READERS' CORNER: ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’ actually talks about Kenya

Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, the revered author of Things Fall Apart and The Trouble with Nigeria who has been called the father of modern African literature. Photo/FILE

What you need to know:

  • In Kenya, tribalism is a cancer. It kills. The unfortunate part of this, however, is that a noble idea like devolution is, ironically, now the greatest contributor to the rot.

  • A look at advertisements in national dailies is clear evidence to this fear, particularly when it comes to the point of short-listing.

  • If an applicant does not trace roots in the county and probably speak the local tongue, chances of employment are instantly dashed.

READERS' CORNER: ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’ actually talks about Kenya

FRANCIS O. ODIPO

Timelessness is a key feature in a quality work of art. Coupled with creative and thoughtful craftwork, alongside issues touching on humanity, the piece courageously lives beyond time. That is the tale in The Trouble with Nigeria by Chinua Achebe.

The book is very applicable to the current Kenyan situation. It is as if Achebe wrote for Kenyans. Sample this.

“There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the

challenge of personal example, which is the hallmark of true leadership”

The Trouble with Nigeria, published in 1984, accurately depicts what was then ailing Africa’s most populous nation. In penning it, Achebe never knew that 30 years later, this account would apply more to the Kenyan situation than it did to Nigeria then.

The extract from one of the 10 very creative chapters of the 63 page book, the quotation is very prophetic. In this section, the book indicts all those in Kenya claiming to be in positions of leadership. It points a finger at religious leaders, those in academic

leadership, family, political, business, youth, and those in the civil society. Their inability to live by personal example is the greatest contributor to the crisis in Kenya today. These leaders have abdicated their social responsibility to politicians.

The political class has taken advantage to design the rules of the game to its advantage.

In the second section Achebe says: “Nothing in Nigeria’s political history captures her problem of national integration more graphically than the chequered fortune of the word tribe in her vocabulary.”

In Kenya, tribalism is a cancer. It kills. The unfortunate part of this, however, is that a noble idea like devolution is, ironically, now the greatest contributor to the rot. A look at advertisements in national dailies is clear evidence to this fear, particularly when it

comes to the point of short-listing. If an applicant does not trace roots in the county and probably speak the local tongue, chances of employment are instantly dashed.

Chapter five starts by saying: “In spite of the tendency of people in power to speak about this great nation of ours, there is no doubt that Nigerians are among the world’s most unpatriotic people.” Can anything different be said about Kenyans?

Don’t Kenyans feel sophisticated and enlightened when their children display ignorance of their local tongues as they demonstrate exemplary competence in English and other similar tongues? Haven’t you seen Kenyans flying the US and UK flags in their

vehicles?

“Indiscipline pervades our life so completely today that one may be justified in calling it the condition per excellence of contemporary Nigerian society.” This is how the king of letters starts chapter seven. A day’s sourjourn to Kenya by a foreigner will bring

the visitor face to face with a very indisciplined lot.

The public transport lead the pack followed by the political class. The business class comes in third followed by the religious class.

In the second paragraph of chapter eight Achebe says: “My frank and honest opinion is that anybody who can say that corruption in Nigeria has not yet become alarming is either a fool, a crook or else does not live in this country.” Mentioning corruption in

Kenya is like blinking. Goldenberg, Anglo-leasing, Triton, maize, the Sh109,000 wheelbarrow, ‘chickengate’, Eurobond and other minor ones are common. A Supreme Court Judge is fighting for survival over a  Sh200 million bribe allegation.

Because of the magnitude of corruption, Kenya is yet to conquer poverty, ignorance and disease, the three threats that have existed since independence.

The few sections extracted from The Trouble with Nigeria clearly show why Kenyans should read the book. There has never been a mirror for Kenyans in history than this book.

 

The writer is a motivational speaker, author of Stella at Crossroads and the Bridgeline Revision Series, a facilitator in national workshops and seminars and a commentator on matters education.

 

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Why we need more studies on Sheng

SOLOMON KHAEMBA

 

While many linguistic scholars have been mulling over the widespread use of Sheng, it is also true that there is paucity of academic research on the language. Speakers of the slang are often associated with urban decadence. The world over, most youths prefer to communicate using discreet language. This poses a challenge to parents and teachers.

There have been fears that the use of Sheng may negatively impact on language learning in schools.

In the not-too-distant past, it was punishable to speak mother tongue in school surroundings. These days, however, standard and not-very-standard Kiswahili and English are the main media of communication in Kenyans schools.

Sheng is a hybrid code or slang that makes its own coinages and borrows from Kiswahili, English and the surrounding mother tongues, depending on the locality. Hence there are semantic and lexical variations of the slang as used say at the Coast, Nairobi or certain countryside locations.

In his authoritative book, Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society, Peter Trudgill reveals that speakers may use language to define situations as they wish and to convey nuances of meaning and define personal intention. It is in this regard

that you will hear Sheng lexical codes such as makarao; mapai; gava/police being used by touts and the criminal underworld.

This brings to the fore platforms for the dissemination of the Sheng idiom. The matatu culture from the 1980s has been a notorious culprit.

Another seemingly unimagined yet remarkable fact about environments for spread and sprout of Sheng relates to secluded settings in general. In this case, scrutinise the slang in police cells, remands and the isolated recruit and armed forces platforms. Special brands of Sheng usage tend to mushroom in these areas.

As far as platforms of Sheng dissemination go, an outstanding element is the frenzy of modernity and vogue desire in communication versus the role of the electronic media. Popular broadcast media lends a special advantage to mooting new words.

The underlying high probability of Sheng as a growing language is seen in its inventive coinages at the toponymic level. A toponym is a term used to refer to place names. In this instance, sample Sheng uses of place names such as Kibich (Kibera) and Bangla (Kariobangi).

Sociolinguists are yet to agree on whether Sheng has achieved a creole status. A creole is defined as an advanced pidgin.

Perhaps we should now pause and ask, can Sheng drown the status of Kiswahili and English and native tongues in Kenya and East Africa or is it a mere ephemeral social development?

 

 

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Why learning should never end in the lecture halls

DENISH ODANGA

Academic achievement can be a bruising experience. However, should we sit pretty and feel good with our PhDs? Gone are the days of Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and Ngugi wa Thiong’o, when going to university was inconsequential to writing.

The latest crop of scholars believes that good writing comes with university education, which is a fallacy. Many celebrated writers achieved their revered status through fusing life circumstances, not university education. Fredrick Douglass, an African

American slave, for example, wrote his autobiography, The Autobiography of Fredrick Douglass (1945), despite not having gone to school.

Yet the best that our scholars of literature can do is engage in negative criticism of the works of upcoming writers.

Kenyans are creative, only that we are lazy. This laziness has crept into the academic ladder. Serious issues, written in relatively long prose, attract the least audience on Facebook compared to lewd photos.

It is high time scholars of literature re-examined their absence from the social media. Our society today is faced with social rot best described in Ayi Kweyi Amah’s The Beautyful Ones are not yet Born: “Rotten in body, mind and soul.” This is fodder for serious literature.

Yet our focus on money as a reward for academia has clouded our sense of imagination. Worse still, with all the laziness, the little we are able to produce is devoid of objectivity. This is because we have become involved in ethnic politics. Consequently, our critical lenses have tilted in favour of the watchman that we should be watching.

Who then is going to watch the watchman? Scholars of literature must resume their quest for truth. To do this, we must be steered by Wole Soyinka’s The Fourth State. Soyinka’s framework of the stage is made up of four zones: The three states of matter — solid, liquid, and gas. The fourth is the medium of either, an intractable, intangible phase of experience. The first stage is the past of the ancestors — pre-existence. The present are the living which stretches the imagination through the present. The future is for the unborn. The fourth stage is the resolution ground for imaginative action, dreams, twilight, the loss of consciousness and the split moments just before birth or death.

True scholars of literature must feel intractable and stand high above the forces.

 

The writer is a postgraduate student of literature at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University and a teacher at Wamy High School, Nairobi

 

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Tree branches are symbols of tranquility

ALI DAYIB

 

Let me respond to Zukiswa Wanner’s article (Saturday Nation, January 30, 2016). We live in interesting times where the A-Z of life is to earn an extra coin by hook or crook.

Kenyan workers, especially teachers, are a demoralised and dejected lot. Their strikes are perennial.

Last year, their 50-60 percent pay hike was thrown out. One or two of their colleagues committed suicide out of frustration.

During the strike, teachers realised that branches, vuvuzelas and street demonstrations were archaic hence they resorted to sufurias, spoons and whistles to drive their point home.

These utensils signified hunger, though some of the striking teachers had pot-bellies.In the long run, the teachers were beaten by the government. My advice is that next time they go on strike, the well-fed ones should avoid the full glare of the cameras.

Green branches symbolise peace.

 

Ali Dayib teaches English at Sabunley Secondary School in Wajir county

 

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We have stake in review of curriculum

FRANKLIN MUKEMBU

 

The ongoing review of Kenya’s education curriculum is timely. The 8-4-4 system requires some adjustments.

The syllabus is very wide and requires extra time outside the stipulated time frame to complete ahead of national examinations.Teachers understand this system.

This is the reason they need to be fully involved in its review. They will provide the correct information to the curriculum reviewers.

By involving them, teachers will own the new system. After all, they are the ones who will implement it.

The current system has overburdened learners and encouraged rote learning for examination purposes.

 

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