of travels and worldviews

I shuffled wearily into the hall and sat on the first sofa by the door. Camp was taking its toll on me.

The seat closest to the door was vacant and I made a beeline for it. A middle-aged female sat there. I plopped myself beside her. And as it happens, we eventually got talking.

She drove in to camp from the Netherlands with her mother.

“Netherlands?” That far? I thought #Newwineunited was only for people here in the UK”

“No. People come from all over”

“So where are you originally from?”

“Nigeria” I smiled wearily

” I hear it is beautiful” she observed

“Yes. I grimaced

“Are you alright?” she asked and I responded with a nod. “Just tired”

She told me her name. I cannot recall it.

“my name is amara” I replied

“Awww, what does it mean? and where is it from? “

“Grace” It is an Igbo name from the South-East of Nigeria.

“My daughter is Amana” she offered.

“Amana?” That is not English. Where is it from?”

“Hebrew. It means faithful”

“Interesting. It is also an Arabic and Hausa word” I mentioned

“Hausa is a language in northern Nigeria mostly populated by Muslims. So the etymology of their language is mainly Arabic same as Swahili.

“Really? what does it mean?” she was curious

“It means loyal, trust. It actually denotes something deeper like commitment. When you hand something over to someone and believe them accountable to keep that thing safe. Like Imani [faith]”

“Also used for betrayers as ka ci amana [you have eaten amana]. To hold someone accountable; na ba ka amana [I am giving you amana] and so on. As I described it; right then, it hit me that all my life I had associated the word figuratively like a tangible whereas it is also an intangible, I now realised.

“Wow, thank you amara. I had no idea the name was that widespread. I only knew it was a Hebrew name. So how come you know so much about languages?”

“I moved around a lot as a kid which equipped me”. I sighed in gratitude for my life’s trajectory which I always take for granted.