If you are a customer at KSB, you will admit that I have been using the word “Odiangabuks” for quite some time now. However, some readers have now decided to go “that extra mile” by combing up the word in dictionaries while others have been trying to google it in a desperate bid to establish the word’s meaning or legitimacy.
When they failed, some of them gave up and sent me mail seeking for any information about the word. What I would say is that it is not an English word. I picked it from my Uncle when I was growing up in Kisumu district in Kenya. Later, I continued to hear it being used several times within the context of Luo language.
The real meaning of “Odiangabuks” could be wide ranging, from numskulls, nincompoops to mavi ya kuku and other washenzi who keep upsetting you when you need some peace of mind. An Odiangabuk could be someone who is uninformed.
For example, when the Kenyan Ambassador to Scandinavia H.E Ambassador Purity Muhindi was posted to Stockholm, she decided to surround herself with Kenya-Stockholm Odiangabuks instead of getting close to “Opinion leaders”. These are the people who mislead the Ambassador that Kenyans in Stockholm ni walevi, prompting the Ambassador to begin distancing herself from Kenyans.
I am not an opinion leader myself but a trouble maker at KSB. However, I know Kenya-Stockholm opinion leaders who could have helped the Ambassador understand the political terrain in Kenya-Stockholm but whom she kept at a safe distance.
The problem with these Odiangabuks is that once they have met the Ambassador, they feel big and begin to call KSB to reveal what they have been doing with the Ambassador. They are Odiangabuks because they don’t understand that a conversation with KSB that may appear perfectly normal could also lead to significant “Intelligence gathering” about the Embassy and when they begin to ropokwa, one gets to know how deep they are in the pit of Odiangabuks.
I mix the word “Odiangabuks” with English because I am trying to promote it to see if it could, in future, be smuggled into other world languages. The word is already gaining acceptance among Wakenya in Stockholm and this is good progress. Don’t get me wrong.
You can be a Professor but still an Odiangabuk in certain circumstances especially if you begin to act in a way that is not compatible with your Professorship. You could also be treated like an Odiangabuk (even if you are not) because someone wants to embarrass you in a given situation. For example, an Alkizz could tell you in front of people that “wewe ni jinga kabisa”, probably because you disagreed on something.
The word Safari is derived from Swahili language but over time, it has gained acceptance as an English word and now, it is found in English dictionaries. To get it closer, there are words like Gichagi (with shags or oshago variants) and Wira drawn directly from Kikuyu lannguage but among Wakenya, these words have been accepted within the Kenya Sheng community as legitimate.
I was once told by a Luo contact many years ago that the bit “buks” in “Odianga-buks” means that the subject never went through any books. I am still researching the origin or meaning of the “Odianga” part of the word and anybody out there is welcome with an explanation.
Recently, words like Obamanomics, Obamamania, Obamology, Obamanize, Obamanization and Obamatic have all been trying to get their way into the English dictionary.
At the future “Obama University” at Kogelo village, it is possible that Obamanomics will become a key field of study although some odiangabuks and their nincompoop friends might dismiss this thesis as an absurd theory based on the on going obamanization of the world especially among obamamaniacs in the United States of Obama. If you are a true obamacon, then you obamastand what I am obamaring (saying) within the framework of obamarythmics and that is just obamatastic! Cheers!
Okoth Osewe
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Osewe, You have some very interesting pieces in KSB archives. Kicheko kweli reading this one.