Xa pronounced “ha”. Words containing the letter ‘x’ can be quite difficult to pronounce. I remember, when i was young, skipping the name Xerxes (pronounced zúrk seez/ zek ziz) in the history books cos i didn’t know how to pronounce it. I just say to myself, “abi ino be king Darius in son who later became king?” Anyway ‘Xa’ is no English word but an Ewe one (pronounced ha).

You might have (you should have) met a teacher at school who “get mouth”, tells lies (usually in our opinion) and you try as much as possible not to laugh at him by keeping your mouth tightly shut. You ‘release’ it in bits, chuckling  and further fortify your mouth by covering it with your palm. Well here’s how one Geography class found an ingenious way of laughing at their teacher, who hitherto, had been consigned to living in a state of oblivion.

You see, the Geography master’s name is Mr Xaxayi (pronounced ‘ha-ha-yi). The pronunciation is synonymous to the sound produced when laughing, ha ha ha. Whenever something funny comes up during Geography lesson, whether from Mr Xaxayi or anybody else, the whole class explodes, “Xa Xa Xa yyiii!!! (ha ha ha yyiii!). The big guys at the back make it much more amusing with their thundering voices, laughing like a drain.

The ’09 Geography class has sparked a new tradition which will burn on so long as Mr Xaxayi remains a teacher on that campus (even the juniors know about it). Even if he tries to stamp it out students, obstinate as they (we) are, will continue to stoke the fire.
Xa xa xa yyiii!!!

‘get mouth’- too known