By Eric Simiyu Wafukho
The Greek usage of deponent verbs (those verbs that are passive in form but active in meaning), often with a middle voice on the continuum, especially as seen in the New Testament, helps us to appreciate the beauty of language .
In deponent verbs, the verb, subject and object are brought into a closer relationship akin to our African languages that carry emotional intensity, sounding more like reflexive verbs in which the subject and object merge to the same person.
An example while the English “I prayed for you” does not show an intimate relationship between the one praying and the person being prayed for and the praying itself, the Greek deponent verb “Proskuomai” would carry the emotional intensity that needs several English verbals in order to come close to conveying meaning.
It would read, “I I MYSELF, YOURS TRULLY , REALLY AND INTENSELY prayed for you, NOT ANOTHER ONE” It is perhaps this intensity in Greek and African languages that Africans have struggled to convey meaning in English, often “breaking” it before it can come close to carrying the meaning that they wished to convey.
This intensity can be seen in greetings .
The Greek greeting in form of a question “Pos Esthe ( how are you)?” recieves an answer, “doxan tou theu eme kala(glory be to God I am doing fine)” as an elaborate in which the Greek gives glory fo God as the force and reason for being well. For me as a luyia , I was interested while I was in Attens in Greece and later in Limasol in Cyprus in how tea would be offered.
“Chai parakalo” translated as “do you want tea please” meant “I am offering you tea with my heart (ta splangna) and I hope for my sake you accept to take some” Rejecting such an offer would be seen to be offensive.
A response to such an offer would be the same as the question , “ chai parakalo”In my view , those of us who are in development space and charged with the responsibility of designing economic empowerment models must pay great attention to people’s language and associated cultural nuances that are an indicator of what is impprtant to them and how to deliver such.
This requires their participation .
If a father is called “kephale” in Greek or “source and sustainer”, doing development work in Greece would require that we implement interventions aimed at enhancing the role of the father in the household.
Education and food security programs should not portray government as provider but as builder of father’s economic capacity of the father to provide for family.
Equally, with mother called “mater” ,or “multiplier, nurturer and incubator of life” it calls on interventions to build her capacity of brooding and causing to grow family resources.
She is needed on the table for true social and economic transformation. Gender parity therefore gets a nobler meaning than a mere ticking of the box.
