Wokuba
Posted By Sika on February 4, 2008
I want to preface this post by saying that usually at the Zomba market I don’t bother to bargain much because usually I get the Malawian price or close to it. And when I find later that I should have bargained more, it’s usually a difference of MK50 or 100 or so. Behind the main market is another market of mostly used goods, called the “Free Market” It is questionable whether it is called the Free Market simply because of the switching of Rs and Ls in Chichewa, or out of some incredibly deep seated irony, because in the Free Market ain’t nothing free*.
I was looking for a chitenje, one that Derek bought for his aunt and that I covet. I didn’t find it in the main market, and so I asked one of the zitenje guys where I could find more and he said to go to the Free market.
I asked someone where I could find zitenje in the Free Market, and this guy took me back to the stall of a friend of his. I asked how much the zitenje were and he said “which one do you want?” I said, “I don’t know, how much are they?”
He said, “For this one?”
I said, “Sindikudziwa. Ndikufuna mtengo poyamba” (I don’t know. I want to know the price first.)
He said, “I give you good price,” (ah, the hallmark of the person who would really like all the money you have ever touched in your life), “only 1.3” ( MK1,300)
I said, “uh uh. It is not 1.3.” I said, “It is 375, basi”
He said, “no, you can get this one for that price,” and pointed to the Malawian zitenje**
I said, “Sindikufuna mtengo azungu.” (I don’t want the foreigner price.) “You are giving me mtengo azungu.”
He said no, but his friend laughed and agreed with me. But then he only came down to MK500, the price I would normally expect when someone was trying to rip me off. So I told him I was angry and I left. Usually when people are caught in a scam, they come down to the correct price. Usually, if you speak Chichewa, they know you live here and don’t try to scam you as much (the NGO people all pay too much for everything and so they skew the prices of some things even for those of us who live here). The tutors at my school say that there are many wokuba*** in the free market, though.
I must admit, I do get kind of a kick out of picturing this guy’s delight at seeing a gullible mzungu who is sure to not even balk at paying 4x the appropriate price, maybe even for several zitenje. And then, how disappointed he must have been when the damn mzungu didn’t give him any money at all. I can almost picture the inside of his head, him so disappointed his brain is crestfallen.
It makes me giggle.
*Boy, I am really enjoying this footnote thing, aren’t I? At least it makes my sentences shorter.
**There are mainly two types of chitenje in Malawi. Ones from Malawi and ones from Tanzania. The ones from Malawi are cheaper in both price and quality. The Malawian ones also are often made of polyester whereas the Tanzanian ones are made of cotton, are thicker, and use better dyes.
***Thieves. Technically, wokuba is an adjective with an implied noun. Wo- is the prefix that is added to verbs (after dropping the first ku that indicates the word is a verb, so kukuba is to steal) to indicate that the adjective applies to a person. Chichewa has many passive verbs from which all but a small handful of adjectives come, so for example, Kufiriya means “to be red” and so chofiriya is describing a thing that is red.
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