Zulu Lesson Blow Pain Away

Kids! Don’t touch this. You turn your back and they touch the candle or two-bar heater. Wailing in the next room! You rush to scene and the little explorer is clutching her finger. You blow it to make it better and take her to the medicine chest, for the appropriate ointment. In rural areas, grandmothers have herbs for it.

Blowing that finger to ease the pain is phe-phe-tha in Zulu. You say it like pepper and task. Put stress on every syllable, and don’t raise your voice at the end as if you are asking a question. There is a boy’s name which means the one who makes things better. Maybe there was friction in the family and his birth will blow bad blood away. His name is Phephethwayo.

Blowing the finger works in the little mind. Tears stop and she rests her head on the mother’s chest. You think it’s not scientific? Stop it! Don’t give science a bad name. Must everything be pulled apart, stripped bare like corn? What is important is kids believe it works. If the father asks about the incident, the little genius will report that she is feeling better because her mother blew the pain away, phephetha. Adults just look at each other after that revelation.

The wound will disappear in no time and she will never touch the candle or heater again. Adults are not so clever. We relish things that give us pain. We know the consequences but do them over and over again. Just one more time, we say. There’s an online ad about stopping smoking, but there must be smokers that say : “One more puff, and I’ll stop.” We try and cheat doctors because they don’t live with us. It’s cheating ourselves when we indulge in forbidden food because we think they cannot see us. They can. How? Artificial intelligence.

Phephetha, means to blow the pain away in Zulu, but there is a limit in love affairs. Hurt someone, blow away the pain with sweet words or gifts. After I do it three times, he will know that I’m flaming the fire, not dousing it.

Nonqaba waka Msimang.