Analysis by Kayatta, http://www.gambia.dk/forums/topic.asp?whichpage=0.8&TOPIC_ID=7778힐 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 ________________________________________ 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". My take: 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. ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤