The beauty of IsiXhosa

Isixhosa is a very beautiful and unique language mostly cause of its confusing 15 clicks that were borrowed from another culture the Khoi-sans, one of the clicks being the “X” in the word xhosa. It is a language spoken by umxhosa who is proud of being umxhosa but today I feel as though we are not proud of ubuxhosa bethu. The youth of today find it funny for a xhosa speaking person to pronounce english words incorrectly but for an english speaking person to pronounces xhosa words incorrectly is understandable, WHY!?

We take pride in other languages but no our own, we’d rather be known as the youth who speaks english so fluently de kutwe “sisikhupa ngempumlo isingesi” rather than knowing your own language because then people will look at you in another. Youth, misspelling words from your mother toungue is not cool it is actual an embarrassment. Nothing is wrong with learning other languages because our country has 11 different languages that we also need to learn so that when we are in other provinces that speak a different language from ours but taking pride in your own language first is vital.

IsiXhosa and ubuxhosa I'd like to believe go hand in hand and today both of them have changed. They have changed because of the lives we live and the society we live in. Mandulo, during the days of our forefathers ubuxhosa were the things that you saw with your naked eye, the hardships, the things that we see in pictures today and make you think “this makes me proud of being umxhosa". UbuXhosa was the village girl wearing nothing but a traditional skirt and beads and goes to gatherings with other village girls where they’d sing and dance; ubuxhosa was the young boy helping his father with herding his livestock and playing intonga with the other boys. It is the old man sitting next to his kraal puffing and passing on inqawe yakhe while he waits for his teenage boy to bring the livestock home after a long day of herding. The xhosa woman who does nothing but look after the kids all day and also goes to the bushes to look for inkuni so that she can cook for her family outside eziko on a three legged pot. Ubuxhosa was after not being home for a whole year because of work or studies and before even entering the house you first go to ebuhlanti and talking to your ancestors, thanking them on keeping you safe all year-long and not forgetting uQamata, uThixo wamaxhosa. 

umXhosa is made up of the traditions and the culture itself. 

Xhosa girls singing and dancing