THE STUDENT’S COMPANION
In the 90’s I had this opportunity of staying at the University of Fort Hare, Alice (Eastern Cape here in South Africa) whilst a student at Nzululwazi High School which is perched across the famed Tyume River.
Maybe circumstances conspired towards me, the institution has produced a
lot of African leaders and intellectuals and I found myself at that
place when South African was undergoing an immense and historic
political transformation. Almost every member of our society was
transfixed towards politics not music and hairstyles. It was there that I
noticed most of the students, specifically males, had this Hitherto
book; be they majoring in botany, history, or music. It seemed then, with
out it, you were not a complete student.
It was only in the mid 90’s when it finally dawned upon me that the book was not only used for academic purposes, but there were underlying social factors as well: the use of bombastic words had become the new fashion-as the politicians were on centre stage then. It was at the then Eastern Cape Technikon (now WSU) when I noticed that aspirant Student Representative Council (SRC) members were using philosophy 101 jargon buttressed by the student companion. I suspect this was a covert plan, mainly to intimidate tourism students hopefully getting you elected into the SRC in the process. The ‘lefties ‘were the masters of this revolutionary parlance.
Politicians being the new deity at that time, students were enthralled by their language. Their lexicon found expression in student politics. Most of us were so impressed when one politician; Mr Mangosuthu Buthelezi to be exact-told an SABC journalist: “ngamanga aluhlaza lawo (those are blue lies) it's balderdash.” That was a big word given our nascent ‘vocab’. In a mass meeting a particular student would unleash a series of ‘big’ words and this would be followed with the sounds of qu...qu...quuuza bra (bombard us brother) in unison from some sections of the gathering. One student regaled us with this line: “Comrade Chair we are in a state of hugger-mugger with your myopic views.” A friend of mine tried to impress the fairer sex- with the word helter-skelter. Sometimes this language was used to hide likely corruption, on our financial reports for example an entry of miscellaneous and sundry items involved a lot of money. Those were scary words for first year students who usually attended these meetings in huge numbers.
Student politics is where some of the most outstanding leaders graduated. Even butchering a language is tolerated. George Bernard Shaw said: “When a man learns to skate he staggers making fool of himself.” In life we also stagger when we learn in the process making fool of our selves. Beside this desire to impress, there was also an underlying desire to learn. The student companion may now be a thing of the past that I first encountered at the Fort Hare campus. There is now a new kind of student companion in the form of Google and Wikipedia that make us seem like erudite intellectuals. These memories came back to me whilst I was watching television and I saw the then deputy minister of police saying: “We will fight criminals with the agility of a cat and ferocity of a cornered bull.”And now there is also a TV ad for a cellular phone company that uses the words revolutionary greetings blah...blah. Nostalgia, I think I need my student companion.
It was only in the mid 90’s when it finally dawned upon me that the book was not only used for academic purposes, but there were underlying social factors as well: the use of bombastic words had become the new fashion-as the politicians were on centre stage then. It was at the then Eastern Cape Technikon (now WSU) when I noticed that aspirant Student Representative Council (SRC) members were using philosophy 101 jargon buttressed by the student companion. I suspect this was a covert plan, mainly to intimidate tourism students hopefully getting you elected into the SRC in the process. The ‘lefties ‘were the masters of this revolutionary parlance.
Politicians being the new deity at that time, students were enthralled by their language. Their lexicon found expression in student politics. Most of us were so impressed when one politician; Mr Mangosuthu Buthelezi to be exact-told an SABC journalist: “ngamanga aluhlaza lawo (those are blue lies) it's balderdash.” That was a big word given our nascent ‘vocab’. In a mass meeting a particular student would unleash a series of ‘big’ words and this would be followed with the sounds of qu...qu...quuuza bra (bombard us brother) in unison from some sections of the gathering. One student regaled us with this line: “Comrade Chair we are in a state of hugger-mugger with your myopic views.” A friend of mine tried to impress the fairer sex- with the word helter-skelter. Sometimes this language was used to hide likely corruption, on our financial reports for example an entry of miscellaneous and sundry items involved a lot of money. Those were scary words for first year students who usually attended these meetings in huge numbers.
Student politics is where some of the most outstanding leaders graduated. Even butchering a language is tolerated. George Bernard Shaw said: “When a man learns to skate he staggers making fool of himself.” In life we also stagger when we learn in the process making fool of our selves. Beside this desire to impress, there was also an underlying desire to learn. The student companion may now be a thing of the past that I first encountered at the Fort Hare campus. There is now a new kind of student companion in the form of Google and Wikipedia that make us seem like erudite intellectuals. These memories came back to me whilst I was watching television and I saw the then deputy minister of police saying: “We will fight criminals with the agility of a cat and ferocity of a cornered bull.”And now there is also a TV ad for a cellular phone company that uses the words revolutionary greetings blah...blah. Nostalgia, I think I need my student companion.
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