The Hospitality of a Mentor: A Tribute to Chérif Keïta

I'd like to share a few words about Chérif Keïta as a mentor, a title which, in his case, encompasses many roles: teacher, counselor, elder, and friend. To me, Chérif's mentorship has been both personal and intellectual, spanning my career as a student and scholar over the past twenty-two years. Consonant with Chérif's own personal and intellectual commitment to the moral philosophy of the Mande world, I would also like to relate my account of his mentorship to the notion of "jatigiya," to present his teaching, counsel, wisdom, and friendship as a profound and sustained act of hospitality.

On "Hospitality"

As many here know, Chérif is fond of etymological puzzles. He loves words, and the fragments of words that shape and inflect linguistic meaning. Indeed, one of his favorite words in the French language is "décortiquer," which for literary critics suggests the close and careful reading of a text. But a more literal definition of décortiquer is to peel, or shell, as when one methodically removes the husk of a peanut—an apt metaphor for a Maninka scholar of literature, I might add! To remove the shell of word is to get at its essence, not to uncover a hidden truth, but to get closer to the play of signifiers that produces our verbal reality. For Chérif, it is to take part in that play and to encourage others to join in the meta-linguistic game.

Chérif has an especial interest in the semiotic provenance of keywords in the lexicon of Mande society. "Jatigi" is one such term he has long puzzled over. Perhaps a standard definition of the term would break it down into its two most apparent component parts: "ja," to lodge, and "tigi," patron or benefactor. Re-composed from these elements, the meaning of jatigi signals one who offers respite to the weary spirit of the sojourner, in short, a "host." But Chérif peels back the husk of the word "ja" further, scrutinizing its verbal form and speaking it aloud to hear the way it might condense another meaning, as a contraction of the word, "jigiya," to comfort and offer hope. Conjoined with tigi as "jigiyatigi," we arrive at another composite meaning: of one who provides assurance and inspiration to the wayfaring stranger. As an abstract noun, jatigiya is, thus, a hopeful sign of hospitality in the Mande world, and beyond. And it is in this sense of the word that I would like to speak of Chérif Keïta's mentorship.

The Classroom as Home

Many of us have found both shelter and inspiration in Chérif's classrooms over the years. His courses on francophone literature, Mande culture and society, and even advanced French grammar were as welcoming and inviting as they were enticing and absorbing, creating as they did a vibrant, multilingual, and interdisciplinary space for the humanistic study of the African world (yes, even the French class)—which, to my nineteen-year-old self, was a completely novel, and utterly refreshing notion. But to call his classes "hopeful" and "inspiring" does not mean that they were "easy." As a teacher, Chérif was challenging, pushing us to read more deeply, think more carefully, and speak (often in a language we were only beginning to wield with confidence) more frequently and with greater precision.

And yet these classrooms did, in time, come to feel like home. Within their confines, Chérif was both a teacher (karamògò) and a host (jatigi)—a purveyor of both knowledge and inspiration, whose very physical presence exuded a spirit of welcome. "Mògòladon bè mògò kè mògò ta ye," the Mande tell us. To welcome someone is to make them one of your own. Such is the hospitality (jatigiya) of Chérif's Keïta's teaching.

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