Scribbling the Cat: Travels With an African Soldier (31 page)

Babalas: hangover (Zulu)

Bally: derived from mild expletive “bloody”

Blallered: hit

Benzi: crazy

Biltong: dried meat similar to beef jerky

Bareka: run

Blerry: derived from mild expletive “bloody”

Bonsella: bonus

Bog: toilet or bathroom

Bog roll: toilet paper

Braai: barbecue

Chaya: hit

Chemering: to cry (from Kuchema [Shona])

China: friend (from china crockery, something precious); see also
Stone China

Chitenge: piece of cloth or wraparound in Zambia

Cool box: cooler

Cookboy: cook

Curry muncher: East Indian

Dagga: marijuana

Dambo: low-lying area, usually clay soil prone to being very wet in the rains and dry and cracked during the dry season

Deezering: running

Donnering: hit, (from the Afrikaans “donder,” meaning thunder)

Dop: drink alcohol

Dopping: drinking alcohol

Flattie: crocodile (from
flatdog
—as in a creature that resembles a flattened dog)

Fodya: tobacco (Shona)

Fossils: slang for old people

Fundi: expert

Goffle: person of mixed blood

Gondie: derogative term for blacks

Goolies: testicles

Gwai: tobacco

Hazeku ndaba: no problem

Henry the Fourth: HIV

Hobo: a lot

Hokoyo: beware (Shona)

Hondo: war (Shona)

Honky: white person

Hu-hoos: slang for insects

Hunering: yelling or shouting

Hunna-hunna: problem, usually long and involved

Huzzes: throws or hurls

Imbwa: dog (Shona)

Indaba: problem, from the Xhosa/Zulu meaning “meeting”

Ingutchini: to go mad; Ingutchini is the name of a mental asylum in Zimbabwe

Jesse scrub, jesse bush: a kind of vegetation characterized by thorny, scrubby shrubs

K: kilometer

K-car: gunship helicopter

Kak: shit

Kapenta: small, sardine like fish

Katundu: luggage

Kudala: far away

Kutsamwa: to sulk (Shona)

Lapa: over there

Lekker: nice (Afrikaans)

Laaities: children (Afrikaans)

Mai we: my mother! (from
amai
[Shona])

Mambo: king (Shona)

Maninge: a lot (Shona)

Mapenga: relating to madness (Shona)

Mawhori: whore

Mbambaira: Shona for “potatoes” but also used as slang for land mines

Moffs: homosexual, short for Moffies

Mopane: a kind of tree found in low-lying areas

Munts: people; also used by whites as derogative term for blacks

Murra: a lot

Mwari: God (Shona)

Nyama: meat or game animal (Shona)

Ooh blicksem: my goodness!

Ous: guys, men

Pamsoro: lift (Shona)

Panga: machete

Pawpaw: papaya

Pawpaw: British person (implies that the British are wimps)

Penga: mad (Shona)

Pie-eyed: drunk

Pom: Prisoner of Mother England or Englishman/woman

Porks: slang for Portuguese

Ptozzie: prostitute

Putzi: the maggot formed when a fly lays its eggs under the skin

Sadza: porridge made from ground maize

Scribble: to kill

Sekuru: grandfather (Shona)

Skop: head (Afrikaans)

Shateen: backcountry

Sjambok: whip

Spazed: mentally impaired, also very concerned, “freaked out”

Sterek: a lot

Stompie: cigarette butt

Stone China: best friend, as in a friend that doesn’t move and is always by your side

Stonked: killed

Struze fact: from “it’s as true as fact”

Sumudza: on top (Shona)

Tatenda: thank you (Shona)

Thrombie: long harangue, from thrombosis

Tsotsis: thieves, rogues (Shona)

Underrods: underwear

Vleis: low, seasonally wet area

Voddies: Vodka

Wagon Burner: East Indian

Wazungu (pl.) mazungu (sing.): white person

Wee wee: literally urine, but here means a wimp

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexandra Fuller was born in England in 1969 and in 1972 she moved with her family to a farm in Rhodesia. After that country’s civil war ended, the Fullers moved first to Malawi, then to Zambia. Fuller received a B.A. from Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her first book,
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood,
was a national best-seller, a
New York Times
Notable Book of 2002, Winner of the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize 2003, and a finalist for the
Guardian
First Book Award. Fuller lives in Wyoming and has two children.