Uncles Are Also Fathers

You have a million subscribers on the internet. That’s cool, as kids put it, but you have only two people who love you. Something is off. Parents left the old neighbourhood to give you a ‘better life’ which is obvious in the expensive truck you drive at your age and all the digital bling bling. You even have a real recording studio at home, but sometimes you feel disjointed.

Maybe spending  the summer with your uncle, might blunt that. I’m not suggesting moving back to the old neighbourhood because it’s not a good idea. Some of us tried it, to show people we grew up with that living abroad has not changed us. We’re still the same, eat the same food, sweep the yard and have not forgotten the mother tongue. They thought otherwise.

You can spend the summer driving your uncle across the country, to places where he has been and places on his wish list, but never came to pass. First of all, lets define ‘uncle’ in Zulu, an African language.

Malume is uncle, and it means your mother’s brothers. It also means all men older than you. Some African American podcasts call older men ‘unc.’ I assume it comes from uncle.

Baba is father, and it means your father’s brothers. They are your fathers because you have the same surname and in the olden days, they took care of you when your father died, or when he went to the goldmines and never returned.

Spending the summer with your uncle will have some potholes in communication. It might take some time to realize that the ‘Doctor’ in his stories is your mother. Why she never became one, is a story for the next pit stop, in the summer road trip with uncle.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

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