Media priorities: selective compassion?

This week I read a BBC news article on the plight of Syrian refugees in Jordan. As usual, it's a case of the media defining what we should pay attention to and where our sympathies should be directed.

The article described the living conditions of refugee families in Jordan, highlighting problems such as lack of heating (a problem now as the winter is harsh) and a lack of functioning toilets.

It also mentioned how poverty was forcing some children to drop out of school in order to work, and some women were turning to selling their bodies to support themselves.

These are very serious problems, and they are not just restricted to the refugees in Jordan. I'm certain issues such as these are a reality for refugees in many countries (although lack of heating is less of a problem in warmer climates, of course).

This is an ongoing challenge for countries who host large numbers of refugees, especially in refugee camps. And the refugees seem to come from ever more countries of origin and in ever-increasing numbers.

But what struck me was that the problems reported are not only the case for people who have been forced to flee their homeland because of conflict, persecution, or a range of other reasons.

The problems reported are strikingly similar to the everyday reality for millions, if not billions, of people who live in their own homeland. To me, this is an even more serious problem. 

For emergency accommodation to lack what many would consider basic facilities (toilets, heating in cold climates) is one thing. But for a family's regular and only home to lack these things is quite another. 

The UN has designated November 19 'World Toilet Day' in order to raise awareness of the fact that 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to a toilet. If your maths isn't too good, that's about one out of every three people living on earth!

Even if that figure includes refugees, there is still an enormous number of people who permanently live somewhere without proper sanitation. This is a major contributor to the spread of preventable diseases.

Many children in developing countries, especially in rural Africa, are unable to attend school simply because their labour is required to contribute to the family's survival. This may include basics such as fetching water or digging the family's vegetable garden.

I don't want to minimize the suffering of refugees one bit. But I am concerned for those for whom living 'like a refugee' is their normal daily reality without even leaving home.

With the help of some friends, I'm trying to make a difference in a small way. In a small village in the west of Uganda, villagers (primarily children) walk up to 2 hours each way to fetch water from a swamp. This is their nearest water source, and it's not even clean!

By installing two 12,000L rain water tanks on the village church, Mujjinwa Baptist Church, we hope to provide the village with a safer and closer water source. This will prevent many diseases, give the children more time to spend at school, and provide water during the dry season.

Please consider helping by making a donation this week at our campaign page: http://watertanksandbeesforuganda.causevox.com/

Experiences of a Ugandan wedding

Late in 2012 we had the privilege of attending the wedding functions of a member of our church home group. I have been meaning to blog about it for a while but have been preoccupied with other things.

In Uganda, a wedding is not just a ceremony and reception as in most Australian weddings. It involves at least two ceremonies, usually on different days - the traditional one, called an Introduction, and the church or civil ceremony with reception. The Introduction is the one least like the familiar Australian wedding. It stems from the Ugandan tradition in which a woman formally 'introduces' the man she wants to marry to her parents and family members. The man brings his family members along as well as gifts to show his appreciation to the bride's parents and demonstrate his financial resources (see this blog, especially the latter part, for a more detailed description of the process and ritual of engagement and introduction, from an outsider's point of view).

The modern Ugandan Introduction seems to have become quite a production in comparison to what might once have been quite a modest and sincere occasion. In some cases, the dowry is not so much offered by the groom as demanded in specific detail by the bride's family (we want 10 cows, 2 goats, this many baskets of fruit/vegetables, a new dress for each aunt…). It is an occasion on which the groom wants to make a good impression on all present, and the bride's family want to be seen to be gaining a worthwhile son-in-law (see this article for some surprising wedding 'cons'). The groom usually holds a series of 'wedding meetings' with his friends and supporters to plan the occasion and raise the money needed, as the cost of the wedding and bride price is borne not by the individual or by one of the families, but by the community (on the groom's side).

Gifts lined up ready to take to the Introduction.

On the morning of the Introduction we arrived at the rendezvous point at 8.30am as instructed, having been told the function would begin at 11.00 and we'd all go together in several cars. The dowry gifts of baskets of fruit and vegetables, 20kg bags of rice and sugar, crates of coca-cola, a box of laundry soap and a custom-made chair for the father of the bride were gathered and wrapped (where possible) at that house and squeezed into cars. We finally left the house at 11.30am to drive to the venue, which was in a suburb a bit further out of Kampala. There was one stop on the way in order to rendezvous with more guests in more cars, and then we proceeded, arriving at the venue close to 1pm. We waited outside with the groom's family and friends as other guests on the groom's side arrived. Finally, just before 2pm, a man who was waiting outside with us told us it was time to go inside. He addressed everyone in Luganda but then translated the instructions into English for us. Basically, we were to follow what everyone else did - sit when they sat, stand when they stood, and speak when spoken to! This man turned out to be a hired speaker who would be the groom's spokesman for the ceremony. There was another one for the bride's side.

We lined up, men in one line and women in another, ready to go in the gate. The spokesman knocked on the gate and announced our arrival and then came the reply: 'What are you all doing here disturbing my family on a Saturday afternoon?*' Huh?? I thought we had come for a wedding. Weren't they ready for us? The spokesman was ready: 'One of us is sick and needs a doctor. We heard this was the doctor's house.' Oh? The reply came: 'Ok, I will send out some people to help you'. Four young women dressed identically in wrap-around dresses came out and began to pin ribbons on each of us (this was to mark us out as guests for when we eventually went in). Our spokesman thanked the occupants, and they replied: 'If that is all, you can go now'. Our spokesman was ready again: 'Actually, we have a young man here who wants to see one of your daughter.' The other spokesman replied, 'What would he want with my daughters? They are still in school.' 'Oh, no he wants to see your other daughter, the one who has finished studying'. 'Oh well, I'm sorry but she is away in London.' What?? Why wasn't she here when she was supposed to be introducing her husband? 'Then please bring her back as we want to see her.' 'It will cost a lot of money. You will have to pay to bring her back.' An envelope was then handed through the gate, and I began to understand that there was an element of farce and performance in this ceremony.

The 'doctors' come out to see to the visitors.

We were finally allowed to enter the gate, and took our seats in the courtyard of the house, facing the bride's family. Her 'father' and 'mother' (her brother and an aunt to stand in for her late parents). There were some introductions made by the spokesman, and fairly early on the bride's spokesman asked who we were and so we had to stand up and introduce ourselves. I guess we stuck out a bit! We were served sodas and then the bride's 'sisters' (probably her sister plus other young female relatives) were sent out to dance a bit and it was pointed out by the groom's side that none of these was the woman they were here to see. Then the bride's aunts came out and danced a bit, and then went out and returned with the bride. At one point they also danced into the groom's side of the party to search out the groom, who was right at the back. They brought him to the front and sat him with the bride.

The bride dancing with her aunts (ssenga)

Over the course of the rest of the event, the bride changed outfit five times, the women on the bride's side danced some more, the two spokesmen bantered and joked a lot (to allow time for the bride's outfit changes!), the gifts were brought in and presented, there were some speeches by various representatives from both sides, and it gradually got darker. Around 6pm dinner was served buffet style. We hadn't eaten anything much since breakfast so we were quite keen to line up, but as we started to go and line up with the rest of the groom's side, we were told that we were to be taken inside the house to eat with the bride and groom. This was a great honour to us as we were included among the bridal party. As is tradition, the bride and her aunts served the groom and his close family representatives (his best man, an aunt, and us). We ate beef stew, rice, chapati, and a special wedding dish called lowombo which is cooked inside a banana leaf. There were many guests on the bride's side who had come a long way (from the eastern part of Uganda near Kenya) so dinner was served and eaten quickly and then the cake was cut and the function closed so that those guests could begin the long journey home.

The gifts are carried in.

A lot of what happened during the event was completely opaque to us because most of the ceremony was conducted in Luganda and translated into the language of the bride's family from the east. Only some of it was translated into English (purely for our benefit). An article I found written by a Ugandan who has been through the experience himself helped me understand it better and it might be worth skimming through if you have time so you can also understand the point of the more surprising details I have mentioned.

Two weeks after the Introduction, we attended the church wedding ceremony at St Paul's Cathedral on Namirembe hill. As the first cathedral in Uganda, it is a historical building and the most sought-after wedding ceremony venue in the country. We even heard of a Danish couple coming especially to get married there because the groom's father had been married there! The ceremony was much like our own Australian wedding ceremony in many ways, with a church minister, bride, groom, bridesmaids, groomsmen, prayers, Bible readings, a brief sermon, singing, and the signing of the register. At the conclusion of the ceremony the cathedral emptied quickly, and when we had been outside for about 5 minutes I could hear noise coming from inside the cathedral. I looked in to see another bride walking up the aisle. That was a quick turnaround, I thought. But when I looked more closely I noticed that there wasn't just one bride, but four! Four couples were being married in the one ceremony! When we asked our friends about it, they told us that was quite normal for the afternoon timeslots at the cathedral. If you want your own private ceremony you have to have a timeslot before 2 or 3pm and you have to pay a bit more. There is wedding ceremony basically every hour on most Saturdays, and if you are late by a certain amount, they can refuse to marry you.

*The dialogue as represented here is not verbatim, but as close as I can remember. The semantics are roughly accurate, if not the words and grammar!

"Window shopping"

'Window shopping' takes on a whole new meaning in Kampala. You don't have to go to shops to pick up emergency (and not so emergency) items. You don't even have to go to shops to peruse items for sale. You can just drive to wherever you need to go (to work, home from work, or wherever you go on a regular basis) and stop - or even just slow down - near a major intersection, or take a bus from the taxi park, and you can buy almost anything you could wish to take with you.

Vendors at an intersection

Here is the list I've compiled so far of items I've seen available for purchase through car windows at traffic lights or intersections, and through taxi-bus windows in the taxi park in town:

• Food & Drinks
• • Fruit (passionfruit, lemons, limes, bananas)
  • Packet of biscuits
  • Water
  • Soda
  • Crisps
  • Fried Grasshoppers
  • Vegetables (shelled green peas, carrots)
  • Chewing gum
  • Cough lozenges
  • Small assorted fruit plate
  • Cakes
  • Dried corn
• Nuts
• Icecream
• Personal Accessories
• • Handkerchief
  • Belt
  • Jewellery
  • Hair accessories
  • Makeup
  • Sunglasses
  • Socks
  • Necktie
  • Nail clippers
  • Pain balm
• House & Garden
• • Mosquito zapper
  • Mosquito net
  • Table mat
  • Passport holder
  • Toilet paper (10 roll pack)
  • Digital timer
  • Loofah body scrubber
  • Padlock
  • Spanner
  • Screwdriver
  • Multi-grips
  • Flags of various nations
  • Educational wall chart
  • Set of coat hangers
  • Coat rack for wall
  • Mirror
  • TV remote control
  • Plastic storage containers
  • Cloths
  • Fish in a jar aquarium
  • Hedge trimmers
  • Water flask
  • Box of tissues
• Entertainment & Communications
• • Books
  • Newspapers
  • Toy twirling drum
  • Rubber ball
  • Airtime (i.e. mobile phone credit)
  • Inflatable toy penguin
  • Inflatable toy aeroplane
  • Toy instruments
  • Bouncy ball with flashing lights inside
  • Dart board and darts
  • Skipping rope
• Car Accessories
• • Steering wheel cover
  • Mobile phone charger
  • Mobile phone cradle
  • Jumper cables
  • Car floor mats

Vendors at the taxi park selling snacks through taxi-bus windows

Is there such thing as Ugandan English? #3: Semantics

Over the last two weeks I've been blogging some observations about the English spoken in Uganda, organised according to linguistic strata: first phonology, then lexicogrammar. This week I'm up to semantics - the systems of meaning that operate for speakers of a given language.

The main semantic difference I've noticed is really quite closely linked with wording and grammar (lexicogrammar), as it's to do with the way Ugandans perform the speech function of 'command'. For the non-linguists, I first need to briefly explain some things about this concept of 'speech functions' and how they are expressed in wording and grammar. There are basically four speech functions: statement (giving information), question (demanding information), offer (giving goods & services), and command (demanding goods & services). These are meanings which are expressed grammatically in particular ways. The prototypical matches are as follows:

• statement is typically expressed through declarative mood (Subject comes before Finite verb), e.g. The waitress brought some water for washing hands.
• question is typically expressed through interrogative mood (inversion of Subject and Finite verb), e.g. Did the waitress bring some water for washing hands?
• [offer does not have a particular match from among the three mood types]
• command is typically expressed through imperative mood (imperative form of verb, typically with no Subject or Finite), e.g. 'Bring some water for washing hands!'

But these prototypical match-ups do not always have to be used, and a different mood type can be chosen to express a speech function depending on the politeness required or other contextual factors. In Australian English, for example, it's very common to use declarative or interrogative mood to express a command, e.g. 'I need some water to wash my hands' or 'Could you please bring some water for washing hands?'. If you went into a restaurant in Sydney and said 'Bring me a menu!' (because you probably wouldn't ask for water to wash your hands), the staff member would probably take you for a very rude person and not treat you very well.

In Australian English imperative mood tends to be used to express commands in relationships of legitimate authority (e.g. owners to pets, parents to children, teacher to student, government official to citizen especially in written communication) or intimacy (family member or close friend). In the Australian context, the service relationship between a restaurant patron and a staff member is not one of 'legitimate authority'. In another context the restaurant patron might find him/herself serving the restaurant staff member.

It seems that in Ugandan English, imperative mood is used much more widely for expressing commands, without necessarily carrying the implication that the speaker is either in legitimate authority over, or in an intimate relationship with, the addressee. So you could say 'Bring a menu' or 'Bring some water for washing hands' or 'Pack these leftovers for me' or 'Bring the bill' in a restaurant and it would not be considered out of place.

On a lighter semantic note, I've enjoyed the fact that, in linguistics classes I've been to here, mangoes figure very prominently in examples constructed to illustrate a point, e.g. 'The boy bought a mango'. The mango is culturally much more salient here than in Australia - and cheaper too!

Is there such thing as Ugandan English? #2: Lexicogrammar

Last week I wrote about some of the phonological features of Ugandan English as I have observed it over the past 6 weeks or so. This week I've put together some of the lexicogrammatical features that differ from other varieties of English (particularly Australian English, of which I'm a native speaker).

What appears to be a different meaning of the expression 'relieve yourself'...

Lexicogrammatical features include words, morphemes (parts of words that have meaning of their own), and grammar. Most of what I have picked up on are either words that are used in a different sense from their use in Australian English or expressions that are not generally used in Australian English (e.g. 'we pray from such and such a church'). Some of these could probably be dealt with at the level of semantics but I thought it would be more straightforward to treat them as lexical (word) differences.

• 'airtime' - phone credit, which you can buy in various denominations from numerous small stands around the streets, or from machines in supermarkets, or even from people wandering around selling it through taxi-bus windows in the taxi park!
• 'balance' - meaning 'change', e.g. when buying something at a restaurant or market stall and you don't have the exact money, the staff member will say something like 'I'll get you balance'.
• 'benching' [see earlier post]
• 'bouncing' - opposite of 'benching', in which you go to visit someone and they are not home so you have to leave immediately.
• 'born-agains' [see earlier post]
• 'bury' - to attend the funeral of someone, e.g. 'I'm going back to the village to bury my father'. It doesn't mean they will literally carry out the burial, but will attend the burial/funeral ceremony.
• 'by the way' - doesn't seem to be used in the same way as in AusE, but possibly closer to 'in fact' or 'actually'. I don't have a clear example I can remember, but something like the following. Person A: I learnt yesterday that in Luganda you say 'osiibyo tyeno nyabo/sebo' to mean 'hello'. Person B: By the way, we say 'osiibyo tyeno nyabo/sebo' but if it's in the morning, like before 12 noon, you say 'wasuzo tyeno nyabo/sebo' and then after noon you can say 'osiibyo tyeno nyabo/sebo'. In AusE you usually use 'by the way' to talk about something not related to what was previously said.
• 'dear' [see earlier post]
• 'done' [see earlier post]
• 'eh' - high-pitched vocal noise expressing surprise or indignance, especially when recounting some situation that brought this response about. It can also be used with a lower pitch as a checking move when explaining something to someone, e.g. when applying for a bank account, 'You fill in this one, eh?, and then he fills in, eh?' (a bit like some uses of 'ok', 'right', 'yeah' in Australian English)
• etc [see earlier post]
• 'for me' - common at the beginning of an utterance in which someone will either express their opinion or share something about what they have done or decided
• 'ka' is a diminutive prefix in Luganda (& other Bantu lx?) and has been imported into Ugandan English with the same function, e.g. ka-bag (small bag), ka-man (small/insignificant man). Instance in conversation: (a local commenting on a picture of a kangaroo and the fact that it has a pouch) 'Isn't God wonderful, how he made the kangaroo with small legs at the top and bigger legs at the bottom and a little ka-bag here for the baby'. I recently heard it in very high frequency when we went out for a walk and dinner with some friends. For example, our friend was on the phone giving directions to another friend for how to find us: 'We're in the ka-place as you come in the drive way, near the Checkers Supermarket'.
• 'pick' [see earlier post]
• 'picking up' is used, but seems to be only used to mean 'increasing' e.g. 'community radio is picking up in East Africa'
• 'pray from…' [see earlier post]. One local I spoke to about this suggested that it's because in the local languages they don't have an equivalent for 'we go to [such and such a place habitually]'
• rolex - cooked egg rolled up in a chapati (also an item and name that originated at Makerere, apparently)
• 'sorry' [see earlier post] - also has different intonation from Australian English - a long fall from high tone, a bit like when someone says 'sorry' and they don't want to say it but they know they have to (reluctant apology).
• 'thank you too' [see earlier post]. Lately I have realised that it probably comes as a translation of the Luganda 'kale' which is used in response to the word for thank you, 'webalenyo', as well as many other greetings and fixed expressions, and seems to mean something like 'you too' or 'likewise'.
• 'what' [see earlier post]. I have also noticed it more recently in everyday conversation; it's very pervasive, and seems to be used also to mean 'whatever', 'blah blah blah', 'this and that', and 'and so on'. For example, you might hear something like this: "I had to go to the market and then the pharmacy and what and what'.
• 'where do you stay/sleep?' [see earlier post]
• 'You are welcome' [see earlier post]
• 'you people' meaning 'you plural', e.g. when arranging to open a bank account, the bank staff member said something like 'you people wanted to be able to convert into US dollars…'. And when some kids were trying to sell us stuff when we were in a parked car waiting for our friend to come and drive, she came back and said 'do you people want to buy something?' Definitely more acceptable than the hotly contested 'youse' in some varieties of Australian English!

Is there such thing as Ugandan English?

Recently I spoke to a postgrad student here who is interested in the question of whether the English spoken in Uganda should be called 'Ugandan English' or not. Is it a dialect of English? My observation so far, after 6 weeks in Kampala, is that the English spoken here has some systematic differences from other Englishes at pretty much every linguistic level - phonology, wording and grammar, and semantics. So I'd say it's a specific dialect (although I'd be interested to see how it differs from the English spoken in neighbouring Kenya and Tanzania). I have been posting some of my observations of local expressions over the past few weeks (here and here) and thought I'd start to organise them a bit more. I'll start with phonology this time (using as much common-sense language as possible, and no phonetic symbols, for the benefit of non-linguists reading this).

Vowels: The phonological (sound) systems of the Bantu languages spoken in Uganda have only 5 vowels, and a couple of diphthongs, which means that the 20+ vowels in English are usually reduced to these five when speaking English. Vowels such as the 'a' in 'hat' and the 'ur' in 'hurt' do not occur in Luganda (for example) and so they are both approximated to the vowel 'a' as in 'hut'. So the words 'hat', 'hut', 'hurt' and 'heart' all sound much the same (as 'hut'), although sometimes there is a longer vowel in 'heart' and 'hurt' than 'hat' and 'hut'. Likewise the vowels in 'sin' and 'seen' are pronounced the same, as in 'sin'. Also, the 'schwa' vowel that is used in unstressed syllables in English (like the 'a' in 'again' or the 'e' in 'written') is not used, so all vowels are given their full value (again as 'egen', written as 'writ-ehn'). This also affects the rhythm of speech, as there are not as many unstressed syllables.

Consonants: I have only noticed a couple of things so far. One is the 'k' sound, when in combination with 'i' or 'y' sounds, is pronounced as 'ch', e.g. 'particular' is often pronounced as 'particular' (rather than 'partikyular'). I think this is because in some of the local languages, e.g. Luganda and Runyakitara, 'k' is always pronounced 'ch' before 'i' or 'y'. The name 'Runyakitara', for example, is pronounced 'Runyachitara'. It seems that not all varieties of the languages do this, as I've also heard 'Runyakitara'. Another is the sounds 'l' and 'r'. I haven't quite worked out the status of these sounds in the local languages, but I think it's a bit like in Japanese, where the two sounds are not recognised as different sounds but the same 'sound unit' (phoneme) that is pronounced a bit differently depending on the other sounds around it. As with many other world languages, Luganda and other Bantu languages do not have the 'th' sounds as in English 'thin' and 'this', so I think they are usually replaced with 's' for the sound in 'thin' and 'd' for the sound in 'this'.

Intonation: I'm no expert on intonation so it's hard to describe the difference, but I know it's different!

Rhythm: As mentioned above, because the 'schwa' vowel is not used, the rhythm of English spoken here is a bit different. It's not quite the even syllabic rhythm of French (as heard in this cute video), but it's also not quite the 'dum-di-dum' rhythm of British, American (as heard in this amusing video), or Australian (etc) English.

Postcard from Kampala: Observations on public Christianity

We have now been in Kampala for six Sundays and have been struck by the numbers attending the churches we have visited here. Apparently most churches, at least in the city, are very large - a congregation of as few as 100 in one sitting would be very rare. Hundreds, if not thousands, attending in the one day is quite a normal scenario. As a result, many churches run multiple services back-to-back throughout the day and sometimes also on Saturday night. We experienced for the first time the need to arrive early enough to a Sunday service to get a seat inside, and queuing up outside while the previous service finished! This creates a bit of a 'revolving door' feel - once the service is over, you need to leave as soon as possible so the next lot of people can come in - so it's quite difficult to get opportunities to meet and talk to people before or after the service. The after-church morning tea or supper we are used to in Sydney would be logistically and financially impossible with the numbers here! One church we have been to here might have 20,000 people attending over once weekend (Saturday night and 5 Sunday services)! As with large churches we know of in Sydney, these churches operate on a 'cell-based' structure, where people meet in smaller groups during the week, and this is how you get to know people and become part of a family of fellowship.

The atmosphere here is very different from that of Australia, where Christianity has been marginalised from the public sphere over the last few decades, especially in academia. In contrast, I have heard of lecturers here praying aloud at the beginning and end of each lecture to commit the time to God and ask for his help with the teaching and learning of the content. If I did anything like that in Australia I would likely be thrown out of the university! Here, you hardly have to convince anyone that there is a God - this is a widely acknowledged fact of life, from the city to the smallest village. The difference is in which God, god/s or spirit/s people worship.

Uganda is statistically 84% Christian, about half of which is Protestant and half Catholic. I gather that this total includes a degree of 'nominalism' (as it does in Australia) and also a degree of mixing Christianity with traditional tribal religions and ancestor worship. But, whether sincere or not, the language of faith is everywhere: from the taxi-buses that hurtle around the city with slogans such as 'God's Blessing' or 'Jesus Saves' emblazoned across the windscreen, to the Bible verses on the majority of greeting cards that you find for sale, to the way many people greet each other saying 'Praise the Lord' or 'God bless you'.

Interestingly, although only a small percentage are Muslim, some Muslim festivals are marked as public holidays (such as Idd, which was celebrated last Friday) - apparently this is a legacy of the dictatorship of Idi Amin (in office 1971-1979), who was of the Muslim faith. The majority who are not Muslim are not averse to the extra public holiday, though! It caused me to reflect on what might happen if, as the Muslim population of Australia increases, a suggestion were put forward to make some Muslim festivals public holidays. I imagine there would be considerable resistance.