diff --git a/frontends/src/primitivus/primitivus b/frontends/src/primitivus/primitivus
index f4f2878a..cc828417 100755
--- a/frontends/src/primitivus/primitivus
+++ b/frontends/src/primitivus/primitivus
@@ -215,9 +215,9 @@ class PrimitivusApp(QuickApp):
         #self.center_part = urwid.Columns([('weight',2,self.contact_list),('weight',8,Chat('',self))])
         self.center_part = urwid.Columns([('weight',2,self.contact_list), ('weight',8,urwid.Filler(urwid.Text('')))])
 
-        modes = {None: ('NORMAL', ''),
-                 'i': ('INSERTION','> '),
-                 ':': ('COMMAND',':')}
+        modes = {None: ('NORMAL', u''),
+                 'i': ('INSERTION', u'> '),
+                 ':': ('COMMAND', u':')} #XXX: captions *MUST* be unicode
         self.editBar = sat_widgets.ModalEdit(modes)
         self.editBar.setCompletionMethod(self._text_completion)
         urwid.connect_signal(self.editBar,'click',self.onTextEntered)