The Nyanja word for "food" is vakudya. And the Nyanja verb for "to eat" is kudya, so here's a sentence for you to practice: Nikudya vakudya ("I'm eating food").
But today we're talking about ndiyo, or "main dish." In Zambian English, ndiyo is translated as "relish," but "relish" in American English refers more to a condiment than to the real substance of what ndiyo means in Nyanja. Ndiyo can be chicken, beef, goat, or fish, or any of the myriad of amazing green leaves and other vegetables eaten in Zambia, or even insects! Ndiyo is the dish or dishes that are served next to the staple food, nshima (cornmeal paste), or rice.
Here's the story for the day:
In January 2009, Mathew and I took a trip to visit his family in the rural district of Petauke, in the Eastern Province of Zambia. He has a sister living there who is very industrious, farming with her husband, taking care of the household, and raising 4 children. Our accommodations were even more rustic than my time spent in a rural refugee camp. We slept on the floor of a mud-brick thatched-roof house, bathed using a bucket in an outdoor straw structure, and took a walk into nature in order to answer the call of nature, if you know what I mean.
I couldn't really communicate except through translation, because my sister-in-law, and most of Mathew's family there, do not speak English fluently. One day we decided to accompany my sister-in-law and brother-in-law to their fields to do some farming. The men were tilling the ground using cow power:
At first, I just watched, but then I decided to help my sister-in-law do some weeding. Mathew's younger brother, who is in high school, (a level not attained by Mathew's other siblings, giving one stronger knowledge of English and other subjects) was also with us. I asked him, "Should I pull out anything that isn't maize (corn)?" And he said "yes." So that is what I proceeded to do.
(BEWARE TRAVELLERS TO ZAMBIA AND FOREIGNERS RESIDING IN ZAMBIA: sometimes a person will reply with "yes," even though they haven't understood your question. If you're not sure if the person you're talking to is sure, ask follow-up questions! I have fallen into this trap several times.)
I pulled out EVERYTHING that I saw that wasn't corn, including a familiar leaf, chibwabwa, or pumpkin leaves, which are one of the common delicious dishes served in Zambia and completely underutilized in the USA. But, if these pumpkin leaves were getting in the way of the corn, by all means, let's get them out!
Half-an-hour or so later, my sister-in-law must have noticed my handiwork and approached me. "Ni ndiyo," she said. "That's food." Instantly, with my limited Nyanja knowledge, I knew she was telling me that I was pulling out precious "main dish" food, which is hard to come by at times in the village, but I did not have the vocabulary to respond to her or apologize to her. Although she didn't seem angry, I was slightly mortified, having been trying to act all cool, like I fit in with all the cool village subsistence farmers. After she and I collected as much chibwabwa as we could from what I had discarded in piles so that we could eat it for dinner, I sat down and sulked until it was time to go home.
We visited the village again this year, with a one-year-old Nzinzi, who gave me an excuse to hang out with the children, who I was less worried about impressing. That was more fun. Still, I hope next time I go to the village I'll get to participate in farming again - the right way, and hopefully my Nyanja* skills will be better, so I can have better dialogues with my family there!
Enjoy your ndiyo this holiday season!
*By the way, the language spoken in Petauke is actually Nsenga, which is related to Nyanja. I'd like to learn Nsenga, too, one day. But Nyanja is understood by many people all over Zambia, and often used as a common when talking to people from different areas, especially in Eastern Province and Lusaka. Many people in Petauke use Nyanja, instead of Nsenga, to try to communicate with me if they don't know English.
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