Some ideas marinate for a long time before reaching the right moment to come forth. I had written the words down on an envelope, about 9 months ago. That envelope has travelled with me all over, tucked into the depths of whatever bag I was carrying or floating freely in the back of my car. […]
Category: isiZulu
{What follows is a meditation on the deeper meaning of this proverb, which I wrote as an explanation for some work that a friend of mine is currently doing on the intersection between ubuntu and human rights.} This is the phrase which is so often uttered as an expression of ubuntu – I have seen […]
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khona
Most people who speak even a little bit of isiZulu know that one of the responses in the greeting, usually to “unjani?” or “ninjani?” can be “ngikhona” or “sikhona”. And you may also have an idea that it means the equivalent of “I’m fine” or “we’re fine”. But that’s not all that khona means. Not […]
Umuntu uyakhuluma, kodwa iSilo siyaphefumula. A person speaks, but the ‘Beast’ ‘breathes’. This was just one thing I figured out a little while ago, on the birthday of the current ruling monarch (iSilo) of the amaZulu, uNgangezwe-lakhe, uHlanga-lomhlabathi, uBhejan’ophum’es’qiwini. Out of respect, I shall not refer to this person by his igama. If you are […]
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Three month hiatus
Kade sagcinana! Mehlo madala! It’s been too long since I last wrote anything on here. All that I’ve been able to connect with are a few glances at analytics every now and then, but no writing. And it’s not because I haven’t had things to write about! It’s rather that I haven’t had the headspace […]
Happy St Patrick’s Day! Make sure you’re wearing into eluhlaza! Blue-green conflation is what I like to call it. Others prefer ‘confusion’ rather than ‘conflation’, and still others talk about ‘Grue’ languages – ones that do not have separate words for those two colours. What matters to me is that my students almost universally react […]
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Sounds of Silence
In my endless research on izenzukuthi (ideophones), I have begun to get an idea of different groups – monosyllabic, disyllabic and polysyllabic – and what sort of sounds are associated with what ideas. Because, in case you didn’t already know this, ideophones are all about sound. Specifically, they represent the association of a sound with […]
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L’esprit d’escalier
caution: this blog contains some swearing / isixwayiso: kunenhlamba kuleli blog I had my fighting shoes on. Tan brown hightops, white t-shirt and jeans. I strode in there demanding justice, and was met with four occupied attendants. So I sat down, and waited, and surveyed the battlefield. Yellow. Everything was yellow. The colour of ubuhlanzo. […]
Unwele olude, more usually heard as nwel’olude, is an expression of a wish for prosperity, and I’ve always understood it as directly relating to a wish for the person to experience a sustained period of happiness. It’s most often said on the occasion of someone’s birthday, along with other lovely phrases such as ‘khul’ukhokhobe’. But why […]
There’s a verb stem that seems, strangely, to be on everyone’s lips. It’s strange because the stem has, up until recently, only been used in religious or political contexts – but now it’s used to talk about a particularly virulent form of intergenerational transactional sex. Here’s a riddle for you – how are State Capture, […]
uMabhengwane 