This morning we woke to bright sunshine through which snowflakes fell. The temperature was a fraction above freezing so....
Now rain through sunshine is often referred to as a 'monkeys' wedding', though a search on the internet finds little to explain where the term comes from or its derivation. Its use is widespread, including in Africa and the Caribbean, but a quick trawl through my African books provided the source of the version I know, in....
It is the last story in her fourth and last book, The Singing Chameleon, and it describes how a dreadful drought threatened to spoil the festivities at the monkeys' wedding. They had no food for the feast but Tandaubwe the spider, noticing that, unlike all the other animals, Mkango the lion was still very fat, had crept into his cave and seen that, by putting a single bean into a cooking pot in which he kept a magic bone, the lion made a pot full of beans.
The bone, the monkeys found, worked for everything so, for example, one banana made hundreds, and they had a magnificent feast, much to the fury of Mkango when he discovered how he had been tricked.
I love these African folk tales and the sketches, by Sheila Hawkins, which accompany them, and can remember my mother reading them to us when we lived in Mombasa.
However, this does leave us with a problem. If rain falling through sunshine makes it a monkeys' wedding, what do we call a day when snow falls through sunshine?
Jumping in here because the title of my memoir of my family's 200+ years of adventure in southern Africa is called "A Monkey's Wedding". Here's what I explain in the foreword:
ReplyDelete"In Zulu and Xhosa the expression inkawu iyashada literally means ‘the monkey is getting married’. Somewhere along the line, the settlers adapted it to mean ‘it’s a monkey’s wedding’ when it’s simultaneously a sunny day but it’s also pouring with rain. That happens quite frequently in Southern Africa it seems. (It happens elsewhere too, with most countries around the world having a local version of ‘fox’s wedding’ or ‘wolf’s wedding’ to describe it, while in Bulgaria it’s a ‘gypsy wedding’.)
Even Creedence Clearwater Revival, one of my favourite bands, had a song which went ‘I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain/ comin’ down on a sunny day?’ which I remember blasting out of the radio one day in the early 70s, just as an actual monkey’s wedding hit us in the backyard. A wonderful moment of synchronicity.
So the title of my book, I think, best covers the fluctuating fortunes, triumphs and tragedies of that seven-generation span for our family." Hope that helps understand the unique term! Cheers, Stuart.
Hi Stuart - Many thanks indeed for your comment. Seven generations - all of them in Africa?
DeleteYour comment makes a fascinating read. I had no idea that the story occurs in places like Bulgaria, I wonder how it got there,
I was brought up in Kenya where my mother used the phrase 'a monkey's wedding' to my brother and I but I don't remember her ever telling us where she had acquired it - she was a Scot brought up in Burma who spent most of her working life in East Africa - or whether Kiswahili, which we used to communicate with the servants - had a similar story.
The other wonderful folk tale relates to Kalalu the Rabbit - or, more correctly since southern Africa doesn't have rabbits - Kalalu the Hare, which was carried across to America and the Caribbean with the slaves and became Br'er Rabbit.
Jon
Hi Jon, yes 7 generations of adventure in Africa, starting with my father’s side of the family who were 1820 settlers in the Cape (one family, plus a cousin, plus a sister in law), and on Mum’s side they arrived in Durban as settlers of Natal in 1862. Mum and Dad both had grandfathers who were. 1890 pioneers in Rhodesia. We emigrated to Oz in 1977 but still have family in Zim and Cape Town. In fact one cousin with a young family moved back from Sydney to Harare a few years back. Your folklore tales are heartwarming - and it seems this term monkey’s wedding is a rabbit-hole (hare hole?) I’ll need to explore more. I’ve never been to Mombasa but always loved its exotic name. Cheers for now.
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