Reminiscing the golden era of the 60s….
SIERRA LEONE MEDIA AND OFFICIALDOM WERE VERY DIPLOMATIC WITH THE QUEEN’S LANGUAGE
By Kabs Kanu
Colonialism taught Sierra Leoneans m looany things . One of them was how to use the English Language flawlessly without being offensive. No country in the then British West Africa inculcated British values deeper than Sierra Leone. We were black Englishmen.
Indeed, there was a time when Sierra Leoneans were very coy and victorian in demeanor and speech. 1966 started the era of what some would describe as our liberation from puritanical communication and demeanor. Even in our lingua franca,Krio, there were words and expressions that we blushed to use or hear.
During colonial days and the period immediately after Independence, Sierra Leone public officials were well trained in communication skills and they were very diplomatic in the use of the Queen’s language..
Every effort was made in those days to keep it short, simple, decent and diplomatic , unlike today when public officials are crude with the language, over rap and are not diplomatic at all.
In those days, even newspapers practiced good etiquette in being diplomatic and never being coarse or offensive in communication.
Today, newspapers spare no pains in stating that a woman is pregnant, has been impregnated or knocked – up. In those days, that was unfashionable newspaper expression. ” SHE IS IN THE FAMILY WAY” was most often used to describe a pregnant woman. This was especially so in the Sierra Leone Daily Mail. Prostitutes were referred to as call – girls or glamour girls. Or they were described as a WOMEN OF EASY VIRTUES. One’s girlfriend was his PARAMOUR.
It was not decent to write that a man and a woman were caught having sex. Rather, the most decent way it was written in those days was THEY WERE BEING INTIMATE.
If the President was absent from public eye for a while because he was not well, newspapers or public officials would not say that the president is sick. Rather, they would resort to euphemisms like , THE PRESIDENT IS INDISPOSED.
Today, people have no scruples even in cultured company to announce that they are going to pee. In those days, that was very crude and unacceptable. I AM GOING TO EASE MYSELF was more acceptable.
If you went to look for a job or admission in a school or college and you were going to be turned down, it was never decent for you to be blandly told that you had failed or you had been rejected . Rather, it was fashionable for you to be told : YOUR DOCUMENTS ARE BEING REVIEWED AND YOU WILL HEAR FROM US IN DUE COURSE. Once you heard that, you knew that there was no hope. You had not been successful.
Sam Metzger, Sam Short and Ibrahim Taqi were among journalists that started telling it as it was or describing it bluntly and you might say, “crudely ” as sensational and tabloid journalism style of writing started gaining currency, replacing the prudish and conservative style of the DAILY MAIL and the DAILY GUARDIAN.
As a schoolboy, I started noticing the changes and I was moved. In those days, kids were not exposed to pornographic literature even at high school and so it was rare to hear the profane language that we later came in contact with as we grew up further and began reading hard core books and magazines.
The world has since changed , especially with the advent of the internet and social media . People have become more profane, loose, coarse and crude in the things they utter or write. Even newspapers of today have abandoned diplomacy in communication. Everything is crudely put.
