Learning a Few South Africanisms

We bellied up to the Point Yacht Club bar the other night and ordered a Hansa draft. It was cold and luscious, and the glass immediately began to sweat … exactly what we'd been doing all day long. As we sat there, Ed, a young fellow who'd been out sailing all day, walked in and we started up a lively conversation regarding South Africanisms.

South Africa has 11 official languages:  English, Afrikaans, and the nine major African languages including isiZulu, isiXhosa, seTswana and seSotho. Other languages such as Hindi, Arabic, Khoi-San, Portugese as well as other community and religious languages are also recognized. Google is offered in English, and six other languages here. With all those languages floating around, the chances of borrowing bits from everyone's language to spice up the local lingo was inevitable.

I had read that officially, Afrikaans is the youngest language in the world. By the early-20th century Afrikaans had developed from Dutch, German, French and other influences into a full-fledged language complete with its own dictionary. After just a century, Afrikaans, not English, is the third most spoken language in South Africa, right after isiZulu and isiXhosa. Many street signs here are written in three languages: English, Afrikaans and Zulu.

Ed told us he'd been brought up in a “proper” Afrikaans-speaking household with English as his second language. A female friend of his at the bar noted that she'd had to learn Afrikaans the hard way, as a required language in school. Afrikaans words are very prevalent and in common usage in South Africa, mixed with English and a little Zulu and ... I asked Ed to give us few examples and he happily complied.

The most common one we learned when we first visited South Africa and Ed didn't have to help us. It's braai … a South African BBQ. “Come on over for a braai.”

Lekker – Cool, great, sexy, awesome.

Slops - flip-flops

Swak – literally “weak” in Afrikaans, but it can mean you're broke (no money) or can be used to describe varying forms of harsh behavior or rudeness.

Bru – literally brother, but comparable to “bro” or “dude”

Robot – traffic light (really?) When I asked for directions to the bank, here's what I was told. “Turn right at the second robot. Cross at the zebra.” (Pronounced Zeh-bra not zee-bra which of course makes sense … you don't say Dee-bra, you say Deh-bra.) Why are traffic lights called robots? Zebras are crosswalks designated with striped lines.

Bakkie – pick-up truck

Geyser – hot water heater

Takkies – sneakers, athletic shoes, trainers

Eish! (Zulu) –  Geez! Dang! Heck! Or the like

Babelaas/babbelas – hangover (of Zulu origin); there's also stukkend from the Afrikaans. Perhaps it depends on the type of hangover … not sure.

Dagga (Khoikhoi) – (dak.hah) slang for marajuana

Howzit – short for “how's it going?” except used by itself as a greeting

Is it (izit) – in response to a statement where you're usually say “Really?”

Yebo or ja (yah) – Yes, affirmative

Certain words have been borrowed directly like mamba (as in snake) or impala from Nguni and marula (as in the fruit from which Amarula is made) and tsetse (as in fly) from Sotho.

Just now and now now – This was a difficult one for us to learn, especially when dealing with tradesmen. “I'll be there just now.” You'd think we'd expect them immediately, but no, it means perhaps sometime today. Whereas as “now now”, that's more immediate, but still not necessarily within the next 10 minutes.

We're still learning and there's much more to learn. By the way, here we're from America, rather than the United States or the States. Vive la difference!

Swazi Crafts and Culture

Our travel isn't just about wild animals and birds, we're also interested in local crafts and culture. First of all, Swaziland is a kingdom, one of the few remaining peaceful monarchies in the world. King Mswati III rules Swaziland with the help of several advisers. There was a picture of the king in an honored place in every place we visited, whether it be a public building or a tiny stall in the crafts market. The country is bankrupt; there is 40+% unemployment; 26%+ of the population is HIV positive and TB is rampant. Still, the people seem happy.

I'd read about Swazi Candles and had seen some of their products. This is a Swasi  women's endeavor and profits go back to the community. We watched candles being made, then browsed in the shop which was well-laid out and appealing. It wasn't only candles. There were heaps of handmade Swazi baskets and other craft offerings. This is our kind of place to buy souvenirs and we stocked up on elegant, African-motif candles and baskets.

We checked out Kwazi Swazi, a more conventional gift shop which offered the usual t-shirts and souvenirs, but not much made in Swaziland. They did, however, have some distinctive items and we ended up buying a carved, stylized zebra head which we thought would look great as a decoration on the boat.

We headed to the colorful open craft stalls in the same complex. We enjoyed looking, but didn't buy much. I fell in love with some of the batiks and the six foot tall carved giraffes were most appealing. Alas, I couldn't talk the captain into moving any tall animals aboard the boat.

We moved along Route 103 in the Ezulwini Valley, a route noted for its shops. We stopped at the local craft market. There was stall upon stall of crafts, mostly identical … carvings, batiks, jewelry, cheap souvenirs. It was hot and humid as we moved from cramped, tiny stall to stall. The vendors welcomed us warmly and asked us to look at their offerings, trying hard to make a sale. It was hard to refuse, but we were sweaty and thirsty and ended up buying nothing, but a small batik print. It was simply too hot to shop.

The currency in Swaziland is the lilangeni … the plural is emanlangeni (E). The Swazi currency is tied 1:1 directly to the South African rand. Conveniently, we could use rands to pay for anything, but invariably received emanlangeni in change, which is not accepted anywhere but in Swaziland. This proved to be a bit of a problem when we left the country and constantly confused the two currencies to David's chagrin. The national languages, by the way, are English and Swati. We practiced saying hello in Swati - Sawubona (hello to one person) or Sanibonani (if two or more people).

In the afternoon, we visited the Swazi Cultural Village for a tour of a replica village as well as a traditional singing and dancing performance. Though the guide was quite informative, there was nothing in the “traditional village” except several thatched huts, and some of them were missing. The village was sterile. There were no accessories, no embellishments, no people, no signs of life … a deserted village, a grouping of empty huts.

We were asked for money at every turn. Beyond the admission fee, we were asked to: Tip the guide, please. Tip the singers and dancers, please. Buy some crafts, please. It was hard to say no, but it left a sour taste in our mouths. Some of the singers and dancers were quite enthusiastic and we enjoyed their performances.

Other participants, however, were ho-hum about the whole thing, arriving late and appearing totally bored throughout the performance. We felt as if our presence was an imposition and they obviously had much better things to do than entertain guests and share their culture.

We ended the day at the Mantenga Lodge, not far away from the cultural village. The room was nice and, thankfully, air-conditioned, since the heat and humidity were getting to us. Dinner was at the lodge's restaurant and it was an elegant outdoor affair though casual.

The view of  Execution Rock was exceptional from our seats in the restaurant. We'd just learned at the cultural village that the Swazis used this rock as their form of punishment for major crimes such as murder, adultery and witchcraft. They dragged the guilty parties to the top of the rock and forced them to jump off to their deaths. By the way, Swazi men were free to practice polygamy and still are. King Mswati III has 15 wives and counting. Who'd have time for adultery?

The question is, I guess, did we really experience Swazi culture? The well-choreographed tour and presentation at the Cultural Village was disappointing. Don't get us wrong. We enjoyed our time in Swaziland. It's a beautiful country, but we came away knowing not much more about the culture than we knew from our research before arriving.

We're heading to the renowned Kruger National Park tomorrow. Are you ready to come along?

Remembering Vasco da Gama

Do you remember learning about Vasco da Gama in elementary school? As we contemplate rounding the Cape of Good Hope in the near future, we think about those intrepid explorers of the 15th century who were doing all this for first time. The memorial clock along the foreshore in Durban reminded us of Vasco da Gama and his major contribution to world globalism and commerce.

Even with our GPS, chartplotter, Navionics charts on the iPad and weather forecasts, there's still some concern for this upcoming passage. It's hard to imagine just setting out with no idea of what to expect like da Gama did. Heck, they'd only recently figured out that the Atlantic and Indian Oceans were connected and calculating longitude wouldn't come along for another three centuries!

Born c. 1460, Vasco da Gama, a Portugese navigator and explorer during the Age of Exploration, was the first person to sail directly from Europe to India, around the Cape of Good Hope. This was a monumental discovery in that it established a trade route to India known as the Spice Route and it also gave Portugal a leg-up in establishing their colonial stronghold in Asia.

He made a total of three voyages to India, his final voyage as the Viceroy at Cochin, appointed by the King to handle the corruption in the colony. He died there in late December 1524. We thought it fitting to remember him on the anniversary of his death for his contributions to maritime history and his several successful roundings of the Cape.