Sumu-kanu

[coleman]

Can anyone shed light on the expression sumu-kanu (potentially sumukanu or sumu kanu)?

It appears in a version of Oumou Sangaré’s song “Diaraby Nene” where she sings about the “shivers of romance”. Here’s an excerpt of where I think it appears:

N ko, Awa Suko, diɲɛ ye jigi ye, Ala
I say, Awa Suko, life is (about) hope, oh God

N ko, Masidé Gassama, diɲɛ ye sumu-kanu ye
I say, Masidé Gassama, life is (about) social gatherings

(The line in question appear at ~2:27 in this video)

I am wondering if the word comes from sùmu meaning ‘an all-nighter’ and kànu meaning ‘love’ and refers to the idea of ‘a love for being out all night’ (in the sense of romantic liaisons that take place late at night and you don’t go to bed early)?

The expression and its variants seem to be absent from the Bambara Reference Corpus.

[Jurufola]

i know of the word Sumu only from attending weddings in Bamako. If i heard “sumu” i’d automatically know that there’d be a full on electric band with some percussion and also traditional instruments (ie balafon, kora, tama)…

i have some other interviews with Oumou where the translation for sumu is street party.

Other articles/papers by Lucy Duran translate sumu to “life cycle ceremony”…most common would be wedding ceremonies.

as an aside, i play and sing the chorus to my child when i put them down at night because the literal translation is fitting. we saw her 2 weeks ago and she of course performed it to us and my boy’s head exploded!