You Don't See Us. Do You?

I don’t do polls. I don’t do classifying voters into boxes. I do common sense and it tells me voters vote for someone who sees them, really ‘sees’ them. Be careful what you say around kids. They might not be young as you think. Example. I never understood when one of mama’s friends would say in Zulu:

“Awu-ngiboni.”

(You don’t see me.)

I didn’t understand because they would be sitting at the dining table or chopping vegetables for a wedding. Fast forward to elections in general. Before T.V. debates, voters know who they will vote for. Before rallies, voters know how they will cast their vote for. Before television interviews, voters know who they will vote for.  Before ‘reality shows’ staged as assassination attempts, voters know which ticket they will vote for.

Voters vote for someone who ‘sees’ them, really sees them in the circle of their life. It is more than disrespect when someone says: “You don’t see me,” or “Jill doesn’t see her husband.” It invalidates that person as a human being. The most difficult part of running for president, senator or governor is making every voter feel ‘seen’ because that is the only way they will believe their concerns will be addressed, if they vote for you.

ZULU LESSON

Bona: see

U-bona bani?: who do you see?

Ngiyani-bona: I see you, all of you.

Ngiyaku-bona: I see you, one person.

David, awungi-boni: David, you don’t see me.

Sibonile: A girl’s name, which means the family saw something, when she was born. Hopefully, it was not Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

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