Heritage! - Kélétigui Abdourahmane Mariko

Heritage! Gado!

Nothing is more valuable than heritage

Say it

Repeat it

Nothing is more valuable than heritage

Because culture is heritage.

Cultivating millet grain

Raising cows

Melting iron

Sculpting masks

Knowing how to fish or hunt

All that, I tell you, is heritage.

Getting married, becoming engaged

Naming the newborn

Or burying the dead

All that, you need to know, is heritage.

Heritage, you are so hard to preserve

Because beneath all heritage hides a secret

A secret bequeathed in confidence

Confidence that comes from knowledge, experience and understanding

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Kélétigui Abdourahmane Mariko (1921 - 1997) Niger

Translated by Debra S. Boyd

Source: 'A Man from the River Niger: Kélétigui Abdourahmane Mariko' Debra S. Boyd, Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Vol. 42, No. 2, January 2005