La Grand-Mère

In the mornings, when the village was bathed in a soft golden light and the air was still cool, I would go walking down the dusty paths that led between the clusters of small round huts. Since greetings are so important to the Malinké, it was a good opportunity for me to practice my Mandi’nka language skills — saying ‘hello’ and ‘good morning’ and ‘how did you sleep’ and ‘how is your health’ and on and on, to everyone I met! This woman was so delighted to see a foreigner speaking to her in her own language that she lit up with joy. She was quite a radiant human being.