in an official document that gannibal submitted in 1742 to empress elizabeth, while petitioning for the rank of nobility and a coat of arms, he asked for the right to use a family crest emblazoned with an elephant and the mysterious word "fvmmo", which may mean "homeland" in the kotoko language. in his book, "gannibal: the moor of petersburg", hugh barnes writes of meeting with the sultan of logone-birni, who gave him the same translation of the word. however, frances somers-cocks, author of "the moor of st petersburg: in the footsteps of a black russian", met the same sultan and received a different translation for fvmmo. she also suggested that fvmmo stands for the latin expression "fortuna vitam meam mutavit omnino" which means "fortune has changed my life entirely."