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Kenya "SchoolSpeak"
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Kenya "SchoolSpeak"
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This list is a
light-hearted attempt to remember and categorise the unique blend of language
that constituted Kenya SchoolSpeak in the forties, fifties and sixties.
Christopher Collier-Wright (Nairobi Primary, Pembroke House and Prince
of Wales) and Brian McIntosh (Parklands Primary, Nakuru Primary
and Prince of Wales) compiled the first draft.
Since it was first posted on
the Web Site in September 2004, Kenya “SchoolSpeak” has received
contributions from Roy Ashworth, Jitze Couperus, Antony Williamson, Colin
McCulloch, John Albrecht, John Davis, Joan (nee) Williamson, Dave Burn, Chris
Harrison, John Heppes, and Ron Bullock. More recently,
contributions have been received from John Welford, Brod Purdy, James Storrar,
Charles Milner-Williams, Stan Bleazard, Dicky Tomasyan, Martin Langley, Thomas "Haggis" Hughes,
John Garside and Mati Glassborow. Other additions or
comments are needed. They should be sent to the Webmaster for inclusion and
acknowledgement.
Group One: non-English words
Word/Expression |
Language of
origin |
English
equivalent |
Typical Usage
|
kali sana |
Swahili Swahili |
fierce, sharp very |
Ma Murderson is
kali sana. Careful, this knife is kali. |
taka-taka |
Swahili |
rubbish |
Throw all that
taka-taka away! |
shenzi |
Swahili |
rotten, useless
mixed breed |
What a shenzi old
car! Our dog’s
a shenzi. |
fundi |
Swahili |
craftsman
(mechanic, carpenter, etc) |
These tables were
made by a local fundi. |
duka |
Swahili |
shop |
I’m going to the
duka. |
duka-wallah |
Swahili/Hindi |
shop-keeper |
The duka-wallah
lets us put things on the account. |
dawa |
Swahili |
medicine |
You must take your
dawa twice a day. |
dudu |
Swahili |
insect |
There’s a dudu in
my soup. |
fisi |
Swahili |
hyena |
(Used to indicate
greed at table.) Harries is a fisi. |
chunga |
Swahili |
check on |
You’d better chunga
the kids. |
debbie
cho (choo) |
Swahili
Swahili |
large metal can (4
gallon kerosene tin) latrine |
Carry that debbie
of water to the outside cho. |
shamba |
Swahili |
garden |
Put on your shamba
hat! |
mahindi |
Swahili |
maize cob |
We’re having
mahindi for supper. |
tinga-tinga
(onomatopoeic) |
Swahili |
pump or generator |
They switch off the
tinga-tinga at half past ten. |
piki-piki
(onomatopoeic) |
Swahili |
motor cycle |
Some of the 6th
form daybugs ride their piki-pikis to
school. |
simuni |
Swahili |
50 cent coin |
Two simunis make a
shilling. |
kikapu |
Swahili |
straw basket |
Put your toys in
that kikapu. |
jembi |
Swahili |
right-angled
shovel, possibly convertible into spade (mattock) |
These jembis are
used for digging the foundations of the chapel. |
panga |
Swahili |
long broad knife |
Use your panga to
hack down that bamboo. |
siafu |
Swahili |
safari ants |
These siafu get
everywhere. |
nini-hi |
Swahili |
what’s its name |
Could you bring me
the nini-hi from that table, please? |
boma (literal
meaning)
(sub-meaning)
(sub-meaning) |
Swahili |
1. cattle/sheep
enclosure
2. D.C.’s
(District Commissioner’s) compound 3. Kenya High School |
The cows are kept
in the boma at night.
The boma is at the top of the hill.
The girls from the heifer boma come to the house dances.
|
maridadi |
Swahili |
smart, beautiful |
We’ll decorate the
common room with bougainvillea to make it all maridadi for the house
dance. |
kuku |
Swahili |
chicken |
That kuku looks
pretty scrawny. |
shauri |
Swahili |
enquiry/witch hunt;
problem |
There was a big
shauri over who was responsible for making the pineapple pombe that
exploded under the dorm floor. |
pombe |
Swahili |
beer/illicit liquor |
Some boys tried to
make pombe from fermented pineapples. |
kibs (from
kiberiti) |
Swahili |
matches |
Have you got any
kibs? |
punda |
Swahili |
(literally)
donkey, used to mean heavy bicycle |
You’ll never manage
to ride up the hill to school on that punda. |
bombafu (mpumbavu) |
Swahili |
idiot |
You’re a bombafu! |
ngombi (Anglicised
plural ngombis)
mtu (Anglicised as
mutu) |
Swahili
Swahili |
hump-backed local
cattle
a person |
We have a mutu at
school who keeps the grass short with four ngombis hitched to a gang
mower. |
bundu |
Swahili |
bush country |
Boys are not
allowed to go into the bundu beyond the games field. |
fitina |
Swahili |
feud, dust-up |
Johnny Riddell’s
way of settling a fitina between two boys was to make them put on boxing
gloves in PT class. |
Hoteli ya Kingi
Georgi
rukhsa (ruhusa) |
“Swahili-icised
English”
Swahili |
H.M. Prison
leave, holiday |
The thieves were
sentenced to six months’ rukhsa in Hoteli ya Kingi Georgi. |
nyama (mnyama) |
Swahili |
meat |
Nyamaaaaa!
(exclamation on spying a particularly peach girl.) |
kelele |
Swahili |
noise |
Who’s making all
that kelele outside? |
wacha
matata |
Swahili
Swahili |
stop
trouble, argument |
Wacha all this
matata! |
dudu |
Swahili |
insect |
Can you kill that
dudu? |
sufuria (anglicized
plural sufurias) |
Swahili |
saucepan/cooking
pot |
Ma J makes sure
that all the sufurias are kept clean. |
chura
chura hop |
Swahili |
frog |
Did your pre make you do
chura hops down the dorm for not cleaning your shoes today? |
kufa, sometimes
anglicized to kufa’d |
Swahili |
kill or die |
The night watchman’s dog
kufa’d two rabbits near the murram pitch last week. |
funja, sometimes
anglicized to funja’d |
Swahili |
to break |
You’ve funja’d my
dinky. Now you’ll have to get me a new one. |
bundu cheroots |
Swahili/Hindi |
ersatz cigarettes made
from a type of gum tree root |
Hey, let’s go into the
forest at Government House to get some bundu cheroots! |
shauri ya mungu |
Swahili |
The will of God: fate |
I don’t know how your
pushie got frekked. Just shauri ya mungu, I think. |
chockered |
Swahili |
exhausted |
I'm too chockered to go
to the tuck shop. |
nusu nusu |
Swahili |
half and half |
Let's share our tuck nusu nusu |
|
|
|
|
pukka |
Hindi |
posh, smart |
He’s got a pukka
accent. |
dhobi |
Hindi |
laundry |
My white shirt is
at the dhobi. |
sais/syce
|
Hindi |
stable-boy |
The sais will hold
the reins. |
ayah |
Hindi |
nanny |
I walked to school
with the ayah. |
topi |
Hindi |
pith helmet |
You must wear your
topi when you go riding. |
gymkhana |
Hindi |
horse-show or
sports club |
Vanessa is going to
ride her pony at the gymkhana. |
gharri |
Hindi |
cart |
I’ll give you a
ride in the gharri. |
dak bungalow |
Hindi |
postal
service/railway rest-house |
The Kisumu train
stops at Lumbwa station long enough for us to have dinner at the dak
bungalow. |
jandha (pronounced
jundy) |
Hindi |
literally flag but
used to mean Indian (jandha wallah = red flag fellow i.e. nationalist) |
You can buy
whatever you need at the jundy duka.
The jundy bus is
usually very crowded.
Those jundy buns
cost twenty cents each. |
dekho (pronounced
decko) |
Hindi |
see, look |
Can I have a dekho
at how you parsed that paragraph for English prep? |
tekkies (pronounced
tackies) |
Afrikaans |
gym shoes |
Your tekkies are
dirty. |
voetsek (pronounced
footsak) |
Afrikaans |
Go away!
Get lost! |
Voetsek! (shouted) |
stompie |
Afrikaans |
cigarette butt
or short man |
Give me a
stompie! Who’s that stompie? |
Rooinek
(pronounced royneck) |
Afrikaans |
literally “red
–neck”; used to mean person of British origin |
There aren’t many
rooineks around Eldoret. |
plaas japie
(abbreviated and pronounced yarpie) |
Afrikaans |
literally farm boy;
used to mean Afrikaaner |
Rhodes House is
full of japies.
The japies here
include Engelbrecht and Kleynhans. |
apie |
Afrikaans |
monkey |
You’re an apie! |
naartjie |
Afrikaans |
tangerine |
I like naartjies! |
mielie (pronounced
mealie) braai |
Afrikaans
Afrikaans |
maize cob
barbecue |
You can cook that
mielie on the braai. |
bok-bok |
Afrikaans |
literally,
leapfrog; but see note at end by J. Storrar |
Let’s play bok-bok
at break |
ag sies
ag siestog |
Afrikaans
|
expression of
disgust / of endearment |
Ag sies, man,
that’s horrible.
Ag siestog, what
lovely puppies! |
donner |
Afrikaans |
Lit. thunder
hurt, assault |
My shins get really
donnered in the scrum. |
vrek, pronounced
frek |
Afrikaans |
to die or be killed |
Brown vrekked the gears
on my pushie, but we won the Coronation Safari anyway. |
Herre jong, pronounced
yarre yong |
Afrikaans |
Sacreligious expression |
Herre jong, man, did you
see Visser donner that new rooinek? |
lekker |
Afrikaans |
sweet or nice |
Durban’s a lekker place
for a holiday! |
broek (anglicised to
broeks) |
Afrikaans |
short shorts or trousers |
You can have broeks made
at Haria Cash Stores in Stewart Street. |
soutie (pronounced sote
at PoW) |
Afrikaans |
Literally salty. Used
to mean a South African Briton maintaining excessive contact with his
country of origin: one leg in Africa, the other in Britain, and the
appendage in between dangling into the salt sea. Used at the PoW to
refer to guys with a provincial English accent. |
Soutie Dine's a helluva good runner and rugger player. |
cave (pronounced as
1 syllable, as in English) cus |
Latin
Latin (custos) |
beware watch
out teacher |
Cave! Cus!
|
quis (pronounced
quiz) ego! (or, more emphatically, ego done!) |
Latin
Latin |
who
I / me |
Quis? ( Called out
when you want to get rid of
something.)Ego! (Response from person who wants to take up the above
offer.) |
pa |
Latin (pater) |
Mr |
Pa Barton is our
headmaster. |
ma |
Latin (mater) |
Mrs/Miss |
I’m scared of Ma
Farrant. |
satis (used in
satis card, a form of mobile detention)
non vix |
Latin
Latin Latin
|
enough,
satisfactory
not barely enough |
Your satis card has
to be signed by all your teachers every week.
Amoeba gave me an N.S. (non
satis) You won’t get off satis if you
only get vix. |
vamos (pronounced
vamoos) |
Spanish (we go) |
Go away! |
Shove off! Vamoos! |
Group Two: Mostly slang words, mostly
English
n.b. We have listed here the more esoteric words; we have not
included common slang words
like grub (food) or chuck (throw).
Word/Expression |
Explanation
|
Typical Usage
|
scoff |
(n)
food (v) to eat |
The scoff at school
is awful. I scoffed my lunch
in a hurry. |
dame |
a girlfriend or
sweetheart Or derogatory, meaning wet Or just
meaning a girl |
Keep your hands off
her, she’s my dame! Welford’s a dame Let’s go
and talk to that dame over there! |
peach |
pretty girl |
Janet’s really
peach. |
pre |
a prefect at school |
Davis is a pre in
Grigg house. |
trades
rabble |
dining hall
duty (a Dartmouth Naval College
term introduced in the Princeo by Captain Nicholson
R.N.)
new pupils in form 1 |
I’ll get a rabble
to do my trades for me. |
bedbug |
boarder |
Bedbugs are allowed
to go down to town twice a term on the shopping lorry. |
daybug |
a day pupil (as
opposed to a boarder) |
Loudon’s just a
daybug. |
newbug |
new kid at school |
Fletcher tells the
newbugs about the birds and the bees. |
stinker |
a day pupil |
This common room is
for the stinkers. |
pom pommy (adj) |
Someone recently
arrived from UK, with a provincial accent |
Man, what a pommy
accent! |
cuts |
Strokes with a
bamboo cane on the backside |
I got six cuts for
smoking. |
waga-paga |
waste paper basket |
Put the waga-paga
in the corner. |
jerry or chinky |
chamber pot |
There’s a jerry
under each bed in the dorm. |
porky |
triangular
indentation in a felt hat |
Only the sixth
formers are allowed to have porkies. |
man (or man alive) |
expression of
exasperation, etc |
Man! I’ve got so
much prep to do. |
swot |
(n) studious
pupil (v) study hard |
Worthy is a
swot. You’d better
swot this up for the exam. |
bags (v) |
to reserve |
Bags I this seat.
(The subject and verb could apparently be inverted.)
|
Nick he/it |
I don’t
want The person in the game of ‘tip’ etc who
has to catch the others. |
Nick be
he. |
goo |
glutinous substance
added to soil to form bricks |
Quelsh told us to
add more goo. |
swap nyabs |
exchange marbles (see below) |
I’ll swap my nyabs
for your dinky car. |
butty |
butterfly |
Where’s my butty
net? |
kicker |
baby or young child |
My kicker brother’s
a pain in the neck. |
pushie |
bicycle |
You are not allowed
to ride your pushie across the quad. |
landy |
Land Rover |
I’d like to try
driving a landy. |
cozzy |
bathing costume |
I’ve forgotten my
cozzy. |
mozzy |
mosquito |
My arms are covered
with mozzy bites. |
titch (n) titchy (adj) |
small |
O.K. All you
titches line up on that side. |
shortarse |
small/short guy |
These trousers
would fit a shortarse. |
Stick pongo bags (n) |
teasing/bullying English shorts
(or trousers) |
You’ll get a lot of
stick if your wear those long Pongo bags at the Princeo. |
ten-centis
four arses
smokers’ union |
lung-wrenching
cigarettes
Four Aces
– another brand;
also the name of a pop group
illicit gathering
of smokers at morning break time |
The gum tree
thicket beyond Grigg house is a favourite haunt of ten-centi
smokers.
The smokers’ union
meets behind the hedge on the far side of the murram hockey pitch |
Patch,
Cabbage Patch (princeo)
Duck
Pond (duko) |
Prince of Wales School, term derived from Prince of
Wales feathers on school badge
Duke of
York School, term derived from the sound of the name |
After you pass
the Kenya Prelim (Kenya Preliminary Examination, taken at the end of
primary school), you can go on to the Cabbage Patch or the Duck Pond. |
logs |
a claim |
You can borrow my
crystal set but I’ve got logs on it. |
sheathie |
sheath knife |
You’ll need a
sheathie at the scout camp. |
frenchie or
johnny |
french
letter/condom |
(Young innocent)
The barber asked me if I required anything for the weekend. What did
he mean? (Know-all) A frenchie, of course! |
reg |
Kenya Regiment |
Are you looking
forward to the reg? |
bunk (over) (v) |
go without
permission |
Dare we bunk over
to the boma on Sunday? |
frogs’ eggs |
Tapioca pudding
|
Ag sies, we’re
having frogs’ eggs today. |
Tanganyika mud |
Chocolate
blancmange (speciality of Hawke/Grigg dining hall) |
Ma Jessop’s
Tanganyika mud is a real treat. |
slash |
have a pee |
I can’t wait to
have a slash. |
spare |
feel
awkward/embarrassed |
I felt spare when I
realized my bags were torn. |
grease out of
be gated |
avoid be confined to school |
I greased out of working party but
WillieMac gated me for the rest of term |
crus |
Crusaders
|
You’ll get a fantastic tea if you go to
crus on Sunday afternoon. |
carrot |
term used to
indicate someone is an idiot (a donkey) |
Give
him
a carrot! |
scratch |
term used at the
boma to indicate idiocy |
Scratch, scratch! (accompanied by
scratching motion at the arm-pit) |
foofie-sliding |
sliding down a
hill, preferably on a tray |
Ma Jessop is fed up with Grigg boys
using the metal trays to foofie-slide down the valley. |
scavenging |
picking up paper
and other rubbish |
Saturday’s working party will go
scavenging around the Oval. |
shindy (derived
from shindig) |
loud noise,
disturbance, trouble |
Quit that shindy! |
compound (derived
from Malay kampong) |
school grounds,
campus |
Boys are not allowed to leave the
compound without a leave pass. |
godown (derived
from Malay godong) |
warehouse, store |
The new beds for the dormitory are
still in the godown. |
jankers |
military punishment
(CCF) |
Those on jankers will tidy up the
armoury. |
catty |
catapult |
I fired my catty at the monkeys in the
trees and they started pelting me with nuts! |
bog-brush |
short haircut,
leaving the hair erect in eponymous fashion |
Jake was extremely angry when he saw
that those boys had bog-brushes. |
quad |
abbreviated form of
quadrangle |
Only school pres can
walk on the grass in the quad. |
nyabs |
marbles, sub-meaning
testicles |
Warren got hit in the
nyabs when Scott was playing Rhodes. |
standards |
Minimum requirements in
athletics and swimming |
Have we got standards
this arvo? |
leave-out |
exeat from school |
I’m going on leave-out
with Tor Allan next weekend. |
arvo |
Corruption of afternoon |
I’ve got a detention
this arvo, so I can’t go foofie-sliding in the Valley. |
dinkies or dinks |
diecast toy cars/trucks
made by Meccano or Corgi |
Let’s go and play dinks
over there! |
San |
abbreviated form of
sanatorium (sickbay) |
Ma Welford is the new
San Matron – I hear she’s pretty kali. |
Weh! (prounounced
way but breathlessly) |
Expression of awe or
amazement |
Weh! That was a good
shot, man. |
pull finger |
get a move on |
We need to pull finger
if we’re going to win this match. |
heng - derived from heck/hell |
incredible/fantastic |
Englebrecht did a heng of a tackle in the
last house match. |
swank (n and v) |
show off, boast |
O.K. – we all know you
got your colours last week. Stop swanking about it. |
swogger |
To hit a ball really
well, hard and accurately |
Man you
really swoggered that one! |
grog |
a fairly unpleasant linctus that was served
up to malingerers visiting the "San" ....... (see more below) |
The grog they just gave me at the San was kali sana |
NyabSpeak Supplement
Term |
Meaning |
faunch |
a foul shot |
steelie |
ball bearing used as a nyab |
bulls eye |
direct hit |
keepies |
no whining if you lose |
Bags nick-ennings |
I don’t want any exclusions or
reservations |
nick-faunchies |
no foul shots |
bombies |
firing
the nyab from above |
halfcasts |
|
jundy flick |
powerful middle finger flick (Indian
style) |
allie |
mega nyab |
japs |
glass marbles with a
coloured twisted insert |
spiders, blood-shots,
clayees, cats’ eyes, clearies |
varieties of nyabs designated in
accordance with their appearance |
bulls eye (2) |
a large nyab |
banana, banana bender |
A curving shot played by
imparting lots of spin to a nyab with a particular type of jundi flick. |
keepers |
Game where you got to
keep the nyabs you knocked out of the ring. The converse of a friendly
game where each player got to keep their own nyabs after the game was
over. |
Nyabs
A note by Jim Storrar
(Intermediate/Hawke, 1961-65)
Let's talk Nyabs. ( Gololi in Swahili,)
Playing Marbles, ..... Tufe ndogo ya jiwe.
- Marbles,..... or some of them, were made
of Marble.
- Aggies (Nyabs) were made of Agate;
- Alleys (" " ") were made of Alabaster;
- Immies, ... were imitations of all of the
above,made of glass.
- Chinas ..... you've got my drift.
- clayees, .... ...... ;
- Glassies Puries or Clearies were single
colour clear glass and often highly prized.
- Sodies, .... (Afrikaans) were the clear
glass stoppers, removed from Soda bottles, by breaking the pinched neks.
- Milkies, .... Opaque or milky white
nyabs.
- Commoneys or Commies, were your everyday
nyabs.
A note on Steelies, ..... I can remember
playing nyabs, on a regular but fairly daunting basis with a chap called -
"Grosse", by name and nature, whose Dad ,who worked for East African Airways as
a mechanic , had furnished his favourite son with a ballbearing the size of a
tennis ball, that came out of an aircraft propeller. This relatively unpleasant
fellow, would unveil this monster, from his nyab bag, when occasion allowed, in
order to drop a "Bombie" on any unfortunate player's nyab, who had failed to say
..... "Nick faunchies, nick Bombies, nick ennings ," The inevitable result was,
a powdered nyab, depending on the playing surface or a sure hit. Needless to
say, he never missed and he would never hazard his prized possession on a chancy
shot. As you can rightly surmise, he was despised, yet everyone hoped to wrest
this worthy trophy from him, at great cost.
- "Fudging, Histing and Hunching," were all
Pongo words for ... "Faunching".
- Lagging", ..... Apart from flipping a coin, or
going through the Eenie -Meenie -Mo ,routine, or winner goes first. One of the
main methods of establishing who shoots first, was to chalk or draw in the
dirt, a line, known as the "Pitch Line". A nyab was pitched or flicked towards a
parallel line, ( The "Lag Line" ,) about fifteen feet away. The player whose
nyab is closest to the "Lag Line," on either side of it , goes first.
- Mibs, ... The target marble.
- Taw, ... the marble you are shooting with.
- "Fairsies," .... The opposite of "Keepsies,'"
Playing for fun, in other words, no permanent exchange of nyabs.
That's all I can remember at the moment, as
the facility of total recall has been compromised by the ravages of time and a
fairly dissolute adulthood.
I do hope this triggers some pleasant
memories for some old "Kenya Cowboys," who I know would still knuckle down for a
game of nyabs, if the opportunity presented itself.
Salaams, Jim
Storrar
Racy References
Word/Expression |
Explanation
|
Typical Usage
|
spoof |
Semen, or ejaculation of
semen |
Can you spoof yet? |
jock, or on jock |
Erection |
I went on jock in Ma
Broomfield’s class today – it was really embarrassing. |
roundhead |
Word to denote a
circumcised penis or a person with one. |
Moffat’s a roundhead |
cavalier |
Word to denote an
uncircumcised penis or a person with one. |
(To a newbug:) Hey, are
you a roundhead or a cavalier? |
kufanya jiggy-jig
Swahili/Hindustani |
To make the two-backed
beast |
Some boys got expelled
for having jiggy-jig at a station hoteli on the train ride back to
school. |
Bok-Bok
A note by Jim Storrar
(Intermediate/Hawke, 1961-65)
I noticed with some
amusement, the entry in your school speak section, of the words "Bok-Bok" the
explanation for which is.... Leap frog. Whilst the opening sequence of play
superficially resembles leapfrog, all other similarities end there.
The rather endearing
term.... "Leap Frog" implies some sort of benign children's' game, free from
violence and not of a highly competitive nature. Nothing could be further from
the truth.
Bok-Bok is a very ancient
game, played in Roman times. The cry at the opening of the game was; ... Bucca
Bucca quot sunt hic? The game is similar to the English Public School game
called ... High (Hey) Coackalorum. They shout "Stand rigid, how many
fingers on your body"? In Kenya, the opening cry was.... "Bok-Bok, staan styf.
Hoeveel vingers op jou lyf?”
There is a painting by
Breughel of children's games in which the game is illustrated. Anyway, enough
of all that pedantry, as it was only a game, much enjoyed by South Africans,
Boeties, young Sikh men and Rugby players.
There are rules, the most
important of which was that all rules were there to be broken. If there was a
referee and they were usually Hors de Combat or on the blind side of play; they
were supposed to adjudge:- that misdemeanours such as .. eye gouging, kidney
punching, rib breaking, hair pulling and rearranging of the cosmatokkers with
the skilful back heel kick as .... foul play. The penalty suffered by the
offending team was to endure the gruelling mauling that was the automatic
consequence of being the bucking (notice care in spelling) or Bokking team. It
sure as hell wasn't a game for the faint hearted and I believe it was proscribed
by the authorities in most of the girly houses at Prinso, nevertheless it was
played with great enthusiasm by the okes in Rrrhodes and Hawke and people whose
surname began with "van".
I dread to think what
would have happened to anyone with the temerity to say, in a well-honed English
accent, "Anyone for a game of leapfrog"? Then having to explain how they
sustained a faceful of multiple injuries down at the San.
Years ago, I tried to
explain how the game was played, to the blokes in our Pub Tug o' War team, as I
felt it might make our training sessions more interesting. The general
consensus afterwards, ... never again, far too rough. I hasten to add that it
would be tedious if not incomprehensible to even begin to explain the
intricacies of the game through this medium.
This is not meant to be a
criticism of your team of lexicographers but merely an addendum. I reckon that
later on I might be able to fill in a few more gaps in your dictionary.
Salaams, Jim
Storrar
Postscript by Jim
Storrar
Further to all this stuff about Bok-Bok, I can add a little bit more
about scoring and strategy, which may not have been universal but were
fairly consistent.
Scoring
Once a member of the running team was committed to and had started his
run, he was not allowed to stop, restart or miss the target ,any of
these was counted as falling off and therefore the running team were
"out".
If any part of any runners' body touched the ground once aboard the
Bokking team, that was counted as falling off.
Sometimes, by agreement, the runners would defer from landing fists
first on the down team.The Bokking team had to remain connected otherwise a break
was counted as a collapse.
The rearmost chap of the down team had to remain motionless until the
first runner was actually on the move.
There was no limit on the number of runners that could be sent in one
go, however, teamwork and some pretty fancy footwork was needed to get
more than one bloke up in the air at once, as any confusion could stop
the run and make your team "out".
Strategy Normally, in the Bokking team, the end guy would be the toughest and
tallest in the team, as he took the brunt of the attack and his height
would disadvantage the smaller and less athletic runners. The heaviest
and most sturdy guys would be in the middle, as inevitably this was were
most of the runners concentrated their forces and the smaller guys
would be up at the front out of harm's way.
The Bokking and swerving was extremely tiring and increased the risk of
becoming disconnected, instructions came from the guy at the front and
the chap at the back who were the only guys who could see what was going
on, as to the most opportune moments to move and thus conserve
energy.
The runners would usually send their heaviest guy first, as part of a
shock and awe tactic, provided he was athletic and nimble enough to be
able to change direction on the run and make that initial big leap and
then scramble down the backs to make room for his team mates.
Without the weight of any runners on board, the Bokkers were at their
most mobile at this time. As long as they could jump high enough, the
alternative strategy was to get all the smaller guys on first as they
were agile enough to make their way up to the front and most vulnerable
part of the Bokking teamNaturally, none of the above mattered a damn, if the game degenerated
into a no rules, no holds barred affair, which was the norm. Great fun
was had by all. Occasionally, the shout of "Bok- Bok" would ring out
and every chap in the vicinity would turn up for a mass game which
was organized chaos but a helluva lota laughs.
Grog
A note by Jim Storrar
(Intermediate/Hawke, 1961-65)
I noticed that the word "Grog" doesn't
appear in your dictionary. Whatever else it might mean in the outside
world, it had it's own connotation as far as Prinso was concerned.
Grog was a fairly unpleasant linctus
that was served up to malingerers visiting the "San". It was
administered in a little shot glass by Matron or one of her
unsympathetic and cynical helpers. The medicament came in two colours,
... Brown , which tasted of Victory "V"s dissolved in white spirit and
was a cure-all for all ailments that could be categorized as Flu.
The second potion was White, .. It
tasted of chalky disinfectant and was the primary cure for all
alimentary complaints.
These panaceas were kept in two huge
flagons on a shelf in the dispensary which you could view with some
trepidation as you sucked on the thermometer while you tried to figure
out how to get your temperature to "go off the clock."
It was necessary to endure the
consumption of either of these foul potions, as part of a wider strategy
to acquire a small slip of paper with matron's signature that enabled
the bearer to be late for or avoid Flag Parade, Chapel, Detention or
some other irksome activity or even Games. However the end game was to
put on an acting performance that would hopefully get you a berth in the
"San" without preventing you from missing an exeat.
The "San" was a marvellous institution. It was a quite sequestered
building, all set about with Poinsettias , Frangipanis, Grevillea and
Jacaranda trees. A respite from trades, rabble calls, fagging, satis
cards, working party and Latin. A patient could slowly recover from a
terminal illness, moping about in a nicely decorated ward with cool
breezes blowing in from the veranda and access to an eclectic selection
of reading matter and of course, better food. Needless to say,
engineering a stay in the "San" was well nigh impossible, unless of
course you were ill, an uncommon state of affairs for most Kenya boys.
Yours aye, Jim Storrar.
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Rabble Calls
Charles Milner
Williams (Hawke 1958-63) defines these
unwelcome intrusions on the liberty of junior boys in the following
terms:
Rabble calls: these
were the prerogative of prefects, and I think until about 1959, sixth
formers. A bellow would resound through the house
"RABBLE" and all the junior dorm had
to leap from bath, bed, cho or wherever to do
the great one's bidding. These calls seem to happen most often after
games and before supper, although I do remember the odd early-morning
call. The last one to arrive had to go to the tuck-shop, clean kit -
CCF kit was not
to be done, I recall. I don't know how long they went on after I had
left.
Stan Bleazard
(Grigg/Rhodes/Scott, 1945-8) provides an example of a Rabble call
in an unusual setting:
Scene: Maji Mazuri
Station, between Eldoret and Nakuru, at 3 a.m. one morning in 1945.
Faint at first, then
strongly from just beyond station limits, the Garratt's siren blasted
warning of its imminent arrival. The mist that way began to visibly
brighten. Turning into the final straight, the loco's beam suddenly
exposed the three of us in brilliant light. Blinking, we turned away in
response. Underfoot, I distinctly felt the ground shake as the
juggernaut approached and rushed passed. The moment darkness resumed a
blast of heat from the loco's firebox hit us. The screech of iron shoes
grinding against steel wheels jarred my teeth as the driver applied
brakes to every carriage. Finally the train stopped with a shudder. The
Ticket Examiner flashed his torch at us to show me to my reservation. As
usual, at 0300 hours I was the only person to board.
Struggling to shove my
trunk through the entrance doorway, I twisted my thumb on its beastly
metal handle. Most compartments were still lit, so it was easy to find
mine. Entering, I greeted two glum looking young fellows who only
grunted a response. The Garratt's siren sounded and we were soon moving.
I was hardly settled when shouts of 'Rabble' emanated from
somewhere at the end of the corridor. Such address was of course unusual
and, ignorant of its meaning I at first ignored it. I felt people were
rude making such a lot of noise at this hour. Not many seconds elapsed,
however, before I was forcibly seized by a couple of ruffians,
manhandled to the far compartment and persuaded to introduce myself to
several other aspiring thugs. The air inside was full of smoke and it
stank of beer. From their intense questioning, I was soon aware that
they wished to find grounds for unfair criticism, or any reason at all
to mindlessly berate me. Much of this was demeaning, especially
aspersions about my heredity. Having exhausted their verbal assault on
me, they then demanded I sing for their entertainment. Not well gifted
with this facility, my various attempts brought only displeasure, which
brought on physical abuse to encourage me to perform better. What
followed need not be recorded in detail. Fortunately my vilification did
not last because more pupils boarded at Sabatia, the next station. With
my tormentors' attention momentarily diverted, I escaped and made as
fast as I could to the furthest end of the train. I spent the next hours
until daybreak squatting with difficulty in an oriental style toilet.
That was how the journey for my secondary education began, which turned
out by comparison to have been typical experience for most of us. |
Sixies/Safeties
(as
recalled by Antony Williamson (Grigg 1956-9)
In case of
flatulence (which was frequent with all that cabbage in our diet!)
one had to call out 'safeties' as soon as possible after the act.
Failure to do so would result in someone calling out 'sixies',
whereupon the offender would receive six punches on the upper arm.
A variant was to
call out 'six stations', whereupon the offender would continue to be
punched on the arm until he named six railway stations.
Sometimes the six
had to be named in their order on the Uganda, Mombasa or Nanyuki
lines.
This little ritual
was more common in primary school. An inopportune moment of
flatulence at Princo could lead to a fist in the face, especially if
performed upwind of a Jaap!
Literal translation and punning supplement
Colonial officials in distant
bomas (and perhaps in the secretariat too) were sometimes inclined to spend
a few idle minutes playing word
games. Further examples are invited:
Swahili expression |
English translation |
Haraka, haraka, haina
baraka |
This
translates as "The more haste the lesser the blessing", or as an English
proverb, "More haste, less speed." However, it was frequently translated
by perplexed Colonial Office examinees as "Hark, Hark. The Hyenas bark."
Charles Chenevix Trench in Men Who Ruled Kenya cites the case of
the Bwana D.C. Sharpe at Garissa. He had two long drop conveniences
dug. One, adjacent to his house, was called Haraka (Haste); the other,
at the bottom of the garden, surrounded by flowering shrubs, with an
idyllic view up and down the River Tana, plentifully supplied with
copies of The Field, Country Life and The Tatler, was called
Baraka (Blessing). |
maridadi simba |
a dandy-lion |
wewe kuni kuni wewe |
You would, would you? |
Askari ya maji baridi |
Coldstream guard |
nini jembe |
What Ho!! |
|
|
Swahili
Examinations
Many tales were told about the Swahili examinations which officials had
to pass if they sought promotion or augmented income.
This old chestnut came from the late Len Gill (Grigg,
1944-48):
"At
one time recently arrived government officials were encouraged to learn
a bit of Swahili. They were given an oral exam by their boss, whose own
knowledge of the language was iffy.
'How would you say, come here?' asked the examiner.
'Kuja 'apa,' was the reply.
'How would you say, go there?'
The examinee walked across the room, turned and said, 'Kuja 'apa.'
'That's right. You've passed Elementary Kiswahili. You'll be paid
an extra fifteen bob a month.' Deep sigh of satisfaction."on."
And
Fritz Goldsmith, who used to treat his 5 Arts Government classes to some
sessions on Kenya’s history and constitutional development, recounted
this tale:
“An
examinee who was marked down as a failure was given a lift home by the
examiner. En route they suffered a puncture. The spare tyre was put
on but proved to be fairly flat. A car was flagged down but the
examiner was unable to explain to the driver in Swahili that he needed a
foot pump.
‘If I can get one, can you pass me?’ asked
the examinee.
‘Certainly, old chap.’
‘Sisi na taka puff puff’ led to the instant
production of a pump.” |
Speakers of Kiswahili safi can cite
tongue-twisting examples of alliteration.
John Allen recalls the
following:
Wale wa Liwali wale wali
= The people of the coast should not eat cooked rice!
( Pronounced waliwaliwaliwaliwali)
Usikule kukuu usiku ya Siku Kuu =
Don't eat chicken on Christmas Eve.
J an
van Someren Graver writes as follows:
The Kiswahili sentence Wale hauwali wali wa Liwali Ali
was sometimes lengthened by the examiners by the addition of one word:
Watu wale hauwali wali wa Liwali Ali.
It was used as a test of comprehension in oral tests and as a tongue
twister and was rattled off as fast as possible.
The meaning is: Those people do not eat the (boiled / cooked) rice
of the headman Ali.
Another one used by the examiners was: Use guse ganda,
which means do not clear up / sweep away the peel.
The test usually ended with the examiner nonchalantly looking up at the
ceiling then asking, "... and what is the Kiswahili word for the
ceiling?"
For those of us who worked in the Civil Service, every language or
vernacular in which we were able to demonstrate the required level of
competence also gained us a 30/- per month pay rise - it covered the
better part of the cost of a crate of Tusker. Well worth it for those of
us who lived in the pori.
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