Salimu — Part 1

Intro

The text that follows stems from a 12-minute narrative performance by Amadou Kouyaté and his wife Jekoriya Doumbia in January 2012 in Dabadou near Kankan in Guinea.

Amadou is from a jeli or bard family (as per his last name). His wife Jekoriya is not from a jeli lineage, but learned how to sing to accompany him.

Their performance was recorded by the academic researcher Tal Tamari. She later shared a transcription and translation of the peformance in the following article:

Tamari, Tal. 2019. “’Salimu’ : From Memory to Literary Narrative in Twentieth-Century Manding Culture.” Afrika Focus 32 (I): 89–124.

The main character of the text is Salimu Hayidara (Fr. Salimou Haidara), a real person from Guinea who was an eccentric professional driver that lived between roughly 1930 and 1991.

The text is a hybrid between sɔng (dɔnkili) and story (maana or tariku depending on the context and/or person). Maana are arguably imaginary while the tariku are rooted in real-life events.

The narrative focuses on Salimu's contradictory status as somone who drank heavily while also being a Hayidara. Indeed, his last name is a family lineage that is considered to be Sharifian, meaning that they descend from the Prophet Muhammed. (There is, of course, also a dangerous tension between his drinking and his job as a driver.)

I have adapted and updated her transcription to use the standard Latin-based Maninka orthography that includes the characters Ɛ, Ɲ, Ŋ and Ɔ. (I also have corrected a small number of typos or misspellings that I came across.)

I have preserved a number of conventions that were part of Tamari's original transcription:

• italics = sung lines
• skipped lines = musical interludes
• A = lines sung by Amadou
• J = lines sung by Jekoriya
• A+J = lines sung by Amadou and Jekoriya

This is the first part of what should roughly be 3 or 4 parts.

Listen

Audio file

Listen & Read

Audio file

01 A: Salimu dɔlɔ man ɲi
02 Salimu dɔlɔ to, Ala nɔ le Salimu
03 dɔlɔ man ɲi ne, Salimu, n makɔnɔ

04 J: aa Hayidara, Loronbo Hayidara
05 n makɔnɔ, Ala nɔ le Hayidara
06 n makɔnɔ, Ala nɔ le Hayidara

07 aa Hayidara, Loronbo Hayidara
08 n makɔnɔ, Ala nɔ le Hayidara
09 n makɔnɔ, Ala nɔ le Hayidara

10 kabini duniya danna serifu ma dɔlɔ min fɔlɔ, fɔ i kelen
11 kabini duniya danna, Hayidara ma dɔlɔ min fɔlɔ, fɔ i kelen
12 ɛɛ, Salimu jarabi dɔlɔ man ɲi
13 Salimu, n makɔnɔ
14 ɛɛ, Salimu, dɔlɔ to

15 A: Kisilu ma mori gwɛrɛ lɔn
16 o ye nɔ Sekuba le lɔn,
17 Serifula, Hayidara

18 Maninkalu ma mori gwɛrɛ lɔn
19 olu bɛnnin Sekuba le ma, Serifula, Hayidara

20 n y’a wala Kankan sila la
21 sannin n di ne mɔɔ manduman ye
22 n watɔ Kisiduu sila kan
23 A+J: sannin ne di bɛn n mɔɔ manduman di
24 A: i ma kɛ cɛ la yen, i ma kɛ muso la yan
25 bɛɛ diyannamɔɔ n makɔnɔ
26 A+J: pɔn karida, pɔn ma kari
27 i la tambitɔ le
28 a baa tambi n fa heee !

Listen & Read With Notes

Audio file

01 A: Salimu dɔlɔ man ɲi

• dɔlɔ = alcohol

02 Salimu, dɔlɔ to, Ala nɔ le, Salimu

• k'à to = to leave sth; to abandon sth
• nɔ = mark; trace

03 dɔlɔ man ɲi ne, Salimu, n makɔnɔ

• ne = cf. le
• k'à makɔnɔ = to wait for sth [used here in an imperative that voices people calling out to Salimu when he was driving a bush-taxi to transport people between cities or towns]

04 J: aa Hayidara, Loronbo Hayidara

• Loronbo = the town where Hayidara was from

05 n makɔnɔ, Ala nɔ le Hayidara
06 n makɔnɔ, Ala nɔ le Hayidara

07 aa Hayidara, Loronbo Hayidara
08 n makɔnɔ, Ala nɔ le Hayidara
09 n makɔnɔ, Ala nɔ le Hayidara

10 kabini duniya danna serifu ma dɔlɔ min fɔlɔ, fɔ i kelen

• kabini = ever since
• duniya = world
• k'à dan = to create sth
• serifu = Charif; Charifian
• fɔlɔ = yet (Lit. "first")
• fɔ/fo = except

11 kabini duniya danna, Hayidara ma dɔlɔ min fɔlɔ, fɔ i kelen
12 ɛɛ, Salimu jarabi, dɔlɔ man ɲi

• jarabi = passion; here, "my dear"

13 Salimu, n makɔnɔ
14 ɛɛ, Salimu, dɔlɔ to

15 A: Kisilu ma mori gwɛrɛ lɔn

• Kisi = Kisi ethnic group
• mori = Muslim cleric/scholar/teacher
• gwɛrɛ = cf. gbɛrɛ 'another'

16 o ye nɔ Sekuba le lɔn,

• nɔ= so-called "aorist" predicate marker [used like kà and bada; for some reason, it appears with ye here; it could be that the sentence was something like oyi nɔ Sekuba le lɔn with oyi referring to the Kisilu]
• Sekuba = shorthand nickname for Muslim cleric and spiritual leader, Cheick Fanta Madi-Cherif (Haïdara), who resided in Kankan in late 19th and early 20th century. Considered by many to be a saint of sorts.

17 Serifula, Hayidara

• -la = suffix of place (cf. tubabula 'land of the white people' or turela 'the Touré neighborhood' in a city)

18 Maninkalu ma mori gwɛrɛ lɔn
19 olu bɛnnin Sekuba le ma, Serifula, Hayidara

• ka bɛn X ma = cf. ka bɛn 'to unite' [here, 'to be with X' in the sense of 'in support of X', 'behind X' or 'together with X']

20 n y’a wala Kankan sila la

• y'a = Transcribed as such by Tamari. It may likely just be N ye wala Kankan sila la

21 sannin n di ne mɔɔ manduman ye

• sannin = cf. sa or walasa 'in order to'

22 n watɔ Kisiduu sila kan
23 A+J: sannin ne di bɛn n mɔɔ manduman di

• X di = with X

24 A: i ma kɛ cɛ la yen, i ma kɛ muso la yan

• cɛ = cf. kɛ 'man'
• ka kɛ mɔɔ la = Lit. "to be at/upon sb" → "to get into it with sb", "to be in conflict with sb"

25 bɛɛ diyannamɔɔ, n makɔnɔ

• diyanna = diya-n-na (cf. diya-n-ye 'please-me-for'); used to express the idea of 'favorite' when combined with a noun

26 A+J: pɔn karida, pɔn ma kari

• pɔn = cf. Fr. pont

27 i la tambitɔ le

• i la = Transcribed as such by Tamari. It may just be Ile tambitɔ le
• k tambi = cf. ka tamin 'to cross'

28 a baa tambi, n fa heee !

• baa = the conditional predicate marker [though here it may just be I b'à tamin]

Comprehension

Coming Soon