Azumeina versus Marba The Azumeina peoples now prefer to call their language Marba. However, when their language began to be written down in the 1950s and 1960s, the language was sometimes called Azumeina. This approach had the advantage of avoiding ambiguity between the Marba people group and the wider group of speakers of the common language. The Leou clans do not see themselves as ethnically Marba i.e. they are not part of the Marba people group even though they share a common language. Marba is now generally accepted by the Azumeina peoples as the name of their common language. This approach simplifies discussion about language variations in border regions because differences can be explained more easily in terms of mixing of languages. A disadvantage of this approach is the potential ambiguity of the term Marba between the Marba people group and the wider group of Marba-speaking Azumeina peoples. The transition to the new approach is illustrated in the following timeline: • A lexicon published by Colin Price in 1968 was titled
Azumeina—English Dictionary Origin of the Marba The origin of Marba is historically unknown: no ancient document explains its origin. However Christian Seignobos recorded that the Marba migrated across the
Logone River at the beginning of the 20th century: Les migrations gumay ont été, en revanche, quelque peu bousculées par le passage du Logone, au Sud, de colonies marba et
musey, toujours plus nombreuses. Au début de la période coloniale, les Marba Gogor, aprés leurs démêlés avec le chef Azina Kolon, ont en effet traversé le
Logone et les Musey les ont suivis. Faisant irruption dans le ''no man's land'' dégagé par les Kwang, alors en repli devant les Masa à Vabolo et Kunsul, Marba et Musey ont agrandi le passage entre Kwang et Masa, allant jusqu'à coloniser les abords de la piste
Bongor-Gelendeng. Les fronts pionniers masa avancent moins vite que les colonies marba-musey, disposant du
poney. De tradition guerrière, Marba et Musey suscitent encore la crainte. Aussi les Kwang lâchent-ils pied devant eux et gagnent de leur côté le
Chari, alors que les Masa ne progressent plus dans cette région. L'interférence marba-musey avec la remontée masa a fait s'infléchir le couloir de migration de ces derniers en direction des Munjuk, au Nord, ce qui complique encore une carte ethnique déjà passablement bigarrée dans cette région de l'interfluve
Chari-
Logone. An English translation is as follows: The Gumay migrations were, however, somewhat diverted by the passage of Logone, in the South, of Marba and Musey colonies, ever more numerous. At the beginning of the colonial period, the Marba Gogor, after their separation from the chief Azina Kolon, crossed the Logone and the Musey followed them. Bursting into the ''no man's land'' cleared by the Kwang, then retreating before the Masa to Vabolo and Kunsul, the Marba and Musey expanded the gap between the Kwang and the Masa, colonising as far as the area around the Bongor-Gelendeng track. The pioneer Masa fronts advanced more slowly than Marba-Musey colonies, with the pony. Of a warrior heritage, the Marba and Musey are still feared. Also the Kwang let them walk in front of them and gained their side of the Chari, while the Masa no longer advanced in this region. The Marba-Musey interference of the rise of the Masa curbed the migration corridor of the latter in the direction of the Munjuk, to the North, further complicating an already quite patchy ethnic map in this region between the Logone and Chari rivers. Dr John Olley wrote in a letter dated 1950, "At Kolong [sic] we met Assina [sic], the Chief of the Banana-Marba. He is a wealthy Chief and has about 30 wives. He is kindly and generous toward us and gave me four goats for meat for my men. He keeps a large lion in a barred den." Current legends explain the etymology of Marba in various ways as follows: • A man went out hunting and caught some game. He shared the meat with his brothers but not his father. The father complained that he had been left out i.e. "Mar-ba" where
mar means forget and
ba means father • Marba was the ancestor of the Marba people group. The names of the Marba clans come from the names of his sons. Given the practice of naming people after events, these two legends are not necessarily mutually exclusive. On the other hand, they may be more myth than legend.
Origin of the name Azumeina Some people believe that the name Azumeina was used for the first time by the Azumeina themselves and that this name emerged in the mid 1960's as a more inclusive term to include people from the locality who spoke Marba but did not identify as Marba ethically or politically. In this view, the name Azumeina is derived from words meaining "people of the region". In 1969, Robert Price wrote, "The French know this tribe as the Bananas or the Banana Marba, but the people call themselves the Azumeina. In Azumeina, Banana means 'my male friend', and Marba is a clan of the Azumeina!"
Origin of colloquial names Banana and Ho Ho ;Banana The name Banana may be derived from the Marba phrase 'my male friend'. Legend has it that a French official asked someone what language his friend spoke. The reply, "My friend is Marba" (Banana Marba) was misunderstood to be the name of the people group. ;Ho Ho 'Ho Ho' refers to the traditional practice of communicating over distances by shouting the sound 'ho' in the tone of the relevant words. The Marba language has three tones. ==Linguistics==