My Name in Polish

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Iga Swiatek. Photo credit: online pic.

My name is Nonqaba, a Zulu girl’s name. It is not Polish at all, but Iga Swiatek, the current tennis player ranked #1, is from Poland. What we have in common are names that are routinely dismissed because they are ‘difficult.’

They are not. Translate that into, they are neither English nor French. It’s conditioning. It reminds me of the school bell, teachers and Geography. This subject is personal. How?

What we learned in school was personal to the educational system from Britain. As ‘British subjects’ we were  taught about the glory of the British Empire and how it should be protected from Eastern Bloc countries.

According to both History and Geography teachers, the bloc was composed of countries that kow-tow to Russia. They spoke languages that were not important because they were not English.

But tournaments like the U.S. Open should loosen nuts around delusional language superiority, because they have tennis players from countries like Serbia, Russia, Romania etc. I hope these tournaments train TV commentators how to pronounce world languages.

Kids in countries that were part of the Soviet Union have always been dominant in tennis, because education is free and sports are an integral part of children’s development. They will continue to be therefore, let’s lift the cobwebs and try saying tennis players’ names correctly, starting with Iga Swiatek, currently world’s ladies singles’ #1.

Victoria Azarenka - Belarus

Barbora Krejcikova - Czechia

Alexsandra Krunic - Serbia

Elina Svitolina - Ukraine

Elena Andreyevna Rybakina (‘22 Wimbledon ladies singles champion, born in Russia, but lives next door in Kazakhstan now). 

My apologies. I don’t know how to type them correctly.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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