I Don't Know

Don’t know in Zulu.

A-nga-zi.  I don’t know.

A-sa-zi. We don’t know.

The root of the verb is -zi-.  I don’t know.  It’s very popular and it’s something someone said just now, before you started reading this Zulu lesson. I don’t know is O.K. I guess.  It becomes bad when it shifts the blame. 

Who broke the photocopier? 
I don’t know but I saw Sonto with the empty paper tray. 
Most of the time, Sonto is not there to defend herself.  I don’t know, also kicks when we land in the emergency unit after a heart attack.  It’s payback time for our lifestyle that demonstrates affluence which is also made glamorous by movies and television.

We don’t know.  That is what we’ll say when we run out of land to dump plastic bottles, drinking straws, cans, cellphones, mattresses, carpets, cars, T.V. sets and other objects we discard for the latest model, or when cities are flooded because the Arctic is no longer cold enough to form ice.

I don’t know.  We say that about bad blood between friends.  A friend’s failure to do something is the cause but we claim we don’t know.
A-nga-zi.  You say the first part like aunt, the second like manganese and the last one like zinc.
A-sa-zi.  You say the first part like aunt, the second like some and the last like zinc.   

ZULU	ENGLISH
U-ya-zi u-ku-thi u-sha-di-le?	Do you know he’s married?
Yebo ngi-ya-zi. Cha a-nga-zi.	Yes. I know. No. I don’t know.
Ku-fe a-ba-ntu a-ba-nga-ki?	How many people died?
A-sa-zi.	We don’t know.
A-sa-zi u-ku-thi u-hla-la-phi.	We don’t know where he lives.
A-ba-zi u-ku-thi u-bo-shi-we.	They don’t know she is in prison.
Be-ngi-nga-zi u-ku-thi u-bo-shi-we.	I didn’t know she is in prison.
U-ya-ma-zi u-Thu-la-ni?	Do you know Thulani?
U-ya-ma-zi u-Ba-fa-na?	Do you know Bafana?
U-ya-ma-zi u-Simone?	Do you know Simone?
Cha, a-ngi-ma-zi u-Simone.	No. I don’t know Simone.
Cha, a-ngi-ba-zi.	No.  I don’t know them.
Ni-ya-kwa-zi e-New York?	Do you know New York?
Yebo.  Si-ya-kwa-zi e-New York.	Yes.  We know New York.

By:  Nonqaba waka Msimang.