Patriot's Diary 32 #: Kenyan Baptism

Kenyans don’t just name their children interestingly; we baptize objects and places with names. Mostly it’s a matter of broken telephone really. I didn’t realize how much we, Kenyans rename things. Because I am so used to calling things as I’ve known them since I was a child. I recently realized that I had forgotten the actual name for certain things. Case in point, growing up, the premium flask brand was Thermos. Every household in this Kenya owns one. But since it was the only brand that was stocked in the 80s it kind of just stuck. So Kenyans don’t really call flasks, flasks. We call them Thermos.

Some name baptisms are more common in rural Kenya but they actually have a legitimate reason. I just don’t know what the reason is. Like the bulb, in most rural areas they are called globes, maybe because of the shape or maybe it was a brand name (tehehe). But it’s not just what they call it is how they say it, Globe (goo-row-fu).

Then another convert is the radio cassette. It is not called a cassette in rural Kenya it is called Compact (Combackt). My best friend explained to me why it was referred to as a Compact but I forgot. I just get kicks out of it when I hear someone say, ‘umesikia hiyo Combackt ya Reggae?’(Have you listened to the Reggae cassette?).

Then you have clothing and food, like cycling shorts, Kenyans call them Bikers and leggings we call them Skin tight I guess that is self explanatory. It is kind of like the way Americans seem to call everything different from the rest of the world; Chips (crisps), Fries (Chips), Sedan (Saloon) car. Kenya has her own unique naming system, thrown in with an accent. We call scones; sconge. And if you are wearing a huge cowboy hat we’ll call it a Godfather! It’s uniquely Kenyan.

There have even been places around the country that were mispronounced and the name has stuck. There is a place in Nairobi called Dagoretti Corner; It was called The Great Corner (Da-Go-retti) Corner; get it? And then there is the Burma market that was named in honour of the Burmese fighters who fought for the British. In Kenya we call it Bama. Then there is the area named after the British Carrier Corps. We call that area Kariokor (Carry-O-core).

We all as you now see, as Kenyans, we love to bless new things with some of our Kenyan flavor.