uMabhengwaneYesterday, in therapy (because am broken, as should be obvious to anyone reading this) I didn’t start with any negative things or gripes or complaints – but I did end up talking about bridges. No, you idiot. Not the physical structure. It’s a metaphor. In this case, I am a bridge. In fact, I am […]
MGB I woke up, scrolled through Facebook (because I have now deleted Twitter, mostly because I spent years at institutions run by man-children with god-complexes and have no desire to willingly submit myself to the whims of yet another one), and there it was: “Gatsha is gone”. I haven’t yet messaged my father. I presume […]
I posted this on FB recently, and there has been some debate. I offer it now to the wider internet. Let me know what you think. Um, in my humble opinion there are a few issues with this poster. 1. I-Johannesburg isn’t a thing. I know that you might be meaning to say ‘Johannesburg Metro’, […]
I recently wrote a post on the DA’s election posters, looking specifically at their choice of imifakela (borrowed words) in their Zulu campaign. I was rather disparaging of the ANC’s efforts, as I had not yet seen anything from them in any vernacular. The other day, I went for a walk in my neighbourhood. As […]
I understand it now. When you’re faced with guilt, the automatic response is complete and utter denial. That explains Mr Shifty’s (aka Msholozi’s) actions of late. He’s issuing a programmatic response in accordance with this bit of wisdom, this isaga. Here’s how it works. First, icala (3.2.2-8.9): anything wrong, deserving of complaint; a defect. a […]
It was with some surprise that I heard the news – uKhongolose is intending to charge Malema with treason. Surprise turned to curiosity (of course) about the linguistic aspects of the word. Treason. Firstly, the technical term for the charge (in Latin, of course) is maiestas. As a legal concept, it’s as old as the […]
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, […]
Politics wasn’t something separate from my daily life growing up. It was pervasive. The schools we went to, the abuse my brother and I received at the hands of other little white boys for being k*****boetjies, the bullets from which we took cover in the back of our father’s bakkie on the way into Edendale, […]
Discourse analysis is about asking two questions about word choice (diction) and sentence structure – “why?” and “why not?”. For example: “WHY did the ANC choose to use the word hlanganyela on their isiZulu election posters?” and “WHY did the ANC choose NOT to use other words for togetherness on their isiZulu election posters?” The […]
Every Monday morning, Mr Magic’s show has a section called Hlaziya ipolitiki ngolimi lwakho (Analyse Politics in your Language). This morning, I caught the show in time to record it, and have since transcribed it, selected some choice bits, and translated them here for you (with some attention to discourse, as usual). Each of these […]
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