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“Rats Fell from the Ceiling and Pestered Me:” Phrase Books as Sources for Colonial Mozambican History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Kathleen Sheldon
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Extract

Conversation manuals and phrase books offer a window into the worldview of those who compile them, and might provide clues about society at large as well. Because they focus on ordinary conversation and verbal interactions, the inclusion of particular topics and sentences indicates what issues were important to the person who compiled the phrase book and might furnish information about everyday life at the time of publication. Information may be gleaned not only from the actual phrases, but from the organization of the book, verb forms, and other less obvious indicators.

Contemporary examples include phrase books in the United States that present basic terms related to housekeeping or construction for English-speakers who hire Spanish-speaking workers. Another example is from Joseph Lelyveld, who found the apt title for his book Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White, in a Fanagalo phrase book. The excerpt “Move your shadow” was part of a set of orders for white golfers to use with African caddies, and was emblematic of white attitudes toward blacks during the apartheid era.

In this paper I look at the kind of social and historical information that can be extracted from phrase books compiled during the colonial era in Mozambique. Phrase books differ from dictionaries and grammars because they provide an idiosyncratic list of topics and sentences deemed important to daily life by the compiler.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 25 , 1998 , pp. 341 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1998

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References

1 I would like to thank Ned Alpers for his suggestions for revising this paper, Patrick Malloy for recommending sources on language and colonialism, and Steve Tarzynski for reading and commenting on early drafts.

2 My local hardware store has a prominent display of a booklet called “Easy Spanish for Construction,” with such phrases as “I need two workers… I'll take you and you,” that clearly suggest that Spanish-speaking construction workers are hired from street corners on a temporary basis. The existence of such books obviously reflects class and ethnic dimensions in the division of labor in North American society.

3 (New York, 1985); his source was Bold, J.D., Fanagalo Phrase Book, Grammar and Dictionary, the Lingua Franca of Southern Africa (Pretoria, 1977).Google Scholar

4 Other orders for caddies that indicated white assumptions of black incompetence included “If you lose another ball, there will be no tip for you,” and “Have you cad-died before? I don't want a useless boy,” Ibid., vii.

5 Johannes Fabian studied Swahili word lists and vocabularies written by European travelers in nineteenth-century Congo and argued that such sources provide political and historical as well as linguistic information. While his intent was somewhat different, as he was studying the development of an African language as a part of colonial discourse, he also argues for the value of such sources for historic purposes. Fabian, , Language on the Road: Notes on Swahili in Two Nineteenth Century Travelogues (Hamburg, 1984)Google Scholar; idem., Language and Colonial Power: The Appropriation of Swahili in the Former Belgian Congo 1880-1938 (Cambridge, 1986). In his “Missions and the Colonization of African Languages: Developments in the Former Belgian Congo,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 17 (1983), 165–87Google Scholar, Fabian uses the first and last phrases from a missionary-written French-Swahili conversation manual as his epigraph: “A house-boy asks for work,” and “Praise to the Lord.” These two sentences very neatly set the parameters of colonial ambitions in Africa. Harries, Patrick, “The Roots of Ethnicity: Discourse and the Politics of Language Construction in South-East Africa,” African Affairs 87 (1988), 25–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar, uses language sources to discuss the role of European missionaries in developing linguistic and ethnic boundaries in southern Mozambique and the Transvaal. In examining the phrase books in this article, I am not concerned with the accuracy of the African vocabularies, the development of African languages, or the validity of the language groups, although constructing and presenting those languages for Europeans and Africans was among the purposes for publishing these phrase books. I am addressing only the ideas of the colonialists as demonstrated by the Portuguese phrases chosen for inclusion.

6 dos Santos, Padre Luís Feliciano, Guia de Conversaçāo (Português-Chope) (Vila Nova de Famalicão, 1946).Google Scholar

7 Dos Santos also published a grammar and a dictionary, and he acknowledged his sources in the introduction to the grammar, Gramatica da Lingua Chope (Lourenço Marques, 1941)Google Scholar and Dicionàrio Português-Chope e Chope-Português (Lourenço Marques, 1950).Google Scholar He also published alone and with others missionary texts in Portuguese, Chope, and Shangaan (these included sermons, catechisms, and a collection of religious songs).

8 Dupeyron, Padre Pedro, Pequeno Vademecum da Lingua Bantu na Provincia de Moçambique ou Breve Estudo da Lingua Chi-Yao aa Adjaua (Lisbon [ca. 1885]), 102–16.Google Scholar

9 Junod, Henri, Manuel de Conversation et Dictionnaire, Ronga-Portugais-Français-Anglais (Lausanne, 1896)Google Scholar; and Courtois, Victor José, Elementos de Grammalica Tetense, Lingua Chi-Nyungue: Idioma Fallado no Districto de Tete e em Toda a Vasta Regiāo do Zambeze Inferior (Coimbra, 1899), 180–203.Google ScholarJunod's, conversation manual also was included in his Grammaire Ronga Suivie d'un Manual de Conversation et d'un Vocabulaire Ronga-Portugais-Français-Anglais (Lausanne, 1896).Google Scholar One other source is not included in this analysis, as it is simply a brief “phraseology” included in a book on Maconde grammar and has only the most basic phrases for everyday conversation; this is Guerreiro, M. Viegas, Rudimentes de Lingua Maconde (Lourenço Marques, 1963).Google Scholar

10 Farinha, Padre António Lourenço, “Conversaçâo” in Elementos de Gramdtica Landina (Shironga): Dialecte lndigena de Lourenço Marques (Lourenço Marques, 1917), 118–29.Google Scholar This book contains a grammar, a comparison of Ronga with related languages, some Ronga stories as lessons to be translated (Portuguese not provided), the brief conversation guide cited here, and a vocabulary list for Portuguese-Ronga and Ronga-Portuguese.

11 Baiãlo, Padre Domingos Vieira, O Kimbundu Prâtico ou Guia de Conversação em Português-Kimbundu (Luanda, 1940).Google Scholar The title page notes that it includes “all the subjects of administrative and colonial life.” His sample dialogues are frequently in the form of queries from the colonialist and explanatory responses from the Africans, for instance to describe the daily round of agricultural labor (ibid., 53), rather than the orders and derogatory comments found in the Mozambican books.

12 Courtois, , Elementes de Crammatica Tetense, xGoogle Scholar; see also dos Santos, , Gramàtica, 3Google Scholar, where he quotes the biblical injunction to “Go and teach all the people,” (Matthew 28:19; also given as “Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations”) to support his efforts, while elaborating on the “necessity to know native languages for the proficient and lasting evangelization of native people in our colonies.”

13 Santos, Dos, Guia, 7–13.Google Scholar A standard Portuguese grammar for English speakers says that one should almost always soften the command form of verbs by adding “por favor” or “faça favor” (“please”). Prista, Alexander da R., Essential Portuguese Grammar (New York, 1966), 53–54.Google Scholar After I had written this section, I read Bernard S. Cohn's discussion of British acquisition and use of Hindustani, Sanskrit, and other languages in India in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The first phrase book for English speakers wishing to use Hindustani was by a surgeon, Gilchrist, John Borthwick, Dialogues, English and Hindustanee calculated to promote the Colloquial intercourse of Europeans on the most useful and familiar subjects, with Natives of India Upon their arrival in That Country (London, 1809).Google Scholar Cohn comments that Gilchrist “provides… specific rules on how to talk with the Indians, all of whom in his work seem to be servants.… The commands issued should be as simple as possible, [Gilchrist] advised; do not say ‘give me a plate,’ just utter the command, ‘plate’.” Cohn goes on to enumerate the topic sections, which he labels himself. Among other topics, the book included two pages of “polite inquiries,” and thirteen pages of “expostulating and abusing servants and eliciting information.… The tone of the dialogue is mainly declamatory: ‘bring me this or that’,” and so on. The content and tone are of course strikingly parallel to the texts produced by Portuguese missionaries in Mozambique many decades later. Cohn, Bernard S., “The Command of Language and the Language of Command,” Subaltern Studies 4 (1985), 307–08.Google Scholar

14 Santos, Dos, Cuia, 7–13.Google Scholar All translations are my own, except where noted. I have retained the old Portuguese orthography whenever it occurred

15 In the obverse situation, Cohn quotes Gilchrist in India as complaining that Indians took advantage of British ignorance of local languages to use the familiar forms, which “was not just a personal insult, but had a much greater consequence for the loss of dignity for his country and nation,” Cohn, , “Command of Language,” 313.Google Scholar

16 Barthes, Roland, “African Grammar” in The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies (New York, 1979), 103–09.Google Scholar

17 Spurr, David, The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism, Travel Writing, and Imperial Administration (Durham, 1993), 32.Google Scholar

18 Farinha, , “Conversação,” 125.Google Scholar

19 Spurr, , Rhetoric of Empire, 76.Google Scholar

20 Santos, Dos, Guia, 4.Google Scholar

21 Ibid., 37. Courtois, , Elementes, 189–90Google Scholar, also included these phrases; whether Dupeyron or Courtois was the source for dos Santos is not known, but it is interesting that three different phrase books would deem these sentences worth including.

22 Santos, Dos, Guia, 38.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., 33.

24 Ibid., 120.

25 Ibid., 47-52.

26 Ibid., In contrast, Baião, , Kimbundu Prâtico, 16Google Scholar, simply has the sentence, “The remedies of whites are not the same as those of your doctors (Os remédios dos brancos não são como os dos vossos curandeiros).” Not only is the sentence not judgmental, it uses the polite “vossos” form, providing a striking comparison to the presentation of the same basic topic in dos Santos, Farinha, and the others.

27 Courtois, , Elementos, 197.Google Scholar Courtois frequently uses archaic spelling, poor grammar, and odd or simply wrong words in Portuguese.

28 Farinha, , “Conversaçâo,” 125.Google Scholar

29 Ibid.

30 Santos, Dos, Guia, 39.Google Scholar

31 Ibid., 52.

32 Baião, , Kimbundu Prâtico, 49–52.Google Scholar

33 Santos, Dos, Guia, 6.Google Scholar

34 Ibid., 124.

35 Ibid., 21; cf. Junod, , Manuel, 15–17.Google Scholar

36 Santos, Dos, Guia, 22.Google Scholar

37 Junod, , Manuel, 15.Google Scholar

38 Santos, Dos, Gum, 23.Google Scholar

39 Ibid., 39-45; similar phrases appear in Junod, Manuel.

40 Courtois, , Eleiiientos, 186–89.Google Scholar

41 Again, Courtois's Portuguese was flawed; in this case, the Portuguese for “man” is “hornern,” not “hombro.”

42 In the 1977 film “Black and White in Color” about French colonialists in West Africa, one memorable scene has the European enjoying his exalted position in a sedan chair, while listening to his bearers singing; the words of the song as translated in the subtitles are making fun of the European.

43 Santos, Dos, Guia, 23–27.Google Scholar

44 Courtois, , Elementos, 185.Google Scholar

45 Farinha, , “Conversaçao,” 120.Google Scholar

46 This aspect of domestic service is discussed in several of the contributions to Hansen, Karen Tranberg, ed., African Encounters with Domesticity (New Brunswick, N.J., 1992).Google Scholar

47 Santos, Dos, Guia, 32–37.Google Scholar

48 Also in Junod, , Manuel, 23.Google Scholar

49 Santos, Dos, Guia, 32–37.Google Scholar

50 Ibid., 21-23.

51 Ibid., 36.

52 Junod, , Manuel, 29–37.Google Scholar

53 Penvenne, Jeanne, African Workers and Colonial Racism: Mozambican Strategies and Struggles in Lourenço Marques, 1877-1962 (Portsmouth, 1995), 25.Google Scholar

54 Santos, Dos, Guia, 27.Google Scholar

55 Ibid.

56 Junod, , Manuel, 61–63Google Scholar; this was in English in the original. Baião, , Kimbundu Prâtico, 63Google Scholar, also has a section on selling goods such as wax, rubber, and grain in order to raise the necessary funds to pay taxes in Angola.

57 Santos, Dos, Guia, 58–61Google Scholar; cf. Dupeyron, , Vademecum, 115–20.Google Scholar

58 Courtois, , Elementos, 199Google Scholar, includes all the sentences presented here, but also has some related to teaching: “Say your lesson by heart, i.e., without looking at the book (Dae a vossa lição de cor, i.e., sem olhar para o livro)” and “Today we will study Portuguese grammar and the history of Portugal (Hoje estudae a grammatica portugueza e a historia de Portugal).” Baião's examples from Angola again are in contrast: his section on schooling includes direct teaching comments, although he is also concerned with ink in the books, dust on the desks, and the daily bathing habits of the students, Baião, , Kimbundu Prâtico, 26.Google Scholar

59 Santos, Dos, Guia, 61–65Google Scholar; Junod, , Manuel, 57–63.Google Scholar I have used my own translation of the Portuguese as presented by dos Santos; this differs slightly from Junod's English version.

60 Although “dono” is usually translated as “owner,” I have used the English translation suggested by Junod, “guardian.” In his multilingual text Junod translates the Ronga term “nwinyi” into English as “guardian,” into French as “maître” and into Portuguese as “dono.” “Dono” can also mean “senhor,” meaning “sir” or “mister.” The Ronga term, “nwinyi” is translated in various dictionaries as “dono,” “patrão,” “senhor,” or “proprietàrio,” thus meaning “boss,” “master,” or “landlord” as well as “owner” (see, for instance, Quintão, José Luís, Dicionàrios Xironga-Porluguês e Português-Xiranga [Lisbon, 1951]).Google Scholar “Patrão” can also mean the head of the household. Thus “guardian,” though not a usual translation for “dono” conveys the nuance of guardianship and responsibility that the Ronga term most likely meant. “Owner,” in this context, also implies that women were being bought and sold as wives; though many Europeans believed that this was a factor in bridewealth exchanges, it is not an accurate translation of the original African term.

61 Junod, , Manuel, 59.Google Scholar

62 Santos, Dos, Guia, 65–69.Google Scholar

63 Courtois, , Elementos, 200–03.Google Scholar

64 Ibid., 203.

65 Spurr, , Rhetoric of Empire, 84Google Scholar