Let's preserve popular speeches by our best orators for posterity

Raila Odinga at Ihura Stadium in Murang'a during the Azimio La Umoja Public Rally. [Kibata Kihu, Standard]

Two weeks ago, the Dean, Kabarak Law School, Prof John Ambani Osogo apologised to the members of the University Community for titling an introductory speech during an inaugural Lecture by Prof Justice Willy Mutunga at the school.

He had named his introductory speech as 'The leopard has given birth' where he noted the unique nature of the occasion, saying it was as auspicious as a leopard giving birth. According to Luhya mythology, he recalled his mother repeatedly saying that whenever a leopard gave birth, it was marked by the sun shining brightly, and the rain falling at the same time.

Normally, speeches don’t have names or titles. Unlike titles of novels, poems, plays and nonfictional works, speeches are never given titles. I believe it is this that made the Dean of Kabarak Law School to fear giving his speech a title.

However, the history of rhetoric—the art of effective and persuasive speaking and writing—shows that a large body of speeches have titles. The speeches were originally so named, or popular opinion gave them titles based on certain aspects of the speeches.

Students and practitioners of public communications, speech writers, political and religious leaders and policymakers who take public speaking seriously know about widely recognised speeches with titles.

Politicians and their speech writers know some of the greatest speeches of all time by name. We have the 'Pericles Funeral Oration'. We have Abraham Lincoln’s 'Gettysburg Address'. Martin Luther King Jr 'I have a Dream' speech. There is President Woodrow Wilson’s 'The Fourteen Points' speech that helped define the periods after the First Word War I and Second World War II.

Winston Churchill gave us 'Blood, Toil, tears and Sweat, We shall never surrender,' and the 'Iron Curtain has descended, This was their finest hour'—all responding to the exigencies of the Second War II and its aftermath.

German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck gave us 'The Blood and Iron speech'. Political communication is saturated with compelling speeches addressing timeless issues. We have Barack Obama’s 'Yes we Can' Speech that he made immediately after being announced winner of the US Presidential Elections of 2008.

We have hundreds of speeches made by politicians known by their names. We cannot exhaust their titles here.

The Bible has lots of speeches. Like in all speeches, every speech in the Bible has a speaker, an audience, and brief description of the rhetorical situation that stimulated the speech action. A significant number of speeches are titled. We have Moses' Farewell Speech shortly before the Israelites cross River Jordan. We have The Sermon on the Mount Speech by Jesus Christ as well as his Farewell Speech at the Last Supper.

Fictional works—novels, plays and poetry—have equally incisive speeches with titles on them. It should not surprise those who have never given thought to literature. Literature imitates or reflects reality or life. It is not about idle stories to amuse people or to enable them to while away time.

William Shakespeare has given us memorable speeches with distinct titles. We have 'To be or Not to be' speech from Hamlet, 'Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow' speech from Macbeth, and Mark Antony’s, 'Funeral Oration, from Julius Caesar'.

Sadly, Kenyan politicians don’t take as much interest in the public speaking engagements they have with Kenyans as to carefully prepare memorable utterances. They also hardly take care of preserving and publishing some of the arguably very good speeches some of them have made—for future reference and for posterity.

I have in mind, for example, Tom Mboya who is reputed to have been a very good orator. His speeches are not as readily available as the speeches of his contemporaries in the West.

Older Kenyans saw how a powerful public speaker the vice president, the late Wamalwa Kijana was. I particularly remember his stirring speech at the burial ceremony of the doyen of opposition politics in Kenya, the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga in 1994.

Wamalwa quoted a line from Oliver Goldsmith’s poem, 'The Deserted Village, talking about the Grand March to State House'. For some short period, the speech was referred to as the Grand March speech in the newspapers.

And we have the famous two-word speech former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga made in 2002: The Kibaki Tosha speech!

Speeches can and do have legitimate titles. A speaker who meets the demands of the rhetorical moment—the demands of the occasion—can perfectly give a title to his speech or an audience can, over time, give a name to it—picking striking words from the speech or from the symbolic character of the place the speech is made.

Prof Osogo should take comfort in the fact that in daring to give a name, a title to his public speaking engagements in future, he is in good company. He is in the company of those who knew the central place speeches make in a democratic society: To communicate information, to persuade an audience, to challenge assumptions an audience has about certain things dear to the speakers. To lift and calm down people when occasions demands.

An appropriate response to the situation or the emergency, involves moral courage, clear thinking and clarity of thought in words—about the promises and constraints at stake. Such will almost always give forth an utterance, a speech with a name or a title.