The Funnies

1. Joking Cousins

Remember how I mentioned that Malians love to joke?  I wasn’t kidding.  Joking is a very important part of Malian culture, particularly regarding a tradition called Joking Cousins.  JC is based off of family names which are fairly common, particularly within ethnic groups, and your family name determines which other families you can joke with.  For instance, my family name is Doumbia, so I can joke with the Doumbia joking cousins, and it doesn’t even have to be someone I know. Joking cousins is important because it can help establish friendships and relationships, resolve conflict, and get one out of a tricky situation…  There are also specific jokes that are typically used. 

Example: I meet a person in the street and we go through the greeting process.  When we introduce ourselves, I’ll ask the person what their last name is.  Let’s say they respond, “Koulibali.”  (Everyone jokes with Koulibalis!)  My next statement is: “Koulibali?  Koulibali amaɲi! Koulibali ye fail ye!”  (Koulibali?  Koulibali = bad!  Koulibalis are donkeys!”).  And immediately everyone around, including the person I just called a donkey, breaks into fits of laughter, egged on by the fact that I’m a toubab.  Another common joke is “Koulibali bε sho dun.” (Koulibalis eat beans).  Don’t ask me why these particular jokes are used.  And the best part is, I’m new to this, so it’s pretty entertaining to call a stranger a donkey and get away with it.  But Malians have been calling each other donkeys their whole lives, and they’ll continue to call each other donkeys for the rest of their lives, and it never gets old!

2. Michelley Come Home!

I’ve never kept the neatest room in the world.  In fact, my mom has developed kind of a line about my messiness.  Everytime I would come home from college, within a matter of minutes my stuff would be everywhere.  My mom would look around and say, “Michelley come home!”  My room in Mountougula is no different, partly because I only have one small trunk to keep all of my belongings.  So everything else is spread out in various places on my floor, and although I try to keep it fairly organized, sometimes that doesn’t always happen!  It’s not a big deal because no one ever goes into my room, other than the occasional kid who carries my chair in at night. 

One day Ashley and I went to get water from the pump.  Her 28 year old brother, Ussef, came with us.  He speaks nearly-fluent English, so he’s great to have around for the occasional translation; plus, he’s really funny and sometimes it’s nice to joke in English about things other than donkeys and beans.  We came back into town and passed Ashley’s house first, so she stopped off there while I continued to my house accompanied by Ussef who was carrying my bucket.  He took it in my room for me and then looked around and said, “You’ve been busy!”  That made me laugh because I knew it was his way of saying, “Michelley come home!”

3. Superstitions

This one is all hear-say so I can’t verify the details.  Mali has a lot of ethnic groups, traditionally living in different parts of the country.  The Dogon people in the north are known to kind of keep more to themselves rather than integrating into contemporary Malian culture as much as the other groups.  One of our PCV trainers lives in Dogon, and she told a friend of mine that the Dogon believe that if you meet a midget at night, you have to battle him to the death.  If you win, you get everything you’ve ever wanted.  And if you lose…well, you’re dead.  Moral of this story from my point of view?  Dogon midgets, don’t go out at night!