Zulu U-musa

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Parents teach kids to be kind to their brothers and sisters.  Kindness is u-musa in Zulu.  It is also a popular name for boys and girls in South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

 U-musa is pronounced as in moon.  The u- is important because if we remove it, we will end up with -musa, a completely different meaning, which means DON’T.  We won’t discuss that today. 

We will concentrate on u-musa, kindness. The first part u- is pronounced as oops or uber, the next one -musa, as in moon.

ZULU
ENGLISH
Musa.
A boy’s name.
Nomusa.
A girl’s name.
Ave u-no-musa.
You are very kind.
Ngibonga u-musa wakho.
I thank your kindness (I’m grateful).
U-no-musa u-Lindi.
Lindi is kind.
U-no-musa- u-Vusi.
Vusi is kind.
U-no-musa u-Tyler.
Tyler is kind.
U-no-musa u-Putin.
Putin is kind.
Yi-ba no-musa baba.
Be kind father.
Yi-ba no-musa mama.
Be kind mother.

EXERCISE:  Do you know any kind person?  Practise your Zulu lesson and use his/her name in a sentence.
Nonqaba waka Msimang is the author of Sweetness, a South African novel.

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