What The ....

Disclaimer: This article uses "heavy" words.

Get out of my Fucking way. Image source: Finneylaw

The intricacies of the word fuck never cease to amuse me. "Fuck this," "Fuck that," "Fuck them," "Fuck it." Even History cannot seem to get the true origin of this intricate word. Some point to the Dutch or German word ficken/fucken, which means to penetrate. Others point to the Swedish, Scottish, or Scandinavian roots to mean striking. Interesting meanings such as "Fornication Under the Consent of the King" or "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" have been brought forward. There are so many theories behind the word fuck.

When we were taught how to shower as kids, euphemisms were used to describe our body parts. Our mothers taught us odd substitute words to simplify the burden of mentioning the "heavy words" as if they were not our bodies. "Beth, did you wash your koko?" Koko means an animal, and any living thing that does not fit our human bracket is ekikoko. Koko was an euphemism used by my mother to mean the genital parts. With the transition to higher education and older social settings, it would be odd to say the action you are going to do in the toilet or bathroom. While I babysat my kid brothers, I knew they wanted to use the bathroom when they said, "Kushesha" to mean "to pee." However, as we age, even saying I want to pee is an obscenity. It shifts to using the bathroom, toilet, or pit latrine. In high school, we had precise names for these acts: number one or number two. On days you would beg for toilet paper, the owner would ask, "Are you going to do number one or number two?" On this apparent response, your tissue length would be measured! So if you went to the bathroom to carry out number one, but you misfired to number two, that would be between you and the two-ply tissues in your pocket. Based on this, the word, Fuck, is as heavy as carrying a boulder on your shoulder in our African context. At least detach the "uck" and use the letter "F" if you are typing.

Sometime back, my kid brother used to have uncle son fights with Uncle Billy. Uncle Billy got so frustrated that my kid brother always told him the F word. A word he had mastered from school. I had to woman up and give my kid brother a pep talk about using the word. Like it is obscene for an African kid growing up in an authentic African homestead to utter such words. This reminds me of the TikTok video that was trending of the white kid (no offense intended) that told the mother, "Fuck you mummy.” African-based content creators had as much content derived from this one video. The response of the flying sapatu (slipper), the blinking eyes to imitate swollen eyes, the Nigerian cricket sound to indicate trouble is coming, and the mocking laughter to show that any kid raised in an African homestead knew what would be next if they uttered such words.

"Those people are fucking incredible," one of my classmates says during a class session. It is absolutely normal. Nobody gives an "F" on how you use the word. Actually, in workspaces, when everyone is stressed, you will hear everyone mumble, "Fuck, Fuck,…." At first, I was shocked when I realized how commonly this word is thrown around. I bet my mind thought, "What the fuck am I experiencing?" Nevertheless, I have learned it is not as heavy as it seems, and sometimes I was told it is a relieving word. The old sexual meaning attached to it has literally been washed away. Living in a new environment has clearly shown me that language reflects the speaker's environment. Language adapts to the unique needs of the people in a particular location. Precisely, every time I am asked about a popular meal back home, I speak of either matoke or rolex. Due to the over-usage of the word in the East African region, matoke soon became an Oxford English Dictionary-recognized word. But the latter, rolex, gets me having to explain that it is a chapati with eggs rolled in it, and some person with a lisp said "rolledeggs" and soon became rolex.

Similarly, the word "fuck” is like Rolex. It is thrown around like "fucking incredibly" in any sentence, and no heavy attachment is weighed upon it. Unlike if used in a sexual context. I can bet my understanding of music that three-quarters of popular songs in the USA all have the word fuck. It is like a weird drug that, as a "newcomer," you have to figure out how to get comfortable around. The word fuck can be used to express all types of emotions without losing meaning. It can be thrown into, "The Ministry of Health Uganda is a fucking joke," or "Jimmy Spire is such a fucking inspiration for the next generation of activists" sentences without losing any fucking meaning. How versatile can language get?

In fucking conclusion, my writing spirit had been recently fucking crushed down by an opportunity that I had fucking applied for using both my fucking right and left brains to think, only to get a fucking email stating, "Unfortunately, we cannot fucking go ahead with you." I am glad I can finally compose myself to write down a fucking article and get over the fucking rejection.

Note: Apologies to my readers who are not used to this language. This is an experience that I am sharing and prepping you if you one day get to have engagements with this environment. These are some of the things most people will not tell you.

Oops, it is fucking true.