Mimi?

First and foremost, thank you for the loyal readers who have followed this blog since day one. As I have found, I'm not the best blogger - too infrequent, often too short, and now, the blog is a misnomer. However, life goes on. =)

So as promised, here goes 1 of many, hopefully, of post-trip blogs.

A: Unaitwa nani?

B: Mimi?

A: Ndiyo.

B: Naitwa B.

...translation...

A: What's your name?

B: Me?

A: Yes.

B: My name is B.

After a few months in Tanzania and after my Swahili was no longer miserable, I noticed something very particular about the conversations I had with Tanzanians. Upon being asked a question about themselves, most Tanzanias respond with "Me???"

Now, being a foreigner and all, I figured it may be my lacking Swahili abilities. So I waited to eavesdrop on a conversation between two locals. Strange! The same thing happened.

I tried this many times: with kids, with my peers, with middle-age adults, with elders; with the wealthy, with the middle-class, and with the poor. "Mimi?"

I tell my good friend Lillian about this and she denies the existence of such a thing. I pull her to eavesdrop on another conversation and lo and behold, Mimi? is the first response given to any question. She tells me that surely she does not have this silly habit. I agree, sarcastically, of course.

A few days later, I ask Lily what she's doing that very weekend (in Swahili) and what does she say in response? "Mimi??"

I burst out laughing.

She caught herself right after falling into my trap. She laughed too, but then we began to talk about why this odd habit exists. She suggested low self-confidence and high self-doubt.

I asked another Tanzanian about this and he suggested it as a stalling tactic. By asking a question in response to another question, it gives the responder more time to formulate an answer.

Both theories seem faulty. It seems unlikely that an entire nation's people has low self-confidence and high self-doubt. Almost as unlikely, does it seem possible for a question like "what is your name" or "how are you" require extra time.

So with no other leads, I returned to America a month later, still asking the same question. Why oh why does this happen? One quick Google search later, I find a 12-page linguistic report on Swahili. Maybe that will shed some light. If not, maybe I need to change my major and find out for myself.