A guided natural tour in Zambia
Video - Zambian wonders
Thomas Heising
Visual science communication
Tis winter here in northwestern Europe, so obviously, my evenings are spent torturing myself with pictures and videos from Zambia. However, this story starts during an autumn week in 2016 – set in cloudy Cambridge in a recently divided United Kingdom where I was visiting a friend of mine.
Wet walks along the River Cam, listening to Agnes Obel’s album Citizen of Glass in the evenings and getting locked inside a carpark after a hookup all made for a sentimental holiday trip.
Another decent outcome was a few hours’ of access to Cambridge University Library. What to read? What to read?!
Since this was Britain I was in, the former coloniser of Zambia, I figured they might have some resources on my mother tongue Chi-chewa/Chi-nyanja.
Both languages are variations of each other and are widely spoken in the eastern parts of Zambia, most of Malawi and northwestern Mozambique. Closely related, there are some differences between the two languages that make them separate.
In the Library that day, gold was struck! I found and borrowed a fragile book with Chinyanja Proverbs written by W. P. Johnson in 1922 who had studied the language and collected old proverbs from local Zambians (at the time referred to as Rhodesians). However, I was only allowed to sit with this resource inside the actual library for a limited amount of time. The stress!
Fortunately, I had a notebook with me and started getting to work – writing down as many of these wise sayings as I could. After my trip, I sent some of them to my mother via text.
She couldn’t believe it: “Where did you get these from????“. The wisdom! The wisdom!
While the book already had English translations, she helped me re-translate and re-interpret these for this post. And so, I can offer a few translated old words of wisdom from Subsaharan Africa. After all, not many Zambians will have access to the Cambridge University Library, so I might as well brings these forwards on the Interwebs – along with some scenes from my trips over the years.
Note: English uses a lot of words (and ironically still leaves a lot of contradictions and open interpretations!), thus the translations are not one to one.
Bwanji ku meza, ukali sunatafune
Why are you swallowing, before you have chewed?
Chili kwa mnjako, utenga maji umwela
Because the problem is your friend's, you drink water over it
(Meaning that one doesn't care about an issue not befalling oneself)
Achimseka pamaso, pamtina pali zina
Smiles on the face, while the heart has other things
Tionenji anavuula mvuu mu mchono
Tionenji caught a hippo in a fish trap
(Sometimes you want one thing, but something else might turn up instead)
Mudya makoko saiwala mdya nyemba aiwala
The one who eats the pea shells never forgets, but the one who eats the peas forgets
A person who has happily benefited from a situation will forget easily and blissfully, while the one who lost out from the same situation will grieve for a long time.
Wa-ona ka-mwana, tola
A child saw it, so you pick it up
(Don't pick up everything that glitters)
Wachenjeza nanga chilonda chikali chosapola
Cheat the medicine man/doctor and heal your next wound if you can
Mpempeta wosakula chitete
The winnower has cleaned their basket
There's even a short video to go along explaining 'mpempeta' and 'citete'. Grateful to these women for making the video below for this post.
Masewela siyakala ku-kalulila
Play now, but hearts may soon be sore
(Games take little time to cause tears)
Nabwera pakamwa pa mkango
I return from the mouth of the lion
(Once in danger, but now a way out has been found)
Ukumbukila mwana wapya
You'll remember when your child is burnt
(We forget certain knowledge, but recall it when we're in a bad situation)
Tsiku limodzi siwolesa mbewa
A rat/mouse does not rot in one day
Wantu uma-opa, wosali sawasawa ni mkango
Fear the hate of men, after all you can escape a lion's den
Mlendo ndi nkungu, sachedwa kupita
A guest and a mist - both will leave easily
Achi-m-seka pa chi-mela
Those that only laugh when they see the beer brewing
Back to the Lab
Copper and cobalt
Geology nuggets
Zambian jumping spider
Zambian wonders
