Cultures & Communication

This is my theory…

Have you ever been in a conversation where things got interesting?!

Here in Uganda—particularly Buganda where I grew up—some phrases can only be elicited in our mother tongues! It’s a trend even to the rest of the country.

In multiple conversations, we tend to use non-English phrases to express deeper feelings or experiences which English can not fully portray.

For example, a person can say ‘Genda eri’… Directly translated in English, it is ‘go away’, but it doesn’t mean it literally. In a normal English setting, it’d mean ‘No way…!’—an exclamation for either too-good-news or when someone is exaggerating.

Another example would be ‘shya’… This word is used as expression for when someone is talking impossible i.e. someone could be saying they can eat 10 kilograms of pork and then walk around doing handstands for a whole kilometer. No way—right?! Now it’s more probable that a Ugandan who’s grown up in the central part will say ‘shya’ as opposed to ‘no way’ before adding how unattainable the given example is. ‘Shya’ in the local language is weightier than how ‘no way’ would sound in English.

This is because the language that dictates the culture around will be used to communicate on a much deeper level than English which was learnt at school, for a one could have already been exposed to the Luganda language which is the vernacular in this in stance.

We are reminded that not everyone afforded to go to school to learn English as well. Thus, the student had to adapt, sticking to Luganda, the official language of the wider community, when they go home…

My mother is an Itesot. These hail from the Northeastern part of Uganda from districts such as Soroti, Serere, Kumi, etc… I stay with her sister and in-law who are both itesots. Time to time, they can begin their conversations in English. Suddenly, the syndrome of their first language influences…

The conversation reaches a peak where English can no longer suffice, and so the ateso language takes over all the way to the zenith and end of the phone call or chat.

English is used but in bits. It could be 5% out of a 20 minute call or talk. You’d see that the earlier culture of these people informed their communication and they can’t do anything to hinder the language’s issuing. It’s natural!

Speaking in tongues, that gift of the Holy Spirit — the language which is evidence that someone has been baptized and bathed fully, in and by the Holy Spirit — also works the same!

This is my theory…

It states that the degree with which one is plunged into a culture, will be the same degree with which that same person communicates in the language of that culture.

I now understand why charismatics shoot out their seats amidst a church service roaring in tongues when the preacher says a powerful line or when revelation hits home. That’s them speaking the ‘more intimate language’. That’s when English can not fully express their inner feelings at the moment, so they have to fall back and react in a language deeper.

I now understand why when sometime I’m praying to God, English loses its place. Even if I want—yes even in song—to use English, it by default vanishes, like my mom talking to her sister on a phone call, and suddenly I am there, not understanding fully what I am speaking, but I know God is being intimate with His ownself…in His first language—a language older than the one language everyone spoke before the tower of Babel.

Why?

His own Spirit is giving me utterance. Paul said He who speaks in tongues speaks to God. I therefore imagine myself and Him like the Itesots, ditching English and going back to our first languages—the language of our spirits. The one that defines our culture, our tribe—the heavenly culture, the heavenly tribe!

Since one can not speak the heavenly language without God’s involvement, it was therefore prudent of God to give us His own Spirit which would speak that language in us TO HIM. So basically, it is God conversing to God. It is as though when He said ‘Let us make man out of our image’

Of course the devil won’t understand what you’re saying! It is like using Morse code or sign language. When man is intimate with a woman, or married, they call themselves special names that are not permitted to be used by anyone. They could call each other ‘honey’ or ‘bae’. Someone outside their matrimony can’t call any of them ‘bae’. They are encouraged to stick to those people’s original names.

In the same way, I believe this is God being intimate with us. Not only does He give us new names, but takes it to the extreme, giving us a whole language, that he that seeks to see the relationship fall apart can’t understand and therefore can’t withstand!

If you’re English, and you stood next to people conversing in Luganda (that you don’t understand), you’d hate the whole environment. You’d think you’re being back bitten. Same goes for Baganda that sit next to the Itesots and they don’t know the language.

My theory states that the degree with which one is plunged into a culture, will be the same degree with which that same person communicates in the language of that culture.

Does every believer speak in tongues? Does every Itesot speak ateso?

No! … but they SHOULD!

For I have come to realize, even if one’s parents are from a particular culture or tribe, and they can’t speak that culture’s language, there will be a lack in the sense of belonging—a wanting.

Even if the parents claim that the children are, if there hasn’t been a preservation or passing of the language to them, then that’s when the culture begins to lose its heritage, and soon extinction.

My purpose in life is not to justify how great one can still be without this gift and language (tongues). Mine is to let God’s children know that ever since the era when God the son left, and God the Spirit came, the kingdom culture developed a language as opposed to the era before God the son came. And the language is a mark of distinction to separate the archaic culture and the new culture.

It’s pretty much like updating apps on a phone. When you do, you realize a specific app has a new feature that wasn’t there initially. If one’s app isn’t updated, they won’t see those features. WhatsApp has a tendency of asking the user to update it otherwise it will not operate.

Unlike WhatsApp, the language feature in the culture of heaven is optional. One can choose to ignore it, or they’d inquire and find ways to update it so that they can enjoy the app better.

But if we base this thesis on only culture and communication alone, let’s remember beside the rest, that what truly defines most cultures is their customs, background, lifestyle, behavior and habits. Aaaand, language is a preliminary to all these in definition of culture especially if you’re coming from a setting as diverse as mine.

For, we could sample 10 people from Uganda, and you’ll notice they are all BLACK! You later realize that to differentiate them, in attempt to define their identity, each will begin by stating where they come from. If they say they are Baganda, we have to know that the first definition of Baganda is; a people who speak the LANGUAGE called Luganda.

The language defines the culture. The culture defines communication.

So … You’re from Heaven? You’re from Zion? Do you speak its language?

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1 Corinthians 12:31a But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces). [AMP]

Paul says desire.

I didn’t grow up in Soroti, but I am on my way to learning. I enjoy the intimate interludes where my Itesot people take a detour off the English highway. These have made me desire, and the desire pushes me to learn what I can of my mother’s language.

I am not saying you’ll forge tongues when I say ‘learn’. I’m saying that God wants you to know (for those who haven’t spoken in that language) that desiring it will attract its manifestation, and the learning here would mean practising—Speaking more and more of the language until, like that charismatic, the language becomes your first language!

I hope that this thesis shed more light on the subject of tongues.

I submit…my theory.

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Psalms 42:7a Deep calleth unto deep …