof, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu for English speakers.⁴

This post, however, will focus on what appears to be the most recently published multilingual African phrase book, Lonely Planet's 2013 Africa Phrasebook & Dictionary (2nd edition), with particular attention to Hausa, Wolof, and Yoruba, which are normally written in extended Latin alphabets.

Lonely Planet's publication covers 13 languages, and a slightly different selection than Berlitz: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, French, Hausa, Malagasy, Portuguese, Shona, Swahili, Wolof, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu.⁵ It is apparently in revision for a new edition due out in mid-2018.

What is extended Latin?

Extended Latin is a technical term from Unicode (characters in several blocks of characters beyond the basic Latin we use in English), but it basically refers to modified letters and some letters with accents (diacritics) to indicate a wide range of sounds that are either not used or don't distinguish meaning in West European languages like English or French.⁶ Many of these are important in writing some African languages and have been adopted in standard orthographies in Africa since the 1960s, or in some cases earlier. A sampling of extended Latin characters with some languages they are used in include:

• ɓ and ɗ in both Hausa and Fula
• ɛ and ɔ in Bambara, Lingala, and many others
• ọ and some other "subdot" letters in Yoruba and Igbo
• ŋ in many languages from Wolof to Dinka (and some outside of Africa)

Such extended Latin characters and diacritics presented problems on older computer systems because of limitations on font encoding, but since Unicode became standard some years ago, these characters (and non-Latin scripts) are readily displayed.

Nevertheless, some publishers and webmasters don't seem to have completely caught up. Lonely Planet seems like an example. The extended Latin script of Yoruba, including subdots and tone marks, appears to be all correct, and they seem to have had no problem with the more difficult non-Latin scripts for Arabic and Amharic. But Hausa and Wolof do not fully conform with standard usage in the countries where they are most spoken (Nigeria and Senegal, respectively, although both are cross-border languages spoken in other countries). In these cases, Lonely Planet may have repeated non-standard usage by earlier Berlitz publications (checking).

Lonely Planet layout

A company publishing phrase books will follow a set format, which facilitates readers finding the right information in different languages - whether these are in separate books, or sections of one book as in this case.

In its Africa Phrasebook, Lonely Planet introduces the pronunciation for a language in a page at the beginning of the section on it (as in the image on the left from the Hausa section).

From what I can tell, the orthographies used for most of the languages in the book are correct.  Again I am focusing here on three languages written with extended Latin orthographies that have been and sometimes still are mishandled in print and on the web.

Hausa

Hausa's consonant system includes some sounds (implosive b & d, and ejective k & y) that are not conveyed by the traditional Latin alphabet. In the standard Latin-based "Boko" orthography, these are denoted by "hooked" consonants -  ɓ, ɗ, and ƙ - plus either 'y (in Nigeria) or ƴ (in Niger). There is also a strong ʦ sound that is represented by the digraph ts (much like the sh digraph represents a sound familiar to English speakers).

In its presentation of Hausa, Lonely Planet uses letter combinations with apostrophes in its pronunciation guide to denote these 4 consonants, and the ts digraph. However it also uses these rather than the Boko hooked consonants in the Hausa text. (As a rule the pronunciation guide includes word/phrase in the language, how to pronounce the word/phrase, and the English meaning.) In the blow closer look at the pronunciation page for Hausa I have circled in red their symbols and added the standard characters after (the 'y and ƴ are alternatives, as indicated above).

It is not clear why Lonely Planet decided to use these non-standard "apostrophied" combinations for the Hausa text in a 2013 publication. Their parallel use for pronunciation in a publication like this, on the other hand, can be argued. (Worth noting that Xhosa, which is included in the phrasebook, also has an implosive b and ejective k - but while these are not distinguished in its current orthography, providing a pronunciation guide for them using b' and k' is certainly helpful.)

There is certainly no technical reason today not to use the hooked consonants in Hausa text. Using apostrophes is the same workaround for Hausa found in earlier Berlitz phrase books (not clear if there is a connection). But even in pre-Unicode days, typesetters had ways to include modified letters in text (see also the below comments about Yoruba in this same phrasebook). The hooked letters are distinct even in small print, though more so in some typefaces than others.

Points in its favor: Lonely Planet does appear to use the correct Boko orthography apart from the apostrophied characters; and the latter are better than the "ASCIIfied" approach commented on previously in this blog (a topic to be revisited later).

Wolof

With one exception, Lonely Planet's Africa Phrasebook seems to use the correct Wolof orthography alongside its own pronunciation system. That is indicating the velar n with ng rather than ŋ (the letter "eng").

Part of the problem in using the ng in this way is that this digraph also is pronounced as two letters in quick sequence - technically a "prenasalized" g (basically like the ng in mango in English, or in the Wolof example mangi that I circled in red on the pronunciation page above). The whole reason for the ŋ letter was to accommodate the "velar" n (ng as in ring) as distinguished from the n+g combination. In Wolof, as in many West African languages (but not Hausa or Yoruba), ng and ŋ are not the same, so it is not helpful for a phrase book to avoid the distinction.

For example, in the glossary includes a Wolof word spelled as ngemb (diaper, nappy). The pronunciation guide uses the same spelling, so one is left to determine if that is meant to be "n-gemb" or "ŋemb." For an English speaker, the velar n in initial position is unfamiliar, and because Lonely Planet doesn't avail itself of the Wolof ŋ to disambiguate pronunciation in such situations, the user is left to guess. Although the letter ŋ is also new to most users, it is easily explained and then becomes a new tool in understanding this small but not unimportant part of Wolof phonetics.

For info: The only review I found on Lonely Planet's Africa Phrasebook was a short one on the Wolof section of the first edition, in the Janga Wolof blog.

Yoruba

One of the most complex Latin orthographies in Africa is that of Yoruba. The writing system dating back to Samuel Ajayi Crowther uses marks below three letters - ẹ, ọ, and ṣ - to distinguish open and closed e and o, and s from sh. The classic form of the marks is a small vertical line, but these days commonly a dot under or "subdot" is used (also in Igbo and some other languages of southern Nigeria). And as a tonal language, it also features tonal marks over vowels. In African Languages in a Digital Age, I called this a "category 4" Latin orthography - the most complex - since it uses extended Latin characters plus additional diacritics (in the same classification system, the standard orthographies of Hausa and Wolof are "category 3").

In this section, Lonely Planet has on the one hand given words and phrases in what appears to be the correct Yoruba orthography, including subdot characters and tone marks, and on the other hand used their own system to explain pronunciation (per the page pictured below). Their bridge between the two is to tell users "not to worry" about the "range of accent marks" above and below the letters.

As a practical approach, this works for the intended audience and purpose. As in the Amharic and Arabic sections, most readers will not make use of text in a scripts they don't read, but having it makes it available for learning, and also for the eventuality one needs to show the text to a person one is trying to communicate with in the other language.

Conclusions

I wasn't sure what to expect before looking at these three sections. In the Hausa and Wolof sections I saw somewhat familiar problems - shortcuts on special characters within otherwise solid efforts.

These may have been the result of lack of information, but that wouldn't be much excuse given how much is out on the web and in print on and in these languages. Indeed, Lonely Planet's success (as it looks to me) with the Yoruba section of its phrasebook - not to mention its presentation of two sections in the more complex scripts used for Amharic and Arabic - shows that they should have no trouble with other complex writing systems.

Or it could have been a determination that some details of orthographies involving modified letters were somehow unimportant - an attitude I've encountered with regard to African languages in other circumstances (which brings to mind a previous post on this blog about how scholars treat "official orthographies"). This would be problematic and ultimately self-defeating.

There are only up sides to using the official standard orthography for a language especially if you are also providing pronunciation guides. Hopefully the next edition of Lonely Planet's Africa Phrasebook will do for extended Latin in Hausa and Wolof what the current edition did for Yoruba.

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1. Alem Eshetu, Amharic for Foreign Beginners, of which there are several editions - latest seems to be 6th ed., 2007.
2. Tim Hentschel, Bambara für Mali - Wort für Wort, Reise Know How, Bielefeld, 2009. The Bambara text in this book is in the official Latin orthography.
3. Pathé Diagne, ed. Manuel de conversation - Wolof/Francais/English, Mandeng/Francais/English, Pulaar/Francais/English - Conversation hand-book, Sankoré, Dakar, 1978.
4. There are at least two editions of the Berlitz phrasebook. In addition to the 1996 publication, another edition came out in 2005.
5. The first edition was published in 2007. It apparently had the same 13 languages covered in the second edition.
6. That's admittedly a bit of an oversimplification.

Polio information in Hausa

Hausa version of pamphlet on childhood immunization,
produced for distribution during Immunization Plus Day
activities, obtained from COMPASS-Kaduna, Aug. 2006.

Although almost eradicated worldwide, polio is still endemic in northern Nigeria as well as in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Public health campaigns in northern Nigeria such as those on polio have naturally included use of the Hausa language, which is dominant as a first language and lingua franca in that region and across the border in a large part of Niger. This post offers a glimpse of some materials.

According to Elisha P. Renne, professor emerita of anthropology and Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan, polio education in Kaduna State, Nigeria included short films, calenders, pamphlets, radio spot, and billboard - all in Hausa. (The photos of two pamplets, figure descriptions of those two included as captions here, and one photo of a billboard featured in this blog post were kindly furnished by Prof. Renne). 

The text in the first two items (at right and immediately below) is in standard Hausa boko script.

The late Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido, shown giving oral polio vaccine,
on the 2005 calendar, sponsored by UNICEF and the Nigerian Ministry of Health.

The text on the billboard pictured below, however, is ASCIIfied. Depending how the display was created, this might be due to technical limitations. I've produced the text as I think it was intended in boko script below the image (which was not necessary for one of the lines, omitted in my added text). The billboard concerns vaccinations for more than just polio, so in the list of 6 diseases, I've also added their English translations where available in parentheses.*

Billboard at a Zaria city roundabout, 2012 (image cropped from photo received from Elisha Renne)

Iyaye maza da mata dasu bada haɗin kai lokacin riga kafin cututtukan yara

Bada haɗin ƙai don kawar de waɗannan cututtuka

• Tarin fuƙa (tuberculosis)
• Shan inna (polio)
• Mashaƙo (bronchitis)
• Ciwon tarin ƙiƙa (pertussis, whooping cough)
• Baƙon dauro (measles)
• Da tsinkau-tsinkau (?)

 

 Videos

There are various YouTube videos about polio in Hausa, including "majigi" films such as the below on polio prevention (part 1 embedded, parts 2 & 3 linked below; links to these were supplied by Prof. Renne).



Part 2 of 3 "In Kunni Yaji, Jiki Ya Tsiria"
Part 3 of 3 "In Kunni Yaji, Jiki Ya Tsiria"

None of the videos as far as I've seen have been same-language subtitled, though that would be an interesting way to combine literacy with health education.

Summary 

This is a very limited look at what is probably a considerable amount of material in Hausa on polio prevention, as well as on other health issues. One question is how well such materials are reviewed for accuracy of information and consistency of terminology.

It is my hope in future posts to bring out more such public health materials in Hausa and other African languages in the spirit of 2Ds&4Rs - a framework extending from dissemination to review and re-use of health education materials proposed during the ebola epidemic
__________________
* The English names were determined with reference to the following sources:
Nicholas Awde, 1996, Hausa-English/English-Hausa Practical Dictionary, Hippocrene.
Baba Mai Bello, 2015, The Perception of HIV/AIDS among Students in Northeastern Nigeria, LIT Verlag Münster.
Elisha P. Renne, 2010, The Politics of Polio in Northern Nigeria, Indiana University Press.

NB- Prof. Renne forwarded the images and information with an email response to an inquiry I made about her book cited above. The email exchange took place in April 2015.

Digitizing books in Nigerian languages

The national libraries of Norway and Nigeria are set to formalize an agreement (on 10 June 2017) for digitization of literature written in Nigerian languages. Plans are for the project to begin in Norway and then shift to Nigeria after three years.

The project has interesting implications for digitization of materials in African languages more broadly. For one thing it could serve as a pilot for similar collaborative efforts in other areas of the continent. Those could involve libraries in other Northern countries that have significant holdings in African languages.

Another aspect to consider is that of cross-border languages. Of the three languages that the project will initially focus on - Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo - the first two are also spoken in other countries of the region. Could this effort to digitize books be designed to anticipate readers from other countries where those languages are spoken, and involve their national libraries?

There are some questions concerning format and access which one anticipates will be answered as details on the project are shared.

Vocabulaire de la corruption en zarma, en wolof, et en bambara

Quels sont les mots et les expressions utilisés dans les langues africaines pour parler de la corruption - un phénomène complexe qui malheureusement fait partie de la vie quotidienne dans trop de pays en Afrique ? Connaître les termes employés pour parler d'un sujet dans un milieu, et les sens étymologique et culturel de ces termes, favorise la compréhension plus profond et plus nuancé de ce sujet.

Je propose donc une petite esquisse sur le vocabulaire de la corruption dans trois langues africaines - le zarma du Niger, le wolof du Sénégal, et le bambara du Mali - ainsi que le français. L'objet de cet effort est d'avancer un petit peu la considération de la corruption en Afrique de l'Ouest du point de vue des langues et cultures de la région.

On prend comme point de départ, un article par Giorgio Blundo et Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan intitulé « Sémiologie populaire de la corruption »,¹ dans lequel les auteurs ont cité des mots et des expressions en langues wolof et zarma. J'ai extrait ces termes de l'article avec leurs sens en français, et les ont mis en format tableaux pour faciliter la *. Et puis j'ai ajouté une colonne pour le bambara, où j'ai inséré quelques équivalents dans cette langue.

Comment dire « corruption » en ... ?

La première question est comment dire « corruption » dans les langues zarma, wolof, et bambara, et bien dans d'autres langues africaines. Il y a bien sur des mots, mais en regardant de plus proche, on voit que ce n'est toujours pas question de simple équivalence des sens.

En principe, on peut dire n'importe quoi dans n'importe quelle langue, mais les contenus culturels des expressions et les étymologies des mots utilisés comportent souvent des sens assez différents. Alors, tandis que le mot ger en wolof, et le mot rashawa en haoussa emprunté de l'arabe رشوة  (tous ces deux rapportés par Blundo et Olivier de Sardan), semblent se rapprocher au sens de corruption en français, ce n'est pas le cas avec yuruguyurugu en bambara. Selon Jean-Louis Sagot-Duvauroux dans son article « Le système des arrangements : Esquisse d’analyse sur la corruption en Afrique », le mot corruption « signifie d’abord pourrissement », mais:

En bamanan, la langue la plus parlée du Mali, le terme employé en place du mot français « corruption » est yuruguyurugu. Ce vocable si expressif n’indique pas un pourrissement, mais les détours du deal en question : arrangements douteux, magouille, business…

Quelles sont les implications (s'il y en a) quand une action est plutôt « douteuse » que « pourrie » ? Si, comme l'a suggéré l'écrivaine et politicienne Ghanéenne Elizabeth Ohene,² la corruption est moins odieux comme sujet que le vol, où est-ce qu'on va situer un concept comme yuruguyurugu ? Je ne rentrerai pas dans les profondeurs de cette question ici, mais je noterais que yuruguyurugu semble se rapprocher au « complexe de la corruption » dont a écrit Olivier de Sardan ailleurs³ :

... toute un ensemble de pratiques illicites, techniquement distinctes de la corruption, mais qui ont toutes en commun avec la corruption d’être associées à des fonctions étatiques, para-étatiques ou bureaucratiques, d’être en contradiction avec l’éthique officielle du « bien public » ou du « service public », de permettre des formes illégales d’enrichissement, et d’user et d’abuser à cet effet de positions de pouvoir.

En tout cas, il serait utile, je crois, de rassembler les mots pour « la corruption » en d'autres langues africaines - en commençant avec le mot en zarma, qui nous manque ici - et de considérer les sens de ces mots et leurs implications pour le traitement de ce sujet dans la pensée populaire.

Il vaut la peine de revoir aussi les mots wolof et arabe cités en haut. Le verbe wolof ger, selon Blundo et Olivier de Sardan, veut dire « soudoyer, corrompre », et deux dictionnaires⁴ précise qu'il s'agit de « verser un pot-de-vin » (to bribe en anglais) ou « corrompre par des présents ». Donc il semble que ger veut décrire une pratique corrompue, et non le système plus large de pratiques et motivations.

Selon un petit exposé sur les mots arabes pour corruption, il semble que c'est un autre mot - fassad فساد - et pas rashawa, qui correspond mieux au sens de pourrissement et au concept de corruption utilisé dans le discours international sur la gouvernance et la justice. Le mot rashawa est plus précisément le don d'un pot-de-vin (peut-être comme ger en wolof ?).

Dans chacune de ces langues, il existe toute une gamme de mots qui décrivent en sens propre des aspects de la corruption et des actes corrompus. En bambara, par exemple, il existe un mot pour « corrompre » (au moins dans le lexique⁵) - dagun. - ainsi qu'un mot - nanbara - qui signifie « fraude, injustice », etc. Il y a même un synonyme pour yuruguyurugu : ŋanamaŋanama.

En analysant le vocabulaire plus large de la corruption - mots en sens figuré aussi bien qu'en sens propre - on peut gagner une perspective important sur la pensée, les valeurs (et conflits entre valeurs), et relations comprises par les gens dans cette phénomène complexe. C'est dans ce contexte que je fasse le petit pas de présenter les mots et expressions recueillis par Blundo et Olivier de Sardan.

Tableaux de mots

L'article « Sémiologie populaire de la corruption » (et un livre écrit par ses auteurs qui reprend son texte avec quelques petites révisions),¹ comporte deux sections principales : les énoncés justificatifs, qui traite les arguments et les rationalisations pour les pratiques dénotées comme étant corrompues, et le champ sémantique, qui est décrite ainsi : 

On s’intéressera ici ... aux simples « mots » de la corruption, les expressions par lesquelles tout un chacun la dit, la décrit, la pratique.

Les mots et locutions en zarma et en wolof (avec deux en haoussa, sans l'emprunt de l'arabe déjà mentionné ci-dessus) qui sont organisés dans les tableaux ci-dessous viennent presque tous de cette deuxième section de l'article. Quelques autres mots sont tirés de la première section (il n'y en avais pas beaucoup). En plus, j'ai fait quelques changements ou additions après une comparaison avec un "working paper" des mêmes auteurs, publié en 2003¹ (notés avec astérisque *).

Comme indiqué au début de ce post, j'ai ajouté une quatrième colonne pour le bambara aux tableaux, après le français, le zarma, et le wolof. La mise de quelques mots bambara tirés de mon vocabulaire limité ou du dictionnaire⁵ ne veut pas dire que leur utilisation dans le contexte de la corruption a été vérifiée par une recherche. Ce sont là pour discussion.

Il y a sept tableaux. Les premiers six suivent les rubriques des six registres sous lesquels Blundo et Olivier de Sardan ont discuté des mots et expressions en zarma et en wolof : la manducation, la transaction, le quémandage, la sociabilité, l’extorsion, et le secret. Le septième tableau regroupe quelques mots et expressions évidemment courants dans la parole des agents corrompus.

En fin, vous aller noter dans ces tableaux assez de carrés vides. On peut certainement remplir beaucoup entre eux, mais certaines expressions particulières à une langue n'auront pas nécessairement un équivalent dans des autres langues.

(Les phrases en guillemets viennent de Blundo et Olivier de Sardan. Pour les contexts d'utilisation des mots zarma et wolof, voir leur article;¹ on suppose que les mots bambara auront à peu prés le même sens dans les même situations.)

La manducation   

La corruption est fréquemment associée avec l'acte de manger.

Français	Zarmasaani	Wolof	Bamanankan
manger, bouffer	ŋwa	lekk	dun
mangeoire		lekkukaay
graisser la bouche	me fisandiyan
faire passer la main au-dessus de la barbe	kabe daaruyan
sucer les restes au fond du plat		maccaat
celui qui pile ne manque pas de prélever une bouchée pour lui	bor si duru ka jaŋ gamba
bouffer la caisse		lekk kees gi
renverser la caisse		këpp kees gi

La transaction

« Nous considérons ici des termes et des expressions qui renvoient soit à la dimension des transactions commerciales soit à celle, proche, des phénomènes d’intermédiation et de courtage. »

Français	Zarmasaani	Wolof	Bamanankan
gagner	duyan		sɔrɔ
on va voir		ñu gise
marchandage		waxaale	tɛrɛmɛ
la plume [lit. la langue] du porte-plume	kalam deene
supplément que l’on demande à un vendeur	jaara
coutume	laada
faire plaisir [l’acte de bien disposer quelqu’un]		neexal
petit cadeau intéressé			fusuku
acheter	deyyan	jënd	san
vendre	neereyan	jaay	feere
payer	banayan		sara
bénéfice	riiba		tɔnɔ
récompense		njukël
remerciement [lit. règles de l’hospitalité]		teraanga
portion, part	ba	wàll	sara, tila
où est ma part ? *	man ay baa ?	ana suma wàll ?
avoir sa part *		wàllam
fermer les yeux des douaniers *	sarandi

Fermer les yeux des douaniers * en haoussa : sumogale

Le quémandage

Les auteurs indiquent que plusieurs expressions en français africaine formées avec "prix de ..." ou "argent de ..." sont venues des expressions en langues africaines.

Français	Zarmasaani	Wolof	Bamanankan
argent	nooru
prix			sɔngɔ
argent des ingrédients de la sauce	foy giney nooru
prix de sauce			na sɔngɔ
(de quoi) mouiller le riz		toyal céeb
(de quoi) couper le jeune	mee fermey	njëgu ndogu
quémander, prier	ŋwaareyan
quemandage *	ŋwaaray
quête de nourriture ou d’argent en période de disette	ceeciyan
on ne peut pas venir les mains vides	bor si kaa kambe koonu
les mains vides n’ouvrent pas une porte		loxoy neen du ubbi bunt

La sociabilité 

« Toute une série de termes d’adresse empruntés à la parenté peuvent scander la négociation corruptive ».

Français	Zarmasaani	Wolof	Bamanankan
mon père	ay baaba	suma baay	n’fa
ma mère	ay ɲa	suma yaay	n’ba
mon frère	ay arma		n’balimakɛ
grand-frère		suma mag	kɔrɔkɛ
petit-frère		suma rakk	dɔgɔkɛ
ma sœur	ay wayma		n’balimamuso
mon enfant	ay ko		n’den
mon petit enfant	ay kociya		n’mɔden
mon fils	ay izo		n’denkɛ
mon esclave	ay banniya
cousinage de plaisanterie *	baaso tare, baaso taray	kal	senankunya
prendre la main	kambe-diyan
secourir	faabayan
entraide	gaakasiney	dimbalante	dama
il faut deux mains pour pouvoir se les laver l’une l’autre	kambe hinka no ga cer nyum
lorsque je te rends service, tu me dois quelque chose		fete ma fii ma fete la fii
les mains des gens du Kayor s’entrecroisent		loxoy kajoor dañuy weesaloo
ceux qui puisent ensemble s’emmêlent les cordes		ñuuy rootaando ñoy laxaso goj
(faire) patience	suurandiyan		muɲu
attraper le pied	ce diyan
il a des entrées		defa am bunt
il maîtrise des réseaux		boroom réseaux la
celui qui a une cuillère ne se brûle pas les doigts		ku am kuddu du lakk

L’extorsion

Français	Zarmasaani	Wolof	Bamanankan
voler	zeyyan	sàcc	sonya
prendre de force	komyan
duper	zambayan		lanɛgɛn
chien	hansi		wulu
hyène	koro	bukki	suruku
hypocrite	munaakifi
païen	ceferi
qui vivent des efforts d’autrui		ñaxu jambur
qui s’enrichi sur le dos des faibles		dañuy lekk allalu néew doole yi
gains impurs		ribaa
l’enfer les attend		dina ñu dem safara

Le secret

Selon Blundo et Olivier de Sardan, « plusieurs expressions connotent le secret et donc l’illégalité qui entourent la corruption ».

Français	Zarmasaani	Wolof	Bamanankan
donner une petite bourrade par en dessous	nuku ganda
dessous-de-table		mbuuxum
donner discrètement		buux
pot-de-vin [lit. chose de la nuit]			surɔfɛn
fermer l’œil	moo dabuyan
s’arranger	hanseyan
le mouton de la mère de Kundum	Kundum ɲa feejo
salutation mouride		nuyoo murit

 S'arranger en haoussa : ajara.

Vocabulaire des corrompus  

Termes et locutions hors des six registres. Il s’agit de caractérisation des postes, et des qualités personnelles censées positives et négatives parmi les agents de l'état.

Français	Zarmasaani	Wolof	Bamanankan
postes juteux [lit. lieux frais]	nangu teeyey
postes juteux [lit. lieux sucrés]	nangu kan ga mansi
postes humides		post yu tooy
postes secs		post yu woow
savoir profiter		profitoo
caractère, forte personnalité, audace		dëgër fit
pas un fou, mais éveillé		doful, ku yeewu la
manque de dignité		defa ñàkk fulla
manque de personnalité		defa ñàkk faayda
antipathique		ku soxor
qui ne croit que dans le travail		gëm liggéey
qui ne s’adonne pas aux plaisanteries		amul caaxaan
négociation		waxaale
recherche de consensus		maslaa
débrouille		lijjanti

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1. Giorgio Blundo et Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan. 2001. "Sémiologie populaire de la corruption." Politique africaine 2001/3 (N° 83): 98-114. Le texte de cet article est repris avec modifications dans un œuvre plus long par les mêmes auteurs, auquel j'ai aussi fait référence: G. Blundo et J.-P. Olivier de Sardan. 2003. "La corruption au quotidien en Afrique de l'Ouest. Approche socio-anthropologique comparative: Bénin, Niger et Sénégal." Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität. Arbeitspapiere Nr. 17
2. "Corruption simply does not carry the same odium as stealing or thievery. The word has been sanitised."
3. Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan. 1996. "L’économie morale de la corruption en Afrique." Politique africaine, octobre 1996 (Nn° 63): 97-116.
4. Pamela Munro and Dieynaba Gaye. 1997. Ay Baati Wolof: A Wolof Dictionary, revised ed. UCLA Occasional Papers in Linguistics, No. 19. & V.J. Guy-Grand. 1923. Dictionnaire français-volof, précédé d'un abrégé de la grammaire volofe. Mission Catholique, Dakar. (p. 138).
5. Bailleul, Charles & Davydov, Artem & Erman, Anna & Maslinksy, Kirill & Méric Jean Jacques & Vydrin, Valentin. Bamadaba : Dictionnaire électronique bambara-français, avec un index français-bambara. 2011–2017.