Bah!

Bubacarr Bah comes to our compound in the evenings to eat dinner with Gaye and to tease all the Jallows. I am excited to have found someone who loves the joking relationship as much as I do, and I’m also excited for all the new material I’m gathering to use on the Bahs and Baldehs at the school.

• When Jainabou Jallow and Bubacarr Bah call each other to come eat, she will say, “Wolf, come eat” and he will reply, “Hyena, come eat.”
• Jainabou will cook frogs and mice for us to eat because Jallows are hyenas.
• Bubacarr Bah will enter the compound and greet me, “Binta Bah! Good evening.” “Uh-uh. It is Binta Jallow. I do not accept Bah. Bah is bad!” “No, I bought your surname. You are Bah now.” This is one of his favorites, and one night I came up with what I thought was a pretty good comeback. It was something along the lines of, “You could not have bought my surname because all your money will buy bread.” I wanted to burst out laughing at my own joke, but no one else did, so I kept quiet.
• Neene explained that while “jallow” is also the word for “hoe,” and thus associates Jallows with farming and hard work, “bah” is the initial sound for words such as “baali” and “bai,” sheep and goats.