uMabhengwane
When I get to this word, in that first explanation of the complex beauty of the izigaba zamabizo, I can barely contain my excitement. I’m sure that people I’ve taught can attest to this. I try my hardest to keep to the Socratic method, and to rely on the learner’s knowledge. This is important. It’s […]
The last time I looked at the election posters, I focused on a subtle difference in word choice. The ruling party chose a verb that signified a gang mentality, overpowering a submissive public into continuing to vote for them. The blue house chose something different, opting for using isiZulu’s penchant for reciprocity. This time round, […]
Since I haven’t yet written a proper post about izimpambosi, I must begin this one with an apology – although this will serve as a practical explication of the concept. Yesterday, I navigated the northern channels of the Jozi vascular system, charting a course once again along roads named after dead white men until I […]
As I sat in my car, mentally preparing myself for my journey to my new job (or rather my new position at my old job, down in the South), I contemplated doing what I used to do – switching on the radio, tuning in to uKhozi FM and listening to the news in isiZulu. But […]
Today, the last in the month of uMandulo, there are people marching against corruption. They are marching in all the major centres of Mzansi. Elsewhere I have spoken about the connection between forgetting, deception and corruption. It is a complex dance of backward glances, envelopes under the table and vocal dissimulation, designed to perpetuate an […]
I’ve been wanting to write about these for a very long while already. They have always fascinated me, and I believe that they are the heart of isiZulu. For all of you who don’t know what an ideophone is, I’ll explain here. For those of you that know already, proceed to the next paragraph. Let’s […]
WARNING / ISEXWAYISO – NSFW / AkuVunyelwe emSebenzini In teaching someone a language, there are those discussions which step directly into (or onto) taboos – words for different forms of sex, heinous insults involving mothers and their pudenda, and this one, about excrement. There is no way to avoid the taboos, and I think that […]
When 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]