uMabhengwaneIt 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 […]
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 […]
The other night, as I was listening to Abasikibebunda on uKhozi FM, uMongameli Zuma announced to the world the name of the ill-fated and ill-considered mission of the SANDF to the Central African Republic – Operation Vimbezela. So, like any linguist with a political upbringing, I checked the meaning. (As a side note, it’s wonderful […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Happy New Year to everyone! Ngithemba ukuthi ningene kahle kunyaka omusha (I hope you entered the new year well). There is some linguistic and anthropological interest in this day, when looked at from the perspective of isiZulu – mainly because of its special place as a borrowed custom. The isiZulu word for New Year is […]
Thi and its routes, again. “…bakhona abanohlelo oluTHIze…” There are people with certain ‘agendas’, as opposed to ‘plans’, …as part of a conversation between uKhozi FM’s political analyst and the Vuka Mzansi presenter, Linda Sibiya, Mr Magic. The relative (a type of qualificative word in isiZulu – adjectives, relatives, enumeratives and possessives all ‘qualify’ the […]
uMabhengwane