U like “udire” (hear)

What language do missionaries “speak”? Theirs is an alphabet of mercy, with letters that breathe life back into words and generate works

Warning: this alphabet follows Italian words, but we urge readers to consider the concept rather than the consonant or vowel with which they begin

“Unasikia, padiri ao unasikiliza? (Do you hear or understand, father?).”

And so I was discovering what I had never discovered or paid attention to in the Italian language.

The difference between hearing (with the ears) and understanding with the heart. But Africa taught me this, too.

Singing a religious song “Heri mwenye kusikiliza (blessed are those who listen…)” I understood the difference.

And from there, perhaps for the first time, I began to pay attention to what was being said to me. How many things we hear: noises,
words…and only the ones we are interested in do we pay attention to, then maybe we forget them. Instead I had to begin, not only to hear with my ears, but to understand what the message was that was being announced to me.

And so the words began to take on a different meaning.

An early example was knowing the meaning of people’s names, both in Congo and in Cameroon. Often the name given to a child stems from the situation in which he or she comes into the world.

“Yalala” (dunghill) if the mother gave birth in that particular situation. “Machozi” (tears) if there was a reason to cry. “Matata” (trouble) if there were difficulties in the family or neighborhood. “Furaha” (joy): the explanation is simple. Then if one was called “Swedi Bin Ramazani (Swedi son of Ramazani) it was like saying, following the Gospel: Simon son (bar) Jona…

The examples are many. So also the names of the animals that were the protagonists of the stories, such as “Alembelembe” (the black and white swallow), “Sungura” the rabbit, “Kobe” the turtle, “Simba” the lion, “Mamba” (the crocodile), “Kiboko” (the hippo…”

It was a continuous discovery that helped me, upon returning to Italy to better understand, going somewhere, why special names were given to countries or locations. Something special had happened there and people, by that name, wanted to convey a life experience to those who went there.

This giving importance to words made me enter into the richness of the culture, to inculturate myself better and thus to love the people who lived it.

Of course proverbs, which were given due importance in Italy long ago, made me enter into folk wisdom.

There was a tribe, the Warega, from Congo DRC, who had the custom, in order to convey a message, of laying at the beginning of the village
a rope with objects. These objects, put together, made a proverb.
A few examples to understand better. If a small bundle of wood (branches tied together) was suspended on the rope, it meant that the
village was to be united, united in solidarity, and everyone was to make his or her contribution to realize this ideal.

If there was a black ant, it was a symbol of courage, docility, zeal for work, and giving of oneself to the community. Instead, a miniature machete (pocketknife) explained this proverb “Do your work well, so that the work may take care of you (i.e., if you do poorly the work you have been asked to do or that you have chosen, you will soon be out of work, you will have nothing left to eat and nothing left to give to your children).

A final object is the termite mound. It is often a symbol of the ancestors, a meeting place with them (because termites travel the depths of the soil where the ancestors are buried) and with the living earth.

That is what is used to build the kitchen (the three supports, the three stones, for the kitchen pots) where the food that gives strength to men’s lives is prepared.

Small things, small gestures, but for those who can see and listen, they help to grow. We have them all around us. So let us try to discover them.

Source

• Father Oliviero Ferro

Image

• digitally created by spazio + spadoni