uMabhengwaneWhen I’ve been scarce, as I’ve been these past months, this is the first question I am asked. It’s quite a complex little word, and as is usual with isiZulu it conveys a complete sentence. Here’s how it works. u-zi-fihl-e-phi? you-yourself-hid-past-where? where have you been hiding yourself? The first syllable is a low tone, an […]
1994. Three things happened that year, in my life. I’ve been thinking of those three things a lot today, remembering that day 21 years ago when we watched the news at school and saw the snaking multicoloured lines of people casting the first free ballot ever. I knew what that meant, then. I was only […]
Iconoclasm – etymology: Ancient Greek, eikono-klazo (statue-smash). I’ve been listening to, and reading, reports on our recent spate of statue-phobia ngesiZulu recently – it’s been difficult not to do so, what with catchy hashtags and clashing rhetoric and escalating levels of mutual disrespect becoming the order of things. Iconoclasm is tricky business, you see. Whose icons do […]
Discrimination, segregation, Apartheid, xenophobia, prejudice, bias, racism, sexism, ageism, exclusion, stereotyping, profiling – this is a set of words tainted by many different instances of humanity’s only basic commonality, the urge to identify the other and be as horrible as one can possibly be towards him or her. Each of these words has a long […]
Akukho “ukuhlanekezela” la. Lawa ngamazwi ngqo ashiwo yiSilo samabandla, uNgangezwe lakhe: Ngicela uhulumeni asilekelele. Sekuyisikhathi sokuthi abantu banwaye izintwala zabo nathi sichobe ezethu. Eziphukwini zethu asikhiphe amazenze siwabeke elangeni aziqathakele. Siyacela ukuthi abantu bokufika bathathe imithwalo yabo bahambe. Nani ngesikhathi nisemazweni abo kusazatshalazwa nabalekelela ukuba bakhululeke ngiyakwazi lokho kodwa anikaze nilengise, nithengise lutho emazweni abo. […]
In isiZulu, there is a specific verb for carrying something on your shoulder or head – ukuthwala. Somehow this verb is at the heart of the phrase titling this blog – the translation of the Stark House words “Winter is Coming”. Allow me to explain. Ukuthwala is derived from the Ur-Bantu word -tu denoting a […]
Many of you fear the combination of calendar date and weekday that is Friday the 13th. It’s part of a much older fear of the number 13 in general, about which I have a simple theory (shared by many others). Before I do that, I need to make it clear that not only do I […]
The first language I connected with you was English. I walked over to you, picking you out from among all the others there, and interrupted your reading. Knowing you now, I realise that I was running a real risk. At least my first observation was one grounded in literature – a comment on Ian McEwan […]
Last weekend saw the breaking of an interesting story, about how one of the president’s wives allegedly poisoned him. It also saw a very interesting response from the Office of the Presidency, via our arch-Newspeaker, Mac Maharaj. I didn’t hear the response in English, but ngesiZulu (paraphrasing except for the important bit at the end): […]
You may know him by many different names, some more flattering or familiar than others. JGZ. JZ. Jacob. Msholozi. (Dis)honourable Mr President. In my classes, many of my students ask me what his name means, and it’s a side-track on which I am happy to embark. So let’s have a look. Jacob. Biblical Name. Treacherous […]