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<I> <h> LINGUA FRANCAS. </h>

Africa is populated with a lot of people that speak different/divergent languages. Starting from the family languages: Nilotes, Bantu, Kushites which are broken further into smaller language groups. However all these people they communicate somehow with a language that is understandable among them. Such a language is called a lingua franca. Fromkin V and Rodman R, (1988) p 271 propose too that lingua Franca <quote_><quote/> Therefore English, Swahili are lingua francas in Kenya since many people with different languages can speak them.

They continue to give us an example of how a lingua franca can occur apart from learning this in school. They say
"In medieval times a trade language came into use in the Mediterranean ports. It consisted of Italian mixed with <-_french><+_French>, Spanish, Greek and Arabic, and it was called lingua franca, "Frankish language" (Op cit)

Thus pidgins can also be a lingua franca so long as people are using it widely and of different languages. Africa and especially East and West Africa there was a lot of trade going on such that people from other areas had to use a Common language to understand one another in business deals. That is why some lingua francas are called "trade languages". For example in East Africa Swahili is used as a lingua franca in almost all market places while in West Africa Hausa is the lingua Franca.

As I said before lingua francas arise when there is a need of communication between/among groups with different languages. English speaking Africans were scarce when Asian came to Kenya. Asians thus had no choice as to learn English: Swahili was added by all in order to communicate with African servants in all places and it became a medium of communication. A lingua franca doesn't mean one who speaks knows each and every rule of it but brings out the aspect of being understood. For example:

The Asian Swahili: <ea/>

Standard Swahili:<ea/>

Thus in conclusion a habitual language used at a place is a lingua franca. In South Africa for example the lingua francas there are Fanagalo, Nyanja, Twsana and Towubemba; In West Africa: Yaunde and Duala; in Central Sudan and North Africa there is Zande and in East Africa there are Swahili, Ganda (in Uganda), Amharic (in Ethiopia) and English.

I could thus also agree with Bailey R.W and Robinson J.L (1973) p. 73 as <quote_><quote/>

It can even be English in the <-_Phillipaes><+_Philippines> and India, or Swahili in Kenya, English in Uganda and Kenya or the Zande in North Africa.

<h> PIDGIN AND CREOLES. </h>
"... missionaries and traders from one part of the world have visited and attempted to communicate with peoples residing in another area. In such cases the contacts is too specialised and the cultures too widely separated for the usual lingua franca to arise. Instead the two (or possibly more) groups use their native languages as a basis for a rudimentary language of few lexical items and "straight forward" grammatical rules. Such a "marginal language" is called a pidgin". The above quote is from Fromkin V and Rodman R, (1988), p. 272.

Let us take some cultures therefore like the French in contact with Africa or English and Africa have formed such that some words are borrowed from other languages thus simplifying a language. A language that arises from this process is new and is called a pidgin. One such language, pidgin is Tok Pisin (Used in Papua New Guinea) This like other pidgins the lexical items <-_relie><+_rely> mostly on English.

There is some grammar in pidgins though not thorough rudimentary. Like any language it has phonological system that is governed by rules. Fromkin V and Rodman R, (1988), p. 272. gives an example of Tok Pisin " [C] ,[Š] and [S], are all possible <-_pronounciations><pronunciations> of the phoneme /S/ [masien], [masien] and [macien] all mean the "machine".

This shows us that pidgin language is actually simplified. With their small vocabulary (-ies) however, pidgins are not good at expressing fine distinctions of meaning. Case, tense, mode, voice are generally absent from pidgins. Though the set of language is always simpler in pidgins. In Cameroon (cp) pidgin, the pronoun system does not show gender or all the case differs that exist in standard English.

The characteristics of one pidgin differs from one pidgin to the other depending on the native language of the pidgin speaker.

Robert A Hall gives the <-_distinctinction><+_distinction> between Pidgin and lingua franca p. 91
'Any tongue serving as a means of communication is a lingua franca but a pidgin is a lingua franca that in the course of its adoption has become simplified and restructured used.' (Pidgin).

Robert A Hall, in Bailey's R.W, 1973. p.91 says this about the development of pidgin. He says that the second side of pidgin language is Creole.

<quote_><quote/>

This tells us that a Creole is found after a pidgin. A pidgin adds new words, complex in vocabulary than pidgin. A Creole can be a language on its own and <-/infact> different Creoles are formed depending on the number of pidgins. Thus when a pidgin actually has people to speak it as a language it's a Creole. This can happen if pidgin speakers are put together away from their mother tongues. This was the case during slavery so that the slave masters wanted to make sure they didn't plot against them. And when they needed to communicate therefore they had to use pidgin. Again the gave birth to children who learnt and acquired that pidgin and thus a Creole. This is the case with West Africa during slave trade.

The Creole Speakers sometimes favour their nationality. For example in Sierra Leon they don't borrow most of English words because of national solidarity while others refuse or can't even remember their mother tongue for example Haiti use only <-_french><+_French> in outside contacts.

Pidgin language is short lived. <quote_><quote/> (Op Cit p. 92) explains that pidgin is increasing its words.

Thus I can sum up by saying that a pidgin is a <quote_><quote/> (op Cit p.93)

The users may stop using native and use pidgin solely and then when they intermarry and children grow up knowing pidgin as mother tongue, this becomes a Creole. The vocabulary must expand to accommodate it's users' everyday needs. Example of Creole is Africaan (S. Africa).

Pidgin's spellings are based on phonemes. For example Melanesian pidgin, the English Sentence meaning 'I have books' is "mi get trifela buk" and not "me got three three fellow book" (op. cit 95)

Pidgin lack familiar features of well European grammar like tenses, cases and numbers but got other features to make up for them.

In languages with W. Africa elements, prefixes replace suffixes as indicators of grammatical relationships. Haitian Creole for instance has no verb tense in our sense. Instead verbs are distinguished by a set of prefixes indicating the continuity or completion of the action performed; while "mwechâte" means 'I sing', "mwê ap-châte" means "I am singing" and mwê "fé k-chatê" (op cit 97).

If a language has been simplified thus reconstructed that's a pidgin, but if the pidgin is acquired as a mother tongue then that's a Creole. This has happened in Africa because of the large diversity in languages.

Creoles often crossed in slave trade plantations in areas in Africa like Krio in Sierra Leon developed from an English based pidgin.

<h> DIALECTS. </h>
Africa has a diversity of languages; in them there are sub-languages. One language can have some sub-groups for example Luhya has some divisions like Maragoli, Bukuou and Isukha. The three are able to understand on another in some Kind of way though the language doesn't tally one word by another. These is a form of dialects. These three don't have to be in Kenya, Bukusu's from Uganda and Kenya are the same thus the geographical site of the dialects can vary.

Fishman J.A in his book of 'Sociolinguistics' says that <quote_><quote/>(op cit.)

He implies that these dialects originated as in the groups originated from one Common place. Like Bantus, down the group are Luhyas who separated to different places that then language started to change. There is a variation in phonology, vocabulary and actual <-_intelligiability><+_intelligibility> (understanding). The further removed the more you don't understand one another.

Fromkin V and Rodman R, 1988, p. 253 say <quote_><quote/>.

When the dialects are mutually intelligible forms then the speaker can't understand one another.

A language associated with a particular social groups like the upper class then it becomes a social dialect. These is usually associated with a particular accent.

Fromkin V and Rodman R, 1988, p. 254 says <quote_><quote/> This is an example of how social dialect spreads.

Different classes of people have a particular way of talking, socializing. Speakers of sociolect belong to same economic group or similar educational background. This can be of high status or low. This can be termed as Varieties.

Every individual speaks with his/her style. There is variation in the presentation of speech and this is known as idiolect. Fromkin V and Rochan R, 1988, p. 253 says: <quote_><quote/>.

<h> REGISTER. </h>
People have a particular speech or language in certain situations. For example when in court, someone talks differently as one who is in church. The way they utilize the rules of English or any language in that particular context. They are different Varieties and this is what we call registers; depending on the context. It happens to people with the same occupation for example Doctors, lawyers; these people have legal registers.

A register distinguishes itself from other registers by having a number of distinctive by having a number of distinctive words or using certain phrases in a particular way. The vocabulary is very distinctive. An example of religious register is as follows:

<quote_><quote/>

There is in this register the use a of number of theological terms: Glory be to, has exalted thine, leave us not comfortless - ...' This formula of religious language is usually seen in the ending too when they say <quote_><quote/>.
This is from Crystals D and Dary D, 'Investigating English Style' p. 95-193.

Another example of a register of broadcast talks and news has rigid conditions on the user. The writer has to ensure that his material can be easily jointed and must avoid anything which would disturb entire fluency such as <-_ambigous><+_ambiguous> structures that could read us (I'm sorry I'll read that again), tongue twisting etc. He must make sure that his material can be understood and the listener cannot ask for a repeat.

In newspaper reports there is the need for Compression of Information to limited space and also there is need for clarity and avoidance of ambiguity. No wonder a headline should contain clear, succinct and intriguing message to speckle interest in the reader.
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<h> 1. Lingua Franca </h>

A lingua franca is a common language which is habitually used as a medium of communication between groups and people whose mother tongues are different. One language comes to be adapted as the medium of some activity or activities which the different language communities perform in common. It may be a common language for commerce, learning, administration, religion or any or all of a variety of purposes: the use determines which determines which members of each language community are the ones who learn it. Languages such as English or Russian, which are widely learnt as second languages in the world today are a type of lingua franca. They are a special case only in the sense that they are being learnt by <-/unprecedentedly> large numbers of people and for a very wide range of purposes. There can be the emergence of one dialect as a lingua Franca. William J. Samarin in an article 'Lingua Francas of the world' found in a book by J. Fishman, 'Reading in the sociology of language' defines a lingua franca as <quote_><quote/>
An additional requirement included in some <-/defination> is that a lingua franca be a pidgin language (a so called "hybrid" or " mixed" language), but it is not true that all lingua francas are pidgins.
A second requirement sometimes found is that a lingua franca be used for commercial purposes but this is again not true of lingua francas, though they frequently arise in a commercial environment. Other terms compete with lingua Franca as designations for the kind of language being discussed.
Trade languages is usually used for some languages not included among the world's majority languages and which is used by some people as a second language in commercial situations. All trade languages are therefore lingua francas e.g. Kituba and Hausa in Africa.
Contact languages is a lingua franca whose use is not necessarily habitual. It is the most neutral of the terms.
International (or universal) language is a lingua franca whose use is actually or virtually international. Some writers however make the error of using it of lingua francas indiscriminately, even of those with restricted use e. g. English, French.
Auxiliary language is generally meant to describe an artificially devised lingua franca e.g. Esperanto.
Since a lingua franca is simply a language used to communicate across linguistic barriers, it can itself be any kind of a language; natural, pidginized, or planned.
Aramaic is a lingua franca which was used in Palestine, Syria and Egypt. Arabic served as a lingua franca in some places following the Muslim conquests. Hausa, a Chadic language serves as a trade language in Dahomey, Togo, Ghana, upper Volta, Nigeria and the Cameroons. In Africa several languages belonging to the Niger-Congo family have served or are now serving as lingua francas, such as Banbara and Fulani in the west and Ngbandi in northern Congo. Swahili and Lingala are also included here.
Should there ever be an international lingua franca, one thing is almost certain: like all lingua francas before it, it will pass through a stage of pidginization.

<h> 2. Dialects. </h>

According to Joshua Fishman in his book 'Reading in the sociology of language', <quote_><quote/>: Different groups of people within the language community speak different dialects. Dialects tend to differ primarily and always to some extent in substance. A dialect represents the total range of patterns used by a person's section of the language community.
Dialects differ in vocabulary, syntax and phonology. Dialects may also differ in several ways with respect to rule content. Joshua Whatmaugh asserts that the distinction between Kindred dialects and Kindred languages is a matter of degree. The test is intelligibility. When communication is disturbed between speakers we say that we have to do with related dialects. When it is completely broken, related languages. Speakers of Standard English and German are mutually incomprehensible but speakers of Standard English and a variety of English are known as 'lowland scots' understand one another well although they may encounter <-_dificulties><+_difficulties>.

Dialects may be classified into:
1. Regional dialects
They are geographical and indicate your region of origin. They are usually grouped by the community into major dialect areas. There may be considerable differentiation within each area.
2. Social dialects
There are two types.
Standard English - Formal English e.g. in writing of essays. Code switching is not allowed.
Received <-_Pronounciation><+_Pronunciation> - it is the standard spoken variety i.e. the Queen's English. It is associated with the aristocracy.
3. Register dialects
This is the variety according to use i.e. the use that you put to a language, for what it is being used for and not who is using it. Examples are legal register, sports language etc.

<h> Registers </h>
According to J. Fishman in his book 'Readings in the sociology of language' <quote_><quote/>. The category of 'register' is needed when we want to account for what people do with their language. When we observe language activity in the various contexts in which it takes place, we find differences in the type of language selected as appropriate to different kinds of situations. A sports commentary and a church service are linguistically quite distinct. Registers differ in form. Some registers have distinctive features at other levels, such as the voice quality associated with the register of church services. The crucial criteria of any given register are to be found in its grammar and its lexis. Probably lexical features are the most obvious - some lexical items suffice almost by themselves to identify a certain register: 'cleanse' puts us in the language of advertising, 'probe' of newspapers etc. The clearest signals of a particular register are scientific technical terms, except those that belong to more than one science, like 'morphology' in biology and linguistics.
Purely grammatical distinctions between the different registers are less striking, yet there can be considerable variation in grammar also. Often it's not the lexical items that is specific to one register. Sometimes, for example in the language of advertising, it is the combination of grammatical and lexical features that is distinctive.
Registers are not marginal or special varieties of language. Between them they cover the total range of our language activity. It is only by reference to the various situations and situation types in which language is used that we can understand its functioning and its effectiveness - Language is not realised in the abstract: It is realised in the activity of people in situations, as linguistic events which are manifested in a particular dialect and register. A great deal of grammatical and lexical material is common to many of the registers of a given Language, and some perhaps to all. There tends to be more difference between events in different registers than between different events in one register. It is by their formal properties that registers are defined. Registers can be distinguished according to field of discourse, mode of discourse and style of discourse.
'Field of discourse' refers to what is going on: to the area of operation of the Language activity. 'Mode of discourse' refers to the medium or mode of language activity. ‘Style of discourse' which refers to the relations among the participants. Some registers are extremely restricted in purpose.

<h> 4. Creoles and Pidgins. </h>
Heine B in his book 'status and use of African lingua francas' says that a creole is a lingua franca which has attained mother tongue status. Pidginisation is a process where a language is simplified, reducing the irregularities in the language. For example the past tense of see would be seed instead of saw. This process comes about when people who speak different languages come together. The need to simplify the language becomes <-_neccesary><+_necessary>. Most pidgins came about as a result of colonial expansion. Pidgins developed in multi-lingual settings to facilitate inter-group communication. Pidgins also came about as a result of the slave trade. Different people from different communities came together. They had to form a simplified language for the purpose of communication. Pidgin English is the most common name given to a lingua franca spoken throughout west Africa from Sierra Leone to the Gabon. It is a medium of communication for African peoples who have no first language in common, for white men of various ethnic backgrounds and for the west African working man, trader and transient people.
G.A. Schneider in his book 'West/African Pidgin-English' says that pidgin-English is not a mere simplification of English but a separate and describable language. Its vocabulary is predominantly English-based, but these lexical forms have changed their meaning to fit into the value system and world view of the African people. 
Cameroonian pidgin English has a few characteristics. They drop a consonant in word or syllable. They also insert a vowel sound between certain English consonant clusters making for a different phonetic statement. Cameroonian speakers of broad pidgin-English simplify the English vowel system by contrasting fewer vowel sounds, eliminating the diphthongs through clippings and shortening of vowel - like glides, dropping unstressed vowels in initial position. The accentual system - stress and terminal markers -- remains quite similar to that of English for English speakers of pidgin. Tone, high and low contrasts, however, mark the pidgin-English speakers among the Cameroonian people. This characteristic of certain coexisting prosodic features does not make for unintelligibility since code-switching conventions and redundancy help overcome most communication difficulties. Absent in pidgin-English are the English singular - plural markers and time-markers in verbs. There are no native speakers of pidgin-English but there is fairly large group that uses it constantly.
According to Hymes, D in his book 'Pidginization and Creolization of languages' a pidgin is 'a contact vernacular, normally not the native language of any of its speakers.'
Creoles
A Creole is a pidgin that has acquired mother tongue status. It can develop from a pidgin in two ways:
1) Where speakers of a pidgin are put together and can no longer communicate in their mother tongues. This happened mainly during the slave trade where the slave masters separated people who spoke the same mother tongue to avoid them plotting against their masters.
2) Where a pidgin becomes a useful means of communication and they extend it and use it in their homes.
In West Africa creolization was forced because of the slave trade. The differences between a creole and a pidgin are not many. They arise due to the fact that the creole functions as a mother tongue and therefore has a larger vocabulary. It would also exhibit or show a greater stylistic range. It is also used in more domains. The creole would be more spoken at a faster rate. It would be more expressive. It needs to be more flexible and innovative. It must express a whole range of human experience. It has a more elaborate syntactic structure as compared to a pidgin.
If a creole was allowed to develop in isolation from the target language, it would also become a distinct language from the standard English. David Decamp in an article 'Introduction: The study of pidgin and creole languages' says that the term creole originally meant a white man of European descent born and raised in a tropical or semi-tropical colony. Only later was the meaning extended to include indigenous natives and others of non-European origin e.g. African slaves. Most creoles are European based, i.e. each has derived most of its vocabulary from one or more <-_european><+_European> languages. Creole French and creole English are the most frequent in west Africa and the free world, but Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese are common in other parts of the world. A creole is inferior to its corresponding standard language only in social status.
Most west African creoles are said to be free variant. They also get rid of redundancies, extra work and make it simple. Numerically the largest are the French-based creoles. English creoles are used in West Africa, in the Cameroons and in Sierra Leone. According to Robert Hall in his book 'Pidgin and Creole languages' Creoles began as a sort of baby-talk used by masters, plantation owners and merchants to communicate with their servants, slaves and customers. Each speaker deliberately mutilated the standard language by eliminating all grammatical inflections, reducing the number of phonological and syntactic contrasts, and limiting the vocabulary to a few hundred words. 
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Africa is made up of diverse number of languages. These languages can also be divided up to language families depending on their origins. We have four major language families in Africa.
(i) Niger-Kordofonian, is in central and Eastern Africa.
(ii) Nilo-Saharan, most of them being found in E. Africa.
(iii) Afro-Asiatic, this is mainly spoken at the Northern parts of Africa.
(iv) Khoisan, this group is found in Southern Africa characterised by 'click' sounds.
The classification of these languages was done basically on phonological <-_resemblances><+_resemblance>.

<h> (a) LINGUA FRANCAS. </h>

A lingua Franca is understood as a common language used as a medium of communication between groups of people with different mother tongues.

For a language to become a lingua Franca there must be reasons for the need to use it by the groups involved. There are three main reasons why people develop Lingua francas. The language used as a Lingua franca can be even one of the mother tongues which has strong impact on others.

The main reasons why Lingua Francas developed was due to:

- Trade; people needed a language they could use in trade with their neighbours. There was no way they could interact with each other without a common language between them to facilitate trade.

- Communication; When different communities live in a given environment they are bound to meet their neighbours who use a different mother tongue. So there rose a need for an intermediate language which could be understood by the involved groups to facilitate communication between them.

- Administration; During the colonial period the colonialists introduced and imposed certain languages on the colonised so as to ease their administrative work over the colonised. This also applied to African leaders. For example the Ganda dominated the Basoga and Toro forcing them also to start using Ganda as their administrative language. Thus Ganda language developed into a Lingua franca.

A lingua franca as a rule has its origin in a natural language, which is learned by people speaking other languages as their mother tongues, and is habitually used by them as their second language.

A lingua franca can be differentiated from the mother tongue by the fact of its having to undergo a process defined as simplification or pidginization. The spread of African Lingua francas differs considerably according to age, sex and vocation of the speakers of that particular lingua franca and it also fluctuates from one language to the other. Use of lingua francas among the older people and children declines, it is predominantly the language of the working youth.

The spread of lingua francas can highly be attributed to schools because lingua francas have become learning languages in schools. Thus, the male population are the ones more exposed to lingua francas than women because most of the school attendants are males and also males have greater mobility in comparison to women thus they have more inter-ethnic contacts.

The spread of lingua francas usually takes root among the languages which are closely related to it more than among other languages. For example Swahili spread more particularly among the Bantu domains.

<h> AFRICAN LINGUA FRANCAS.; </h>

We have a considerable number of lingua francas spoken in Africa and grouped according to where they are used or their situation.

(a) South Africa:
In this region we have seven distinct lingua francas being used.

(i) Fomagalo:-
This is a language which was <-_refered><+_referred> to as 'coolie language' or at times 'Indian language'. This language has been used as kitchen language between Europeans and their African servants. So if was develop to facilitate the master - servant interaction between white masters and their African servants. It derives its vocabulary from Nguni (Bantu), English and Afrikaans.
It spread into Rhodesia, Zambia and Katanga. Presently it is being used in the north and east of South Africa, Burbau, East London, Rhodesia, Copperbelt of Zambia and Katanga.

(ii) Tswana:
This is a Bantu Language and it is the official language of Botswana. Though it is also one of the lingua francas, it is restricted. This is because there are other six Bantu languages being spoken in this province.

(iii) Lozi:
This is also a Bantu language. It has some other names it is also being <-_refered><+_referred> to as Rozi, Kololo and Sikolo. It gained ground at the Upper Zambezi as a forced rule on people by Sebitwana. It was mainly spread by young men from noble families. It spread to Anglia later on.

(iv) Umbundu:
This is the language of Ovimbundu inhabiting Benguela highlands South of Angola. It is a Bantu language. It also spread along the coast and in the interior along the railway line.

(v) Lwena:
It is a Bantu language. It is spoken as a lingua franca in eastern Angola, South-Western Congo and the north-western part of Zambia. It spread due to movement of labourers. It is being used now in Zambia as language of education.

(vi) Town Bemba:
This is a Bantu language group. It is used in the copperbelt in towns of Ndola, Kitwe, Nkana, Chingola, Mufulira, Luasha and Kabulushi.

(vii) Nyanja
This is the predominant language in Malawi and it is also a Bantu language. Presently it is being used in Malawi, eastern Zambia, Mozambique and parts of Rhodesia.
This language is divided into various dialects eg.
- Mang'anja:- found in the South-East.
- Cewa:- found in the west.
- lake Nyanja:- found in the north-east.

(b) Congo Basin:
In this region we have three lingua francas being used namely;

(i) Luba: lingua franca.
This compromises of a multiplicity of Bantu languages. It should not be mistaken with the Tshihiba language. This language is divided into dialects e.g. Western, Central, Eastern and Southern dialects. The western dialect is the most important and is the one being used in schools. It is used in the areas like Auluaburg, Bukwanga, Tshikapa, Lusanbo

(ii) Kituba.
This language also belongs to the Bantu group. This language is used in Congo. It also variable numbers of dialects.

(iii) Lingala:
This is also <-_refered><+_referred> to as the language of the river. It belongs to the Ngala group of the Bantu. This language is spoken in the banks of Congo River between Kinshasa and Basoko. It has many dialects depending on ethnic and social differences.

(c) Eastern Africa
In this group also we have three lingua francas:

(i) Swahili:
This language developed at the coast<-_refered><+_referred> to by the Arabs as the coast language. This language belongs to the group of Bantu languages. The language has a large number of dialects the written language being based on Unguja dialect found in Zanzibar.
In order to develop into a lingua franca this language underwent three stages
- The spread along the coast region.
- Its penetration into the interior of the continent.
- Its development since arrival of colonial powers.
This language is basically used in East Africa. It is believed to have developed due to the intermarrying between the Arabs and Persians with African women. The women learnt some Arabic words and used them when communicating to their Arabic husbands while men also learn some Bantu words which they used when communicating with their Bantu wives. So the children born to them grew up knowing a few words from Bantu and Arabic languages. So theirs was a mixture of words. Kiswahili then developed from the mixture of words from generation to generation creating the language. The slaves also contributed to the development of Kiswahli language. This is because they were from different ethnic communities and now when they came together they needed a language for interaction.

This language is believed to have been spoken first at Lamu Island. it developed into a lingua franca when the traders started penetrating the interior of the continent. It attained special importance when it was made the lingua franca of the Zenj empire.

The spread of Kiswahili into the interior was simple because it was meeting Bantus who had some of their words mixed in the language making it easy for them to learn.

It became strongly established first among the Nyamwezi because they were traders at that particular period. Its penetration into the interior was favoured by the epidemic which hit the Maasai community who had been a stumbling block to the traders who were flying the interior of the continent.

The descendants of the first Swahili speakers grew up using it as their mother tongue. Swahili is one of the languages in East Africa with the largest number of dialects. These dialects are classified according to the place they are used. eg.

* Killnguja:-
This is the dialect of Kiswahili used in Zanzibar and is also the widely used dialect and the accepted standard dialect for education.

* Kimrima:-
This is the dialect of the Mrima coast and various areas from Vanga nearly to Kilwa. It is a combination of German and Swahili.

* Kimgao:-
This is the dialect used at the Mgao coast from Kilwa Southwards. Some speakers of this dialect are also found around lake Nyosa. It also borrows words from its neighbours.

* Kihadimu and Kitumbatu:-
These are dialects used outside the town of Zanzibar. Kihadima is used in the east and southern part of the island and it is the same dialect being <-_refered><+_referred> to as Kitumbatu in the north.

* Kipemba:
This is the dialect used in the Island of Pemba. It is more related to the original dialect of the Pemba inhabitants because it draws most of the words from the old inhabitants of the island.

* Kimvita:-
This is the dialect used by the peoples of Mombasa. It also extends from Malindi in the north to Grasi in the South. There is a big difference between it and Kiunguja than the other dialects. it has drawn most of ist Bantu words from Kinyika and Kigiriama.

* Kimrita:-
This is the dialect used by the people of Mombasa. It also extends from Malindi in the north to Gasi in the south. There is a big difference between it and Kiunguja than the other dialects. It has drawn most of its Bantu words from Kinyika and Kigiriama.

* Kirumba:-
This is the dialect used by people of Vanga and Wasini Island. It has close relationship with Kimvita the difference is only on the places the two dialects are being used.

* Kiamu:-
This is the dialect use at Lamu and at the Island of Amu.

* Kipate:-
This is the dialect used by people living in the Island of Pate. Its grammar and change of words is almost similar to that of Kiamu dialect.

* Kishela:-
This is the dialect used at Shela South of Amu. This dialect seems to fall as an intermediate between the Amu and Pate dialects, this is mainly because the people who developed it were from Amu and Pate and they jointly formed the town of Shela.

* Kisin:-
This dialect is used in the town of Sin. This dialect is used between Plate and Faza. Their grammar is closely related to the Amu dialect. It bears strong resemblance to Bajun group.

* Kitikuu:
This is the dialect used by the people of Rasini and the people of the mainland north of Amu.

(ii) Ganda:-
This is the predominate language of Uganda. It also belongs to the Bantu language group. It developed to a lingua franca mainly due to two reasons:
- Buganda Kingdom came under British influence earlier than other parts of Uganda. So the British choose Ganda as administrators over the other neighbouring territories thus Ganda language became the language of administration.
- Ganda language also was introduced as the language of education in schools so when roads and schools were constructed (they were first constructed in the Buganda Kingdom) many people came to learn thus going back to their homes with knowledge in Ganda language. Religious instructions were also in Ganda language.
Thus in the thirties Kiganda had become the language of the press, radio and administration. The main reason why Ganda managed to become a lingua franca in Uganda was because the Ganda people resisted strongly to the introduction of Swahili in their territory because they feared that it would undermine their language. So it has taken a stronghold on the Southern part of Uganda. It has very little influence over the northern parts of Uganda.

</I>

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<I> 
Humour is that quality of action, speech, or writing, which excites amusement; oddity, jocularity, fractiousness, <-/comicality> or fun. Thence a humorous person is one whose ability to amuse comes out in a most natural manner. Literary critics would argue that this naturalness is realised if it is context-specific-humour is borne of a situation in which what is said, written, or done, is both appealing and exciting to what is taking place. The difference between humour and wit is that the former is less purely intellectual and has a sympathetic quality in virtue of which it often becomes allied to pathos.

(Pathos, especially as related to ancient Greek art, is that quality of the transient or emotional, as opposed to the permanent or ideal).

In his book Times Beyond Omondi Mak'Oloo has employed the style of humour and this, it goes without saying, has therefore made his book enjoyable to read as it arouses one's senses just as he tends to feel bored. In fact, and where upon substantiation will follow, one might conclude that it is this style that makes it possible to read through the novel in a relatively shorter time.

The character, Waweru, is flabbergasted by the hardness of Hungarian bread. Whereas to Erika this seems not a problem, to Waweru it is a source of disgust. What more with waking up hungry and dying to dig your teeth into some soft, fleshy bit of bread when voilà! at the touch of it your appetite almost fails you. In this situation he finds himself questioning Erika's rationale - that one needs only cover it in nylon and it will stay soft and fresh. But is that what Waweru gets? To this effect he finds it more appropriate or easier to use an electric saw to cut, although he does not actually do it - it is merely his view vis-à-vis keeping the loaf covered. Mak'Oloo has employed a hyberbole to emphasise the "hardness" of the bread.

Waweru admits that he is tired with what he calls the tendency of the average Hungarian, the not - so - well - travelled citizen, who to believe that all Africans are Nigerians! Just after a nasty encounter with some Hungarian youth, aboard some lorry, he is confronted by a Hungarian woman whose attention has been drawn by the shouting. The Hungarians, burning with racism, have called him names and Waweru has not spared them either, paying tit for tat in some good Hungarian. Her first reaction is that Waweru is Nigerian. The humour behind this statement to one who knows that Africa is made up of a great many number of countries is the ignorance so exposed.

Waweru is not afraid of sparring with Csaba. Or so it seems. However, he confesses to the reader that he is afraid of him because of his physical fitness and his stamina in the boxing ring. Before his "match" with Csaba he withdraws to the reader to tell him that even though the others cannot notice his fright of what is to befall him he is AFRAID!:

<quote_><quote/>

When the garlic-smelling man informs Waweru of the Arabs' disturbing his girlfriend, Erika, Waweru takes a long time to return back to the restaurant, at least in a hurry, ostensibly because to him Hungarians have a habit of suddenly turning friendly once drunk. That they would not notice one even if he stepped on their toes when they are sober. But once they have gulped a litre or so of PÁLINKA or TOKAI they "realise" that you are their comrade and it is then that they want to know the latest news from Africa. Coincidentally, the revelation of this prejudice comes to drive one gradually to the climax - the ultimate, the fight with the racist Arabs.

The interaction between the sexes does not seem to favour the African male students. There is a permanent shortage of African girls because the men outnumber them by far. Waweru graphically describes the imbalance which he summarises in his statement that before the start of an academic year the usual question that is asked is how many "relief supplies" will be imported from motherland Africa.

At Szechenyi furdö, the beautiful open air public bath, Waweru meets Erika, Kovacs and his girlfriend Zsuzsa. He admits, or more appropriately, confesses to the reader that the whites are surprised to see a black person, him. Albeit they are at first amazed they soon realise that he is a human being - he does not have a tail and he has five toes on each foot.

At the meeting of the African students at the common room adjacent to Mustafa's on the tenth floor of the hostel in Zugló people are disordered. We are told that all the Accra market women combined cannot make so much hullaballoo. Everybody is talking - laughing, joking, arguing or calling one another. Now Mustafa is the President of the students association. But despite this his attempts to bring order into the meeting is initially frustrated by his colleagues who keep on shouting. What is more, there is this young girl who keeps on calling on him to pay her back some 500 Forint. She tells Mustafa to climb down from the table and come to her. She says she needs the money for her visa for her London trip. Mustafa in his attempt to bring some order amongst the gathering loses his temper at the arrogance displayed by his colleagues. Jumping up and down the table he breaks the top board and ends up on the ground. Martha offers him some liniment. Mustafa is perhaps attracted to her and says sheepishly that although his shin feels okay the pain might persist later "perhaps after the meeting" and so she should apply some more liniment after the meeting! To Maria, the girl who is pestering him for her money, Mustafa tells her that since she lent him the money while he was between her legs she might as well wait for him to go back there to pay her back!

Interestingly, the critic of the novel is tempted to deduce that the use of humour by Mustafa reveals his character. He is romantic in the way he talks to Martha although with an overtone of seduction. He is perhaps involved in sexual escapades as what he tells Maria seems to have embarrassed her before her colleagues.

Waweru's humour does not always have good endings. For instance when he frightens Zsuzsa in bed Kovacs and Erika are not amused. He thence ends up feeling ashamed of himself and wakes up before the others, goes and stays in the kitchen until his friends wake up.

Waweru humorously describes his second sexual escapade with Zsuzsa. He compares it to an astronaut's experience in space. That they <quote_><quote/> And, at the end of the intercourse Zsuzsa collapsed panting on his chest, momentarily at a loss of words. The hyperbole is effectively used in this narration to emphasise the adventurous experience the two go through.

When Waweru and Abacha go to a discotheque in town one Saturday evening they hope to enjoy themselves to the full. Unfortunately for Abacha this does not seem to be his day because he does not have company. Leaving Abacha at the bar he walks around and finally spots some "lady" sitting alone. For him this is his twelfth hour, he celebrates within himself that he has at last found someone with whom to dance. He vividly describes her - she has shoulder - long hair and rather broad shoulders. He is so excited that he finds himself striding fast toward her "in case somebody else had ideas about 'her'." He gets over to her and uses his seductive language on her to ask her if she cares for a dance with him. He even readies a charming smile to help speed things up when she turns round to look at him. Well, she does not actually turn but whirls. Waweru's smile vanishes instantly for this is a situation he had not prepared for. It is a man with a beard "bushier than Karl Marx's. Paradoxically, the man takes it that he is a gay, a homosexual. He snaps that he is not one and in any case that is not a gays' club. The narration of this 'quiproquo' serves to ensure a liveliness in the reader as he follows Waweru's experiences further.

As the disc-jockey plays a slow music number Waweru makes another mistake. This time he makes sure, though, that it is a lady he is approaching. She has breasts as big as size 8 boxing gloves, says Waweru. The description of the lady is humorous though the actual encounter with her is disgusting, lacking in the elementary pathos. She turns to tell him off. Why? Because he is an African.

I have appreciated the use of anecdotes by Waweru to emphasise his argument that Hungarians are amongst the least informed earthlings. Consider the encounter with Margit some moments after Kati tells off Waweru on the grounds of his skin colour. Whereupon asking Waweru his name and being told, but, of course, he is still withdrawn thinking of his humiliation by the Hungarian and it takes her some nagging to drive off the name from him, she instantaneously (read immediately) concludes that he is Nigerian. She goes further to tell him that most Nigerian names have the first letter O. That she has read of some Okonkusc in some novel. And, finally the humour. Okonkwo is a lovely name she says, so can I call you so? Waweru interjects by saying that he would not be willing to accept such a name. In an effort to keep him talking, Margit tells "Okonkwo" that his other name is difficult. (He has only told her his name is Waweru). Now, Waweru, the "Nigerian", has to be either a Ibo, Yoruba or Hausa. If not, he must belong to the smaller clans. But if not Nigerian he is Ghanaian.

That Margit is surprised that she has met a Kenya makes her think of interviewing him. For Waweru this is interesting because how does one investigate life, as she puts it. The strength of the statement is the ridiculing of Margit although at a <-/confessionary> level which she does not share with the reader.

Gyula Bacsi, the boxing trainer, is concerned about the forthcoming tournament. He hopes to get Waweru fit at least a week before the bout. So he insists that Waweru puts up at his place. One of his concerns is Waweru's weight which he hopes to trim drown by putting him on a crash diet. But this is not to be understood by Waweru especially after a tiring early morning workout that has drained of his energy. Whereas Bacsi and his wife, Marika, help themselves to a basket full of brown bread, scones and other breakfast snacks and a steaming pot of coffee, he is served a thin miserable slice of bread - "so thin I could see the bottom of the plate through it."

When Waweru phones Margit her mother who picks up the phone thinks he is Chinese! Even Waweru admits that this revelation by Margit made him laugh.

Waweru is a mischievious character. While sleeping outside the gym compound with his boxing colleagues he scoops a handful of snow and shoves it into the open mouth of some lightweight bloke whose snoring is getting into his nerves for he cannot get himself to sleep like the others. The young man is aroused instantaneously by the snow in his mouth, spits and coughs. He looks around to see who has been mischievious enough to do this to him. Meanwhile the "innocent" Waweru has covered his face and is "deep asleep".

During the party held to honour Waweru (after recovering from a coma miraculously) everybody in attendance seems livened up. There is Ochola, the Kenyan fellow, and Abacha, the Nigerian student, who are in a crossfire. The argument by Ochola is that Abacha does not have an instrument similar to a Luo <ea/>nyatiti! 

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<I> 

Humour is the quality of being amusing or comic by introduction of sarcasm or irony in a style that can make the reader laugh or smile whilst reading the book <-/incase> of <-_writen><+_written> literature. 
Anybody reading Omondi Mak Oloo's book will agree with me that the plot is wholly supported by strong pillars of humour. Humour rages from the first to the very concluding page. To prove this we see the first page where the child is very inquisitive to why Waweru was black, to why his parents were also black, and lastly where he comes from. This was taking place in the eyes of Waweru and anybody could feel how uneasy Waweru felt especially when he smiled at the small child, and she shrank away. 
He was very annoyed when he alighted that he even could not tell whether to be angry with Hungarian weather or the racists. This confusion brings the humour to the reader. 
On page 7, Waweru wakes up in the morning at 9. 30 am. He tries to phone. He greets the person on the phone as Good morning but in answer he retorts, 'good day you mean' simply because the Hungarian morning ends at 8 am. Waweru threatens Abacha against his usage of a large voice in the mouthpiece. Abacha tells Waweru about a lady who has been looking for him. On Abacha`s mention of her name, Waweru cautions him of making public the whole issue. The humour lies in the answer, Abacha tells him that there's no single soul within hundred metres unless he was afraid of the pissing puppy. A puppy cannot interpret human language so Abacha uses this to completely shut down Wawerus argument. 
Its a great humour on page 11 when Waweru watches himself through a mirror and considered his own image with qualities of an independent person. “I told the guy in the mirror and winked. “Its humour when he tells us the image agreed with him because it had winked back when he did same. 
Waweru used words that involve humour on page 12. He suggests that the Hungarian loaves were very hard that he had requested Erika to purchase an electric saw. That brings to our knowledge the fact that the loaves were indeed hard, but <-_exergerates><+_exaggerates> the fact of buying a saw. He goes further to tell us of the factory tomatoes as Abacha calls them. He says that the cheese smelt good good once he got used to the stink. Surely who will dare like anything that stinks. 
Waweru on page 13 comes back into the telephone play. There was a great misconception on the telephone when Waweru thought he was talking to Jozsi but instead he was talking to a different person. When the man could not comprehend the name Waweru, he was abused by Waweru as 'Mother fucker'. This to exchange of pillar words betweeen Jozsi and the person who had received the phone. When the reader discovers that Waweru was talking to a different person, he will be interested to know what happens and really what follows will amuse the reader. 
Waweru on page 15 expecting to meet a lady's voice over the phone meets a <-_mans><+_man's> voice. He however told Gyula Bacsi <-_unconcionsly><+_unconsciously> that he thought she was his girlfriend. Bacsi had advised Waweru to leave ladies for a while for he would loose stamina and his fighting power deteroriates. . . <quote_>"<quote/> To the worse extend now Bacsi tells him to wait until he has informed the boys about the matter. 
In Wawerus mind on page 17 he admits Csaba is a terror in the ring. He suggests that if his <-/upperant> connected then it was goodnight for whoever stopped it. He goes further to say that he was scared stiff to Csaba but he wouldn't admit it to a soul even if it meant hanging. He changes and says aloud that he cannot be afraid of Csaba. This shows that Waweru in true essence is very much afraid of Csaba than anything else. But we hereby find that he cannot admit it to any soul not even his own soul. 
On pages 25 in a duel with Csaba Waweru tells us that he looked around to see if anybody had noticed his superpunch. But to his disappointment everybody was busy with their own things. Even the trainer had his back on them. This was very disappointing to Waweru and its in this disappointment that we find humour lying. 
Just before the fight with the Arabs, Waweru tells us about one scare. A situation when he had gone to the toilets and he was told by one of the Hungarians that Erika was being disturbed. Waweru informs us that once the Hungarians are drunk they become great friends. They can't notice even if you trod on their food, your are no longer a stinking nigger. He was told by a Hungarian that he should have been a Cuban. The Hungarian was convinced beyond any doubt that Waweru was a Cuban and he was busy asking for Havana cigars. He believed that Waweru should have been a close relative to Castro of Cuba. Waweru knew he must have been very drunk for he himself started thinking that he was a relative of Castro. He believed that Castro was his uncle. 
Zsuzsa was looking for Kovaks and Waweru was looking for Erika. Zsuzsa and Waweru met and were asking from each other their appropriate counterparts. What amuses me in the decision made by Waweru that since Erika and Kovaks were not around, they could be in the same place keeping an eye on each other. For them also they should keep an eye on each other. Zsuzsa being a lustful lover says that that was what she was even going to suggest. This is on page 72. 
Two pages later Waweru is training Zsuzsa how to dance to a reggae music. The funny thing is that she never knew how to dance the reggae tunes and many times she lost steps. Humorous thing about it is that for the second reggae number, she missed a step and it was against racism. It went thus;<quote_><quote/>. She missed the step for she could not get it <quote_><quote/>. Indeed she was a master of racism. 
On page 83 is the scene where Kovaks, Zsuzsa, Erika and Waweru slept together. Waweru woke up and looked at the others who were sleeping. Others were in deep sleep except for Zsuzsa who stirred. She was a half asleep and stared at Waweru. Waweru scared her by closing the eyes and opening the mouth. To this extend she screamed. I laugh realising that Waweru is an adult and what he did surely I could not expect such from him. 
The USA meeting from page 86 starts with a lot of noise in the room. The first sense of humour is when Mustafa and others who had climbed on the table fall down when the table could no longer withhold the weight. There was a great hush in the room as Mustafa is very hurt. When he goes back to stage the students listen to him for a while. Mustafa was even afraid when he was given another table to stand on. In the same scene many students denied having any knowledge of who Amina was. This was just a pretence. The chairman told Ogandipe <quote_><quote_> (page 91). This was very obscene and many shall laugh since the chairman implies that he would return the money only when she behaves well and when he will be between her legs. 
On page 101 at the swimming pool Waweru wanted to go swimming with a strange lady who was a blonde. Waweru winked after he saw she was very beautiful. He was with the intention of taking her with him to swimming without arousing the attention of Zsuzsa and Erika. Suddenly as he was in the heart of meditation, Erika approached him suddenly and asks “Nice girl hmm?” Waweru had nothing to answer but cheated her by denying any knowledge of the lady. 
Page 109 After Zsuzsa and Waweru were caught fornicating, Waweru pulled the door with assumption that Zsuzsa had had enough time to dress up herself. This was a great miscalculation, the towel was still spread on the floor and she had not dressed up. 
The next funny thing was that by the scene, Erika was present. They met the eyes and it was very disappointing. 
On page 115, Abacha and Waweru were two contrasting characters. Abacha solely believed that Erika threw out Waweru because Waweru was a black. Humour part of it is that Abacha suggests that a black girl could have done it respectively. I also like Waweru wonder how a girl could leave you respectfully when she has found you fornicating with her friend. 
On page 133 I find it <-_humerous><+_humorous> when Illonka and Zsuzsa claims that they wanted to rape Waweru because Waweru , they believed never finished love. I laugh when I find Waweru not even scared and he goes on to say that he has got no hurry going to the hostels. Just before the raping on page 138 Illonka cautions Zsuzsa that she should not rape Waweru till she gets back. 
On page 145 Waweru stands and goes to dance with another person. He talked and whispered to her ear. He placed on a charming smile. The humour about is that Waweru did not expect what he found out. That was a man like he and not a girl! <-/infact> with <-/beards>. He was abused by the man who thought Waweru was a gay. 
Waweru meets Margit on page 165. When they had gone to sleep, she told Waweru to leave her so that she may sleep for she was very tired. Waweru, in mind asked himself if he was a Saint Joseph or anything next to that. On page 169 Waweru claims that his safety valve could not contain the pressure any longer, he had played enough for Saint Joseph. Waweru discovers that the girl was a virgin and he says that, that was the last thing he was expecting from her. The last laughable part is when the girl asserts; <quote_><quote/>
On page 180 Waweru stays with Bacsi the trainer. Waweru was given very little food and this made him protest but he had nothing to do but to eat the food. Bacsi tells him that he should regain from eating any meal outside his house. In Wawerus mind, he knew very well that he could go to the college canteen and buy meals. As if Bacsi was reading his mind, he informs Waweru that he had taken all his money when Waweru had gone to bathe. 
On page 194 Waweru applies jelly to one of the clubmates. The clubmate asks Waweru if there were gays in Kenya. Waweru not knowing the motive behind the asking answers that “queers are everywhere”. Clubmate is very inquisitive and wanted to know Waweru`s stand or position in the issue. This makes Waweru to discover his motive and quickly informs him that he is not interested. Humour lies in the replies, the man told Waweru;
<quote_><quote/> As if not enough, Waweru gives a humour;
<quote_><quote/>
On page 83 Waweru annoys Erika very much when Zsuzsa was scared and was crying. She asks Waweru if he had tried to screw her. He in reply wished that he had screwed her. 
Therefor humour in the text is heavily based on <-_racialism><+_racism>. This is as seen Waweru's seat could not be occupied and when the young child inquisitively wanted to know the reason to why Waweru was black and ugly. 
Humour is based on adoption of a language among the youth. Waweru has adopted an indecent language. At the meeting, the chairman retorts at one of the girl student who had claimed her money from him, using a very indecent language. 
There is humour in flashback. <-_Its><+_It's> applied in the scene that Waweru gives us a humour about when he was young and he had licked sugar. He denied but the mirror revealed it all. It was disappointing for him. 
. </I>

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<I> 

Humour can be defined as an amusement aspect, which in most cases, is used in artistic work such as novels. It's a style which can have an ironic twist or satirise an issue or depict an idea in a way that cannot cause great commotion. Humour adds flavour to a work of an art therefore, making readers to laugh and initiates them to concentrate (be eager) more on the work. The aspect of humour as to such, has been and is being used in various works for amusement for instance, it's used in our local press: 'The Daily Nation' in the whispers column and which <-/infact> influences readers' attention.
In Omondi Mak'Oloo's novel Times Beyond, the idea of humour has been used for several purposes for example, it has been applied to add 'salt' and of course to draw the readers' attention. The author depicts all these through the I narrator-Waweru, who is very understandable more especially to the racist environment he's in and handles all the matters which come across his life in a light manner.
Several instances have been used to show humour at work. The first instance is seen in the beginning of the book whereby, we find a dialogue between a mother and her little daughter; which amuses us a lot. The child asks her mother what kind of uncle is Waweru. The mother answers that he's '...a nigger uncle' and the child goes a head to ask as to why he's black while the mother answers that he comes from Africa. The child's exclamatory remark "Pfui! He's so ugly." plus her mother's answers "Because he comes from Africa", "Because his parents are black" and "Because they sunbathe too much" asserts more amusement to the context or conversation. Not only that this humorous incident makes us laugh, but also introduces us to the idea of racism that is shown by the author. This context depicts the racial aspect in this society where the Whites who are the majority, shows their hostility against Waweru and other blacks. Moreover, the mother in the conversation portrays how little the Hungarians know about the outside world; which appears to be a phenomenon for instance Africa is seen by her to be very far away: hence blacks come only from there. The way she suggests that Waweru is black due to much sunbathing is vague and beside being <-_humourous><+_humorous>, it shows how ignorant she is.
The second incident, which <-_despites><+_depicts> humour, is when the I narrator is in Erika's room and admires himself in a mirror; as he was preparing to leave for classes. <quote_><quote/> This episode is used by the author in describing Waweru. He gives Waweru a chance to depict his feelings about himself to the audience. He therefore, describes (the <-_humourous><+_humorous> aspect) himself as if it's somebody else and shows how proud he is about his skin colour and image; despite the fact that he is black and subjected to racial discrimination. This is quite interesting to us as readers and ironical on the other hand on the side of the Hungarians.
Earlier on, we encounter another instance which is full of humour. In this context, Waweru is listening to the radio and happens to catch the news about the cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. The way he suggests is full of amusement 'When would the fools get down to fighting and be over with it instead of terrorising the world with suspense?... Neither has said okey, what we are doing is utter insanity and detrimental to the whole of mankind. From now on, nuclear power will be used for peaceful purposes only, and some of the billion of dollars and roubles we spend daily in arming ourselves to the teeth will go to feed those undernourished Indians and Niggers of the third world. If we feel that the monkeys don't deserve too much <-_charety<+_charity>, the we can use the money to better the living standard of our own folks at home', This passage is humorous beside depicting a serious issue. The use of the word 'nigger'- recalling the conversation between the mother and her daughter, shows that Waweru is not a fool and understands the whole issue of racism which is practised by the white. Due to this, he realises that they cannot easily help people of the third world 'Indians and Niggers' and ironically he gives them the option of using the money to better the <-_lifes><+_lives> of their folks instead of using it on arming themselves.
Moreover, the conversation on telephone between Waweru and Jozsi's father is humorous. When Waweru rang to his friend Joszi for help in class work, he thought that he was the one who was talking. Waweru used obscene language which offended Jozsi's father hence initiating a quarrel between a father and his son. The passage makes us laugh more especially when Jozsi asks Waweru whether they have telephones in Africa! Besides showing a bit of racism and humiliation, it also shows variation of language use in that a language used precisely by the youths can offend and cannot be <-_accomodated><+_accommodated> by the older people.
In addition, the telephone conversation between Waweru and Gyula Bacsi after the ordeal with Jozsi spells out humour. This time, Waweru mistook Bacsi his boxing coach for his girlfriend Erika. "It's gorgeous!" I was grinning from ear to ear. 'Vaveru?' It was a man's voice. My heart tumbled to my boots'. The humour in this case is seen in Waweru who eagerly waited for the soothing voice of Erika but in contrast; he's shocked with Gyula Bacsi's voice. Furthermore, the punchline of this humour is seen when Bacsi answers back 'Exactly!' ejaculated Gyula Bacsi. 'Exactly', he repeated. <quote_><quote/> This passage makes the reader to understand Waweru as regards to the theme of love whereby, he loves his Erika much. It also introduces us to the boxing life of Waweru. And in this case, the coach is upset and asserts on the cause of Waweru's deteriorating standards in boxing, which is a reality. The truth hurts Waweru who tries to defend himself "...Can't we talk about this later?..." The two parties oppose each other and so increase the humour effect.
The conversation between Waweru and Abacha is humorous and takes an ironic twist. This is seen in page seventy whereby, they talk about the USA meeting meant to raise money for Amina; a Sudanese girl who had an abortion. 'That small Sudanese girl' 'An abortion?...say isn't it Amina who had a Hungarian boyfriend?" Such quotations plus the issue of Waweru knowing what Abacha was thinking about (as he was also thinking the same) as they kept quiet is quite interesting. Furthermore, the I narrator adds that they had an unwritten rule which prohibited African girls from being befriended by white boys (meaning they were to move with blackboys only); but never restricted the boys is humorous: "There was an unwritten rule among us that the boys could move with white girls if they wished, while the girls should only take black boys for boyfriends". This actually shows an opposite case in that not only the white, but Africans also practised racial segregation. The aspect of 'relief supplies' to be imported from Africa due to shortage of black girls adds more amusement into this context. Beside that, it also shows the male chauvinism and dominance over their female counterparts who are seen as sex objects if not 'goods for transportation'. 
At the USA meeting, the aspect of one student who claims to be responsible for ten abortions plus; the confrontation between Mustafa who's the Chairman and Ogundipe who claims to have lend him 500 Forint, (which he says was given when he was between her legs) is humorous. At this meeting, the USA student members met to raise some money for Amina who had an abortion termed as a 'successful abortion'. It's at this time that one student said <quote_>"<quote/> This is contrary to what we know that the act of <-_commiting><+_committing> an abortion is illegal hence depicts to us how less serious this is taken and of course its legalization in Hungary. Mustafa's case also shows us immorality in this society especially between the <-_lifes><+_lives> of students. Though humorous this passage is, the author uses it to depict such serious issues in human life in a light way.
During the boxing competition, Waweru was ordered by his coach Gyula Bacsi to apply liniment on his fellow light welter boxer. 'Give him the works. Right from the neck to the thighs...' The boxer turned and faced down while Waweru started applying the liniment. Surprisingly enough, this boxer was a gay! He tried to convert Waweru into one as he was 'working' on him. <quote_><quote/> He asserts being a <-_homosexualists><+_homosexual> by saying <quote_><quote/> It's at this incident that Waweru hit the man hard, yelled abuses at him 'Dirty little pig!" while he spat on his face and left him cowering by the lockers. This incident is humorous and shows the social link (immorality) in the society. Similar to the above incident is seen when Waweru and Abacha, are in the bar (pg 145), while they searched for ladies to have a dance with. The I narrator unfortunately landed on a man thinking that he was a lady. <quote_><quote/> this one didn't turn; she whirled...I had made a mistake. It was a he not a she. He had a beard bushier than Karl Marx's...'I'm not a gay, he snapped. 'This is not a gay club in any case" This passage points out the idea of mistaken identity plus how homosexuality as an immoral practise is familiarised among this people '...a gay club...' The climax of this humour is shown by Abacha as he makes fun on Waweru about this incident, choking on his drink and rushing to the loos while he asserted <quote_>,"<quote/>.
After Waweru's recovery, we encounter his mother and his sister, having arrived at Hungary to have an eye on him. His mother used to be strict and it's through this; that Waweru narrates his past life history as a child hence extends to tell us more about his Murang'a home. The humorous part of this instance is when Waweru tells us how he used to help himself to a spoonful of sugar and how his mother caught him red handed. <quote_><quote/> This instance is used by the author as a chance for Waweru to tell us bit of his life history which could have been otherwise inevitable. It in addition, acts contrary to the setting of the novel that is, between his home and Hungary.
While he was on his way to deliver Bela Bacsis money after the day's business, Waweru encountered a prostitute. The woman was carrying out some business and Waweru happened to buy a Swiss watch from her using Bacsis money without permission. The humour part of it is depicted when the woman saw the cashbox full of money and had much zeal for the money "Is that your money?" She held the door and insisted to stay while she was reluctant to leave the scene. She further threw an hand around Waweru's shoulder 'reeking of stale sweat foul breath' trying to win his mind.
More amusement is realized when Waweru picked a switchblade which he never thought of using against a prostitute, to scare her away. The woman screamed, she was pushed out onto the pavement and took off, while on the other hand, Waweru reversed the car and also took off! Moreover, this humour ended with Waweru handing the cashbox with full of guilty conscious; hoping to replace the money he used but, once he was out of the house he changed his mind and never (ironically) felt so bad about the money. This passage depicts the idea of prostitution done at the <-/pritex> that one is carrying on trade, hence shows the aspect of infidelity at work.
Generally, the aspect of humour as used by the author; has contributed a lot to the effectiveness of the work beyond amusement and readers' attraction. Being a feature of style, it has assisted in rendering a success to the work despite the shortcomings in Makoloo's novel; bearing though, in mind that 'style is the man'. </I>

W1A007K

<I> <h> "Civilization is when things work the way we expect them to." </h>

The word civilization is derived from a Latin word, <foreign/>civis which represent an actual social condition of the citizens. It was contrasted with barbarism, another social condition, which was originally a description of the life of a foreign group.

E.B. Tylor, a sociologist used the term "civilization" and "culture" as virtually synonymous. He defined them as, "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." To him, it is in this sense that all human societies have a "culture" and a "civilization".

Other academicians like Alfred Weber and R.M. Macluer, have reserved the Concept of culture for the area of values and meanings while using civilization for the area of material organization. Weber regarded civilization as the product of science and technology and as universal and accumulative in that it reveals to nature rather than to man. Macluer, made a broadly similar distinction; he related culture to ends and civilization to means and viewed the technological order of civilization as determined with the cultural order of means and values.

Another social scientist, V. Gordon Childe defined civilization as being the city. He coined the term, "urban revolution" to characterise the achievement of civilization. To him, terms "civilization" and "urban revolution" are <-_equalent><+_equivalent>. He stated that the urban revolution was the culmination of a process of progressive change in economic structure and social organization; the city was the "resultant and symbol" of this revolution. He cited ancient Mesopotamia as having had a parallel and direct link between development of cities and civilization. Among the qualities of civilization according to Childe include a stratified social structure, a highly differentiated occupational hierarchy, a well defined political structure, and integration as being fostered through a state ideology which reaffirm the basic unity of the society. He contented that "city" and "civilization" have all these characteristics and hence are the same and one.

There are other scholars, among them, Julian H. Stewart who have employed an "ecological perspective" in their approach to analysis and determination of the concept of civilization. This approach directs attention to how the members of a given society are related to their environment - particularly to how they exploit it and to the network of social relations involved - in an effort to determine in what ways these relations illumine other aspects of their social system.

Anthropologists use the concept of civilization in opposition to the notions of primitive and folk cultures. As a taxonomical category it applies to cultural types characterised by organic heterogeneity and correlatively complex society structures. Civilized societies are typically stratified and segmented.

In evolutionary terms, the achievement of civilization represents a definitive stage in the development of society and culture; as such, it contrasts with savagery and barbarism, the levels of integration that preceded civilization in the course of mankind's progress. In that regard, the achievement of civilization presupposes the attainment of a considerable degree of efficiency in food production; the economic foundations of civilization are everywhere based firmly on agricultural productivity which is facilitated by means of land reclamation, soil conservation, hydraulic control, etc. Also civilization entails technological advancement - not only skills and crafts, but also development of managerial skills. 

According to Robert Redfield, a reputable sociologist, civilization is a revolutionary change in the relative importance in society of the moral order and the technical order. He viewed the criteria that serve to differentiate civilization from the stage of barbarism as being the social, moral, and intellectual. To him, civilization is the transformation of the folk community into civilized society. The moral order in a civilized society is institutionalized in contrast with the traditional ethnical systems of the homogenous local communities. He used the concepts of, "the great tradition" and "little tradition" to mark a sharp distinction between folk culture and civilized culture. He called the "great tradition" a civilized or high culture. It is a cultural system shaped by reflective ideas, speculative thought, and it is consciously cultivated, systematized, and transmitted. The "little tradition" on the other hand is constituted by the Love, beliefs, folk wisdom, and artistic expressions of the common people - It is a "low" or "lay" culture. <-_Its><+_It's> <-_molded><+_moulded> by customs and <-_its><+_it's> refractory to innovation.

Another scholar, Friedrich Engels sharpened the concept of civilization as a social phenomena by refining the general scheme of social evolution by defining the transition from one stage to the next with reference to social and economic conditions. In economic relations, there is control of the means of production including human labour by ruling classes which assume the centralization and redistribution of surpluses, and the allocation of a labour force for public works, networks of exchange controlled by a professional merchant class or by the state, that supersede the direct exchange of goods and services. In the political structure, there must be a centralized executive and administrative functions. The state is integrated on the bases of social class and residence - instead of tribal organization, based on descent and kinship. He also viewed the rise of civilization as being accompanied by radical transformations of the ethnical systems. As relations among men change, so do man's views of the universe. The moral order becomes insitutionalized: A hierarchical class of priests, state-managed cults, and a sociomorphic conception of the supernatural world. Conversely, man becomes a creature of the gods, and society is understood as a manifestation of the cosmic harmony, thus, the new social order comes to be viewed as the product of divine sanction. Ethical life acquires new dimensions with the rise of moral orders more inclusive than the traditional moral order of the local communities or tribal groups. The revolutionary changes in the structure of society stimulate moral creativeness. Engels also stated that in the means of intellect, civilization is marked by the development of speculative thought, the expansion of time consciousness, the elaboration of exact and predictive sciences, the adoption of conventional symbols for recording and transmitting information, and the fixing of standards of time and space, and eventually also of weight. Finally, Friedrich took the expansion in aesthetic consciousness as a product of the attainment of civilization. To him, a high art (the art of the high or civilized culture) characterized by conceptualized and sophisticated styles becomes differentiated, superseding the old forms of communal art and relegating them to a subordinate level. The new styles are the produce of the creative activities of specially trained, professional - minded artists - craftsmen who labour to meet the demands of an elite of art patrons imbued with the new spirit.

There are other intellectuals who have tried to define the concept of civilization by demonstration and illustration. Among them is Ferdinand Tonnies who made a comparative distinction between a civilized community which he called <foreign/>Gesellschaft and uncivilized one which he called <foreign/>Gemeinschaft. The <foreign/>Gesellschaft is characterized by reason, everybody is by himself and isolated, there is growth of city life, growth of state and of national life. There is also an elaborate trade system and relationships are constructual and functional. On the other hand, the <foreign/>Gemeinschaft which he also called a "community of feeling" has associative unity of ideas and emotions that results from likeness and from shared life-experience. The relations are based on kinship, neighbourhood, collective proprietorship and it has a domestic economy. Tonnies thesis is that a period of <foreign/>Gesellschaft follows a period of <foreign/>Gemeinschaft.

Also, Emile Durkheim illustrated the meaning of the concept of civilization by using the term social solidarity as the index. He distinguished a civilized society from a primitive one by referring them as being governed or sustained by organic solidarity and mechanical solidarity respectively. In mechanical solidarity, social cohesion is based on likeness, collective conscience and homogeneity. In contrast, the organic solidarity is characterised by social solidarity based on the interdependence of specialized parts. Durkheim concluded that organic solidarity progresses as mechanical solidarity regresses. To him, the evolution of society can therefore be seen in terms of the passage from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity, with "mechanical" or "organic" referring to the dominant type of solidarity relationship at each evolutionary stage. He emphasized on division of labour as the source of solidarity in modern society.

Again, Robert Redfield used his theory of "the Folk-Urban Continuum" in relation to a civilized and uncivilized people or culture. He characterised Folf Society as being small, isolated, nonliterate, homogeneous, having a strong sense of group solidarity, behaviour being traditional and sacred orientation of their lives. The people within a folk society are uncritical, have no reflection to intellectual ends and have a kinship-based relationship. Their economy is one of status rather than of the market. The urban society on the other side is characterised by the antithesis of attributes of the folk society. 

From all the above definitions and explanations of the concept of civililzation, its clear and correct to firmly accept the assertion that, "civilization is when things work the way we expect them to". However, I would like to refute the conception of V. Gordon Childe of civilization being a city. Civilization is attained by man's endeavour to improve the quality of his life. I hence do not see any relation between civilization and urbanization because I tend to think civilization being a mark of a certain stage or state of man's social and cultural circumstances can be anywhere within the social and cultural parameters.

Civilzation can in a way be equated with the concept of development if development takes into account not only economic development, but also take into consideration the social and cultural dimension of progress. Among indicators of sustainable development which may be seen as civilization include foot security which is ensured through the sustainable use of physical resources and environment, basic economic security which guarantees the fullness employment of each individual's talents and skills through both the formal sector and the household mobilization system, national institutional security by establishment and sustainable operation of national systems responsible for the mobilization of geographical and geo-economic support for its priority programme for long-term national development, including a dynamic sense of national peace; security; and cohesion, the development of a national vibrant knowledge industry consisting of University institutions, a scientific research and technological development system, the agro-business and industry domain, the publishing industry and entrepreneurial institutions, and designed to underpin the inputs into and extend the outputs, etc.

By civilization, man ensures his survival and a life worth of him. Human beings must as a matter of their interest and welfare forge a synthesis of ideas, values and practices which would together constitute some notion of an ordered universe, and could specify for man a set of purposes in relation to that synthesis. As the word and our knowledge of it change, this synthesis must change too, so as to make it adequate to changing and changed circumstances.

I would also like to take the idea of cultural evolution to be parallel or to some extent to be the same as the process of civilization. Social and cultural evolution have been able to steer the progress of human-kind from its almost "animal-like" primitive conditions to the sophisticated forms of its present civilization. Man has been able to progress not only by adapting to the natural environment but also by adapting this environment to his needs. He has managed to create an artificial world - world of artefacts with the advancement of civilization. This issue of cultural evolution and process of civilization is clearly stated by Charles Darwin in his theory of evolution in his book entitled, "The origin of species", whereby he stated that, <quote_><quote/> Within the context of cultural evolution or the process of civilization this simply means that old or outdated systems comprised of material and non-material culture must give way to new systems which are more complex and sophisticated than the previous one to cope up with the prevailing social situation.

</I>

W1A008K

<I> An undergraduate article presentation

<h> "CIVILIZATION IS WHEN THINGS WORK THE WAY WE EXPECT THEM TO". </h>

The term civilization derives from a social condition <foreign/>'civis' (in Latin) meaning citizen.

Civilization is <-_archeologicaly><+_archeologically> and <-_historicaly><+_historically> defined as a culture which is maintained by a large population, over a long time, which includes an establishment of political organizations centred on cities, palaces and temples, the use if uniting and the development of specialized occupations. 

Webster defines civilization as an ideal state of human culture characterized by complete absence of barbarism and non-rational behaviour, optimum utilization of physical, cultural <-/>cultural, spiritual and human resources and perfect adjustment of the individual within the social framework. As the progressive development of arts, sciences, <?/>statecraft and human aspirations and spirituality.

It is a particular stage of cultural development at which writing and the keeping of written records is attained. A stage marked by Urbanization, advanced technology/techniques in agriculture and industry, expanded population and complex social organization which are not independent of technology. It is the whole of the advances of human culture and aspirations beyond the purely animal level.

This definitions carry with them other concepts that need clarification for a better understanding and reflection of what civilization is.

Non-rationality would simply imply the lack of reasoning in the process of Judgement. In relation to civilization, it would then mean that civilization is not judgement minus reasoning. It is not a mere effect of emotions and/or intuition.

I will take the term development to imply a process of natural growth, differentiation or gradual/successive change from a less perfect stage to a more perfected one. This would mean that the human being (who is my greatest concern on this issue of civilization) advances from a simpler state of existence to a more complex state in relation to himself and to others in structure, function and motive. <-/Infact>, all that would be examined under civilization must show such gradual progression.

On many occasions, civilization is contrasted with barbarism which I take to imply/refer to the social condition of offending the already established regard for correctness, or/and purity. A condition of deviance. When one contrasts civilization with barbarism he/she actually implies that civilization is the adherence to some established social values.

In their genesis about the emergence of the state, early philosophers may have had such a contrast in mind. What I am trying to propose is that at the time of their argumentation, the society they were living in had already established some values which must have influenced their intellect one way or the other.

John Locke and Thomas Hobbes assume that man at first lived in a state of nature/anarchy where society, government and organized <-_coexcion><+_coercion> of individual by the group existed. Men therefore made a covenant by which they abandoned their 'state of nature' to form a society in which they now live. They made a social contract which is assumed to have had men surrender their natural rights or liberties in order to enjoy the order and safety of the organized society. This can lead one to safely assert that civilization is the attainment of order and safety as needed by the individuals.

Assuming that every individual was on his own (which is not perfectly true as the family component must have existed somehow), each individual must have had some established values. When such values are threatened men must have then 'decided' to surrender their liberties for the security of other greater values, say life. What I am calling decision here could be what Rousseau meant by asserting that it was the general will that <-_necessited><+_necessitated> the establishment of reciprocal rights, duties, privileges and responsibilities which form the basis of the state. The state at this time is an organization and as per the definition, civilization.

The concept culture derives from a Latin metaphorical term <foreign/>'cultura', derived from the act of cultivating the soil. 

According to Webster, culture means that total pattern of human behaviour and its products embodied in thought, speech, action and artefacts and dependent upon man's capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations through the use of tools, language, and systems of abstract thought. It is the body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits constituting a distinct complex tradition of a racial, religious or a social group.

Culture could be said to be a general habit of the mind as related to human perfection, a general state of intellectual and moral development in a society as a whole, a body of the arts and intellectual work and as the whole way of life, material, intellectual, and spiritual of a society.

From this definitions of culture, on can assert that the process of civilization traces back to the time of development of knowledge, opinion and belief. Infact civilization traces back to thought as the very first step from non-rationality. The development of language, as a communication medium, establishment of symbols, gestures, art, graphics and writing, - the basis of communication as understood today- forms the basis of civilization.

The 'state of nature ' is associated with hunting and gathering, and more <-/pronouncingly> the non-existed of law and order, life was short, nasty and brutal in this kind of state. However comparable man was to the other animals, he could exercise some kind of extra-rationality by not only hunting and gathering but by also fishing and using floating tools for instance, logs, and some <-/porking> sticks. This could be an indication or a trace of civilization at the stage of the 'stage of nature'.

However, the most crucial stage is that of 'deciding' to bring up the social contract in mention by Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. For such an act to be effected, rationality must have come to play. There must have been a thought, a medium of communication that was understood by a fairly large group to necessitate deliberations and <-/infact>, adoption of what was agreed upon. This act(s) of communicating, deliberating and adopting of set objectives is in itself an organizational process and in essence, the making of what the participants wanted, hence civilization.

It was not until the new stone age that domestication of plants and animals was practised. This marked the beginning of the modern conceptualization of civilization. It was the beginning of settlements which were at first semi-permanent but became permanent gradually. When <-_archeologists><+_archaeologists> define civilization as including specialized occupation, this domestication must be a major contributor because of the existent practise of farming and ranching and <-/nomadism>.

Settled communities especially in Mesopotamia and Egypt among others, are said to have experiences climatic changes at around 4000 BC which is thought to have rendered fertile lands barren. This could have called for adoption and because of the presence of water masses, rivers for instance, the rise of irrigation systems was inevitable.

The use of such systems must have needed co-operation and indeed, co-ordination. This could explain the rise of organisations and at this stage, some direction from a centre. Being a fact that many settlements were in river valleys, with an exception of those that did not, the settlers had to cope with the flood situation from time to time. This too, may have necessitated co-operation and <-/infact> may have precipitated organizations.

This brings another approach to the study of civilization. The centre was to give instructions and the necessity, needed to arbitrate and enforce resolutions. This could also explain the rise of political structures such as councils (legislatures) to debate and pass resolutions, an executive (bureaucracy) to enforce the resolutions and a court (judicial system) to try those that refused to compel.

But there was the other need of defence and security so as to check deviance from within and from without the community. This could have resulted in police and the soldiery.

For effective administration, records had to be invented and assuming that writing was already in place, professionals had to emerge to deal with specific aspects of the society. For instance, professional scribes, lawyers, clerks and other occupations resulted. Career administrators came in as administrative strategies had to be laid down and followed to achieve a defined goal.

The monitoring of such <-_occurances><+_occurrences> like floods may be responsible for the emergence of calenders. Calenders were, of course, worked out by monitoring of the star patterns at a given time/season, remonitoring and predicting. This monitoring of stars gave the way for the development of astronomy and indeed, astrology.

Population increase and a changing environment led to more adoption. This saw the rise of the agrarian revolution which was targeted towards food sufficiency and supply. As a result of this, industrial revolution was to follow. The increase in production of raw <-_materilas><+_materials> meant the establishment of better refining gadgets. This was the industrial revolution which was characterized by invention of machines and the perfection of the existing ones. Iron was brought into intense use. Occupations, Medicine for instance, was to develop and have its many branches of dentistry, say human, animal and plant medicines as there is today. 

Increased food production did not lead to total sufficiency, insufficiency continued to exist and would later develop to trade. This was to be within the community/village and between different villages. I take the village at this stage to mean a settlement or a group of people who are settled in a given area. This settlements would be organized in say, a kinship system of organization which would later develop to sophisticated political organizations and territories, but primarily first as persons of a common ancestry say for instance, the <-_bantu><+_Bantu>, <-_nilotes><+_Nilotes> and <-_cushites><+_Cushites> and others. Such organizations at the very first time operated on basis of trust.

As an effect of trade, competition arose. It would target the domination of trade routes and domination of supplies of certain commodities. Backed by the already established institutions of the soldiery, conquest and state domination did result. The term state here is used to imply a single settlement or several settlements that have been made a single entity through conquest and domination. This could explain the existing behaviour of state. I am trying to draw attention to the culture of conquest, say colonialism, direct/indirectly by the modern state as an aspect of civilization. The behaviour of the modern state of wanting her existence to be felt and recognized which could include the extension of territory, exploitation of others and indeed total control, political and economic, of another. Examples could include the invasion of Grenada by the U.S.A in the late 1980's, and that of Iraq over Kuwait. I am making the assumption that domination has developed into a culture.

Once conquered, the losers have their independence curtailed and their wealth claimed by the victors. The Akkadian empire, one of the earliest empires, is said to have developed by such means of conquest and so did many others. Increase of trade as a result of insufficiency led to the emergence of merchants. This put together with dominance, imperialism and as cause-effects, capitalism and colonialism developed. This may somehow qualify civilization when defined as culture and inevitably associated with dominance, to imply barbarism. I am saying this because there resulted deviance of some set values and <-/infact> somehow went against the social contract said before as liberties where to be secured at an equal level.

Imperialism at first is brought up as a check/struggle of dominance between establishments. The posed threat there could be real or imagined. For instance the expansion of the Assyrian empire which was aimed to counter Aramaean <?/>intansrous.

I want to make an emphasis that when viewing civilzation as a maintained culture, one needs not forget that the cultural values of a given people are very much influenced by the peoples environment. The cultural value I have in mind would include foods, clothing, belief and other customs. For instance, the intensity of the sun rays and the period of winter are pointed by Mazrui to have had an effect on the emergence of certain things in Europe that were at that time not emerging in Africa. 
</I>

W1A009K
<I> 
<h> Topic: Although circumcision is a significant rite of passage, female circumcision should be eradicated in a modern society </h>

	Although circumcision is a significant rite of passage, female circumcision should be eradicated in modern society. 
	Circumcision is a practice of initiating young members of a society into adulthood. In the African context, it is a highly religious affair in which everyone in the community must participate. In almost all societies, it involves cutting or making a mark on the bodies of initiates which is both permanent and very significant. 
	In a secular context, female circumcision involves cutting off the clitoris from a woman's sex organ as a mark of transition from childhood to adulthood. In a deep context, female circumcision, or clitoridectomy not only involves bridging this gap from childhood to adulthood but also has various other meanings , inclusive of being a gateway to marriage. 
	Female circumcision has , in modern society ,come under a lot of controversy. This is in the light of its being a health hazard, an outdated practice as well as a violation of human right among others. Many people have campaigned against it with vehemence and choke so that some African countries have even banned the practice. However, despite this opposition and occasional censure, the practice has thrived unhindered, going underground in situations where it has been repressed. 
	This paper intends to show the <-/positiveness> of female circumcision, so much cherished by those who practice it, against it's dangers and risks ,which, as will be seen, have brought into the limelight by modernization. It would also be necessary to asses this issue from an African point of view, and <-_speciaficlly><+_specifically> a Kenyan one, since these two situation are relevant to us today. 
	Circumcision , in general, involved a bond being made between the living and the dead. Mbiti (1992: 99) say that through the <-_shadding><+_shedding> of blood, one made a communion with his or her community as well as his or her departed ancestors. Whether such a purpose for circumcision is relevant to a modern society is debatable. This is because forces of religion, education and modernization have wiped a way beliefs in the living dead and other cherished ideas in traditional world. 
	Secondly, one was recognized as an adult after getting circumcised. Mbiti says that any person who did not undergo this practice, whatever his her age, was still considered a child (ibid). However, in modern terms ,one's recognition as an adult may emanate from mental or physical growth and stature, getting married and other social or even spiritual developments. These may be taken as a criterion to adult status. 
	Thirdly, initiation was a gateway to marriage. Mbiti (op.cit), says that one would not be viable for marriage, at whatever age, if he or she had not undergone this practice. It was virtually a sole and very important prerequisite to marriage. During the healing period, the initiates were <-_adviced><+_advised> by elder members of the society on the secrets and mysteries of marriage life. However, modern society has no such prerequisite for marriage. Love between those involved is cherished more than the question of what culture one identifies him or herself with. For marriage secrets, one may wonder which they are while every nitty gritty detail about marriage life is there for all who are literate enough to read in magazines, <-_newpapers><+_newspapers>, novels and other reading material. 
	Fourthly the scar left on the sex organ of the individual identified him or her with the community from which he or she came. But this may sound vague in a modern situation in that the scar is not overt for everyone to see, secondly, the need to identify oneself with only one's ethnic community will breed such issues as ethnocentricity , tribalistic chauvinism and many others, all evils in today's society. 
	Circumcision was also seen as a new birth. Both male and female were reborn in the tribe, this being marked by intensive feasting and appraisal by the whole community. Mbiti (1960:102) says that in some communities, the youth would acquire new names and drop old ones. Clothes worn during childhood would be set on fire, in a popular ceremony and the newly circumcised youths would wear new ones. This is one important aspect of initiation that can be noted. However, the direct equal of initiation in modern society may be baptism, brought about by religion. People receive new names and acquire new status. It would be unnecessary then that a further adoption of names is done during circumcision. 
	Most important and relevant of all, circumcision was accompanied by intensive instruction on matters of sex, tribal secret among many others. Bottignole (1984:41) say that <quote_><quote/> Sex education was very much emphasized for all who had undergone the practice, to prepare them for a dutiful and responsible adulthood. This may be said to lack today due to evils like prostitution, abortion, pre-marital sex, extra-marital affairs among many others. Modern society may probably borrow a leaf here. 
	Colonization, Western education and religion are very powerful forces that have affected African culture. Through these influences, many cultural practices of the African have been eroded, replaced by alien beliefs and practices and subsequently, a fully changed way of life. However, some practice are so deeply rooted in the mind of  African that it would take long and tiresome efforts to eradicate them. 
	In the light of modernization, female circumcision is a health hazard and a cause of many other problems related to social, physical and spiritual aspects of life. Why this was not and still is not so in the traditional sense is because colonization, Western education and religion had <-_no><+_not> much influence as to convince those practised it to stop. 
	In world invaded by the AIDS menace, this practice poses a threat to those on whom it is done and secondly, those doing it. AIDS is a <-_contageous><+_contagious> venereal disease, caused by the HIV virus and has had no cure throughout the world. Apart from being caused or contracted through sexual intercourse, it is also passed over through the use of unsterilized instruments on people, thus infecting them with the virus. In the tradtional sense, the practice offers an easy way through which this virus can be passed on to a whole group of youngsters in the community. Kenyatta (1971:82) says that in the Kikuyu community, the surgeon's knife was only one and it was to be used on every youth who had to be initiated. 
	Secondly, the scar left on the woman's birth canal may bring about complication at birth, painful birth and <-_sexsual><+_sexual> intercourse. Apart from this, it reduces sex libido for the woman, denying her the pleasure of an act supposed to be enjoyed by both partners in marriage. Writing about the position and role of African women, Ssekamwa (1986:13) says, <quote_><quote/> Her position thus, in addition to clitoridectomy, denies her a pleasure she is entitled to. 
	Thirdly, clitoridectomy expose women to chronic vaginal infections. The scar left on the mouth of the vagina after the removal of the clitoris is as good an abode as any for dangerous viruses and bacteria which may even lead to the death of the individual. Some scars may even fail to heal and the woman will experience a lot of pain from it all. Some may get circumcised shortly before marriage. Even though the scar may have healed, <-_sexsual><+_sexual> intercourse will rejuvenate and even expand it, this resulting to excessive and unbearable pain. 
	Fourthly, circumcision of women is a severe and painful act, which may be termed as inhuman. Denying the woman the right to natural feeling of the body through cutting off of parts of that body is against humanity. In some Cushitic communities of Kenya like the Somalis and the Boran, some African countries like Ethiopia and Sudan as well as parts of the middle East, the painful practice of infibulation is practised. This is the scrapping off of all external genitals of a woman, the clitoris, the labia minora and the labia majora. This is done with out any anaesthesia and with an unsterilised blade. This is more of mutiliation, punishment and infliction of pain than a deliberate wish to perpetuate any culture, however significant it may be. 
	Among the communities persisting with this practice, most doing it with deliberate awareness of censure, opposition and discouragement from the Government or Govervments, the church, non-Governmental agencies, the press and the general world public. Female circumcison still thrives in Kenya, despite a Government ban imposed on it in August 1982 (Kahiga, Sunday Nation, 27th March, 1994: lifestyle 4 ) 
Many express their support for this practice in the belief that its failure or eradication may evoke a curse from the ancestors, may make one to miss a husband, may make a woman naughty and dirty or may even make one excommunicated from the community as an outcast. It is, seen in the light of those ignorant of this practice, a thing of the past and can easily be eradicated. However it is deeply rooted in the minds of those who take the practice seriously and to convince them otherwise would take much effort . 
	Mbiti says that clitoridectomy is highly valued in all African communities. However, he adds that <quote_><quote/> (Mbiti, 1992 :97). Such a practice may successfully be adopted to replace the risky cutting off of the genitals for women. However, to divert the attention of those who uphold such a practice requires that they be made aware of its dangers. Miriam Kahiga suggests that education may be a useful tool to fight this practice quoting a research co-ordinator of the <ea_>Maendeleo ya wanawake<ea/> organisation, Kihiga says: 
	Mrs. Muuya is convinced that female circumcision is not here to stay. With conscientious research and sensitivity, she say, people will make their own decisions. <quote_><quote/> (Kahiga, Sunday Nation , 4th April 1994: lifestyle 5 ) 
	The education of the masses is a very positive thing do to do in that it will not only help eradicate this practice, but will also accompany sex education which will curb the evils of pre- and extra-marital sex, prostitution, AIDS, abortions, <-_homosexsuality><+_homosexuality> and the problem of street children among others. 
	Mbiti <-_advices><+_advises> that,  (1992: 103). 
	Western education serves a very useful purpose in fighting this practice. This is by orienting the youth on the issue of morality and human right. Educated women will not stand to see such risky practices being retained, but will campaign for the recognition of their folk in problems. Concerted efforts between men and women, boys and girls need to be made to ensure that education can be used to fight this practices. 
	Should it be hard to eradicate the practice for any reasons whatsoever, it can be replaced by a gentle, more considerable way of marking this transition from childhood to adulthood. This should emanate from efforts by the <-_Goverment><+_Government>, the church, <-_Govermental><+_Governmental> and non-<-_Govermental><+_Governmental> groups, the press and the public in genital. 
	In conclusion, it is of importance to note that whatever positive featured female circumcision has, the practice itself is not only outdated in modern society, but also risky, unhealthy and poses many other dangers to those who practice it. A campaign for it's eradication should be launched and taken seriously, or alternatively, another way of initiating the youth into adulthood designed and enforced. 
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W1A010K
<I> <h> Title: "ALTHOUGH CIRCUMCISION IS A SIGNIFICANT RITE OF PASSAGE, FEMALE CIRCUMCISION SHOULD BE ERADICATED IN MODERN SOCIETY''. </h>
<h> DEFINITION </h>
Circumcision according to Eliade, M et all (1987;511) is generally the surgical removal of the foreskin from the penis. Early social theorists speculated about circumcision's origins suggesting that it may have 1. marked captives thereby signifying subjection, 2. attracted the opposite sex, 3. been a tribal or ethnic mark, 4. been hygienic, 5. increased sexual pleasure, 6. removed men from materials bonds, 7. tested bravery, 8. sacrificed part of the self to ensure future rebirth, 9. been a form of symbolic castration to <-_suport><+_support> the domination of youths by their elders or even, 10. stimulated menstruation. However Eliade, et all are sceptical about the <-_acceptence><+_acceptance> of these theories today. 
Circumcision for both male and female is one of the many rites of passages that has profound meaning and practice in Africa and the world at large. The rites of passage include, initiation which according  Hasting,j.(1980;314) means "going out'' from a prior state of life be it worldly for an ordinary person or from a monastic life <-/incase> of one changing to another faith. Other forms of initiation include tooth removing, <-_tattoing><+_tattooing> to mention but a few. Naming denotes "arrival''- entering into the circle of the fully <-_acredited><+_accredited> members of the society. So are marriage and death and belief in the life after completes the circle of rites of passage. 

<h> SIGNIFICANCE; </h>
From the <-_african><+_African> context with particular reference to the Kikuyu female circumcision, regard is taken to it as a the very essence of an institution with enormous educational, social, moral and religious implication quite far from the operation itself. The moral code is bound up with the customs symbolising the unification of the whole tribal organisation. 
Its social significance lies in the fact that it marks the commencement of participation in various governing group in the tribal administration, because real age-groups begin from the day of the physical operation thus raising the <-_girls's><+_girls'> social status from girlhood to womanhood. 
The social persons and the natural person are brought into closer conjunction. The endurance of pain and <-/obsernce> of ritual restriction express both a willingness and a capacity to subject personal appetites and feeling to collective ends. It is relational, as it establishes relationship with the living and the dead. It is experience of sharing life and a vision for life with the centre community. 
Religiously it signifies the mystery of life and eath as being at its heart. The relationship between the initiate and the ancestors leads to God, The ultimate ancestor. Furthermore, sexual life for which initiation is a prelude, is direct connected to the origins of human experience and <-_existance><+_existence>. Procreation is the means by which the community continues to exist and thrive, affording its immortality. 
It is educational because it is a forum for impacting /imparting cultural values and fostering attitudes. The initiate is taught to think with the community and see the world as it sees it. 
She is given a cultural framework or "gramma'', a configuration of images and meaning within which to confront <-_experince><+_experience>. It is as Shorter (1989;5) says; a form of "<-_experince><+_experience> teaching /learning that conforms to the best theories of pupil centred or life-centred education today;. 
The girl to be initiated is reminded about proper manners of behaving as a girl of her rank, the motherly qualities of a raising a family, a love of her <-_hasband><+_husband> and in-laws, prudence in her decision, hospitality to strangers and duty to the poor. Cognolo C. (1933;85) quotes in emphasis; 
In the last few days preceding the circumcision, the boys and girls are prepared by a course of instruction, directed by a master chosen from among the old men. 
This duty is only entrusted to a wise old man, learned in local customs and the love of the tribe, who, assisted by his wife explains to the candidates the rites of conduct and behaviour becoming to a circumcised person and the importance of maintaining the prestige of their sex He aims at impressing deeply in their minds the fact that their years of childhood have now come to an end and that they must begin a new life, nor must they show <-_themself><+_themselves> degenerate of their forebears. 
It should be noted however that this type of education is gradual and <-_experential><+_experiential>, not simply conceptual. It informs the initiates, forms her attitude and transforms him from earlier inferior status to a higher one; from childhood to mutuarity. <quote_><quote/> as observed by Khamelwa (1990;30) However, significant, clitoridectomy or female circumcision is a controversial issue as discussed in the next sub-topic. 

<h> CLITORIDECTOMY AS A CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE; </h>

Clitoridectomy is the cutting of some portions of the female genitals normally the clitoris or lobial minora or majora. This customary practice widely practised among people of Sudan, Ethiopia, Somali, Djibouti, Mali, Senegal and part of Egypt, Nigeria and East Africa, has been attacked by a number of European urgencies; missionaries, sentimental pro-Africa, <-_Goverment><+_Government> Educational and medical authorities. It is a controversial issue which actually dates back to 1929 when the late Jomo Kenyatta in his book, Facing Mount Kenya (1978; 30-31) noted about missionaries who tried to militantly discourage the practice; 

...after several attempts to break down the custom, the church of <-_scotland><+-Scotland> mission to Kikuyu issued an order demanding that all their followers and those who wish their children to attend school should pledge themselves that they should in any adhere to or support this custom, and that they will not let their children undergo initiation rites. 
Similarly in 1930 the question of the custom of clitoridectomy was raised in the house of commons and a committee of members of parliament was appointed to investigate the matter. These reached an agreement that education other than force of enactment gave freedom to individual persons to choose what custom was best suited to their changing conditions.(Ibid). 
Again in 1931, a conference on <-_african><+_African> children was held in Geneva where it was argued against this "barbarous custom'' which ought to be abolished by law, making it a criminal <-_offense><+_offence> for anyone who should be found guilty of <-_practicing><+_practising> the custom of clitoridectomy (Ibid.?) 
An American's Times correspondent Reena Shah (1939) in the article 'Female circumcision' holds that <quote_>'<quote/>

<h> COUNTER ARGUMENTS TO SPEARHEAD ERADICATION </h>

Clitoridectomy rarely marks sexual maturity where we actually see the process done on infants or children rather than adolescents. Early circumcision may be, as commented on by Eliade et all (1987). (op.cit.) as a mark of ethnicity, or it may be considered hygienic or aesthetically attractive but it does not provide a means by which trauma may be harnessed to the inculcation of moral and metaphysical values, as a test of bravery. However, in societies where circumcision serve as a rite of passage to adulthood, is prevalent in central Australia and East Africa. 
Women are afforded no comparable process to what and despite any physical operation, remain minor subordination to men, according to the norm that govern social organisation. The inferior position of women in the society has culminated into popular <-_feministics><+_feminist> movements labelled as "Women's liberation movement''. It is their radical effort to come out of that. We can therefore see that actually the intention of clitoridectomy as a process defeats its purpose of adulthood, freedom, independence and general social status for women. 
Clitoridectomy as a forum for impacting cultural values is not strong enough a point nor an ideal reason for it practice in that, from the societal setting, the time schedule for oral literature is usually at night whenever everybody else is done with his/her responsibility, and are seated by the fire place sharing casual talk. Sometimes in various casual activities/function like at beer places, field work like farming and harvesting, building houses, and <-/infact> also through a process of imitation where the young ones imitate what the elders do. 
I therefore refute this argument as not being solid enough, since there are many other occasion where knowledge can be impacted to learners. It is even more evident with the emergence of school, colleges and institutions spearheading rapid advance in technology and civilisation. 
There is the shift from tradition to modernity. 
Cultural identity according to me can always be manifested through other ways like naming typical to the society heritage, <-_tatto<<+_tattoo> decorations with minimum pain, dressing habits, language, <-_ethnics><+_ethnic> and geographical location. The eradication of clitoridectomy will definitely, not interfere with cultural identity.

Looking at East African with specific reference to Kenya's pluralistic nature of society, we see that contact can never be avoided among the different groups of people; the Europeans,I ndians, Arabs and Africans. 
Detribalisation can be brought about as a consequence of intermarriage with uncircumcised persons. This is viewed with severe hostility particularly from Kikuyu parents for instance, who eventually <-_succed<<+_succeed> in breaking up marriage relationship or reject their sons and daughters who have refused to comply to tradition. This parental attitude has had deep psychological bearing on couples, bred widespread disobedience and head strength in the "rebellious'' youth, and general misunderstanding among families. Because of this, the family which is a cell of a nation projects and hampers the peace of the entire nation. Clitoridectomy should therefore be eradicated so that there can be free intermarriage, communal living as children of one family, the chosen community of God. Segregation has always emanated from the practice whereby those who have not been initiated are regarded with contempt as inferiors and social outcasts. History holds that the late Oginga Odinga, although he ruled remained a child; implying that he had not the mandate to rule. <-/Infact> Mbiti j .(1969; 30) says in Nandis society; <quote_><quote/> This implying that a person is incomplete and a nobody. It can be noted then that the practice instead of facilitating social relationship is a vehicle for social discrimination. 
According to the Nandi female initiation rites, social inferiority and psychological depression may haunt the girl's life for a long time. This is because in the process prior to the operation, distinction is made between virgins who are operated upon while they sit on stools and the non-virgins operated upon while sited on the ground. He observes that <quote_><quote/> [Ibid.] He further continues to say that if the girl is reported to be a coward, or not a virgin, the parents and brothers are so ashamed that they threaten to kill themselves or the girl concerned. We can therefore see that this practice does destabilise and threaten the emotional imbalance, unity and peace of the family and society. 
Mbiti [l975:97] acknowledges the fact that blood s lost, the operation is very painful, since no pain relieving herbs or other anaesthesia is used. In Ngugi wa Thiong'o's 'The River Between', [l965:56] Muthoni actually died from wound infection. The brutality in which clitoridectomy is practised is climaxed in an article on female circumcision by a Times Corespondent Reena Shah, where he explicitly narrates the process for the Somali woman: 

<quote_><quote/> Reena [l993:Op.cit]. 

<-/Infact> this mutilation leaves one breathless. Although the significance is greatly upheld, the physical delicacy should not be dispensed with. In the same article, report from the health officer from a local government clinic estimates that three out of ten in his area die of heavy bleeding and torn uteruses during childbirth. Some become infertile or incontinent and are divorced by their husbands. He further notes that the biggest causes of death among young girls is sceptic wounds from clitoridectomy. 

This bring us to the question of human Rights. As pointed out by Charles J. Mctaddan, O.S.A, Ph.D (1967;271) that clitoridectomy is a violation of the principle of totality whereby man has the duty towards the preservation of his life, although moral obligation do not stop at the border line of barely maintaining life within the body. He urges that, much as disease, accident and age will disfigure man, his duty rests upon him as the divinely appointed custodian of his body, to preserve the function integrity of his creation. To sum up this principle, St. Thomas and other theologians, the encyclical of the popes (ibid) argues in respect of body preservation and acknowledgement of human right to its wholesomeness, <quote_><quote/> but is also moral to get rid of the body where the life is threatened. Such cases apply to surgical operation on diseased regions and the life. <quote_><quote/>, observed Pope Pius XII in his address to the Roman Guild of saint Luke; Charles J. (1967: 272). 
Similarly on October, 1953, Pope Pius XII in the same text, Once again gave expressions to the principle of the totally of the human body in his address to the sixteenth international congress of military, the individual himself, has the right to dispose of his person, the integrity of his body, individual organs and their capacity to function, only to the extend that the general well being of the whole organism demand it''. (lbid:273). 
From these argument then, the girls has the right of preservation of her body, right to sexual satisfaction, otherwise it endangers the whole body. 

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