I used to be on a bus going to Yaba after we stopped at Ketu to choose up round eight Hausa-speaking ladies in a bus that had area for under 5 extra passengers. It was a wrestle, however belief Danfo drivers to discover a strategy to squeeze passengers in. This aged lady who was within the entrance row needed to make room so two folks might squeeze right into a seat meant for one passenger, pending when different passengers would get down at Ojota.
Then got here the gists within the Hausa language, and it was cool. Lovely ladies chatting away fortunately of their native dialect in a metropolis like Lagos? Nothing might go improper. Not till the aged lady mentioned, “Why are you insulting me?” *curse phrase* “I shifted for you and made myself uncomfortable so that you each can handle right here and also you’re insulting me. You assume I don’t perceive your language?” *Extra curse phrases*. What adopted was an embarrassing silence, then a flood of apologies.
I chuckled and thought, “I’ve been right here earlier than.”
I schooled in a predominantly Hausa-speaking state. And once you’re a stranger in a land whose native language you don’t perceive, you are inclined to gravitate in direction of folks such as you. So naturally, I had some Yoruba-speaking associates. Amongst them was this explicit pal who beloved to speak about different folks in her native dialect(s). She might converse 3-4 native languages and when she met somebody who might converse them additionally, there was a excessive likelihood she’d discuss about others in that dialect. For example, we could possibly be strolling behind somebody and he or she’d say in Yoruba, “Have a look at this particular person’s shoe, it appears to be like like his face, hahahahaha.” Or a scholar who we used to name rainbow as a result of she beloved colors might stroll into the category and he or she’d say, in Yoruba “What kind of mixture is that this? Did she look within the mirror earlier than leaving house? Hahaha.” Or we could possibly be within the again seat of a bus and he or she’d faucet me and say, in Yoruba, “Oh, this particular person has such a giant head, haha.” My pal was not being a malicious particular person and these little gossips had been, properly… not dangerous? Whereas she discovered them humorous, they made me uncomfortable. I laughed the primary few occasions, however I quickly realised we talked about folks – she doing the speaking, me the laughing – too usually and it wasn’t okay. It was turning into a factor – making enjoyable of strangers we knew nothing about. Individuals minding their companies, merely current. I believed, absolutely, we might do higher? So I steadily stopped laughing at these jokes.
Past the truth that these little pockets of gossip weren’t wholesome for both of us, certainly one of my fears was what occurred on the bus to Yaba: what if the particular person/folks you’re speaking about can perceive your dialect? What in the event that they allow you to discuss for some time earlier than letting they’ll hear you? As soon as, my pal gisted me about how she had made enjoyable of a person’s head and when she was about to get down from the bus, he turned to her to let her know he understood all alongside. One other time, she had insulted a driver she assumed was a Northerner due to change and it turned out he was a Yoruba man who grew up within the North. I bear in mind laughing and saying, “This may train you to maintain your mouth shut.” It wasn’t all unhealthy although, one time, she and one other pal had been occurring and on about how good-looking a man was in Esan language and he might hear all of it.
Random folks understanding her jabs, insults or adulations – because the case could also be – didn’t train my pal any lesson, till she resumed faculty after a semester break, her eyes twitching uncontrollably, her mouth tilted haphazardly almost touching her left ear, trying like she suffered a stroke on her face. It turned out that days earlier than we noticed her, my pal had insulted an aged lady.
They’d had a row out there place and he or she had washed her – in fact, within the Yoruba language. Though the lady didn’t perceive what she was saying, she felt the load of the insult and cursed her. My pal awoke the following morning with certainly one of her eyes closing and her mouth tilting in direction of her left ear.
It’s nearly a decade since we left faculty however each time we catch up, I remind her of that point we needed to nurse her face again to regular just because she couldn’t bridle her tongue and we giggle over it.
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Characteristic Picture by Ketut Subiyanto for Pexels
