The Most Popular Street Slangs in Lango Through The Years!

 

“Senior, tin itye dead! Yamo tye ikomi bo?”

“Ahh, atye bao-bao kitoro. Bisma tin pe ikoma omio yala ogoa oko. Opia aman pe tye agena atwali. Boc ikoma ni anwongo i style. Alonyo na pwod owoto oko”.

If you were walking on the streets of Lira and you over heard the conversation above between two youthful friends, would you have understood what they are talking about?

I don’t know when the last time it was when you were in Lira city. And what the street slangs in the city were. But the street culture in Lira is as vibrant as it ever was.

Am reckoning that almost every five years, there is a new set of slangs that hits the streets. Some of them are quite enduring while others can be too localized and disappear as quickly as they come. Lately I have been keeping an open ear to them and I have been trying to catch up with really cool ones.

In this article am trying to chronicle for you some of the street slangs from the 1980s to the 2020s. Besides, there is one slang that has ‘resurrected’ from the 1940s or 50s and is now in use again. I will also note some of the ones that have endured the years and the ones that have virtually disappeared from the streets. I will also bring you up to date with some of the really ‘dead’ ones. ‘Dead’ means cool. And incidentally, ‘dead’ is one of the coolest and latest slangs in Lira city streets at the moment.

Soli. This was a very popular slang in the 1980s. Its relative use to this date is testament of its popularity then. If you were old enough, you probably remember ‘soli come, soli go’ (money comes, money goes). There was even a ‘cool’ guy in Lira nicknamed Otim Soli. Well ‘soli’ is still in use but there is a caveat to its use. Two things have happened to ‘soli’.

One, it has been shortened to ‘so’.  Now when you say ‘soli’ in a conversation, a younger person will probably not understand you and might think you are trying too hard to sound cool but instead sounding dated. You don’t say ‘soli’, you say ‘so’ and you will immediately be understood.

 

Two, it has mostly shifted to the Gulu City. There is a popular Acoli song called “Ang Obed Mujony”. There is a line that goes something like “so ni mega, atiyo atiya” Anga obed mujony - Eddy wizzy. It is not uncommon to hear our brothers and sisters from Acoli talk something like “jal, so tin peke”.

Do you know the origin of soli? I would love to know too. Please tell me. My contacts are below?

Sue: Although I would not advise you to use it in a conversation with a 20 something or younger person, ‘sue’ is still in use. For those who may not know, ‘sue’ is short for ‘suicide’. Its original meaning was ‘I don’t care’. But it also means ‘cool’ or ‘street smart’.  Example ‘Asey tye sue matek’. ‘Asey’ can also still once in a while be heard especially among the gen Xes. (50 and older) but it is almost gone now. It means ‘guy’.

I stand to be corrected but I am almost sure that it has its origin in the 1970s when the Palestinian Libaration Organisation (PLO) brought the idea of “suicide missions / bombing”. It was a relatively new and intriguing concept that one can go into war with the sole aim on not coming back.

Slungs From the 80 that have disappeared:

‘Bisenge’ or ‘bisi’ has disappeared. It originated from a very popular 1980s Lingala song “Misenge” sung by one Pierre Moutouari. Motouari - Misenge. 

“Missenge” is a Lingala word for ‘wife’ or ‘lover’. And indeed the slang meant ‘girlfriend’. You can still use it but using it now makes you look like some old folk trying too hard to sound ‘cool’ but ending up sounding outdated.

Other out of use slangs are; ‘ofeo’ (guy), ‘bogayole’ (meaning cool. Popularized by the late Otim Obade, a 1980s town lunatic. ‘Adis’ (short for disco). These are the ones that have come to my mind. There could have been others.

The 1990 in my opinion, were not great years for cool street slangs on Lira streets. The political mayhems of the late 1980 going on through the 1990s seemed to have killed our spirits. Lira and Lango lost its sense of pride and community. Our politics became precariously divisive and security became a luxury. Am struggling to find really cool street slangs from the 1990s.

The 1980s street slangs tended to come from cool kids from high school. Young people who were well-informed with popular culture of the day. The 1990s slangs on the other hand tended to come from sweaty uncultured street hustlers who had just come from the villages as internally displaced people (IDPs) running from the Celibong, Alice Lakwena and Joseph Kony rebellions and cattle rustling  by the Karimojong that were ravaging the villages. Their ruffian lifestyles reflected in their slangs when they did hit the streets of Lira.

Slangs like ‘wia pe me redo’, ‘tel atela’, ‘apye anyoni’, ‘abogera’, etc were some of the slangs one could hear in conversations on the streets of Lira. I don’t think they were cool at all.

Wia pe me redo: Or just ‘wia pe’ implied their ready-to-pounce attitudes to life. It also implies that one does not have respect for procedure or to grasp what they considered to be complex town life mannerism.

Tel-atela: This one is still in limited use today. It has it’s origin in the jagery and produce buying businesses. It started from the late 1980s but became popular in the 1990s. It’s a slung used to mean also not willingness to follow procedure and the likes.

It started as an act of cheating naïve village bringing their produce to sell in Lira town. A tel-atela guy would be hanging around the produce buying store. He would manipulate the weighing scale by pulling (telo) it upward to make the produce lighter and weigh less than what it actually is. A 50 kilo bag of beans can end up weighing only 25kgs.

Apye anyoni: This is crude liquor and it’s still in limited use today. This implies how crude liquor can make one have the impulse to engage in a fight at the slightest provocation.

Abogera: This in no longer in use and it was a fleeting slang in the 90. It came and went away very fast. One town citizen is still called Abogera today. It’s a dance party done in a dusty open ground somewhere probably unsafe.

One could ask, “What happened to you?”

“I was thoroughly beaten at the Abogera dance”

The years 2000 to 2010s also saw the coming and going of some street slungs in Lira. Here are some of them.

Onger Onger: This one came and went away almost as quickly as it came in the years 2000s. If someone referred to you as onger, it is not flattery. It meant someone who behaves in a clown manner. One could say “Ongeroro nu tye ayelo jo kan”.

Bao-Bao: This is when something is of poor quality. Or some one’s character is not desirable. You could say, “Lo nu obedo bao-bao”

Pwot: This is when someone is elusive and possibly of a cheating character. You could say “Lo no pwot. Owite anok te rwenyo oko”.

Two-twol: This became quite popular. It also had a similar meaning like “pwot”. It also connotes the idea of being around but not being conspiquous. On the other hand it also meant being broke and therefore avoiding public places. You could say “atye gite ento atye two-twol”.

Bul: This was how some would refer to the dance at the club or a piece of music. You could say, “Aworo omyelo bul amom twere” when you actually meant you had a good time at the dance club.

The 2020s also is having its own share of the street slangs. Some are disappearing fast but others are still around.

Alonyo: This loosely means boss. It is a direct borrowing from Luganda “mugaga” which means a rich man. You could call out to someone “Alonyo na irwenyo ba”.

Yamo: This has a double meaning. On the one habd it means money. But on the other hand it means being elusive. You could ask someone “yamo tye ikomi bo” to mean ‘do you have some money on you?”. Or you could say “ole iyie yamo-yamo pingo?”

Dead: This probably is the most popular ar the moment. It means really cool. One could say “ole anyon ni no tye dead”. Meaning “your shoes are really cool.

Other slangs are:

SLANGS	YEARS USED	MEANING
Yala ogoa	2015 to date	Am broke
Bisma	current	Luck
Senior	current	Someone you respect
Boc ca	current	My boss
Dame	2000s	Beautiful girl
Boy	1980s to date	guy
Bulu	2010 to date	Youthful man
Opia	2010 to date (disspearing fast)	Money
Ibati	1980 to date	money
Simbi	2000s	money
Riyal	2000s	money
Kwess ( Nubian word)	1980s to 1990s	good
Stock	1980s and 1990s	Female lover
Goyo dog	2010s to date	To cheat someone
Nek iroko	1990 to 2000s	To cheat someone
Bomb (bom)	1980s	To lie
Pe woto iwelono	2000s to date	Unacceptable
Mano dang pwodi	2000s to date	You haven’t seen the real me yet.
Ka owango yi, wot ico iyi amut	1960s and 70s	I don’t care
Anyic bala tyen okunu	1980s and 90s	Nothing (not yielding)
Ololo Bijwera	1970s to date	A parasitic person
Cem winyo-winyo	2000s to date	A parasitic person
Boc	2000s to date	clothing
Fogo	1980s	cool