FAKE ACCENTS, WEAVES AND BLEACHED SKINS

There is one incident that has stuck permanently like a scar on my mind. It happened in the era of the rush for ‘greener pastures’, when teachers left public schools to join the private sector. It was the period of the popular ‘brain drain’, when most professionals crossed borders to the side where the grass was watered ‘very well’. ‘To cut to the chase’ one of my frantic efforts to liberate myself from the ‘peanuts’ that government offered at that time, ushered me in front of a panel of interviewers, all British. During that time, I figured that one of the female panellists picked up my struggle to catch the quick spoken, semi-swallowed words. She spoke slowly and tried to pronounce every syllable.  How I wish she could have taken up the entire discussion because the rest of her team got bored with my constant interjections of ‘pardon me’ or ‘could you repeat that’. Suffice to say that I was not successful because my failure to catch the British accent made it seem like I did not know how to speak English. After twelve years in school and an additional four years in university, learning English, I had failed lamentably at the former colonial master’s language because of intonation. In the desire to overcome this setback I promised to teach myself the British way of speaking. Now, thinking in retrospect, that is just the problem, what is the acceptable manner of articulation? Some people travel abroad and after two weeks come back with a different accent, which does not sound like the people they try to imitate and is miss for the locals - wasted effort.  What was inherited from the colonial days still haunts the country. Zambia must start believing in its manner of speaking. It is one the countries in Africa where citizens do not need to constantly repeat themselves in order for others to understand what is being said.

English is not a first language in Zambia. By the time, most people are beginning to learn how to speak it, they would have learned their mother tongue first. Therefore, no one can be expected to speak like a British or American. Unfortunately, mispronunciations, poor intonations are scorned and looked down upon. English will remain the official mode of communication for a long time to come. However that is what it will always be, a means of communication and not a standard to measure our literacy, our speaking and listening skills. It is one way of remaining connected to the global village but is not a measure for belonging to an elite social class. It is important to have a common acceptable standard way of speaking without looking down on the interference from the local language. If we are to head ‘Toward a Zambian genre’, then we should consider acceptable forms of English that will not necessarily dilute common rules of grammar, spelling and pronunciation. Creative writers should be allowed to make use of Zambian phrases and expressions as a way of authenticating the culture and beliefs of the people being written about.  The millennials are caught up between many accents as a result of the influence of technology. The challenge to young people is that there is power in being yourself. The effort of trying to be like someone else can be exhausting, it devalues a person. Make your point without making your listener think that you do not know what you are talking about. The only pressure you will have is to be the best version of yourself. So when it comes to pronunciation, let us not judge one another harshly, English is just one of the many languages in the world.