"Kweku had always greeted him with the Ghanaian Ey Chalé! to which Mr. Charlie always responded, "Tell that story once 'gain." (The story: in the forties the officers strewn around Ghana were known as Charlie, all, a suitably generic Caucasian male name. Ghanaian boys would mimic Hey Chalie! in greetings, which in time became Ey Chalé, or so Kweku had heard.) But no matter the man's insistence, they couldn't call him by his first name, so well steeped were he and Fola in African gerontocratic mores. Mr. Charlie would hear nothing of sir or Mr Dyson ("mr Dyson was my daddy, may the bastard rest in peace.") So "mr. Charlie."
Mr. Chalé.
Mr. Chalé.
Taiye Selasi
Ghana Must Go, p.66
No comments:
Post a Comment