Adelia and Shopping

I went shopping with Adelia a few days ago—what an experience!  Adelia is a missionary with ABWE (American Baptist World Evangelist) and has spent 20+ years in the Gambia with her husband Barney.  They have raised 4 children here, all adults living in the US now. She is fast talking, skipping from subject to subject, and almost manic.  She speaks fluent Wolof, which has become the lingua franca of both Senegal and the Gambia.  It is hard to talk about language or culture in Gambia without including Senegal.  They are part of the same ancient empires and language groups.  The European carved up the area and created countries that had no correlation to the tribes or culture of the countries they created.  Wolofs are the largest ethnic group in Gambia/Senegal, but only 16 % in Gambia.  . Historically the Wolofs were traders and are still very involved in commerce and I would assume that is another reason the language became so common.  Other ethnic groups complain about the “Wolifization” of their culture, especially via music and the increase use of the Wolof language officially.  But Gambians are also glad for a unifying tongue besides English, which is not only the official language, but taught in the schools and a common language that has enabled different ethnic groups to speak to each other. 

While I’m on the subject, the two other cultures that we see most commonly are Fula and Mandika.  The Mandika are the majority in Gambia and date back to the 13^th century Mali Empire that included most of West Africa.  Even today Mandika surnames still tell the social status of each family during the “great empire”.  The Fula comprise about 18% of Gambia’s population.  It is the most widespread group in W. Africa because they were nomadic herders and constantly looking for food for their animals.  There are about 6-8 other major ethnic groups including the Aku, a small, but important group of descendants of American slaves. (In English colonial times, the administration chose their civil servants from the Aku and social interaction can still be uneasy between Aku and other groups.) Taylor and Johnson are the most common American freed slave names and we see them on various businesses and the Anglican pastors at the church nearby are a "Johnson and a "Taylor".  In all of these major ethnic groups there are many different “castes” that are almost impossible to rise above—or below if anyone wanted to!  Adelia says she can tell the difference between ethnic groups by skin color, slash marks on their face, stature and several other features. I can’t.

Back to Adelia—she is a chubby, short white woman.  A toube—pronounced ” two bob”. As far as I understand, a toube means any wealthy or white or westerner or tourist.  It not a compliment!  Yesterday at the store, someone called her a toube, not realizing that she spoke their language fluently and she let go with a stream of angry dialogue in Wolof.  Someone also got mad at me for taking their picture and she stormed over to them, wagging her index finger in their face and said in Wolof, “they’re here to help you, you be nice to them, you be nice to all tourist, they’re helping you.”  She also started telling them what we are doing here and one of the women said her 9 year old son had the funny kind of lip.  Adelia told her to come to the hospital and see us!  This is how the word gets out to the locals.  This week, we've seen two people from our walk through the fish market! 

On our shopping trip, we went from a modern, clean, well stocked shopping center with prices on each item just like home, to roadside stands where everything was bargained for, to town shops that look like the generic third world store.  We went to three towns and about three hours trying to find everything on her list.  It is hard to shop amid the throngs of people, the jostling, and the smells go from enticing to stomach wrenching!  I cannot imagine every shopping trip being like that!  It is absolutely exhausting to have people pulling at you, pushing their wares in your face, and trying to persuade you to buy what they have not what you want! 

 Adelia  with fish people.