Garri Language

My Language

One of the most important aspects of the human intellect is the ability to communicate with each other and this act can be very difficult if you try to make a conversation amid a language barrier.  These facts can only be understood during your travel or interacting with strange people who happen not to figure out a word you are uttering. The frustration and the tragedy can be exacerbated when they also don’t understand yours. I happen to experience this unfortunate but eye opening incident when I travelled to Mozambique some years ago for my business trip. 

The residents of Maputo don’t speak any of the international languages spoken in east Africa be it English, Swahili or even Arabic. Their national language popularly used around is Portuguese and as for me let alone speaking the strange language, my practical hearing of those words is for the first time in my entire life and I could not comprehend a single utterance that was constantly flown in to my face.

When I tried to communicate around using English it finally dawned on me that the language I thought all along that it’s a widely spoken tongue, has no place or recognition in this part of the world. No one understood me but as I was about to give up someone gestured “Swahili, Swahili” implying if I can speak Swahili and I shrieked with delight and shouted on top of my voice “ ndiyo, ndiyo” meaning yes I can speak Swahili. At long last there is a breakthrough to my communication breakdown.

They hurriedly brought to me a Congolese man called José who speaks funny Swahili. Although I struggled in understanding his dialect at first, it was better than any alternative at my disposals at that particular juncture. We continued our conversation and among his funny phrases I gathered he constantly referred to as “bamutu banasema” meaning the man said, referring to the man I wanted to buy some commodities from. In spite of being different from the standard Swahili the communication went ahead and José helped me in saving the day.

The incident reminded me of a friend of mine in high school who constantly teased me about the Garreh dialect especially when I spoke to my brothers, he seemed to so be intrigued by the words to the extent that whenever he heard it he bursts out laughing citing how strange the words sound to him and he always wonders the ingenuity of my people in using different languages to form a secondary language that resembles his but slightly different. . Among the phrases he loved so much were Ba’autich (unlucky person) a’reed(come here quickly) A’adhar(express of surprise)  gog(literally means ‘get out here) and dimbi (sin).The phrases are all Garreh dialect but my friend find it very funny and sometimes claims that we are destroying his language. We normally had a particular game we liked to play and we call it afaan kiy (my language).The game is played like this; we would mention few nouns that we thought contained disparities and tried to analyze and see whose pronunciation is right. The questions are; is it limme or liilme? Yeench or leench? Tarri or takhri? Marr or magr? Lukhme or lumme?  La deem or Ya deem? Aadda or aboow?? After our constant debate on the right pronunciation for the nouns we conclude we with famous boran statements summarizing the difference between them and safar (Garreh).

The statements are; “Marra suudhi jette, Dubraan galtam ette, Waaq lakichhe rabi rashuulki jett.( They call the grass suudhi, Girls galtam and they stopped calling Waaq (God) and resorted to Rabb and Rasuul ( God and his prophet). The differences and similarities of this nation can be understood by this short narrative.

There are other dimensions to this rich culture and that is half of the Garreh nation are the current residents of a province in Somalia called Shebelle hose (Lower Shebelle)and this kinsmen cannot communicate in the generic Garreh language we discussed earlier. They speak their own language known as Af karre or as it is popularly known as Garre dhow referring to the familiar sound they make when they make conversation. This language is slightly different from the May May language and research is needed to establish which language is the primary and which is the secondary. A lot of evidences are pointing towards this language as the original language spoken by the people around this region. Their aboriginal tendencies of safeguarding their culture, the superiority perceptions and their rich oral tradition are among the major signs that favor their claim to being the original residents of this province. Among the phrases they use are “biti” which means a non Garre person that also translates to an inferior person.

Although am not a linguist everybody will agree with me as a common knowledge that it will take very many centuries for any culture to possess and maintain their own language. I will assume that the language spoken by the Garrehs in Somalia is at least 1500 years old if not more considering their rich oral narrative compared to their kinsmen and the fact that they were not affected by the great trek (kedi guuray). Their will to resist the domination by other clans and their steadfastness in retaining their ancestral land is very much came to their aid in retaining all their historical institutions like places, people, languages, landscapes and not to mention their most valuable properties i.e. their livestock. All this factors contributed immensely in preserving their culture to this day. Just like José who never disputed the existence of standard Swahili but pretty sure he was conversing in Swahili, I also believe that the language am speaking is mine and the hulla bulloo about who owns the language was not relevant or even a reality of any consequences to him and me. There are many who think Garrehs don’t know where they come from but the reality is far from the truth. The fact that we speak a mixture of Somali and Oromo language does not mean we don’t have own heritage, traditions, culture and language of our own. We most surely do.