I occasionally catch myself pronouncing words from a language unknown to me. And out loud. They usually come in two interconnected pairs. Each time this happens, I repeat the same expression many times over. It feels soothing, comforting, and even relieving over and over again. Having gone through such an experience quite a few times, I started recording the magical words on my mobile phone and/or my laptop. This I do only if the same expression is difficult to shake off no matter how often I repeat it. Over three or four years, there are twenty-one of them on record. And here they are in the order of their appearance:

Am-am man-dioo
Gamba-doombee do-do
Bogo-zhigoo naga-woogoo
Maga-naga wootoo-boochoo
Gamba-noonga nee-ee-ee
Naga-waga naga-roo
Maga-cheeto paga-nogo
Bogo-dee wo-goongo
Mako-wo zeega-roono
Wogo-sakoo panoo-takoo
Aga-naga maoo
Nogo-wo nogo-doonoo
Bachooka-foo danaga-woogoo
Bawanee-goo ta-ta
Gama-nee goo-veeda
Naga-naga noo-woogoo
Mada-ga gooze-jee
Neega-mara daga-woogoo
Pakoo-nogo tee-kee
Chakoo-naga pookoo-veeda
Zeegoo-doo ma-gono

For all my care about these surprising expressions, I am none the wiser about their origin or purpose. Soothing, comforting, and relieving as they happen to be, they remain a complete and total mystery to me. The only thing that I have noticed from the very beginning is their African flavor, as it were. I know next to nothing about African languages, but the expressions that occasionally come my way strike me as having a flavor of the continent from which we all originate. They feel primordial, no less. And that is all I can say about my experience with interconnected pairs of mysterious words. Aware of the impossibility of ever understanding any of them, the only thing I could do is to describe my experiences to the best of my ability. Bingo!