OUR KIND OF ENGLISH :GM ‘outrageous’ over bank closure!

       Remember China and Tanzania have an Agreement on Destination Status. This is said to give the green light between the selected tour operators of the two nations to conduct tourism business.

Good communication isn’t just about adhering to rules of grammar; it’s also about diction, that is, the right choice and use of words. This is most crucial to journalists because readers, listeners and viewers don’t just expect to be informed on what is happening; they also look forward to improving their language skills through us.

With that short lecture, let’s now look into our basket of gems collected over the recent past courtesy of the Bongo print media. So, here we go…

On page 4 of Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet of Saturday, Jan 6, there’s a story entitled, “KFCB customers furious over BoT decision”. The news is about the concern of farmers who have been keeping for safety their hard-earned cash at the Kagera Farmers Co-op Bank (KFCB), one of the financial institutions that the BoT has closed over liquidity issues. Among those who stand to lose heavily following the KFCB closure are members of the Maendeleo ya Wakulima (Mayawa), for their grouping has three fat accounts with the bank. The reaction of their general manager (GM) is reported by a scribbler who writes:

“The GM of Mayawa, Mr Charles Kamando, was visibly OUTREGEOUS upon learning that the KFCB has been closed…”

A-a, we say! The GM wasn’t “outrageous”, for this word is an adjective which means “very shocking and unacceptable.” We’re certain the scribbler wanted to say the GM was visibly OUTRAGED (which means shocked and angered), or filled with OUTRAGE (a feeling of shock and anger) following the KFCB closure.

On the same page, there’s a story headlined, “Torrential rains leaves 3 people dead, 3 bridges destroyed” in which the Dodoma Regional Commissioner, Dr Binilith Mahenge is quoted as purportedly saying, “We have lost a COLLEAGUE at the mining site..”

A colleague of the RC at the mining site? No way! A colleague is a person you work with and we know for sure Dr Mahenge isn’t a miner; he’s senior-most government official for Dodoma Region. We believe the RC had said (compassionately) in Kiswahili “Tumepomteza MWENZETU kwenye machimbo.” Now “…mwenzetu’ in the context of Dr Mahenge’s speech should be translated as “…we have lost a COMPATRIOT (not a colleague) …”

And then, on page 10 of the Sunday, Jan 6 edition of the tabloid closely associated with this columnist, there’s a travel story entitled “Exploring HISTRORIC Meru tribe capital, Ifulong’.

The scribbler reveals in Para 3 that “Ifulong is mostly untouched by globalisation …” adding in the subsequent Para that Njoro and Poli host a culture and the Nringaringa traditional HISTORIC trees site…”

Let’s remind scribblers and sub-editors for the nth time: HISTORIC is something so extraordinary happening now that it’s almost certain to be remembered till the end of time. However, something which reminds us of the past, like Ifulong the Meru tribe capital, is HISTORICAL.

Ah, this treacherous language called English!

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