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February 03, 2005

Putain

Jean, my new landlord/friend came round last night and we drank hot chocolate. He was very depressed and didn't have a single good word to say about Africa/Africans. He kept giving examples of the inefficiency and corruption and lack of resources in his department and after each example he would put down his hot chocolate, throw up his hands in despair and shout 'Putain', which I assume is not something you would say in front of your French grandmother.

I really sympathise. Here is an extremely intelligent and ambitious young man who trained as a gendarme, rose straight to the top and was sent to Paris to study policing methods - only to come back to Africa and find that he can't implement any of it because everyone is on the make and there is no petrol in Djibo for the gendarmes motorcycles. The territory he is responsible for is absolutely vast. 'What I am supposed to do', he cried, 'send out the gendarmes on camels, brandishing swords? Putain! '

Go on, I said, it is not all bad (I was probably still misty-eyed from writing 'Why I love Africa') but he laughed so bitterly that I wished I hadn't.

One thing we did agree on: the two African-French phrases most likely to make our blood boil:

Ca va aller. (It'll be all right)
On va voir. (We'll see)

On reflection, I would add a third to that list: Revenez demain matin.

Jean told a story about a man who climbed a tree to pinch the eggs from a bird's nest, and when he put his hand in, he found there was a snake there. The man grabbed the head of the snake to hold its mouth shut, but it wrapped itself tightly round his arm and started to squeeze. The man's friend was waiting at the bottom of the tree, and when he saw what was happening he said: (you've guessed it) 'Ca va aller.'

Posted by sahelsteve at February 3, 2005 03:02 PM