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kayjatta
2978 Posts |
 Posted - 30 Jun 2009 : 09:26:04
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The apparent war of words between Matt the alleged “rebel without a cause” and Bojang the “handsome prince of Brikama” over the list of names submitted to the ECOWAS Commission is quite interesting and I am unable to ignore it.
Both Matt and Bojang are potentially very good writers, but I have to say that their styles of writing, in my view, leave much to be desired. When I read their exchanges I kept asking myself who their audience and what their purpose were. I wondered if Matt and Bojang intended to communicate simple messages or information to each other or to show off their mastery of unusual English words. It appears that both Matt and Bojang enjoy the use of flowery language, perhaps purely to impress but at the expense of clarity.
Certainly jargon and verbiage are two enemies of clarity, and it turns out that clarity is the main purpose of communication. Perhaps Matt and Bojang need to learn something from Toubab1020 (see Bantaba in cyberspace). Toubab1020 has always insisted that “simple is good”. I agree.
I would like to examine some of the jargon and verbiage utilized by Matt and Bojang, but before that I will have to mention two other contributors to Gambian online media. They are Dida Halake and Michael Scales.
I like the simplicity and humor in both Halake and Scales, although their hypocrisy and less-than-straightforwardness with regards to the Gambia’s president often turn me off. Even Kebbeh, another respondent to Matt's letter makes more sense to me than both Matt and Bojang. I think it was Halake who in another war of words with Bojang made fun of his (Bojang’s ) penchant for jargon. I feel the same way about both Matt and Bojang.
Now let us look at the text of both Matt and Bojang's writings and some of the jargon and verbiage utilized by both.
My comments are highlighted in red while Matt and Bojang's texts are in bold.
Sheriff Bojang hits at Mathew Jallow
26 Jun 2009
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Dear Editor,
In a letter to the Ecowas Commission reproduced in your website today, Matthew Jallow included me in his list of Gambian journalists ‘forced into exiled’ by the government of Yahya Jammeh. I am clarifying that I have never been ‘forced into exile’ by the government of Yahya Jammeh or anyone else. I came to London several months after leaving Observer to pursue postgraduate education which was not tenable in The Gambia and having completed my programmes of study, I am returning to The Gambia in a matter of weeks.
It is rather curious that even before the sun set on his high sermon to Nderry M’bai on the virtues of responsible journalism, Matthew Jallow should be doing exactly what he was condemning, that is, writing ‘blatant lies’. And I can even vouchsafe that half of the names on his list were not ‘forced into exile’ by anyone. I know because they were my friends or worked under me.
I might have ignored this faux pas (this word simply means ‘blunder’ or ‘error’) but this is the second time Matthew Jallow has written lies about me and others on the web and it seems like it is becoming a bad habit with him.
In an interview published around the ides (this perhaps means the ‘15th of March’-it appears both unusual and repetitive here)of March, he claimed he was made editor of the Daily Observer but that Dr Ebrima Ceesay and I made a complot, (to conspire) complained about his ‘stringent editing style’ and got him ‘relegated to lower authority’.
Matthew Jallow was never made editor-in-chief of the Observer by Kenneth Best at anytime. I have been privy to all of Mr Best’s key editorial appointments, for example, those of Demba Jawo and Baba Galleh Jallow and even the part-time evening proof-readers. Best himself took over as editor-in-chief after the very cerebral CM Baldeh left and remained so until he was summarily deported when the Ghanaian, M Ellicott-Seade took over. Matthew Jallow was a freelance contributor who wrote whatever he wanted whenever he wanted and got paid accordingly. I had never by myself or with Dr Ceesay, complained about him or anyone to KY Best.
Matthew writes commentaries and features with easy charm and poetic cadence, but as a reporter (at the Observer where I met him) he was at best a hyperactive bundle of absurdity much inclined to mixing-up his pmi, and using dramatic and flowery language in the strict and sternly structured news reportage (I guess that simply means ‘reporting’) format. Which other Gambian journalist, since Ngaing Thomas retired, would have the chutzpah (this perhaps means ‘nerves’ as in ‘to have the nerves to do something)to write a story headlined, ‘MAN CHANGED INTO WOMAN IN SEREKUNDA! ‘? I have always regarded Matthew a bit of a thespian; (this perhaps means an ‘actor’ or ‘someone who likes drama’) always speaking in his Fula brogue (this means accent or dialect, I am sure in reference to Matt’s fula accent), dressed in grey khaki shorts and shoes, preening, pouting and sniffing the air as he walks home to Wellingara or wherever.
In that interview, Matthew accused the hapless Dida Halake of writing non-stop about himself. Well he himself did just that in that March interview giving a 12-page, 7,500 word thesis on why he should be hailed The Gambia’s First Original Rebel. I am telling Matthew Jallow that while he is lionising himself to the world, I know him and he is nothing more than what Cicero once told Herodotus, a ‘fabulosus’: a teller of tall tales.
- Sheriff Bojang
Mathew thinks Sheriff Bojang's reaction amounts to overkill
Dear Editor,
I wish to extend my sincere apologies to Sheriff Bojang and Cherno Kebbeh for wrongly identifying them as exiles of the murderous dictatorship of Yahya Jammeh, in an open letter addressed to the ECOWAS President, and copied to a list of other dignitaries and institutional heads.
While I must admit to making a mistake, Mr. Bojang’s twiddling with tortured logic and detached elevation of this innocuous mistake to an undeserved level of banality, really challenges the imagination. Sheriff Bojang’s stunning reaction is a classic example of overkill fueled by a fulsome and unnecessary extrapolation of triviality and the inconsequential. The puzzlingly harsh tone of his comments betrays the incubation of an attitude that borders on hatred, and more; it would appear he has been salivating for this moment of opportunity for a pretty long time. (This entire paragraph is a disaster. All that Matt is trying to say here perhaps is to admit his mistake and to assert that Bojang has exaggerated the significance of the matter because of his hatred and desire for vengeance. The utilization of unnecessary and unusual words have clearly obscured the meaning here).
To me, his aggravated reaction aptly compares to slaughtering a mosquito with a machine gun; ditto totally unnecessary. But, having inadvertently given him the opportunity to prune me, I hope he can now shed his patently maladroit combativeness to enjoy the novelty and freshness of glorious summer.
Frankly, I don’t think anyone deserves this sustained level of hatred, for after all these years, his attitude towards me has not changed one bit. But, I never purposefully set out to create obstacles to Mr. Bojang’s ecclesiastical ambitions by proliferating barriers of impediment (barriers and impediments? Different words, same meaning?) between him and Emperor Yahya Jammeh. I also don’t desire to re-visit my Observer story, since we evidently have different recollections of the same events. Sheriff Bojang also appears subliminally miffed, (I guess that means ‘bad-tempered’) perhaps even troubled by an exposition of any intellectual character others might find praiseworthy, yet I for one, wish him only good.
Sheriff once found my life’s story compelling enough to write a feature he entitled, The Rebel Without A Cause, and I don’t remember any Observer employee being so honored this way. As for me, if I have anything to say, I will reserve it for our flustered (confused or agitated) butcher Yahya Jammeh, not Sheriff Bojang or anyone else, and I hope someday soon we will share thoughts over suppa-kanja, or better still, my favorite dish; mbahal bu tillim.
Mathew Jallow
The ultimate purpose of communication is to convey meaning. The impressive but unnecessay use of words, especially unusual words do nothing to enhance meaning. Instead meaning is obscured and lost.
"Simple is good".
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Edited by - kayjatta on 30 Jun 2009 13:11:44 |
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kaanibaa
United Kingdom
1169 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jun 2009 : 09:51:57
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| Kayjatta, sabari! remember the saying that every cat has it's own way of killing the mouse. They have their style of writing and we just have to take what we get from them,another simple suggestion here.It is not easy to satisfy a multitude especially one spread across the world.wide.web. At times it is nice to read hyperbole spicing up the text so to speak. As for me I guess I have to stick to simple, being a creole speaker ; what do I know ! |
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toubab1020
12314 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jun 2009 : 11:42:39
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Kay. Thanks for your posting I found it very interesting for the topic relates to not what is being said ,but to how it is being said,and the words used to reinforce ones' points
I have just posted on the poetery topic Scalded and much the same applies there,enough of this the usual posters will be getting frustrated by all this talk about etherial( I like this word !) things. |
"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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kaanibaa
United Kingdom
1169 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jun 2009 : 12:25:45
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| Or thingies ! eh. |
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anna
Netherlands
730 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jun 2009 : 12:47:45
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Kay, i loved reading your posting but, truth must be told, i loved reading the articles you referred to as well. Although 'simple is good' enough for me too, i always enjoy reading other people's beautiful use of the English language.
I thought it was very funny to see these two using all these very courteous words while trying to 'shovel the other under the ground'  .
What's 'suppa-kanja'? I hope it means peppersoup, and that he is not fond of soup made of marihuana..
Complot: a kind of conspiracy, plotting together (or with a group) against a 'victim' - wanting to pull his or her leg, or worse 
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When an old African dies, it is as if a whole library has burnt down.
Amadou Hampate Ba (Mali) |
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kayjatta
2978 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jun 2009 : 12:57:00
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| Thanks Anna. 'Suppa-kanja' is okra soup. Thanks for the reminder: Complot to conspire ... |
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toubab1020
12314 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jun 2009 : 13:25:19
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quote:
Originally posted by kaanibaa
Or thingies ! eh.
You got it |
"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jun 2009 : 13:55:27
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Kay, you may have identified the condition of the mind of “a child of two cities”, that’s a Nobel price in psychology!mmmmmmm?
Achebe described the condition in the reception ceremony of the “been-to”. The ceremony is a “rite of passage” from “being” for one self to “being” for someone else. In his/her speech to the hosts the initiated (been-to) shows his/her level of disconnectedness after gaining western education and loosing connection with the very village committee that sent him/her aboard. The intention of the speech is not to be understood but to get loud applauses. The bigger the words the less the audiences understand, the louder the applause and the happier everybody becomes.
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Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
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kayjatta
2978 Posts |
Posted - 01 Jul 2009 : 08:48:07
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Thanks Janko. You are absolutely right. Many of us fall into the trap of unnecessarily complicating our writing because of the perceived impression on our audience.
Many of us, like Matt and the "Prince", are tempted to showcase the richness of our vocabulary, and thereby becoming unnecessarily pompous, boastful and sacrificing clarity.
Pomposity (too much showing off), verbosity (unnecessary wordiness)and jargon (unusal and technical words) are enemies of clarity and simplicity in writing.
Unless you are writing poetry or an academic paper, the use of "every-day" words that are generally understood helps increase clarity and understanding in communication. For example, while "extinguish the conflagration" appears more impressive, "put out the fire" is simpler and more clear to the reader. When we use 'big' and unusal words we may get a few more claps from the audience but the message gets accross either slowly or not at all.
Legal professionals are perhaps at the greatest risk of committing these cardinal sins of communication-pomposity, verbiage and jargon. However, Justice Cardozo, one of the greatest legal writers, kept it short and simple all the time.
If you go to any newspaper stand and pick up a 'Wall Street Journal', or a 'USA TODAY' or my own home Kansas City 'STAR', the protection of clarity is never sacrificed.
Justice Cardozo I have mentioned above was one of the greatest intellectual judges ever on the U.S. Supreme Court, but he has always observed the "rule of short" (keeping the writing short and simple). He has never sacrificed clarity for grace if it came to choosing between the two.
What was supposed to be a simple letter from the "Prince" requesting his name be excluded from Matt's list of Gambian exiles, or a simple letter of apology from Matt (the 'rebel without a cause')ended up a (mammoth -oh no, no big words please Kay) big show of what the late Isaac Asimov would refer to as an "aggression about their IQs". But even Asimov and arch rival John Ciardi who made a career out of (castigating) insulting each other indicated some sense of cooperation. At the end of their exchange, it is sad to say, no goodwill is restored between Matt and the "Prince" and many of their readers like me may only get half the message or worse nothing at all....
Please keep it simple."Simple is good", Toubab1020. |
Edited by - kayjatta on 01 Jul 2009 12:08:36 |
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kayjatta
2978 Posts |
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Prince
507 Posts |
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Santanfara
3460 Posts |
Posted - 18 Nov 2009 : 11:38:09
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Kay, i missed this interesting topic. But i find the exchanges entertaining. Imagine, a Gambia were simple English is the order of the day hey. Let there be showboaters mate.
This is human nature, whatever one is good at, without reasoning, one tend to get a bit, you know... blow your own trumpet. I love our shakespear wannabes. But in all seriousness, some the folks below use the language effective without much pump. Occasional flare do comes into play, but it is all in good taste. Let us celebrate the brothers.
Great English, although the online dic is handy now a days. Arise Sir Sheriff, Sankarah, Foday Samateh, Galleh, Hamjatta, Lamin J Darboe, Haruna. Bayang etc. Let the Anglo-saxons know that, some of our folks can do with English, what they cannot do with ours. I love it. |
Surah- Ar-Rum 30-22
"And among His signs is the creation of heavens and the earth, and the difference of your languages and colours. verily, in that are indeed signs for men of sound knowledge." Qu'ran
www.suntoumana.blogspot.com |
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Santanfara
3460 Posts |
Posted - 18 Nov 2009 : 11:41:00
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| Cheers Prince, i wonder how get this master pieces. Great. |
Surah- Ar-Rum 30-22
"And among His signs is the creation of heavens and the earth, and the difference of your languages and colours. verily, in that are indeed signs for men of sound knowledge." Qu'ran
www.suntoumana.blogspot.com |
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BambaLaye
USA
100 Posts |
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| Bantaba in Cyberspace |
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