Cyclists told to request help in case of ‘incidents’ or ‘events’

The May 30 edition of the huge Nairobi broadsheet that enjoys a sizeable readership in Bongo has a story on Page 12 titled ‘I was condemned unheard, says demoted Kemri researcher’. In Para 13, the scribbler writes:

“Doctor Lutomiah told the senators that on the morning of April 17, at 6am, he received a call from ‘A Kemri STAFF’, Mr Samuel Owaka…”

I once worked with an organisation in which, now and then, upon opening my inbox, I would find a memo from some honcho, with the subject reading: To ALL STAFFS. This, I bet, was English for ki-Swahili’s ‘Kwa Wafanyakazi wote.’ Which is why I never got overly surprised when a reporter handed over to me some work containing this kind of sentence: “When I arrived at the company’s office, A STAFF at the reception desk informed me the MD hadn’t arrived.”

I would, of course, delete “a staff” and replace it with, say, “an employee” or “a worker”. We are stuck with this common goof due to our refusal to unlearn from our “Kiswanglish” background in which people say with confidence, “Mimi ni STAFU wa—” or “Sisi ni MASTAFU wa…” Old habits die hard, so goes the saying!

My Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines the noun “staff” thus: ALL THE WORKERS EMPLOYED IN AN ORGANISATION AS A GROUP. I will further copy and paste examples picked up from the same dictionary: We have 20 part-time MEMBERS OF STAFF. In American English, says our Oxford, the same sentence would be: We have 20 part-time STAFF MEMBERS.

And then, many among our colleagues in the Kiswahili media tend to venture into words or names that are English in nature, often ending up in serious trouble.

In his Saturday, June 6 piece, a veteran music columnist for Bongo’s foremost Kiswahili weekly mentions several dance styles, including Tango and BORELO. Of course, he had in mind the word BOLERO. Then he cites entertainment groups of yesteryear, two of which were, he writes, New Generation Dancing Club of Dar es Salaam and Tanga’s Young NOVERTY Dancing Club. Of course the word in caps should be written as NOVELTY.

Hello scribbler, please heed this advice: When handling words entailing the use of R and L, beware! Mixing up the letters/sounds R and L is increasingly becoming Bongo scribblers’/broadcasters’ waking nightmare!

Finally, let’s take a look at a story that appears on Page 6 of Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet of Saturday, June 6, entitled, ‘Why we need to encourage cycling to promote tourism’. Therein, the scribbler says in Para 3:

“Speaking here on Friday, Secretary General of AGA Joel Senny said we need to encourage cycling to promote tourism in the COUNTRY and that, nearly 150 riders from all over the COUNTRY…will participate in THE SO-CALLED Stage Tour event.”

There are two contentious issues here: One, using the word “country” twice is boring…monotonous! Two, referring something/someone as “the so-called” is derogative. If you said, “Abdi Sultani, the SO-CALLED Citizen columnist…”, prepare yourself for a word from my lawyer, wallah!

Here is our rewrite: “…Joel Senny said we need to encourage cycling to promote tourism in the COUNTRY, adding that, nearly 150 riders from ACROSS TANZANIA…will participate in THE EVENT DUBBED (not so-called) Stage Tour event.”

“The Tanzania Heritage Tour will be flagged off from Arusha City…where the young AGED between 15 YEARS and 45 YEARS will make a STOP at the Great Mirerani Wall…”

Now “age” is about years, so when you use the word you don’t need to qualify it with “years”. Which means, our colleague should just say this: “….the young AGED between 15 and 45 will make a STOP OVER (not just ‘a stop’) at the Great Mirerani Wall…”

In his concluding paragraph, our scribbling colleague writes:

“The association has warned that cyclists who like to practise on the roads should first notify…officials so that they can be assisted IN CASE OF EVENTS or INCIDENTS.”

What is “in case of incidents and events”? We aver that our colleague set out to say “in case of any ACCIDENTS or UNFORESEEN INCIDENTS.”

Ah, this treacherous language called English!

------------------------------------------------

Send your photos and linguistic gems to email [email protected] or WhatsApp on Tel No 0688315580