READERS' CORNER: The ‘xaxa’ generation killing English

READERS' CORNER: The ‘xaxa’ generation killing English

By Ongunya Onguti

A few years ago, while I was teaching in a high school, I was unable to read essays written by students joining Form One, and even others who were in their fourth year.

As usual, I passed on the blame to primary school teachers. They did not do their work, I thought.

I have now had the opportunity to look at undergraduate students’ essays, and the incoherence and illogical structures are still here with me. Surprisingly, most of these students are training to be high school

teachers or college tutors.

There is a crisis in the way and how we write today. Recently, a few judges were struck off the bench just because they could not write judgements properly.

In this case, who carries the blame? Is it the primary school teacher, is it the high school teacher or is it the university don?

While I still taught in high school, I once attended an in-service seminar where a speaker, giving tips on how to teach the writing of imaginative essays, asked teachers to go back to school and ask students to

memorize stories; one with a happy ending and another one with a sad ending so that these students would reproduce either of the story depending on the nature of the question.

This is a quick fix teacher who fails to appreciate that someone must listen before speaking; that he or she should read before writing.

Creativity

Writing, just like speaking, is an expressive skill that needs to be nurtured and, therefore, the mere fact that you are memorizing a story does not bring out the ability to write properly.

More so, this teacher kills the

creativity in the learners mind and hence graduates incompetent candidates to the society.

We cannot just blame a teacher for the crisis in writing. As much as technology has its own advantages, it has also come up with multiple effects to the communication skills of many today.

Urban languages and techno-languages are reflected in our way of writing. A few days ago, while going back home in the evening, I boarded a matatu that had switched on to a station that was broadcasting their evening news. The language was a strain of Kiswahili mixed with English; I could hardly assign meaning to what the news reader was saying.

Similar to this scenario is a case where a young man wanting to know what I had asked him earlier in the day wrote me a text message reading, ‘xaxa, ati ulikua unaxo’. In justification, the youth argue that I am

outdated. Unfortunately, these attributes are reflected in their writing, where they are seeking jobs and even attempting to convince an examiner to award them marks.

As I said earlier, writing is an output of listening and reading and therefore this leaves a solution of this crisis to the victim. The more you initiate yourself into a language, the better the chances of you being

competitive in it.

The writer teaches at the Nairobi University. [email protected]

***

Authors opting for African languages have tough task

By Pascal Mwandambo

The issue of writing in African languages has been a subject of discourse for many years among African scholars. The subject is controversial, with divergent views being expressed by writers, readers and literary critics alike.

Shortly after independence, most African countries, having come off the yoke of colonialism, were itching to Africanise their institutions.

Names of streets, monuments and buildings were changed to reflect an African identity.

This rebellion against the colonial oppressor was also witnessed in literature.

Any form of literature in English, though not totally discarded, had to be re-branded to reflect African cultures and values systems.

During that moment of reawakening, literature series such as African Writers Series emerged.

Most of these works largely talked about the ills of colonialism and the way forward for the fledgling African democracies.

But the catch 22 was this: Despite the literature being put in an African context, it still used “English,” the language of the colonial oppressor.

Literary scholars such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Chinua Achebe burnt the midnight oil to write African literature, works that bespoke African traditions and culture.

Chinua Achebe has probably illustrated the safest and most innocuous way of writing African literature “in English,” where characters speak in local tongues through an English medium.

Achebe was to admit the “unassailable position of English language in our literature” and was later to declare exuberantly… “I was given the language (English) and I intend to use it”.

But Ngugi was forthright: That it was a betrayal of African values to write African literature in a foreign language. To him, African literature had to be written in African languages.

Ngugi’s position stirred debate, with writers such as Prof Ali Mazrui and Prof Wole Soyinka having divergent opinions.

Ngugi, who began his illustrious literary career under the name James Ngugi, which appeared in his first, and probably the best three novels, The river between, Weep not Child and A Grain of Wheat, later

abandoned his English name to become Ngugi wa Thiong’o.

Even though he penned Petals of Blood in English, a re-branded Ngungi had his play The Black Hermit translated to Kiswahili as Mtawa Mweusi, while at the same time he penned Ngaahika Ndeeda (I will marry

when I want) and Caitani Mutharabaini (Devil on the cross).

However, his radical approach to issues of language remain subject for debate. For instance, when he talks of “the universal language of struggle” and assuming that he meant struggle of peasants and workers,

which is this “universal” language, in a Kenyan context?

True, that language could have easily passed as Gikuyu for the peasants and workers of Kamiriithu, who were ardent fans of the Ngaahika Ndeeda piece which they easily identified with.

But in a “universal” context, as he puts it, this may fall off the record, even in Kenyan context, as we have Luo, Kamba, Mijikenda or even Somali peasants and workers who need to partake of this “universal”

language of struggle. So which is this so-called “universal” in Ngugi’s parlance?

This is a clear pointer of the difficult road that African writers wishing to write in native tongues have to walk before realising this noble goal.

In fact I may belabour the point that whether we hate or love the English language, we will remain stick with it for long.

English is the medium of instruction in our education system.

To pass virtually any examination, the student must learn and understand English.

In fact for we journalists, English is not just a language, it is a tool of trade.

So inasmuch as we value and feel proud of our African languages, foreign languages such as English will be with us for many years to come. In a nutshell, it is no easy task writing in native tongues.

The writer is a freelance journalist and a blogger

***

Yes, reading has plenty of benefits to the young ones

by Tabukai J. Limo

Writing about Philani Dladla, The Pavement Bookworm from Johannesburg, South Africa (Saturday Nation, January 30, 2016), John Mwazemba said there were many lessons for us to learn from Dladla’s

fascinating story.

Mwazemba deduced three lessons from the story. First, children who form the habit of reading for leisure are likely to continue with the habit later in life. Secondly, reading books for leisure can help in

rehabilitating people. Lastly, the world is full of people who still care about books.

As titled aptly, reading pays. It perfects the communication skills of the reader. Reading also makes writers. All writers are readers, though not all readers are writers, but they can if they really wanted to be.

A reader comes by so much information in the course of reading, which shapes their character.

Burke Hedges says reading can transform life in a flash. He advises that if you want to be successful you will have to do what successful people do – read and grow rich.

Wilfred Peterson observes: “You open doors when you open books.”  The candid advise from Gustave Flaubert is: “Read in order to live.”

The innumerable benefits of reading cannot be exhausted here. In a nutshell however, reading enriches. Try it.

The writer is a motivational speaker

***

HELB interest too high for poor students

by Peninah Chepng’etich

I am a second year student in one of the public universities in the country. I am really disappointed with the interest rates charged by the Higher Education Loans Board. I thought HELB was an initiative to help poor students in higher education to further their studies; it was never meant to be the highest profit earning investment.

Secondly, why does HELB demand their money back immediately one graduates?

In the current Kenya, one stays unemployed for at least five years after graduation. Where will we get the money that HELB is demanding?

HELB should not demand for a repayment of the loans until at least one is employed. Their system is very unfair to needy students.

The writer is a student at Taita Taveta University College in Voi

***

Language key to success in examinations

By Franklin Mukembu

The desire of many schools is to perform better in national examinations. There are many factors that can contribute to better results, but a good language policy plays key role for any school to realise this dream.

Language is the saliva through which all the other subjects are swallowed.

Students who have good language command have few difficulties when it comes to comprehending the concepts  of other subjects as opposed to those who have no good language mastery. For a student to

answer any question in the required way, he or she must first understand the question.

This is only possible in schools where language policy is well set. It must become a culture. This is contrary to schools where teachers first strain to make learners understand and master language skills. All

schools teach the same stipulated curriculum. Language policy leads to good results whether we like it or not.

The writer teaches Kiswahili and Geography at Munithu Day Secondary School in Meru County