Talking to the Mountain

与大山对话

Many years earlier and thousands of miles away, in a valley in Tanzania, East Africa, two elders representing separate lineages of the Arusha people were meeting in the late morning under a stand of large, shady trees. Beyond the elders in the distance loomed a 14,000-foot mountain: Mount Meru. Two groups of men flanked the elders, standing on opposite sides of the open area under the trees. Shade trees are the conference rooms of rural Africa. Like thousands of similar trees near similar villages, these trees near the Arusha village provided a focal point where people could discuss important business at leisure. Today, the trees sheltered a negotiation. The two elders addressed each other formally, describing a dispute between two neighboring farmers. Each elder described a list of grievances and demanded compensation for various wrongs. Each farmer, echoed by his group, loudly rejected the other’s demands and elaborated further on his own elder’s arguments. Each man lay claim to a vacant area of land between their farms that had once been occupied by a family whose lineage had died out. The farmers’ dispute had led to a series of incidents: One farmer’s son had damaged an irrigation gate on the other’s land; the owner of the irrigation gate had beaten the farmer’s son for trespassing. The father of the beaten boy had gone to the elders, demanding a formal meeting to settle the issues. The process they were engaged in reflected their African landscape like a mirror. They were,
to use the Arush a word for the opening stage of negotiations, “talking to the mountain.” And it was going well. A full day of discussions lay ahead. Everyone had brought lunch

很多年前，在一个遥远的地方，在东非坦桑尼亚的一个山谷里，两个阿鲁沙不同分支的长老，于傍午十分，在一排高大、阴凉的树下会面了。两位长老身后远方，若影若现的是一座高达14000英尺的山脉：须弥山。两个族群的人，围绕在长老身旁，在树下的露天场地相对而站。林荫树就是非洲乡间的会议室。就像周边村庄成百上千的林荫树一样，这些伫立在阿鲁巴村庄的林荫树为重要谈判提供了一个场所，谈判者可以较为轻松地进行谈判。而今天，这些树下进行的是一次协商。两位长者很正式地开场，讲述了附近两位农民的争端。每位长者，都提出了自己不满意之处，并且要求对方为所犯的一些错误做出赔偿。而这两位农户，在他们族群成员的帮助下，很强硬地拒绝了对方的要求，并就自己族群长老的要求展开更为详细的阐述。这两位农户的土地之间有一块地，原本属于另一个已经消亡族群中的一户人家，两位农户都想拥有这块土地。而这两位农户的争端，造成了一系列的事故：其中一位农户的儿子，损坏了另一位农户的闸口，因为擅闯田地，被这位农户打了。其父为此找到了族群的长老，要求进行一次正式的会议，来解决这个争端。他们解决争端的流程，就像镜子一样反应了非洲景观。对于这样的谈判开场，在阿鲁巴的语言里，有一个词汇来描述，就是“对大山说话”。这场谈判顺利进行。谈判将持续一天，而双方都带了午餐。