Twa! Twa! Pastor seeks trademark for phrase
Joseph and Sue Munene.
What you need to know:
- Today, after numerous songs have been done with “twa twa” in their lyrics, after “twa twa” has featured in numerous blog headlines and become part of everyday lingo.
- Pastor Sue also noted that there could be something godly in the way the terminology came to her.
- “If I were asked today, ‘What is the meaning of twa twa?’ I would say this is a coded language for God-given sex in marriage,” she said.
It was meant to be a euphemism because Pastor Sue Munene couldn’t use blunt terminology to tell the gathering what she does with her husband, Pastor Joseph Munene, anywhere, anytime. So, “twa twa twa” became the easy way of describing the act. She had no idea that a video that was being recorded as she spoke would go viral.
That was in 2019. Today, after numerous songs have been done with “twa twa” in their lyrics, after “twa twa” has featured in numerous blog headlines and become part of everyday lingo, after the pastor and her husband have addressed relationship guidance forums across the world, Sue is out to make things official.
She has applied to own the trademark to the words “twa twa”. In the February edition of the monthly journal from the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (Kipi), she wants to register “twa twa” in one of the 45 classes where trademarks are sought.
That is in class 41 which means that, if she is granted the trademark, she will get the right to use them exclusively in activities that are religious or educational. The class also covers personal training, education information, plus entertainment and cultural activities.
She stated in her January 2021 application to Kipi: “The proposed mark is a symbolic non-linguistic voice tag popularised by (the applicant) commonly denoting relationship intimacy.” But, hey, you need not be afraid of using it. In an interview with the Sunday Nation, Pastor Sue said she has no intention of stopping anyone from using “twa twa”. Neither will she be demanding payment from anyone who uses it.
“It’s ownership, not for any other purpose. Not for commercial, not for anything,” she said.
“You see the way people say they want to be paid? That is being selfish.”
Anyone who wants to oppose the allocation of the trademark to her has 60 days from the day the notice was published – February 28 – to file the objection with Kipi. For opposition to be accepted, a person should pay Sh5,000, or $250 for non-locals.
Pastor Sue said she and her husband, who minister at the Overcomers Hope Ministry Nairobi, a church they started, had been considering getting the trademark from as far as back as three years ago.
“We wanted to register it in January 2020. Then we went to the US and stayed there for nine months and the matter died,” she said.
She said she is glad to have introduced a terminology that is helping couples break the ice. She gave an example of a thankful 65-year-old man she met in Meru the previous week who said he is a regular user of the term when asking for his rights from his 62-year-old wife.
Pastor Sue also noted that there could be something godly in the way the terminology came to her.
“If I were asked today, ‘What is the meaning of twa twa?’ I would say this is a coded language for God-given sex in marriage,” she said.
Growth of ministry
After gaining fame, she said, their couple counselling ministry has expanded greatly. They often get invitations to various churches to talk about marriage and the space of intimacy.
Corporates have also invited them, as do other organisations in and outside Kenya.
“It (the fame) has opened doors for us to be able to minister,” she said, thanking her “hero” husband for giving his blessings to the message.
The two are founders of Global Strong Families, an organisation “whose vision is to build healthy and strong families” as described on their YouTube channel.
“Our mission is to heal ailing marriages globally by addressing the unexplored and often unspoken topic of sex,” they add.
Pastor Sue added that the stardom elevated their ministry to the whole world.
“Anywhere I go, they don’t call me Sue. They call me ‘mtu wa twa twa.’ So, it has opened doors. I have had platforms to speak the mind of God concerning marriage, relationships, you know, bringing order to the mountain of marriage,” she said.
Recently, Mr Francis Atwoli, the secretary-general of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions, was granted the trademark for the words “alaa”, “alaaa” and “alaaa”.
His personal assistant said the way for content creators and advertisers to be safe henceforth is to pay for using the expression that came famous after he used it in a television interview.
Pastor Sue said she won’t be going that route.
“If people don’t use it, I think I’ll be going against God’s will,” she said.
“Can you imagine now the havoc I would cause if I said that anybody who has used ‘twa twa’ to pay me?”
