Incubate in Zulu

This is a general blog about the state of the world, photography, movies, my novel Sweetness and isi-Zulu my mother tongue.

Photo Credit: online pic.

I suppose it is called mother tongue because kids learn it while on the mother’s breast, mother’s lap and mother’s bed, for kids fortunate enough to sleep with their mothers when they are little.

Today’s lesson in the word incubate, which is fu-ka-me-la in Zulu. Our ancestors chose fukamela because they watched chickens sitting on their eggs, inducing chicks to come out.

There’s more. Protection. When the chicks are born, the mother protects and guides them to self-sufficiency. Fu-ka-me-la therefore, means many emotions that cannot be explained on this blog.

My mother told us to wash sheets and blankets regularly because she did not want us to incubate bed bugs. We have warm blood and they love it although they are not the Red Cross Blood Services.

Fu-ka-me-la. You say the first part as food, the second as in Kamala Harris, the third as in met and the last part like lass.

ZULU	ENGLISH
Inkukhu ifukamela amaqanda.	The chicken warms its eggs.
O-mama ba-fukamela izingane zakhe.	Mothers incubate/protect their children.
Wangi-fukamela nginge na-bazali.	I don’t have parents. She helped me.
Ba-fukamela amasela.	They incubate/protect thieves.
Lombutho u-fukamela inzondo.	This organisation is an incubator for hatred.
I-COVID-19 ifukamela u-ku-nge-zwani.	COVID-19 is an incubator for misunderstanding.
Ba-fukamele a-bashokobezi.	They are incubating/ harboring revolutionaries.
Ni-fukamele a-ma-Juda?	You are harboring Jews? (asked Fascist police in Germany).
Ubaba wakho u-fukamele ama-Juda.	Your father is harboring Jews. (said Fascist police in Austria).

 
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.