Malawi Travel Blog

Something I have long found interesting is the question of how language gives us some indication of culture.

A Collection of Riddles *

In his collection of Nyanja Riddles in the 1930s Earnest Gray mentions that he has only found a very few riddles that have anything to do with Europeans. Even those that do only tend to mention the culture of the Europeans incidentally. Gray further observes that those riddles that are the best tend to be the oldest. More recent riddles, which might mention Europeans, are not as apt, he says.

Nyanja Riddles and Chichewa?

Nyanja (or ChiNyanja) and Chichewa are basically the same language. ChiNyanja means (language of the lake people) and ChiChewa (language of the Chewa people). For the purposes of this blog post / article we don’t need anything more nuanced than that for now.

Nyanja Riddles, Culture and Europeans…

A riddle that springs to mind, and which does tell us something about a difference between European and Malawian...

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Part 2 of a Blog Series on Time

A Malawian View of Time

A Malawian friend told me some time ago about how time is conceptualised in a different way in Africa when compared with how people think about it in the west.

Having reflected a little bit on what he said I am thinking that it fits in with my previous 'Time' series of blog posts on time (How Lifestyle Affects Time).

It was explained to me that in Africa time is more typically thought of a going around (in a circle) rather than going forward only in a straight line (a western way of thinking about it).

So, for example in Africa if something does not happen at this time today, it might well happen around about this time tomorrow. Or perhaps expressed in a slightly different way, 'that sort of thing needs to happen, perhaps in the morning, or in a particular context and if we miss that point now well then circumstances will come together in the right way again later, possibly tomorrow'.

Presumably then...

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What kind of language is Chichewa?

Well, an introductory paragraph for a very early book written by one of the missionaries springs to mind. He describes it as something like an elegant and subtle language. Another aspect I discussed recently with one of our language students was how it is like a set of codes that you put together in a logical manner. The root verbs, prefixes, infixes and suffixes are like different parts of a computer programme that each carry out different commands (have different meanings) and then once you know them you can them together to bring about various meanings. In other words with regards to verbs you put together the different components to make one word in the way you put together words in a sentence in English. In other words a word can carry the meaning of a whole sentence or a significant part of a sentence.

The grammar surrounding nouns (noun classes), is difficult. As one expat who speaks the language pointed out – you don’t...

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A little knowledge of Chichewa goes a long way!

English is the official language in Malawi and people are warm and friendly to visitors. For this reason many people fail to engage with Malawians in their own language or according to social norms in Malawi.

A little knowledge of the language and how society works goes a very long way in Malawi.

The culture in Malawi is 'relational' and the language is a great indicator of that. Understanding something about the language, is the right way to get your relationships off to a good start. Many Malawians are keen to learn about and engage with 'western cultural norms' and so for those reasons are usually reluctant to correct cultural mistakes that visitors may make. The problem with this is that a visitor can seem somewhat 'other' or even rude. While Malawians understand that no offence is intended, over time differences in approach can begin to stretch the patience and endurance of those Malawians you are engaging...

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