Spitting, a Malian Art

September 18, 2010

When preparing myself to move to Mali I knew that there would be a number of things I would have to become used to. When I made the list in my head, and a few on paper, it always contained things like the food, dress and language but never did I once think about spitting and this in Malian is a prevalent activity.

Let me first discuss Malian tooth brushing. I have only seen women do this- which of course makes me wonder about male oral hygiene. The process goes something like this: a woman will be walking and suddenly stop and move toward a tree or bush or anything with branches and remove a one, she will then de-leaf and when applicable she will de thorn the branch and break it into a manageable size (manageable meaning, easy to fit in your hand and long enough to reach back into a those hard to reach molars). Then she will chew on one end exposing the inside and making that edge become something like bristles on a toothbrush. For the next 10 minutes or so she will scrub her teeth with it.

Now, it is impossible to discuss the act of tooth brushing without a through discussion of spitting (or at least that is what I am going to do next) and it would be doing Malian tooth brushing an injustice not to include this discussion here, for Malian spitting is an art. An art which every Malian has mastered from young boys to elderly women. An art that is practiced and distributed everywhere- inside the house, on the way to the mosque, while eating dinner, after eating dinner, while drinking tea, while preparing breakfast, while playing cards, while talking with friends, while on the bus, while sitting on MY porch- you get the idea.

The art, however, is not in the location but is in the act. There is the projectile spit which is like a bullet. I would be willing to put good money on the fact that if one of these were to hit someone they would require medical attention. Then there is the arch, the person leans back ever so slightly and created a perfect arch from their mouth to the ground. Then there is the sideways spit. This one is always done effortlessly and usually in the middle of a conversation. In the middle of a sentence they will quickly snap their head to one side spit then continue on without missing a beat. Its brilliant.

I am sure there are other types which I will be sure to keep you updated on as I observe them (because I am sure that you all are very curious about this topic, and if you have actually read this far into this entry I commend you).
I must say that with this in both of these areas, (tooth brushing and spitting) I have yet to "integrate" and not sure if I ever will. I still enjoy my Crest with Scope- but who knows, its only been three months.