My wife’s sms comes through mid-morning: how would you define an ideophone? I imagine the conversation diverging from the task at hand, the English teachers (supposed to be) discussing next term’s syllabus and sharing out the work for it, and the sudden foray into isiZulu linguistics. I try to figure out what the best approach […]
Category: izinkumbulo / memories
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isiKhwama
It seems strange to be writing an obituary for a set of inanimate objects, but it’s the only way I can make sense of this. I need to catalogue the loss, even if insurance doesn’t need to know. Even if the only response is catharsis. While we sit in the requiem mass for my wife’s […]
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Today
I’m staring at my wardrobe, unsure about today. We woke up to a headline, then the youtube clips, then the discussions, positionings and recollections stirred up by all of this. All of this pain that roils around us, out and into the small hours of our day. All of the anger and recrimination and hatred […]
In the last traces of the Indian summer, before the suddenness of this winter’s arrival this morning, my father smses me to tell me that he’s seen the way the drongoes have been flying, and he says: intengu iyabika ubusika kanye noheshe the drongo warns of the winter, as does the hawk {I see immediately […]
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Wooden bowls
The bell of the metal pedestrian gate rings once. I’m expecting someone, so I go to open without checking. Oh. ‘Sawubona Mama’ It wasn’t the person I was expecting. ‘Yes, hello Sir. Would you like…?’ She gestures to the hessian bag that she’s been lumping along the Linksfield Ridge all morning. I can see skillfully […]
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Roadblock
Running errands on a Saturday morning, racing between lessons and hardware stores, not a moment to lose, and I hit a JMPD roadblock. With a crack in the windscreen splitting the road apart, and a temporary license, it’s not long before I’m out of the car and standing on the hot tar while he searches […]
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My Father
Today my father, uMashinashina wakwaMbilaziyawucosha, uMasikisiki’sind’isilo-sakhe, iNkunzi-kayihlehli, will celebrate his 77th circuit around the sun. Last night, sitting in my car in a rainy Joburg in between isiZulu lessons, listening to Abasikibebunda on the radio, he didn’t feel quite as far away as usual – so I wrote him a letter: “I remember many things […]
Dambuza (my step-son) is learning the days of the week in isiZulu. So, in the heat of a late Friday evening, unable to sleep, we’re sitting on the floor of his room. And I have my left hand up, the palm towards me. “So, siyaqala ngesandla sobunxele. We start with the left hand. Specifically, we […]
Post by Maurice Mackenzie > Nodumo! Isikhova isisilwane esiphila ebusuku, esizingela namehlo alandela izindlebe ezicosha umsindwana ozo veza izilwane ezi phuma sekuhlwile. Sidalwe nobuhlakana olungapezu’kwezinye izilwane. Abadala bathe simela abaphansi ngoba ima sikhala kungathi kumemezana amadlozi noma amandiki. Ngqungqulu ‘dla madoda Translation by Cullen Mackenzie > One-who-thunders-with-thought! The owl is a creature that lives at […]
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uKhozi FM Snippet (1)
Listening to the traffic report this morning on uKhozi FM: “…umgwaqo phakathi kukaKranskop neShowe, lapho kukhona iNtunjambili noKhomo…” It was like a snippet from a Sunday morning memory for me – we had woken early, when the horns of the otter are the only thing above the grey sky, and driven bumping along the dirt, […]