Words and freedom are crucial

LANGUAGE

Marfuka is a fictional character who enjoys a good yarn. He tells stories that capture his life from when he could remember as a small boy to his adult life now closing in on the 60s. There is a twist though as some of these accounts can be tweaked as he juggles reality and his own imagination on what life should be. 

WORDS! And its only words and words that all I have, to take your heart away.
Those are actually partial lyrics from the song Words, made famous by the iconic British rock group Bee Gees.
The Gibb brothers were born on the Isle of Man, then lived in Manchester, England before moving to Australia in 1958. It was in Australia that the Bee Gees band was formed. In 1967, the Gibb brothers returned to England where their band started to become internationally famous.
Those who love music will relate to the song and can do more research on Robin, Maurice and Barry Gibb. But we decided to borrow the title to introduce our topic for today.
Words are a single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing, used with others (or sometimes alone) to form a sentence and typically shown with a space on either side when written or printed. Words form a language which must be understood for effective communication to be happening between persons.
Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary.
It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and written forms, and may also be conveyed through languages.
Now when one language is translated to another this poses some challenging scenarios.
The English language is one of the three national languages of Papua New Guinea and there are many stories of translations which can sometimes get pretty interesting and at times quite hilarious.
PNG has over 850 languages. But the structure of a language makes translation using the exact same words a rather testing situation.

Toaripi
Marfuka decides to share some examples to illustrate this point. He chooses to use his own linqua franca, Toaripi, which he speaks fluently and understands well. Toaripi is spoken by the people that live along the southern coast of Gulf.
Hei ta sarapi soia is one of his favourite phases that a story is built around. This phrase is an encouragement to someone to run as a quickly as possible. It becomes relevant in a conversation about a running race. Or a situation whereby someone is running fast away from danger.
So in the Toaripi language, ‘hei’ means heart, ‘sarapi’ means cut, ‘soia’ means run. Which gives you a rather interesting situation when translation into English is done word for word. That would mean, ‘cut your heart and run’ fast.

Village court
One of the times when using English and a local language becomes a hilarious situation is when village court sessions are on. When the village courts system was introduced it was meant to ease the pressure on the district and national court system. The village court is conducted in the village setting.
Unlike other courts this can be held in the middle of the village or in an open air location in most rural areas. So every conversation that is happening during the case is being heard by the whole village.
When cases involving a relationship between a young couple ends up in the village court in more cases than not – it becomes the most interesting session to attend. It is ironic in that the case which involves privacy and which can be quite embarrassing for the couple involved is now laid out in an open air hearing.
But this is the village setting – and at times their rules are not conventional to follow such considerations. The court is run basically using the laws of the land. But the traditional laws come into play at certain times. That is when things can become quite complicated.
This court is in session to establish if the relationship between both partners is serious. It is from court cases like this that a marriage union can be formalised. But it is also at these courts that some of the strangest decisions have been made.
Marfuka has heard so many weird stories that if a legal expert was asked for his or her opinion some of these decisions would never stand. But that is what you get when you appoint village court magistrates who is not properly trained in the field of law. Trying to provide them adequate training would require substantial funding which the country doesn’t have a lot of. But they still manage and most do a decent job in maintaining law and order in their villages.
They have village policemen who support them. If the community is a law abiding, things are easier for these officers. But if the community is not then law and order becomes a serious issue which causes a lot of headaches to people who live there.
Marfuka then shifts his mind back to the colonial days when law and order was not such a major cause of concern. People seemed to respect the law more. The country was administered by foreign elements but it seemed there was more respect for the laws and regulations.
Papua New Guinea gained Independence in 1975. And things started to change. For the better in some areas and unfortunately not so good in other areas.
Walk around in Port Moresby these days and some of the things that are allowed to happen now would have been unheard of then. As a country we have freedom but which we must be responsible with.

Apartheid in a Hong Kong bar
Being independent requires a citizen to respect the laws and regulations of our country. And one doesn’t really realise the importance of what we have until you travel to other countries who do not enjoy similar freedoms that we have.
Marfuka recalls one of his travels to Hong Kong in 1994. He had travelled with the PNG Pukpuks rugby team. After the day’s events he decided to visit one of the entertainment outlets. He then got engaged in a very interesting conversation with a guy from South Africa. They spoke English and the element of respect between both – a black man Marfuka and his white friend was quite evident.
It is a bar setting so the effects of alcohol can be detrimental when things go wrong, which in this case was not.
Then his friend joins them and things start to turn nasty. They start a conversation speaking Afrikaans. Marfuka can recognise the language through movies that he had watched and what he had read up on the country. Marfuka didn’t understand the language. But the body language from the guy who had just joined them was sending some very sinister signals. They seemed to be arguing about something. But each time they are throwing glances at Marfuka. The guy Marfuka was speaking to earlier seemed very uneasy.
Whether Marfuka read the signals correctly or not didn’t seem important anymore as he recalls that both are from a country where apartheid was serious issue for especially its black citizens. Apartheid is a policy of racial segregation that was practised in South Africa at that time and since 1948.
Both are white South Africans. Marfuka to that idiot who just joined them would be classed as a black man with heavy racial connotations back in his country. Marfuka didn’t need words to figure out what was being said between the two South Africans.
He stands up from his seat but doesn’t walk off without giving this a guy a good verbal spray.
In clear English Marfuka tells him that if “we were in my country, I would show you how much damage a punch from a black man can do to people like you”.
That was Marfuka’s rare experience of apartheid and he felt for those who had to ensure it on a daily basis when that policy was practised.
South Africa in 1994 transitioned from the system of apartheid to one of majority rule. The election of 1994 resulted in a change of government with the African National Congress (ANC) coming to power. The ANC retained power after subsequent elections in 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019.
It was in 1994 that an all-race election produced a coalition government with a black majority led by anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, who became the country’s first black president.

Appreciate PNG
Marfuka wants to leave a message for fellow Papua New Guineans to appreciate the country that we live in. But most importantly have pride in it in the way we conduct ourselves.
Do not spit betel nut in public places. Do not throw rubbish anywhere. Have consideration for your other countrymen and women. So respect each other.
Do a kind act today for someone. Stay positive and be grateful that you woke up this morning in a country which doesn’t confine you to draconian laws.