LAST WORD
Since our education system is foreign oriented , including the local one , Kenyans are taught to think like whites , speak like whites , dress like whites and the measure for having arrived is by how white one has become , complete with blonde wigs for wives and daughters . shenanigans and he expected Ochieng to serve with a penitent heart and obedience to God ’ s and church ways .
LAST WORD
On Imported Injustice
Ochieng was seating nervously waiting outside the deputy headmaster ’ s office where he had been frog-marched by the school chaplain due to yet another altercation between the two for what the chaplain termed as incorrigible insolence .
Ochieng had never understood nor agreed with the school rule that stipulated that all students irrespective of their religious affiliation had to attend a compulsory morning mass before classes commenced which was non-negotiable .
What made the rule more onerous was that there was also a rota that indicated when each student would serve as an alter boy . Ochieng especially wondered at the significance of the white vestment that one had to don to serve as the chaplain ’ s assistant .
That morning it was Ochieng ’ s turn at the alter and the chaplain had warned him that he did not want any of his usual
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Since our education system is foreign oriented , including the local one , Kenyans are taught to think like whites , speak like whites , dress like whites and the measure for having arrived is by how white one has become , complete with blonde wigs for wives and daughters . shenanigans and he expected Ochieng to serve with a penitent heart and obedience to God ’ s and church ways .
Trouble started when the priest , who the students had to call Father , even though he had no wife and family , started the mass in his usual sonorous and musical voice by intoning the dominus vobiscum to signal the commencement of mass .
Ochieng replied in an equally musical tone in Dholuo . The priest paused and Ochieng could see his neck reddening , not a good sign , and repeated the start of the mass in the usual Latin and Ochieng responded correctly and louder but still in Dholuo .
The vividly irritated chaplain turned to Ochieng and asked sarcastically what language he thought he was using to which Ochieng calmly replied , without batting an eyelid , that it was ancient Luotin and well understood in the locality .
The sniggers from the congregants had now