Across Africa, in the world at large even, a pervasive linguistic preference for vulgarity in English exists in the performance of sex acts and, as always, colonialism and neocolonialism are to blame
Mutual tribe, mutual fluency, mutual preferability, and mutual sexual compatibility. It's like you said, I have never dated someone from my small tribe. Thinking about it, I haven't heard any words in my language that can be used in the bedroom. It's insane that I never considered that until now.
Yup. The difficulty compounds if you’re from a minor tribe and living outside your hometown. And the fact that it never crossed your mind before shows how insidious the erasure has been.
This was really thorough and addressed how colonialism and neocolonialism affects dirty talk. As someone who grew up in a household where English was seen as close to God (and oyinbo-ness), I really related to it. The diagrams were really helpful too. And the footnote for Twitter is hilarious 😭
Parents will dote on you if you’re really good at English. And refuse to teach you your indigenous language because they want to have “something to gossip in.”
This is a wonderful comment to wake up to. I did take my time with the research and conceptualising of everything else. Glad it could be of help in whatever essay or paper you intend to write. Thank you for reading through.
This was such a thorough and enlightening take on the topic!!! I’ll be back to do another re-read, but well doneeeee, Mae 👏🏾
I haven’t read to the end right now but the essay is already so thorough
Thank you. Had to read so many papers and an entire book in the span of two days.
Mutual tribe, mutual fluency, mutual preferability, and mutual sexual compatibility. It's like you said, I have never dated someone from my small tribe. Thinking about it, I haven't heard any words in my language that can be used in the bedroom. It's insane that I never considered that until now.
Yup. The difficulty compounds if you’re from a minor tribe and living outside your hometown. And the fact that it never crossed your mind before shows how insidious the erasure has been.
Yeah, it does. The crazy thing also is, I'm at a loss on how that conversation would go if I decided to ask the people I can.
This was really thorough and addressed how colonialism and neocolonialism affects dirty talk. As someone who grew up in a household where English was seen as close to God (and oyinbo-ness), I really related to it. The diagrams were really helpful too. And the footnote for Twitter is hilarious 😭
Parents will dote on you if you’re really good at English. And refuse to teach you your indigenous language because they want to have “something to gossip in.”
And, no, because wtf is “X”
Thank you, baby🥰
So insightful. Thank you.
I am a linguist by first degree (before I switched to anthropology in my late 30s) and this is at least 93 on a 100 pt scale.
An excellent piece for substack, where most posts I rank at 65-88. I PDF-printed it for my reference.
This is a wonderful comment to wake up to. I did take my time with the research and conceptualising of everything else. Glad it could be of help in whatever essay or paper you intend to write. Thank you for reading through.
I'm so glad you finally completed this. It is so thorough and well thought out