Rupa Huq Apologises To Kwasi Kwarteng

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Kwasi Kwarteng, Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was born in England to parents from Ghana, where they call newly born babies by the day of the week on which they were born. They are later given other names. He is Kwasi, a boy child born on Sunday. 

Breaking news from England is that Rupa Huq, Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton in west London has apologized to Kwasi Kwarteng, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer. Why? The news report says she termed him ‘superficially black.’

Her party, the Labour Party immediately suspended her membership because it views her comments as racist. Rupa Huq said she telephoned Kwasi Kwarteng and apologized. 

“I have today contacted Kwasi Kwarteng to offer my sincere and heartfelt apologies for the comments I made.”

I posted a blog about ‘sincere’ in an apology on 21 September 2022. See below.

Sign language has an advantage over us. I’m sorry is sorry, as transmitted by hands, the face and the whole body. With us, we need very very sorry, which leads me to the conclusion that sometimes, we are not sorry at all. It is just lip service.

Certain words are supposed to be total or self-evident, like sorry, love or tired. I guess there is no harm in using very very, to emphasize a point. Pastors do it every Sunday, but we don’t have to use it if the apology is sincere. The person who has been wronged should feel the words: I’m sorry.

It is suspicious when we say, I sincerely apologize. Sincerity is in-built in the word apologize. That is why the preamble ‘sincerely’ weakens the apology. Maybe the person doesn’t mean to apologize.

There are lots of apologies online. Just apologize and this will blow over. That is how handlers of politicians and celebrities advise them. Why an apology? It comes after being caught red-handed. There are things we do after dark that should remain after dark.

They do surface after a month, two years or 10 years. We offend people along the way not knowing that one day we’ll meet them. As the Zulu proverb goes: mountain never meet, people do.

Somebody apologizes. It only becomes an apology when it is heart-felt on the other side, not because we said I ‘sincerely’ apologize.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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