Babel

The different languages of the world separate us making it difficult for the nomad that is me to sprout up in a place and immediately integrate. I lived for 6 years in the Eastern Cape of South Africa where Xhosa is the dominant black language. Note: black language. The white people speak English or Afrikaans, the coloured speak Afrikaans and the black people (in the Eastern and Western Cape) speak Xhosa. That means, I as a black person was expected to speak Xhosa. What made it more of a challenge was that my work in retail Pharmacy requires that I talk to people all the time. Imagine this old makhulu walking into the Pharmacy and feeling relieved that she’s going to be served by a black woman in vernacular only to discover that this person only speaks English! I did try to learn the language, obviously. By the time I left South Africa, I could comfortably go through greetings in IsiXhosa then switch to English and have to explain that I wasn’t Xhosa. At that point my old makhulu or tate would have no qualms about speaking English with me even relating a story about how their neighbour or so and so is also Zimbabwean!

Then I moved to the South of Namibia, “the land of the brave.” The region has a rich mixture of culture. The original Nama people, San descendants are a minority to the swarms of migrants from all parts of the country and the world. South Africa is very interesting linguistically because each geographical location has its own African languages dominant in it. This made it easy for me as I only had to familiarize myself with one black language as long as I remained in that part of the country. Namibia’s history makes the language story all the more colourful. Unlike in South Africa where the black people refuse to speak Afrikaans, Apartheid left Afrikaans as the second most spoken language in Namibia. Black, White or Coloured, if you don’t speak English then you probably speak Afrikaans in addition to whatever African language you speak. Then comes the foreigner that is me to settle in this language stew. When the ouma comes to the young Pharmacist for help, she tries to explain her condition in Afriakaans and the meme has to explain the consistency of her baby’s stool in OshiWambo. Babel. Sigh

When people walk into the pharmacy there’s a whole different language tha a layman may not be familiar with. I have to remember this before I try to correct someone who comes to ask for a repeat on their “subscription” or their “chronicles.” Foreign languages can be a headache. In the same light Pharmacy is when I have to explain how a generic medicine is the same thing that the Doctor has written even though he didn’t use the exact same words. In the mean time I’ve mastered what sooibrand, verkour and griep are so I’m good… until I find myself in another language zone or somebody comes with a condition I still need to learn the Afrikaans terms for. I’ll remember the days when I couldn’t spell Rautenbach let alone pronounce Lategaan. We all have our journeys!

So here’s to embracing our different backgrounds learning a few words at a time of each other’s languages.

Happy Africa Day.

Jo 😉