Kenya "SchoolSpeak"

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 6^th 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.

Typical Usage

Explanation

Typical Usage