Even in a society such as modern as America wisdom is passed on by the elder generations to the younger ones. These sayings from experience people guide the youth even today. Not only do they help guide the younger generation they also give a window to the culture and mistakes of the past. Baho! By Roland Rugero uses the concept of sayings as the a form in his book. The form that it is typically utilized in is the title of each chapter.
Baho! Is a story about the hardships of an African village in Kayna Valley. The main conflict in the book revolves around a trail by mob of a mute man who is believed to be assaulting a young women. This trail serves to bring up the changes in the society while also showing how the village tries to hold onto the past. This tug and pull of the last is shown through the first chapters title “The past presages the future,”(1) this quote is demonstrates the overarching theme of the story which is the past and future are connected. How the village tries to keep or change this connection to the past varies.
Within the mob trail of the assault the saying shows the theme of the chapter and how the past connects the future. The saying is “Even if the evil doers acts alone, the fault falls on the entire family,”(33) this idea of connected village teachings is both used to hurt the societies culture as well as bring back preserve other parts. This is seen by the men getting challenged by the women for also sexually harassing women almost claiming that the men failed the accused by not teaching him how to treat women. At the same time the women of the village start to realize that the past treatments of there gender are wrong.
Overall Baho! brings into question how much the past is involved in the present. This idea should make us all think about how the saying are parents and grandparents shape us and who we are. Displaying that even are culture isn’t so different that the past cannot effect America in the same way.
Literary Genres in Translation 