Zulu Lesson A Wall

We build walls to separate us from people we live with, but open up to strangers on the internet. They, in turn use the information to rob us, in more ways than one. Common sense went for a walk and never returned. 

The Zulu word for wall, will be easy to pronounce in English. A wall is u-do-nga in Zulu. You say the first part like the name Umar, the second like door and the last like linger.

“How was your date last night?”

“I was stood up.” 

Ouch! When someone doesn’t show up, we say she made me hold up the wall ‘bambisa udonga.’ Friends and family hurt us. That’s why we build a wall to protect ourselves from further deceit and hate.

Beyonce recorded a song Halo, about walls we built. We might not like the dark side of the internet, but it never fails to amaze. We don’t talk to friends and family about how they hurt us, but easily open up to anonymous people online.

History has lots of walls. The Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall, Wall of Jericho and Trump’s Wall. The Ukraine War is on because of two walls. Russia wants to protect the wall around its way of life from capitalism and NATO. Ukraine is helping NATO break it down because Zelensky is mesmerized by bright lights in Time Square and the decadence of LA’s Sunset Strip offered by America, the godmother of capitalism.

ENGLISH	ZULU
A stone wall.	Udonga lwa-matshe.
We hit a brick wall.	Sathola inkinga.
He stood me up.	Wangi-bambisa udonga.
Tilly jumped the wall.	U-Tilly weqa udonga.
Mansions have high walls.	Amakhaya amakhulu ano-donga oluphakeme.
The Berlin Wall fell.	Udonga lwase Berlin lwa-dilika.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.