At Zambarau Gem House in Masaki, Dar es Salaam, you’re sure to get your pick of objects of beauty to make you look and feel good, but do they really deal in JEWERLY? Nope, the word is JEWELLERY, or JEWELRY in American English. Trust signwriters! PHOTO | EMMANUELE.
The human being, social sciences professionals are apt to tell us, is a political animal. And so, in a political situation in which competition for electoral offices is going on, every one of us—including scribblers—has their choice of the person they’re going to vote for.
The period between now and October 29 is quite treacherous for members of the profession touted as the Fourth Estate, or simply, journalists. Or, scribblers, as we refer to them in this space.
The human being, social sciences professionals are apt to tell us, is a political animal. And so, in a political situation in which competition for electoral offices is going on, every one of us—including scribblers—has their choice of the person they’re going to vote for. The person they’d want to be their next president, their next MP and their next councillor.
Scribblers are human too, they’re entitled to having political choices. Which is to say, if it were ethically acceptable, members of the Fourth Estate would even be free to campaign for their preferred candidates—openly.
But alas! We’re barred from doing that, unless one is reporting for a certain party’s newspaper, radio or TV station. But even with that, there’s a red line somewhere.
One is still bound to stick to conveying just truth, adhering to impartiality, balance and objectiveness. Don’t write your story in such a way that portrays you as any politician’s bootlicker—chawa in Bongo’s street lingo.
Having thus lectured (bah!), let’s move on and dwell on what this column is essentially all about, which is, dishing out linguistic gems we picked up over the past week. Here we go…
On Saturday, August 30, Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet ran an earpiece with the headline, ‘Nchimbi INSISTS stricter projects oversight.’
It looks like we’ve to keep on reprimanding our scribbling colleagues against the verb “insist,” more so when describing an action by a senior person who enjoys high authority.
A person who commands respect and authority doesn’t need to insist on things; he simply says things, orders or authorises. Our wordbook defines “insist” thus: demand something forcefully, not accepting refusal.
In this headline, the issue isn’t just about the diction that we dispute; there’s also a grammar issue. Yes, because we do not insist something! We insist ON something.
What’s more, Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi said what he said while campaigning for the ruling CCM that’s keen on retaining power via the October 29 elections. So, even if the verb “insist” were correctly used diction-wise and grammatically okay, it would still be disputed, because Dr Nchimbi was merely giving a pledge.
It means, the right word to replace “insists” would be “pledges.” Yes, a mere promise: ‘Nchimbi pledges/promises stricter project oversight.’ Or, if space allowed: ‘Nchimbi says new CCM government WILL insist ON stricter project oversight.’
Page 16 is full of pictures, one which has a caption that reads: “SOME Tanzania Prisons Service officers from Bangwe Prison in Kigoma donate blood at Kigoma Maweni Regional Referral Hospital…”
The picture is featuring three subjects. Two of the subjects are prisons officers about whom the caption writer describes as SOME officers! We argue that the use of the qualifier “some” is most unnecessary—a waste of newsprint space! Further, given that the subjects in the picture frame are just three, why shouldn’t they be named?
And now, a look at what obtains in Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet of Monday, September 1, whose lead photo has a caption that reads: “Zanzibar Electoral Commission Chairman Judge George Joseph Kazi (right) PICTURED at the commission’s offices in Unguja Urban District yesterday presenting nomination FORM to…”
What’s on the page is a picture featuring the ZEC chair; it goes without saying that the ZEC chair was pictured; so, why say it? A typical case of delivering useless information! And then, a fellow vying for a political office proceeds to the electoral commission offices to collect nomination FORMS (not nomination “form”).
Ah, this treacherous language called English!
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