I learned to use language like my mother did. I would simulcast -- give you the program in your own tongue. I'd get suspicious looks from people just walking down the street. "Where are you from?" they'd ask. I'd reply in whatever language they'd addressed me in, using the same accent they used. There would be a brief moment of confusion, and then the suspicious look would disappear. "Oh okay. I thought you were a stranger. We're good then."
It became a tool that served me my whole life. One day as a young man I was walking down the street, and a group of Zulu guys were walking behind me, closing in on me, and I could hear them talking to one another about how they were going to mug me. "Asibambe le autie yomlungu. Phuma ngapha mina ngizoqhamuka ngemuka kwakhe." "Let's get this white guy. You go to his left, and I'll come up behind him." I didn't know what to do. I couldn't run, so I just spun around real quick and said, "Kodwa bafwethu yingani singavele sibambe umuntu inkunzi? Asenzeni. Mina ngikulindele." "Yo guys, why don't we just mug someone together? I'm ready. Let's do it."
They looked shocked for a moment, and then they started laughing. "Oh, sorry, dude. We thought you were something else. We weren't trying to take anything from you. We were trying to steal from white people. Have a good day, man." They were ready to do me violent harm, until they felt we were part of the same tribe, and then we were cool. That, and so many other smaller incidents in my life made me realise that language, even more than colour, defines who you are to people.
I became a chameleon. My colour didn't change, but I could change your perception of my colour. If you spoke to me in Zulu, I replied to you in Zulu. If you spoke to me in Tswana, I replied to you in Tswana. Maybe I didn't look like you, but if I spoke like you, I was you.
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This guy is wonderful and one to watch!
I finished his book: essentially profundity delivered with humour.
Which I guess is what true comedians do.
He said something at the end of this interview too, that struck a chord in me:
What would you like legacy to be?
I'm always wary of that question, because I often feel like your legacy may not be one that you have full control over. I have a very simple hope and that is... I hope to leave each situation, and each person that I've met, in a slightly better place than when I met them.
yes yes yes. I'd been thinking about this lately.
That we all have stories in our heads, the stories we want to live out in our lives, and a lot of the decisions we make in our lives relate to how we want our story to go. But see, God creates your plot twists, and puts you as the protagonist in settings you often had little choice about. Your job is to trust that God will write you your best story anyway; your job is not to avoid or create or manipulate the plot twists, but to live out life as the best type of protagonist you can be. That's virtually the only part you really have any control over.
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