We’re still imitating Icarus in his folly; we haven’t learnt a thing
Reitred Tanzanian priest Ambilikile Mwasapile, popularly known as Babu wa Loliondo, sells his products. Charlatans have been sprouting amongst us because they have realised that our people are gullible.
The Bahaya people of north-western Tanganyika — part of present-day Tanzania—have apt ways to express themselves, and often I find myself returning to their gift of the garb to get my inspiration when times are tough.
As an example, they have the verb kutuhya, with which I intend to deal with at this juncture. As a warning, I must say that the Bahaya have always had a difficulty articulating the letter ‘h’ so that they will say ‘Andeni’ for ‘Handeni or ‘Uuru for Uhuru.’ Thus, the word written in their literature as ‘kutuhya’ will most likely be pronounced as ‘kutuya.’ Nevertheless, it is a most useful word and it should not suffer censure for fault that is not of its own making.
