How good we feel when we wake up is correlated with how well we sleep and the contents of our dreams. How well we sleep and dream is related to our peace of mind and level of anxiety. Recent research put it this way, “Waking mental well-being is assumed to be tightly linked to sleep and the affective content of dreams. Healthy participants completed a well-being questionnaire, followed by a three-week daily dream diary and ratings of dream affect . Multilevel analyses showed that peace of mind was related to positive dream affect, whereas symptoms of anxiety were related to negative dream affect. We propose that whereas anxiety may reflect affect dysregulation [imbalance] in waking and dreaming, peace of mind reflects enhanced affect regulation in both states of consciousness. Finally, our study shows that peace of mind complements existing conceptualizations and measures of well-being.”
This idea of a correlation between sleep, well being and peace is reflected in several languages including Lango, a Southern Luo dialect spoken by the Lango people of Uganda and the Sudan. Here are some words for peace in Lango: “Kuc” (peace) “Kuch” (to be quiet, to be at peace), “Kweo” (to make cool, to pacify), “Ayom” (soft, peaceful), “Morembe Ayom” (greeting), and “Buti Ayom” (sleep softly, well).
Sleep Peacefully
In the Lango language of Uganda and Sudan
“ayom” means soft and peaceful
“buti ayom” is to sleep softly and well
“morembe ayom” is a greeting
a wish of peace for the morning
of well being after sleeping softly
Another Lango word “kuc” means peace
“kuch” is to be quiet
to be at peace
both words correlating peace and quiet
may we each experience “ayom” and “kuc”
peace, sleep and well being
In Bambara another language of Africa sleep and peace are correlated more directly in a common morning greeting. “Hèrè ” and “Errébé” mean peace in this language of Mali.
Sleep Peaceful Good Morning
In Bambara, the language of Mali in West Africa
the way you say good morning
In Bambara, the language of Mali in West Africa
the way you say good morning
“Hèrè sira wa?”
means did you sleep in peace
often the answer is
“hèrè dogon” or peace only
Similar in the Dyula of West Africa
did you sleep in peace?
is “hèrè sirawa?”
and peace only is “hèrè dron”
Try this. Each morning for a few days, wake up and say to yourself out loud or to another person, “Good morning Peace!” in English or another language. In your mind and with your words, frame your day as one with peaceful relationships intertwines with inner peace.
A common northern Somali greeting is “Ma nahad baa” or “is there peace.” In Somali spoken in Somalia, Djibouti, and Ethiopia, the word for peace is “Nabáda.” “Nabadda maanka” is peace of mind.
The following poem is what is called a found poem, meaning the words were found in an essay or some other form of writing then teased out to create a poem. The order of the words can be changed in the process and sometimes the whole meaning of the essay can be different in the poem. Sometimes a found poem distills the words already written on a page, up to their essence. This is also what is known as a persona poem or a poem written by a poet but from another person’s point of view. Trying literally to walk in another person’s words or trying to share another’s point of view while inhabiting their own body and experience.
Mohamed Maine Seed
The proud son of Somali immigrants
traversed oceans and continents to escape
brutal civil war
seeking the American dream
for themselves and their children
enduring hardships
discrimination, poverty and violence
struggling to understand
who I am
where do I belong
we were too Somali
too Muslim
Black
Foreign
the American Dream out of reach
but incredible friends and mentors
pushed me to think otherwise
I have a place in this country
with good people
including diversity
and the freedom to be who you are
in a better place
I hope one day to welcome
the schoolgirl from Syria
the young entrepreneur from Iraq
the old poet from Somalia
where we have a Somali proverb
when we see injustice
“Dhiiga kuma dhaqaaqo?”
“Does your blood not move?”
I am moved. Capturing a similar dream for all Africa, Nelson Mandela said, “I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.”
May we all find peace as we sleep, dream, and in all our waking hours with the help of words from our own native tongue and the African languages of Lango, Bambara, and Somalia.
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