Repeat in Zulu

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Photo: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

Repeat is phi-nda in Zulu and a popular name for both boys and girls.

Phinda a boy’s name.
Phindile a girl’s name.

The English language has an idiom: history repeats itself.  Life is about repeats and we all want good repeats.  Parents make mistakes.  Hopefully, the next generation will not, otherwise we hear words like curse.  That family is cursed.

Power is strange.  Politicians want a second term and they justify it using all kinds of crazy messages.  Is there a politician in history that voluntarily stepped down after one term?  Film producers want their films to win at the Cannes Festival and Berlinale in Berlin, all the time.

Toronto Raptors is a Canadian basketball team that won the 2019 NBA Championship.  Now loyal fans want a repeat performance in 2020.  Can we just enjoy the moment please and stop putting pressure on them?

Phi-nda.  You say the first part like peace and the second one like pandemonium.
Phi-ndi-le. You say the first part like peace, the second like indigo and the last one like leg.  
ZULU
ENGLISH
Phinda-ni Toronto Raptors.
Repeat the win Toronto Raptors.
Phinda-ni.
A boy’s name which means many people should repeat something.  
Ba-phindile.
A girl’s name meaning many people repeated something.
Ba-yaphinda.
They are having repeats (like food).
U-yaphinda uyakhala?
You are crying again?
Phinda.  Ngizwe.
Repeat.  Say that again.
Ngi-phinde.  Ngo-mile.
Give me some more. I’m thirsty.
Tomasi, u-yaphinda uyabhema?
Tomasi, you are smoking again?
Daphne, u-yaphinda uyaphuza?
Daphne. You are drinking again?
Unga-phinde ungifonele.
Don’t ever call me again (lovers’ quarrel).

Nonqaba waka Msimang is the author of Sweetness, a South African novel.
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