THE five-letter Pidgin word is often uttered in total innocence but for the totally innocent bystander, it could be the start of a mind-boggling experience and undue stress on his limited brainpower to reason.
He would be wrecking his brains for all the time you spend with the party who had initially communicated by that one word and Lord only knows what goes through his mind when he tries to put one and one together.
At the end of the day, he might be sitting in the car, mouth agape, seeing through unseeing eyes and thoughts straying far away, totally baffled by what he deems as something totally illogical or something quite extraordinary. In other words, the situation totally escapes the conclusion that he had drawn from the explanation proffered by his parents the first time, curiosity got the better of him and he popped the question: “Dad, what’s tambu mean?”
Jay, that legal eagle who flew by the house last weekend, brought the subject up on the account of noticing the syndrome on his 11-year-old son, after picking up Uncle Iari.
Now, Uncle Iari is a colourful man about town who makes no bones about his interest in the members of the opposite sex, though he is happily married with several children and grandchildren and is considered a leader of sorts in his own right by his peers. Perhaps, his ego trips to some fantasy land of his dreams may be attributed to the latter.
The trouble with this guy was that he openly boasted about his exploits and as if to confirm his inflated ego, all and sundry were greeting him or seeing him off with the five-letter word.
So this kid is sitting there consuming all this and trying to piece the puzzle together with that far away look in his mind.
You could almost read John’s mind going to work:
Mum calls Uncle Iari tambu, so that means Uncle Iari is either married to mum’s sister or mum is married to Uncle Iari’s brother, which would be dad, right? That would explain the ‘uncle’ thing. But mum never looked like Uncle Iari and they are not from the same province. So dad can’t be Uncle Iari’s brother. So there’s only one thing to draw from this. Uncle Iari and dad are good friends and both must consider each other as good and close as family. That is why they call themselves bros...
He could go with that and as if in answer, a smile lights up his innocent face and radiates through his eyes. His inner sense of self-satisfaction at solving a niggling puzzle was palpable.
It was there all along. You would understand the greetings on the face value if you know the person and his family and deduce the connections through the marriage bonds. With others, you would most likely jump to conclusions that since they come from the same province, there would obviously be marriage connections somewhere along the line; hence the use of the five-letter word in greeting or farewell would be a part and parcel of that connection.
Then the Papuans come into the picture and throws the spanner into the works.
It happens at Brian Bell’s Family Store at Boroko when dad parks the car to buy some smokes.
John senses a sudden urgency in the movement in front of him as Uncle Iari hastens to roll down the dark glass of the car. Having done that, he quickly pokes his bald head out to greet a couple of pretty Papuan lasses. John notices a smile so broad that the edges of Uncle Iari’s mouth would have split his ears if they just happened to reach that far up.
One of the lasses stops abruptly, casts a glance in his direction and squeals tambu as instant recognition sets in.
The other girl turns and squeals in chorus and Uncle Iari were out of the car in a jiffy and chatting nicely with the girls in no time.
John notices that the girls’ behaviour had somewhat picked up a little bit of flamboyancy since the squeals started and attributed that to the ‘mightier-than-thou’ presence of Uncle Iari.
John’s mind was agog. These girls were young enough to be Uncle Iari’s daughters and they were calling him tambu. That meant that Uncle Iari was either married into their family or them into his. That would be the logical first impression. Secondly, they could be Uncle Iari’s son’s girlfriends, hence the reference to him as tambu. Thirdly, somewhere along the line, there must have been some inter-marriages giving rise to the adoption of the five-letter word. And last but not the least, Uncle Iari’s must certainly be the man he’s reputed to be – the man of all seasons and ... women?
John’s simple mind cannot cope with the inflow of information spurred on by observation and hearing and he wonders what person in his right mind would have gone and coined the expression.
Maybe it’s the ‘lingo we talk’; maybe it’s the way human beings need to communicate in order to differentiate something or someone from another.
He knows the laws are specific and his parent have told him as such – having many wives is a no-no but it is still practised under the traditional system. That perhaps could explain why so many other people have so many tambus. And friends have become bros or sisters and their relatives are referred to as tambus by the opposing parties and life goes on in extended circles.
He now fully grasps the so-called expanded family system that is often referred to as ‘wantok system’ and he’s really, really trying to come to terms with tambu because somehow the word now really covers uncles, aunties, bubus, brothers and sisters.
The enigma of the tambu link is made all the more complex by the greetings and adieus accorded to Uncle Iari by practically all the ethnic groups that make up the melting pot of life in the city.
Now, young Johnny is trying to live down his own conclusion that Uncle Iari igat planti meri....
And that perhaps should jolt our memory to recall the Wise Counsellor’s words: “Human wisdom comes from reason; godly wisdom comes from revelation ...”
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