Zulu Lesson To Warm

Be careful when geese are sitting down. They are not. They are keeping eggs warm for hatching. Keep your distance. Those wings are for flying and lethal weapons aimed at foolish humans.

To make something warm is fudumeza in Zulu. Warming food in the microwave oven, comes out dry sometimes. Use a steamer to warm left-over pizza. Mama placed yeast mixture next to the kitchen window to get warmed by the sun, so she could mix it with flour and bake bread. Fu-du-me-za. You say the first part like food, the second like doom, the third like mess and the last part like Zaire, an African country. Always lower your voice and put emphasis on syllables when speaking Zulu. Don’t loop the end like when you’re asking a question in English.

Feeling the warmth is fu-du-ma-la. ‘I love you,’ never came from mama’s lips, but she didn’t chase us away from her bed, when we had ours. She gave us the best chicken pieces. We felt her warmth when she watched us eat. Come to think of it, I have an ocean-full memories of her, but I don’t remember her eating. Nobody knows mothers’ pain globally, because most of them don’t talk. They’re not on Face, Instagram or Tik Tok.

Fu-du-ma-la. You say the first part like food, the second like doom, the third like mama and the last like lump. The sun is out today, so it’s warmer. Diary of a Mad Black Woman, directed by Darren Grant introduced me to the character Madea. The movie has a scene where the woman says instead of love, the man gives her intimacy. Translate that into Zulu: fudumala (intimacy, which is longer lasting than fickle love).

Always lower your voice and put emphasis on syllables when speaking Zulu. Don’t loop the end like when you’re asking a question in English.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.