Alexander K Opicho
(Eldoret,Kenya;aopicho@yahoo.com)
This year has had plethora of public worries in Africa over broken English among the young people and school children. It first started in the mid of the last months  in Nigeria, when the Nigerian government officials displayed public worry over the dying English and the strongly emerging slang known as pidgin English in Nigerian public offices and learning institutions. The same situation has also been encountered in Kenya, when in march 2014, Proffessor Jacob Kaimenyi, the minister of education otherwise known as cabinet secretary of education declared upsurge of broken English among high school students and university students a national disaster. However, the minister was making this announcement while speaking in broken English, with heavy mother tongue interference and insouciant execution of defective syntax redolent of a certain strong African linguistic sub-cultural disposition.
There is a more strong linguistic case of broken English in South Africa, which even crystallized into an accepted national language known as Afrikaans. But this South African case did not cause any brouhaha in the media nor attract international concern because the people who were breaking the English were Europeans of non British descend, but not Africans. Thus Afrikaans is not slang like the Kenyan sheng and the Nigerian pidgin or the Liberian krio, but instead is an acceptable European language spoken by Europeans in the diaspora. As of today, the there are books, bibles and software as well as dictionaries written in Afrikaans. This is a moot situation that Europeans have a cultural leeway to break a European language. May be this is a cultural reserve not available to African speakers of any European language. I can similarly enjoy some support from those of you who have ever gone to Germany, am sure you saw how Germans dealt with English as non serious language, treating it like a dialect. No German speaks grammatically correct English. And to my surprise they are not worried.
The point is that Africans must not and should never be worried of a dying colonialism like in this case the conventional experience of unstoppable death of British English language in Africa. Let the United Kingdom itself struggle to keep its culture relevant in the global quarters. But not African governments to worry over standard of English language. This is not cultural duty of Africa. Correct concerns would have been about the best ways and means of giving African indigenous languages universal recognition in the sense of global cultural presence. African languages like Kiswahili, Zulu, Yoruba, Mandiko, Gikuyu, Luhya, Luganda, Dholuo, Chaka and very many others deserve political support locally as well as internationally because they are vehicles that carry African culture and civilization.
I personally as an African am very shy to speak to another fellow African in English or even to any person who is not British. I find it more dignifying to speak any local language even if it is broken or if the worst comes to the worst, then I can use slang, like blend of broken English and the local language. To me this is linguistic indicators of having a decolonized mind. It is also my hypothesis that the young people who are speaking broken English in African schools and institutions are merely cultural overtures of Africans extricating themselves from imperial ploys of linguistic Darwinism.
There is no any research finding which shows that Africans cannot develop unless they speak English of grammatical standards like those of the United Kingdom and North America. If anything; letting of English to thrive as a lingua franca in Africa, will only make the western world to derive economic benefits out of this but not Africa to benefit. Let Africans cherish their culture like the way the Japanese and the Chinese have done, then other things will follow.

I am Liberia!
Though scared by scourges of allien spades,
My resilience bears the fountain of heaven's grace,
Piercing the pangs of all my shades!

My independence, I breathed into Africa's lungs,
Clothed her with my stripes, the red, white and blue;
And gave her a star when she knew not one!

My waters rhythm waves of freedom,
Hailing treasured mountains and supreme chiefdoms.
Divine gemstones overflow the scopes of my coast,
Their sparkles define the image of my undeniable beauty!

My children are the ordained species of apex predators!
Their lineages are woven with blackness,
The tattooed birthmark of optimism—
Unbleached to proclaim the glorified identity of their motherland!

With arms of liberty I do solemnly pledge
The allegiance of a century filled heritage!
I today connect a living channel to the realm of your soul,
Bidding you welcome,
Welcome to Rediscover Mama Liberia

At this point, I'm drowning
My braces are loosing grip
The fire is my arteries is blazing
This is not just another wit; it's a whip

I feel the resonance of pain
Every heart beat is a theory, like big bang
My cage is shrinking in
I guess I went out before the bell rang

I'm having butterflies in ecstasies
Oblivious, is the state of my dreams
My returns exceed my escapes
I guess I'm addicted to pain being at the brim

Now, like a boat, I just sail by the wind
As I watch my life implode
Soaked by this chilling rain
Unhopefully hoping for hope

My country


My country is for love
So says its lakes
Where different colors and cultures
Combine to form the nation
Under the proud eye of birds
Adorning the sky ,with clear indication all over signifying the Pro poor regime

My country is for beauty
See the  Blue lake and lake piso
 Flowing through beautiful peaks and land
Between the colorful landscapes and wetlands
Still shinning from sunrise to sunset
Like roses smiling for sun-rays

My country is for unity
Feel the millions, see their passion
Joining their hands on one
Football song , with their loud voice play Lone star play
Playing like symphony on our ears
With their joy hoping for only one thing
Nothing but soccer victory

My country is for joy
Feel it, the spirit of soccer
Rising like the morning mist
From the African soil
Where counties from all over the country
Will raise their hands and heads
To this prestigious event the county_meet

My country, let's show the world
What is meant by ‘Proudly Liberian 's
Let the world feel the spirit of lone star as squad
Welcome them to feel the African soil
Make them part of  the Liberian's history
With their smiles flying high
Like our colorful country flag
(Red, White and Blue)

My country, this is our time
Our time to shine, our time to fly
We feel it, the spirit of love
The spirit of joy, the spirit of unity
What about the spirit of soccer
That unites the heats of millions
Say it! Play lone star play !
Feel It! It is here! ! The Afcon qualification
My country ! my motherland !!

Trying to figure out the bigger picture of a puzzle way to challenging for your mind...
attempting to see a mind that wasn't meant for your eyes...
....its like the ph stick
some taste sweet and others bitter
we cannot control taste...
we cannot try to taste bitter when we taste sweet...
we must realize that we have grave purpose...
there is a reason why you taste sweet....embrace it mama(liberian man would say)