Sahouè 101
Arriving in Benin with a few years of French learning under my belt has helped me mightily in training, meetings, and visits to the capital city of Cotonou. At site, however, it’s a different story. Benin has French as its official language, but it’s usually reserved for government, media, education, and formal business. All other communication needs are met by local languages, of which there are more than 50 throughout a country that’s about the size of Pennsylvania. The most predominant language is Fon, which is spoken throughout the southern half of the country and in urban centers. At my site, people mainly speak Sahouè (pronounced Sah-HWAY, descending tone), the primary language of at least 200,000 Beninese and a linguistic relative to Fon. The first thing to know about Sahouè is the essential nature of greetings. You could translate and recite Macbeth to a Sahouè speaker, take your bow, and the first thing they would say is “Great, Billy the Bard, but why didn’t you greet me