Give hands, hold feet

Fatou Bobo told me, “We the Fula Futas say, ‘Will give hands, will hold feet.’” It is a proverb, apparently, but I admit I’m not sure exactly what it means. Fatou Bobo said this hand-giving and feet-holding is what Jainabou’s parents will do. At the time of the conversation, Jainabou had just been summoned home, where Amadou had given her permission to stay for two weeks. (Neene, understandably, wasn’t thrilled about losing our combination cook—washing-machine—vacuum-cleaner for half a month). Fatou Bobo can understand if Jainabou went home for a week or two once and awhile; a few months with us, a week or two with them. But Jainabou’s parents would like Jainabou to spend a few months with them, a week or two here.

At the same time, Fatou understands. Once Jainabou starts having children—which will be sooner than later; just the other day Fatou Bobo motioned to the bowl of cooked beans and asked, “Jainabou, will you add some beans?” even though Jainabou hadn’t eaten any beans—it will be very difficult for her to visit her family. Fatou Bobo would like to visit her parents’ place, but with Mamadou, Rugi, Pateh, now Musa—how will she do that?

Another proverb that I’ve been trying to figure out is, well it’s really long and confusing in English, because we don’t have word meaning “to help a person lift something onto their head for carrying.” In Pulaar it’s, “A rondimo, yeeso a jipinaymo.” In English this would be, “You help a person lift something on their head so they can carry it, later you will help them lift down what they had been carrying on their head.” The context for this proverb was:

 “I think you are leaving The Gambia soon.”
“Yes, in three months.”
“How many more months?”
“Three.”
“We the Fulas have a proverb…”

He gave me an explanation, in English, but I forget/never-understood most of it. It was something along the lines of “you will see again the people who prepare you to leave.”