Tem love poem

The Kotokoli language (Tem, Cotocoli, Kotocoli, Temba, Tembe, Tim, Timu), is a gur language spoken by about 400,000 people in 4 countries, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana and 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 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"!