FREEDOM of speech is a beautiful myth in life or in politics.
Never mind what Section 61 of our Constitution says about “Freedom of speech and expression and the media.”
Follow it blindly and you are ruined.
Once, a chief told his servant to bring him the best meat from the market.
The servant brought him a tongue.
The next day the chief told the servant to bring him the worst meat from the market.
The servant brought a tongue again.
“What?” the chief said.
“When I ask for the best meat, you bring a tongue and then you bring the same thing for the worst meat.”
The servant said, “Sometimes a man is very unhappy because of his tongue; and sometimes his tongue makes him very happy.”
“You are right, the chief said.
“Let us be masters of our tongues.”
So, the basic rules of speech are first: Control your emotions.
The night jar had a huge sense of humour.
He could not control his emotions: One day he laughed and laughed and enjoyed his freedom of expression until his voice became hoarse and his mouth was torn from ear to ear.
That’s why he only hunts at night to avoid being laughed at during the daylight.
The second rule is: Bridle your tongue.
Once there lived an old woman who could control her tongue and use it wisely; and two young men who could not control their tongues, but let themselves enjoy their freedom of speech.
The old woman had two donkeys.
Every morning she went with them down the street to the fields.
One morning, the young men saw her with her donkeys and shouted, “Good morning, mother of donkeys!”
“Good morning, my sons,” the old woman answered and smiled at them.
Who do you think had the last laugh?
The other basic rules of speech are: Know your subject well.
Think about what you are going to say and how you are going to say it before you say it.
Never touch a subject you know nothing about.
Somebody who knows it will have a joke at your expense.
The next rule is: Know your audience well.
Never take them for granted.
Know their feelings and attitudes towards you before you go and confront them with your speech.
Don’t wait to find out after you have already delivered your speech.
Once you have delivered your speech, you cannot take it back.
It may have already hurt some people’s feelings and their trust in you.
The next rule is: If you have a message to tell, tell it well in words that your audience understands so that nobody will misunderstand or misinterpret what you say.
Never try to speak above your audience’s head.
Choose idioms and expressions they understand well.
Jesus was good at this.
He spoke in parables that we still enjoy today.
Shakespeare was also good in this.
He used words that trickled like honey on the tongue.
He says “Fair is foul and foul is fair” in politics.
Politicians are like prophets or witches.
“They speak in double tongue.”
Some consult ‘instruments of darkness’ to get into positions of power in politics and say, “If you can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not, please speak to me.”
That way, ‘the instruments of darkness win them with honest trifles and betray them in deepest consequence’ using a double tongue.
Chinua Achebe was also good in measuring the words and expressions he used in his speeches and writings.
He used proverbs that his readers and audience enjoy immensely today.
He refers to the careful use of idioms and expressions in African speech as the palm wine with which words are eaten; and advises that we must always avoid using grammar that we cannot handle well because people who are not favourably disposed towards us are always waiting for a chance to laugh at us and injure our ego and diminish our stature.
So, we must learn to discipline our tongues.
Never give them free rein even on the mythical altar of freedom of speech.
If we don’t bridle our tongue, and we let it have freedom of speech, it will say things that we harbour in our hearts and shame us in public.
Some in life or politics are adept in using their tongues to hide the truth or cover up the tracks of their corruption or wriggle out of the difficult situations they have trapped themselves in.
This is so in order to save their pride and flawed characters from being hurt.
They consider accepting a mistake in life or in politics as a sign of weakness and powerlessness which will hurt their pride of position in society and sense of importance towards those they lead and are below them.
So, we must never take any speech for granted, in life or in politics.
Another important rule about freedom of speech is that we must always be careful how we use our tongue in reacting to deliberate provocations and misrepresentations of what we may have said.
Many of us are no match in the word game of mudslinging in life and politics.
One day Tortoise asked his friends, the two doves, if they could fly with him across the sky to their place on the other side of the river.
The birds agreed to use a stick.
Each would hold one end of the stick in his mouth while tortoise held the middle of the stick also with his mouth.
The birds advised tortoise never to open his mouth once they are up in the sky.
Tortoise swore he would never to do such a silly thing.
The three took off into the sky.
A group of children who were playing down below in a village saw them and began to taunt the tortoise saying, “Look at the tortoise!
“He looks like a frog in the sky!”
Tortoise was angry and tried to open his mouth and shout back at them saying, “Where are your manners!”
And he fell down and broke his shell to a million pieces he still carries today.
The important lesson about freedom of speech in this story is: Control the impulse of trying to answer to every provocation or misrepresentation in life or in politics.
This is where the saying “Silence is golden” applies.
Never believe blindly what the Zimbabwean Constitution says about Freedom of Speech or the Media.
Good words build.
Bad words destroy.
Let us be masters of our tongues!