Do we love ourselves or are we just pretending?
lately I've notice that when I'm with my friends and we all can speak Zulu, we have a tendency to speak English. We are so proud of ourselves by the way speak and the big words we use in our conversations. To be honest, I think when we speak it's like a spectacle to behold for the old Zulu folks that once were.
We are all young, educated ambitious people and we are proud of who we are and where we come from. We flaunt our names to the people that aren't from our country (or to those that know little about our culture) that don't really know how to pronounce our names, we walk around with our inflated chests as if we have been given the title superman or superwomen. We come from a culture of pride and even though we don't show it much, we are proud of our names. Our names have meaning and with our names we inherent a sense if direction.
My question is this: 'Do we truly love ourselves?'
We pursue education and enlightenment to become better 'world citizens'. We always aim to be the best in whatever we do, so we can make our parents proud. We dream of the day we honour our parents and the heroes that died for you and me to have this opportunity to become whatever we dream of being.
Do we honour them by forgetting a language they taught us when we were infants in their strong arms? Do I honour them by writing this post that is confronting the challenge we are struggling with everyday in another language?
One of my favourite writers struggled with the same problem. His insatiable thirst for knowledge betrayed him when he was a little boy by speaking English to his mother who can only speak Tshona.
His mother slapped him because she felt disrespected in her own house.
When some of us go to school we have to learn everything in a second language. Life becomes a little bit confusing and difficult but we find a way to make it work, so we don't disappoint whoever sent us to school. But hey, it's all for a better education right? It's for a fucking better future.
lately I've notice that when I'm with my friends and we all can speak Zulu, we have a tendency to speak English. We are so proud of ourselves by the way speak and the big words we use in our conversations. To be honest, I think when we speak it's like a spectacle to behold for the old Zulu folks that once were.
We are all young, educated ambitious people and we are proud of who we are and where we come from. We flaunt our names to the people that aren't from our country (or to those that know little about our culture) that don't really know how to pronounce our names, we walk around with our inflated chests as if we have been given the title superman or superwomen. We come from a culture of pride and even though we don't show it much, we are proud of our names. Our names have meaning and with our names we inherent a sense if direction.
My question is this: 'Do we truly love ourselves?'
We pursue education and enlightenment to become better 'world citizens'. We always aim to be the best in whatever we do, so we can make our parents proud. We dream of the day we honour our parents and the heroes that died for you and me to have this opportunity to become whatever we dream of being.
Do we honour them by forgetting a language they taught us when we were infants in their strong arms? Do I honour them by writing this post that is confronting the challenge we are struggling with everyday in another language?
One of my favourite writers struggled with the same problem. His insatiable thirst for knowledge betrayed him when he was a little boy by speaking English to his mother who can only speak Tshona.
His mother slapped him because she felt disrespected in her own house.
When some of us go to school we have to learn everything in a second language. Life becomes a little bit confusing and difficult but we find a way to make it work, so we don't disappoint whoever sent us to school. But hey, it's all for a better education right? It's for a fucking better future.
