MIND YOUR LANGUAGE

We’re midway through Africa month and this has made me think a lot about what it means to be an African in 2016. Of- course I could never define my Africanism without reflecting on my identity as an African from Swaziland.

One of the things on my mind is our language siSwati; how it has evolved and to with what consequence. Maybe it’s the nostalgia on being home a few weeks ago where I attended a traditional Swazi wedding and listened to recordings of the radio show of yester years called ‘Khala Mdumbadumbane’ that got me thinking about this thing that separates us from most Africans called siSwati.

To be honest, I never really took interest in this popular show when I was younger – I only paid attention, in fact only some attention, on the days that it drew controversy and the protest of women’s empowerment groups who denounced it for its sexist approach to addressing some issues.
This was mostly because by then, I was a pre-mid 20s rookie journalist at Swazi TV and was only starting to familiarise myself (with thorough understanding), salient national issues.

I realised three weeks ago when I listened to the many clips as I sat bonding with my brother that the legendary Jim ‘Mbhokane’ Gama died with a vast wealth of knowledge of Swaziland customs, traditions and culture. Importantly, I realised his gift of simplicity in understanding and interpreting how the world works in relation to us as a Swazi people. A good teacher. As with many a great teacher, not everyone agrees or likes what they say but I think we can all agree that when it came to his articulation of the meaning of some siSwati words, he was the greatest teacher of the language.

Mbhokane was the solo host of the radio show ‘Nasi ke siSwati’, which I never wanted to miss because I found it quite easy to listen to even from a very young age. Probably because it was a short, sweet and straight forward show; three siSwati words that he explained like an Oxford Dictionary would explain never-heard-of English words, complete with examples of how to use the words in a sentence. This was one useful show to me as a high school learner who loved siSwati as a second language subject and later as a news anchor at Swazi TV.

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