Situational Sign Language

Have you ever wondered what might be crossing your teacher’s mind as he walks up and down the classroom isles in the name of invigilating examination? Well, grab a stool for I am the horse and I want you to get it directly from my mouth.

Apart from excitement due to fear, I think the other time the student’s mind is stimulated to invent modes of coping with the situation is in an examination room. Mark you, students are not allowed to indulge in any form of verbal communication during an examination. Despite that, they still communicate using a series of simple sign language and gestures. Having invigilated examinations in different schools from different regions, I can ascertain that the signals and gestures used are kind of ‘internationally’ accepted. It is like students have SI Units for them.

Just like any other language, silent communication, or what I refer to as ‘situational sign language’, develops at a given place and diffuses to other geographic regions with minute or no variations. Let me define this as the use of sign language in a situation where verbal communication is not possible.

Now back to the invigilator in the examination room. Standing for two hours doing nothing but pacing up and down requires nobility. Indeed teaching is a noble profession and I am a noble person.

Try and picture this; you are standing at the back of the room all vigilant and eagle-eyed to prevent these learners from cheating (you). All of a sudden, you spot one look at another seated two desks ahead then poke the center of his left palm three successive times using his right forefinger. Without a word, the one in front passes a calculator to his counterpart. Being the noble person I am, I pretend not to have seen them for they have not committed any crime. Have they? Whatever they have done teleports me to other scenarios where I personally participated or experienced situational sign language.

Down memory lane to elementary school. Am not sure of your generation but our times were filled with this situational communication. Maybe you wanted to pass a message to you partner in mischief without the knowledge of the people around you. Let me take you through such situations where sign language was used to warn, threaten or commend.

I remember this one time a pupil had spied on us eating school bananas and borrowed some but we refused to give her any. Instead, we threw the peelings at her. She did not say a word. All she did was put her thumb on her middle finger and shake her hand such that her forefinger hit on her middle finger and produced a snapping sound. That was enough to tell us that we were in danger for she was going to report us to the teacher. True to her warning, we were summoned to the head teacher and given a nice spanking that we would always remember whenever we saw bananas. Before we went home that day, one of my friends gave the girl who snitched on us a ‘wanted’ sign. It was not complicated but she also understood that she would be in problems on the closing day. All he did was hit his left palm thrice using his right fist.

Fast forward to this other day when I was traveling to the village from the capital. The driver had to pick up someone on the way and when we got there the person to be picked was dragging herself and what the driver did would have been understood by anyone especially if they were travelling. He tapped his left wrist twice using his right forefinger. The person in question did not heed the sign and the driver had to drive off. He hung one hand out of the window and made two circular motions with his forefinger pointing on the ground to indicate that he would come back. In a flash, the angry traveler flushed a very obscene sign using one of her left fingers. The driver just smiled and gave her a thumbs up sign.

Further on, the conductor began collecting his dues in silence by rubbing his thumb severally on his forefinger. Each one of us was paying five hundred shillings and I had a thousand shilling note. The lady I was seated with took my note, gave me her five hundred shilling note and handed the thousand shilling note to the conductor. She displayed her mid and forefinger to indicate two and the conductor never said a word. Safe journey to all of us.

An introvert talks more than an extrovert

Because when the mouth is closed the mind is opened

~ Michael Bassey Johnson

Wait, let me collect these examination answer sheets, I will be back. I never imagined that I would ever become a teacher but here I am. I am coping with the situation by exercising my observation skills and turning them into words. Oh! Sons and daughters of Africa.

                                                                                                                  (Written by Analo Michael)