By Wanique Block
Language is culture and culture is language.
How we communicate to each other, what we believe in, how we identify and what we eat all stems from the cultures that we’re either born into or adapt to.
That said, the relationships between language and culture is a homologous one that cannot respectively co-exist without each other.
On Feel Good with Andy Maqondwana, Andy delves into how language is culture and how the different warnings and proverbs from the listeners native languages.
In a voice note one listener shares how her mom would warn her in her native language whenever she would act out forward.
“So one of the idioms I’ve heard from mom every time I was being forward is: ‘Uzam’peleta u’ngongo nge zebere!’. This basically says, You will spell u’ngongo in Hebrew. Guys I don’t know who came up with this. It doesn’t even make sense, but it basically means that you will see flames, and you will regret everything that you were doing”.
Another listener called in and shared how her mom creatively came up with a way to say, “All that glitters, is not all gold”.
Here are a few examples of African proverbs:
- proverb: Indlovu ayisindwa ngumboko wayo. meaning: An elephant’s trunk does not weigh it down.
Everyone should carry their own burden. - proverb: Ungalahl’imbo yakho ngopoyiyana. meaning: Do not throw away what is valuable for what is worthless.
- proverb: Botswa ha bo jelwe. meaning: Laziness does not pay.
- proverb: Ho bea ditho ho hlahisa kgomo. meaning: Patience is a virue.
- proverb: Bocha ke palesa. meaning:Youth is a flower. Youth are the future/hope.
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