07-13-2011

Today at the clinic, a child that decided to display his English vernacular decided to inform me that I have a big head.

As in:

“Umlungu, Your head is big!”

While the obvious response was that it’s full of brains, I was concerned that the word “brain” might not be one he has learned yet. So instead, I decided to use the Zulu equivalent...only to realize that the Zulu version of the word “brain” was one that I had not learned yet, so best to use the next closest thing:

“Mnumzane, ikhanda lami ligcwala ngamasimba!”

Which translates, roughly, to: Sir, my head is full of poop. (The poop is the ‘ama simba’ part. Ama pluralizes it, so the sentence could also translate as: Sir, my head is full of many poops.)


I think this is a good place to mention that, in South Africa, a popular variety of chips is called Simba Chips. They have standard flavors, and then a more South African flair (personally, I think the spare rib flavor is phenomenal).

Walking home this evening, I started to wonder why in the world a company – in South Africa – would market a product called Simba Chips when it translates, in one of the most widespread languages in the country, into Feces Chips?

Doing some research…in Swahili, the word Simba means ‘lion’ (ring any bells?), which might explain why there is a lion on the cover of the chips bag. Still though, if the word poop meant something incredible or fantastic in another language, I do not think I could be convinced to buy a bag of Poop Chips.

And according to my online Zulu dictionary, the Zulu word for brain is, in fact, brain.