Tem love poem
Limmbourê
Gnèdè lèzou wê limm bourê daa,
Mèdê alibatê kazaa gui m'blê,
Amah la'a dassam bivizi-naza,
Mèdê solim kèdêzia blê!
→ Poem the mirror ←
tem woman
The kotokoli language (cotocoli, tem, temba, tim, timu), is a gur language spoken by about 400,000 people in 4 countries, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana, Benin. The Kotokoli literature, as one might expect, is rich in orality, and some stories that cross the generations have been collected and printed. If in these tales one finds of course nature, universe, fauna and flora, we must note that some denote a true bawdiness.
The tems
The history of the Tem people (Kotokoli), as for many other peoples of Africa is unknown and its history dates only from colonization. Originally they were found on the territory of present-day Burkina Faso. For the origin of the words Tem and Kotokoli different explanations are suggested, in general they would be derived from words of neighboring ethnic groups that served to designate this people. Unfortunately, I have not found any that makes the obvious poetic link between the French "je t'aime" and the word "Tem"!