Weeds Are A Menace

Weeds are uninvited guests. They are called ukhula in Zulu. It comes from the verb -khula which means to grow. Parents are amazed by kids that grow fast ‘like weeds.’ They are part of the land but they don’t have a plural in Zulu. They are called one thing u-khu-la, singular. You say the first part like uber, the second like cool and the third part like last. 

What was interesting about British education in Africa, was being taught about your country through English eyes. The school system taught us that weeds are foreign invasive plants. As Africans, we did not understand the foreign part. Who brought them and how did they travel? We knew about weeds u-khula. Weeds do as they please, that’s why in ancient times, before tractors, neighbors came together to weed my field today, yours tomorrow and someone else’ next week. It was called ilima, something that can be called a seasonal farming cooperative.

What we also didn’t understand is that these foreign invasive plants have Latin names. We couldn’t pronounce them obviously, because the African mind is not ‘highly developed,’ said priests and white civil servants. Our great grandparents were brilliant. That is why they called weeds weeds, because they were exactly that u-khula, not Latin foreigners. U-khula was removed when it was time to plant fields or build a house.

‘Weed’ is one of the street names for pot in north America. It is called cannabis in Canada and smoking it, is legal. Is cannabis a Latin word? Never mind. Anyway, there are walk-in cannabis stores next to a bakery or butchery, in strip malls.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.