Peanut Butter Town

We left the village at around 11:00am Sunday, and raced back to Lome, our driver honking his way around motorcycles and other cars. We sped along making great time. But then, about halfway to Lome, our car broke down (picture posted).

Luckily, we were in the middle of a village, which I call “Peanut Butter Town”, because their main commercial activity is selling peanuts and peanut butter on the side of the road. As people head toward Lome from all parts of Togo, they stop and fill up on peanut butter (picture posted). In Togo, people use peanut butter to make peanut sauce. I don’t think that people really eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in Togo. I don’t think that they eat peanut butter with bread at all. But maybe things are changing that I am unaware of.

Our driver started calling around on his cell phone trying to find somebody to fix the car. He located some mechanics in the village, who took about half an hour to arrive. Then they started fixing the car. All together we were there for about two hours. The day was overcast and cool, so I could roam around a bit.

What to do?

We were in the Prefecture d’Ave, at a village called Tovegan. My last paper (co-written with Selikem and Palakimwe) had data from a nearby town. My inclination was to use my time in the village to look further into the dialect (notes posted).

First things first. I was hungry. I was starting to get a little weak. We did not eat lunch in the village, and it was past noon. I thought if I could find some fried bean cakes (agawu), I would be OK. But on Sunday, there were no bean cakes to be found. In fact, the town seemed empty. Everybody had gone to church. Finally, I found a vendor selling rice and chicken meat in sauce. Being on low-carb, I did not want the rice, so I bought six little pieces of chicken meant and had her wrap them up in a plastic bag. Then I went back to the car, and shared them with my sister-in-law. A great low-carb snack to tide me over for a few hours.

I had a pen, but no notebook because mine were carefully packed away in the back of the car amongst a ton of other things. So I found a little shop on the side of the road selling notebooks and bought one. I also bought a cinnamon stick, which have become popular in Togo lately.

Lastly, I walked up and down the street looking for a sympathetic peanut vendor. Approaching a lady in her thirties, sitting beside a peanut stand packing peanuts into bottles:

Me: Are you from this town?

Vendor: Yes, I am. I was born here.

Me: What language do they speak here?

Vendor: They speak Ewe, just like you are speaking.

Me: But I am speaking Kpelegbe. Have you heard Kpelegbe before?

Vendor: Yes, I have heard it.

Me: What do they call the Ewe spoken here?

Vendor: They call it Ewe.

Me: But isn’t there a name for it, just like there is a name of Kpelegbe?

Vendor: They call it Tovegangbe (the language of Tovegan).

Me: Another vendor (pointing) told me that it is called called Achigbe.

Vendor: No, Achigbe is down the road a bit.

Me: I want to ask you some questions about Tovegangbe. Is that OK?

Vendor: Yes, it is OK

Me: Can I just sit here?

Vendor (to assistant): Bring him a chair!

So there we were. 

Every 10 or 15 minutes minutes or so, my vendor would rush frantically out to the side of the road to sell some peanuts or peanut butter to a passing driver. But other than that, I had her to myself. Mostly I asked about question words, but also about a few other topics, like demonstratives, locatives, tone and the progressive aspect. Altogether, I interviewed her for about an hour. As I was leaving, I gave her a small monetary gift, which she was very happy with. 

In retrospect, many of my “discoveries” have come from (or at least started with) more or less random interactions like this. If people are around, talk to them. See what they have to say. Mostly people are happy to talk about their language. If you show an interest, they will be happy to teach you.