by Patrick Mutahi

Special to G21 Africa

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Patrick Mutahi

Nairobi, KENYA - What identifies a people? Language? Wrong. Clothing? Maybe.

The youth in Kenya have developed a language that is synonymous with them but it is not standard everywhere it is spoken. The language, known as sheng , is a mixture of English and Kiswahili. It is thought that the language was developed in the 1980's by youth living in the urban areas with an aim of having a language that they could easily converse among themselves without other people (read "guardians") knowing what they were discussing.

The guardians did not take it lightly and there was hue and cry all over that the language was eroding English, which is the official language spoken in the country. Furthermore, they said that standard of Kiswahili, which is also taught in schools and is the national language, was going down. What they did not say however was that they (guardians) were feeling left out in the conversations of the youth that could now converse freely among themselves without their talk being eavesdropped upon.

Imagine a family having a chat in the sitting room and the sister and brother are conversing in sheng with a conversation going thus: Manze huyu mbuyu anacheki kama yeye ni nani. Si akae masaa ndiyo mahewa ianguke na tuite wale mabeste tuhepi. Meaning: " Why can't Dad leave the house so that we can turn on the loud music and call our friends to have a party?" Another woukd go like thus: Nataka kutoanisa mbuyuz soo rwambe niende nikawake hii sato na wale masupuu wa Karen. Meaning: "I want to sweet talk Dad to give me two hundred shillings so that I can go and drink on Saturday with those beautiful ladies from Karen.'"

Now, which parent can't be annoyed when such conversation is going on in their presence yet they can't understand a word?

It is not all the youth that are associated with the language but only those that can be classified as belonging to the low class. Those from the upper class have stuck with speaking in English, mostly that spoken by the black Americans. These Ebonics speakers have been given the name wababi meaning "from Babylon."

Apart from the above youth, the wababi language is associated with people who work in the informal sector for example the bus conductors, artisans, and handworkers among other people. These people use the language despite their age and status in the society. Since these classes of people form the largest bulk of the population in the urban areas, and they do most of the informal business, many people, apart from the youth have resorted to learning the language. This enhances their bargaining power when doing business with them since those who speak to them in English are seen as belonging to the upper class and thus they have a lot of money. The business people will thus, by design, sell to them their wares at a higher price than those who speak sheng.

Sheng is a dynamic and unpredictable language. It changes with time and location, meaning that the sheng spoken in one town is different from the one spoken in another town.

Be it in the vocabulary, sentence structure or syntax. Speakers of the language have the liberty to come up with their own words and sentence structure, as they deem fit. What one only needs is to have a few friends understand what you are saying and thus the conversation flows.

The rest of the people can know the new words later or alternatively come up with their own words. This means that there is no standard sheng spoken anywhere.

While the language has become widespread, the linguists in our country have not paid much attention to it, dismissing it as a non-language. Maybe that decision is because of the negative connotations attached to it by many people.

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PATRICK MUTAHI says of himself: "I have been involved in doing a lot of human rights work and working with various organisations to make Kenya a country free of human rights violations. Most of the articles I write have a bias towards human rights but I also do articles on the social life of Kenyans. I have been published in various local publications and international ones like the Human Rights Tribune. . However, I also like having a nice time with my friends and taking life easy from the daily hassles. Language and Literature are some of the fascinations in my life. I love reading African literature and literary criticism pieces to enhance my criticism power. " This is his first feature for The World's Magazine.