Almost 40 learning institutions were torched in the second term that’s about to end for December holidays. Pressure of classwork is just one of the excuses given for students’ indefensible destructiveness that has inflicted untold pain on their parents and guardians, who must pick up the bill for rebuilding dormitories — the juvenile arsonists’ favourite target.
I don’t intend to regurgitate each ‘excuse’ for the arsonists’ behaviour. However, it’s important to interrogate one of the most cited reasons for learners’ wayward behaviour, the ‘kababa’ syndrome.
The social media has been rife with the ‘kababa’ excuse, whereby ‘kababa’ refers to parents’ naming of their (mostly) sons after their fathers, giving youngsters a ticket to ride roughshod over their superiors. Just revisit your group WhatsApp posts and see how frequently the ‘kababa’ syndrome is cited as fuelling school fires.
The naming factor in dormitory infernos had me revisit Huang Po Ho’s book, Mission from the Underside, in which the Taiwanese theologian expounds on the power of the name and naming. Citing his compatriot, C. S. Song, he says: “If you call an animal “dog,” you are referring to a four-legged creature that barks. I you further name it “Rover,” you put it under your control. When you call it “Rover,” the dog is expected to respond by wagging its tail. You get terribly annoyed if it is unresponsive to your call.”
He adds: “On the one hand, a name stands for the totality of the being denoted by it, and, on the other hand, it represents the power of the name-giver over the totality given its name. It is a formidable power that is associated with this God-given ability of name-giving.”
Behaving like rascals
The prevailing situation of students’ wanton burning of schools contrary to their image of fathers is totally discordant and must disappoint those who named them after their parents.
So, where did the rain start beating us? A little introspection is needed. Coming from the Luyia-Luo culture, where children were named in utero, and without the advantage of modern-day scans that show the child’s sex before birth, our namesakes would have turned in their graves had we behaved the way students are behaving.
No sane father would incinerate his bed, and by the same token, parents didn’t just name their children after their ancestors but also expected them to behave in a manner that upholds their namesakes’ honour.
Named after my maternal grandfather, for instance, my parents expected me to behave with the decorum befitting their father and father-in-law. Any deviation from that expectation incurred the full wrath of my parents, who had every right to wield kiboko to remind me of who I was — Mzee!
Could our timid parents ponder this as they name their revered parents to avoid the madness where the tail is wagging the dog and children called Baba are behaving like rascals? BY DAILY NATION