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February 27, 2005
A Wolof tale and a Builsa proverb
Here is a story I discovered in Thomas Hale's wonderful book 'Griots and Griottes' - it is a Wolof folk story (from Mali) about the origin of griots (praise-singers).
'There were once two brothers on a long journey in the bush together - they had a shotgun with them, but they had not come across any animals for three days and were both very hungry. Eventually the younger brother could walk no further, so the elder one said, 'You wait here and I will go in amongst the trees over there and look for something to eat.' The younger brother sat down and waited; after a little while he heard the sound of the gun, and his brother came out of the trees holding a large piece of fresh meat. They cooked it over a fire and the younger brother ate until his strength returned. On they went until they were close to home. Then the younger brother noticed that his brother was limping, and asked him why. The elder brother rolled up his trousers and revealed that a large piece of flesh had been cut out of his left leg. When they got home, the younger brother started composing songs in praise of the love and courage of his brother, who had spilled his blood to save him. Every day he would come before his brother and sing his praises. His descendents in their turn all became praise-singers, too, right down to the griots of today.'
Thomas Hale comments that there are variant stories in the Sahel about the origin of griots, but they all share one feature - the spilling of blood. If this isn't a redemptive analogy I don't know what is. I included it in the preaching in church this morning and it seemed to hit the mark.
This afternoon I read something which struck a similar chord - an article by Jay Moon in the EMQ (Evangelical Missions Quarterly) titled 'Sweet Talk in Africa: using proverbs in ministry' - here is a story from that article.
'I participated in a meeting in Ghana where proverbs were being discussed and a government official was present. A Builsa pastor told the proverb "Ba kan gering wusum kpalinsa ale kingkanga" (One cannot separate the fighting of horses with millet stalks). The government official had never heard that proverb before and he sat there smiling, enjoying the challenge of discovering its meaning. Finally the pastor explained: We must not rely on weak means to solve weighty issues. He went on to explain that this reminded him of how we tend to be in a fight with God because of our bad deeds and thoughts. We try to resolve the fight by using animal sacrifices or good works, but God's word says that our works will be tested by fire - all of those things we do will be like millet stalks that will be burned. That is why God sent his Son from heaven to separate the fighting between humankind and God. He is the only one who can solve a weighty issue like this.' (EMQ April 2004 - Vol 40, No 2)
To finish, here's a Kenyan proverb for you to think about:
When a man is in love, he doesn't count the length or steepness of the road to his fiancee's house.
Posted by sahelsteve at February 27, 2005 08:27 PM