It all began with the Anunnaki. Nobody knows how old these beings of antiquity truly are. Traces of their unbelievable sophistication have been unearthed in fossils as old as 300 million years or more. One thing we can be assured of is that, anatomically, they are very much like modern man. Indeed, even as “Forbidden Archaeology” reveals, “modern” human remains have been discovered in undisturbed earth strata relating to millions of years ago; a time, anthropologists tells us, modern man was still far from appearing. My column has explained at length the comings and goings of this mysterious race, so let us cut to the chase and show that we too can interpret the term “Anunnaki”.
ANU.NNA.KI. Anu (as in “ano a”) means “those over there”, nna is “stay/reside”, and Ki means “Earth” – thus: “those from out there who settled on Earth”. Ki is the only word that might puzzle a Motswana but it is easily understandable. “Ea!” (e ha: “here it is”) they shouted triumphantly as an expedition confirmed that conditions here were perfect. “Ea”, we can be sure, is the root of “Earth”. Unsurprisingly, the Sumerian KI (ke-e), as well as the Greek geo (ke-o), all mean “here it is”, Setswana being the only language to seamlessly connect all these variations. Here, the Anunnaki only found backward humanoid species roaming the Earth. Minerals were, of course, necessary to kick-start civilisation, and being the only ones having the skills to conduct mining, the Anunnaki y toiled at it. Per the Atra-Hasis, they eventually rebelled at their conditions (no doubt caused by ever-deepening mine-shafts).A solution had to be found. “Let us make a LU.LU to bear the burden of the gods”, suggested Enki, Earth’s second-in-command and Chief Scientist. “Lulu” is described as “mixed creature” in most translations of the Atra-Hasis: a hybrid of the Anunnaki and Cro-Magnon man. Once again, Setswana can interpret the term independently. Lo se, lo se (you are this you are that)the Anunnaki “gods” would tease them...lo-lo. Of course, lo-lo is at the root of terms like mo-lolo (mild, neither hot nor cold) and loile (a term describing a rich mixture). Even the English expression “gone lulu” –used to describe a “mixed-up’ person –hints at this ancient term well understood in Setswana.
