Melusi Tshabalala has been using his Facebook account to teach isiZulu but is now looking for women who are fluent in IsiNdebele, IsiSwati and TshiVenda to join the team!
Johannesburg, South Africa – Melusi Tshabalala started something we didn’t know we needed back in 2017!
The passionate South African posts isiZulu words and their meanings in the hopes to educate his fellow South Africans. Melusi also shares his educational post publicly, so it is easy to follow him and get informative updates.
After two years of sharing knowledge (and sometimes really funny explanations), Melusi has managed to grow his Facebook page and following while writing a book to help people as well!
Melusi has grown his language empire to include quite a few South African languages, but he hasn’t covered them all just yet. He noticed though, that his team are mostly guys and he is all for empowering women, so Melusi is explicitly looking for women to fill the available roles.
“I have expanded the language-learning offering to include isiXhosa, Sesotho, Setswana, XiTsonga, KiSwahili and Sepedi. Out of the writers that have come on board, only the one doing Sesotho is female. This is not good. As such, I am looking for female writers that can do the remaining SA languages – IsiNdebele, IsiSwati and TshiVenda.”
Melusi asks that if you are a fluent speaker and writer in IsiNdebele, IsiSwati and TshiVenda to contact him via Facebook.
An example of a daily isiZulu word he recently shared is Amandla:
“Today’s isiZulu word is amandla. Amandla is strength/power.
The direct translation of the revolutionary chant “amandla awethu” is “the power is ours”. You can use this phrase every day to remind yourself that the power to achieve what you want lies within you. Amandla to overcome belong to you – no matter the situation or circumstance.”
Or the funny “Mgabe”.
Today’s Zulu word is not a Zulu word but it has to be shared. We’ll call it a bonus word. The word is “Mgabe”.
It’s the shorthand of Mugabe and it’s a type of mean, threatening look. It came about because president Mugabe always looked mean and threatening so when you give someone that kind of look, you’re being like him.
I swear I am not making this up.
If you want people to know you’re not in the mood to be messed with, you spot a mgabe – ubashaya ngo mgabe.”
So give Melusi a follow, and you could broaden your South African language knowledge. You can follow his Facebook page here.
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How can one be part of this interesting project? I am a qualified language practitioner in Durban SA.
Hi Thami,
You need to contact Melusi. We have added links to the article which will direct you to him.