Massive humanitarian ‘aids’ and prayers mark ‘festival’ season

In a story appearing on the Friday, December 24 edition of the tabloid closely associated with this columnist, there’s this story: ‘Agents, bus owners nabbed over tickets, fares’. Therein the scribbler, reporting from the Magufuli Bus Stand, had this to say:

“Yesterday, Latra’s director general Gilliard Ngewe while at the bus stand to monitor the progress of buses travelling IN various regions, confirmed the arrest of some suspects.”

Buses travelling “in” various regions? Nope! There were “buses travelling TO various regions…”

On Page 3 of the same edition, there is a story entitled, ‘Court rejects government bid to appeal mobile money fees ruling’, and in this one, the scribbler purports to tell readers what a legal officer said:

“Elaborating ABOUT the decision, Legal and Human Rights Centre’s lawyer MJ said the High Court decision…did not touch the core issue.”

Hang on…this is yet another case of the use of preposition let someone down! Why, we don’t elaborate “about” things; we elaborate ON/UPON things.

Looking at Page 13 of the tabloid, you find story headlined, “DJ Dully WON the ‘Best Disk Jockery’ title”. I have issues with the headline, for it is like the subeditor who wrote intended to be funny, for as we all know, DJ is short for DISC JOCKEY, not disk jockery! And then, why past tense “won” instead of simple tense “wins” on the headline.

In Para 6 the scribbler reports: “The competition started on December 19, 2021 and lasted FOR 4 days.”

Hi, an activity doesn’t last “for” 4 days it LASTS 4 days. However, we can wait FOR 4 days if need be.

There is another story on the same page whose headline is, ‘Yeyo shines at ‘Take the Mic Back contest’. In this one, the scribbler writes: “On February 2019, he released…Holy VI…”

When referring to dates, “on” should only be used when you are citing a day of the week/month, otherwise the right preposition is “IN”. It means, our colleague should have said, “IN February 2019, he released…”

In the last paragraph of her story, the scribbler writes on Yeyo: “His impressive work…caught the attention of…Mr Fazi, earning him a spot under…a project dedicated to uplifting Africa’s UPCOMING artists.”

Upcoming artists? Nope…we say UP-AND-COMING artists. In Kiswahili it is “wasanii wanaoinukia.” The adjective “upcoming” is about an event/act that ia about to take place, say, on stage.

Come Saturday, December 25, and Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet had a story on Page 5 which was thus headlined: ‘Danish organisation donates to Islamic primary school in Muheza’, in which the scribbler “quotes” a school manager as saying:

“We understand THE school performance is CONTRIBUTED BY various factors but mostly ARE teachers, students themselves, teaching facilities as well as teaching ENVIRONMENTS.”

Too many issues in the quote, so I will simply attempt a rewrite: “We understand school performance is ATTRIBUTED TO various factors that include quality of teaching, students themselves, teaching facilities as well as teaching ENVIRONMENT.”

In another paragraph, the scribbler writes: “Chairman of Seniors Without Borders…said the organisation had donated many items…including humanitarian AIDS and school items.”

Humanitarian aids? Nope; we just say humanitarian AID (uncountable). Fine, in Kiswahili we talk about “msaada” (singular) and misaada (plural), but pluralising “aid” in reference to help for the needy doesn’t pass muster in English.

Lastly, something from Page 1 of Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet’s Saturday, December 25 edition. In a story entitled ‘Samia calls for peace, calmness’, the scribbler writes the following for his intro:

“As Tanzanian Christians join their COLLEAGUES around the globe to celebrate Christmas…(the President) has called for peace and tranquility in the FESTIVAL season.”

Please note: Tanzanian Christians aren’t joining “colleagues” out there to mark the birth of Jesus Christ, they are joining FELLOW Christians or their COUNTERPARTS...

And, what we are all enjoying is not a festival (noun) season; it is a FESTIVE (adjective) season.

Ah, this treacherous language called English!