Asemae nageuke jiwe.

 

Tokeza - protrude, be prominent.

Msemo (aphorism)

Asemae nageuke jiwe. Or, Asemaye na ageuke jiwe.

Translation: Let him that tells turn to stone.

Aphorism’s background: "Betwixt us and the wall." This phrase is quite common. There is a pathetic fairy-tale in which the hero is obliged to explain his actions, which, though really benevolent, seemed wicked; and so was turned to stone in the presence of those whom he had benefited. The information that led to his heroic actions having been obtained upon this condition from some birds he had heard singing.

“As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is, the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify.” – sherlock Holmes (fictional character)

In an environment of statism and collectivism, the idea of conspicuousness becomes very fundamental. The reference to a human in stone form (statue), and the detective’s preference for the “bizarre” over the commonplace points to the function of conspicuousness in pinning down objects for easy “identification, understanding and control”. At the product level, conspicuousness refers to the extent to which a product "stands out" or is noticeable by consumers. At the brand level, conspicuousness refers to the ease with which people can identify a specific brand of a product that another is using. Goods that can be easily identified are designated public goods, whereas products whose brand names are less easily identified are termed private goods (Bourne, 1957).

Whenever commonality is obvious, the bloodhound mentality desires to find the fringiest conspicuous element or even fabricate an element of conspicuousness. In 1930s soviet territory, despite the Marxist rhetoric of revolution to liberate peasants and workers, it was the peasants and workers who faced the highest rate of dispossession, deportation, detention, terror and mass killing. The fringe and vague concept of ‘kulak’ was fabricated to enable this. Kulak was the term which was used to describe peasants who owned over 8 acres (3.2 hectares) of land or even a single cow over the limit of 4 or 5 depending on what the soviets felt like. In the early Soviet Union, particularly in Soviet Russia and Azerbaijan, kulak became a vague reference to property ownership among peasants who were considered hesitant allies of the Bolshevik Revolution. In Ukraine during 1930–1931, there also existed a term of podkulachnik (almost wealthy peasant); these were considered "sub-kulaks". Other terminology included bednyak (poor peasants) and serednyak (mid-income peasants). Furthermore, if a peasant survived the famine, if they were taken to gulags and survived to return home, they were considered hostile and not loving the regime and consequently shot.

References & further reading:

Bourne, Francis (1957), "Group Influence in Marketing and Public Relations," In R. Likert and S.P. Hayes (Eds.), Some Applications of Behavioral Research, Basel: UNESCO, pp. 207-255.

McCauley, Martin (1996). Stalin and Stalinism. Longman.

Taylor, W.E. (1891). African Aphorisms: Saws from Swahili-land. Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, London.

TUKI (2001), Kamusi Ya Kiswahili-Kiingereza; Swahili-English Dictionary. Published by Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili (TUKI), Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.