Struggle in Zulu

To struggle is za-ba-la-za in Zulu.

We will use struggle and hustle interchangeably because it is a matter of degree.  Bill Gates and other billionaires don’t have to hustle, but they struggle to keep all that money away from the taxman.  That is why they set up foundations to show how ‘caring’ they are.   

Many women in North America hustle with two or three jobs to put food on the table and send kids to college, so that they don’t have to hustle like them.  The struggle for independence in Africa is a sad history of betrayal where ordinary people were branded as sell-outs while so-called leaders negotiated with oppressors.

It must be difficult to be a foreign worker in places like Dubai, especially if you don’t belong to the religion and don’t speak the language, but that doesn’t stop outsiders from going there.  We are struggling/trying.  That is what they tell families back home.

Za-ba-la-za.  You say the first part like Zanzibar, the second like Bali with a soft -b-, the third like lassie and the last part like Zanzibar.

ZULU	ENGLISH
Zabalaza.	A boy’s name meaning struggle.  Friends will call him Z.
Zabalazile.	Someone who struggled. Friends will call her Zaba or ma-Z-.
Themba, Thami, ku-nja-ni?	Themba, Thami, how are you?
Si-ya-za-ba-la-za.	We struggle.  We hustle.  We try.
Zunaid, ku-nja-ni e-mse-be-nzi-ni?	Zunaid, how is work?
Ngi-ya-za-ba-la-za.	I’m struggling.  I’m trying.
Ba-ya-za-ba-la-za e-Dubai.	They struggle in Dubai.
Za-ba-la-za u-zo-pha-sa.	Try harder.  You’ll pass.
Ba-ya-za-ba-la-za, u-mse-be-nzi a-wu-kho.	They are struggling.  There’s no work.
Umama wa-za-ba-la-za wa-ze wa-fa.	Mother struggled until she died.

By:  Nonqaba waka Msimang.