By Crazy Monday Correspondent
In the early 1980s, no radio 'salaams' programme was complete without the host reading the hottest colloquial rider or ujumbe of the time: Keep on keeping on!
This meant you should take life easy. And while household salaams fans like Robi Reuben Robi, Rachel de Clemens, Misheck Ben Matatizo and G K Mwaura of Molo may not have originated this slang, they certainly helped in its perpetuation.
Nowadays, the clarion call is mikono juu and piga nduru where people are asked to scream their heads off, like banshees, at the climax of a song be it in a disco or religious crusade.
Linguistic forms
Welcome to Kenya’s wealth of slang words and colloquialisms, which cut across the generations. Even our two principals have made their contributions to this rich argot.
The prezzo has on many occasions described idling as kurega rega and gave us the all time gem: Kujienjoy. The Prime Minister is famously credited with the one liner nusu mkeka, which means a less than cordial (half carpet) reception!
Slang often involves deviation from standard language. And while it tends to be popular among adolescents, it is used by all age groups in society. This jargon frequently involves the creation of new linguistic forms or adaptation of older ones. Frequently, it involves the creation of a secret language understood only by those within a particular group. Colloquial speech is an informal spoken language but unlike slang terms, it is a familiar speech and can be understood by everyone. Colloquial speeches do not normally carry a vulgar or rude denotation.
In the golden 1970s and 1980s, imbibing alcohol was euphemistically called kupiga maji or kuchapa maji. This is what they nowadays call kushikisha steam, kuwaka or soaking. And while the frothy stuff they take may not have changed in its active ingredients, its street name, however, has evolved across the generations, from mtindi to pints, keroro, tei and gauge.
A generation ago, properly soaked brethren would stagger along footpaths amid much song, calling on the power of their previous map reading in their shaky legs and woozy brains to see them home.
But nowadays drunkenness has undergone a makeover and it is not a party until people slip into the zombie state, often waking up in police custody or hospital as rapper Major asks in his famous line: Kwani jana kulienda je?
Kula na kulipa ndio mtindo wa kisasa, is old colloquialism which literary means pay as you order your food. But in all probability it meant leading a hustle free life!
Zombie state
And did you know that sometime ago if you dressed smartly in a suit you would be described as kukauka (stiff and dry, literally) and if you wore a necktie as well you would be in an earth wire. Well, today they call such dressing kung’ara and if in a tie, you are descried as amejinyonga, which means that you have strangulated yourself.
Certainly, the older people who have known a pistol by this name all their lives will be at sea to hear the weapon being referred to as mguu wa kuku, a chicken’s leg, and most likely in a heist or carjack. Making a telephone call is vuta wire, and food, which a generation or so ago was msosi or dish, is now stack, kiruma or mrengo. To eat is no longer to sosi, but to manga. And money is no longer chums or dough or even dow. It has acquired some new near-Lingala names: Kisisa, mawinch, mula and cheda.
Certainly, for one to make money he or she needs a job, kibarua, in oldspeak. In teenspeak, a job is ubaro, kabambe and jobo.
And while the God-fearing policeman has retained his cop and karao slang from yesteryear, a new one, gava, is becoming commonplace. When the younger chaps wait for anything they call it to chill or tegea. The guys among them retain the everlasting chali label and if they are handsome, they can earn a grudging mhandy title.
Older slang
But the girls can be called anything from a rich array of the following synonyms: Manzi, dame, shore, maspiroh, chwara, maurero and supuu.
If you are a father, chances are that your teenage children may no longer be calling you fathee but instead you would be mzeia or budaa. And if in their estimation you are rich, then you are a sonko. In older slang, your car would be called moti, dinga or simply boo. But in the modern colloquialism it is ndae buju or nganya.
From street observations, people today respond to the ubiquitous greetings, sasa, not with old-fashioned rejoinders like ‘cool’ or ‘fit’, but with the catchier poa. A witty street move, like a clean con act, is often called njaro and a person of style is said to accomplish his or her thing with stingo — what would be called oomph in proper English.
Dumb people would be described as kuzubaa a while ago but now they are often called chizi. And when a person is in a problem with no apparent way out, he or she is often consoled, ‘Jiipange’, which means use your wits — if you have any left!
Like a record remix, the street jargon for bhang has been revamped over the generations from big cigarette to weed, ganja, rizla and grass among other synonyms and back again to weed. And being broke has not changed an iota but remains kuishiwa regardless of one’s age.
The slang for matatu touts has changed from makanga, with its connotation of indiscipline, to settle at the more suave konkodi. Ura and to-lost used to be slang for let’s move or get out of here but it has been replaced by the more sexy tuishie.
Crimes of passion
Arguably, a defining sin of the modern generation is adultery with its attendant crimes of passion that we read about and view in the media every day. Pointedly, modern phrases for the spare wheels that drive these webs of betrayal are out.
Forget concubine, out-growers and gachungwa and other tired phrases. Such secret lovers now go with swanky names such as clande and mpango wa kando. A decade or so ago, such perpetrators of relationships intrigues were called ndogo ndogo, a phrase immortalised by the Mombasa Roots band in their hit single by the same name.
And while the art of keeping clandes has found a measure of respectability and social acceptance, going on a generous sexual spree has always been frowned upon by all generations. It has been variously described as kutanga tanga, kuhanya hanya and kuzurura zurura over the years. The modern equivalent of this generosity is kusambaza.
And going hand-in-hand with any relationship, obviously, is its consummation, which is simply called ‘to happen’. There is also a rich menu of slang on men’s and women’s private parts. Thus any self-respecting guy would be described as carrying some chuma (metal rod) or mizigo (baggage) in older times.
But there has come up new synonyms like jabulani, a South African spear I presume, or hwang’a — whatever it means. The latest and craziest reference to men’s’ private organs is vuvuzela, a resplendent plastic trumpet that is noisy when blown. And the women’s organs, once called cargo, mzigo (note the singular form of this slang) and mburungo (package) have acquired a new and sizzling name, Migingo. In its ordinary meaning, Migingo refers to the one acre, rocky island in Lake Victoria that is at the centre of a dispute between Kenya and Uganda! And the knockers? ‘Dashboard’ or ‘front office’.
