Nguni Quotes

Ubuntu in the Nguni language means “humanity.” But that is an English word. In the local understanding, it means, “I am because you are.” You see, Father, humanity is a reflection on itself. We don’t act alone but rather with the consideration of others. Our acts are contagious. Wickedness sprouts like weeds, kindness like fresh grass. But weeds grow everywhere, and grass needs sun, water, and care.

beautiful granddaughter at his side, guarding it like a pair of faithful watchdogs. Although they were all nearly at the end of their tether, Jim roused the camp again before dawn. Using a span of oxen, and with much shouting and cracking of long whips, they heaved the overturned wagon back on to its wheels. The robust vehicle had suffered little damage, and within a few hours they had repacked its scattered load. Jim knew that they must leave the battlefield at once. In the heat of the sun the corpses would very soon putrefy, and, with the stench of their rotting, sickness and disease would come. At his orders they inspanned every other wagon in the train. Then Smallboy and the other drivers fired the long whips and the oxen trundled the vehicles out of the gruesome laager and into the open grassland. They set up camp that evening among the deserted thatched huts of the Nguni town, surrounded by the vast herds of humpbacked cattle, with the piles of ivory securely enclosed within the wagon laager. The next morning, after breakfast, Jim summoned all his men to the indaba. He wanted to explain to them his future plans, and to tell them where he would lead them next. First he asked Tegwane to explain how the Nguni used their cattle to carry the ivory when they were on the march. ‘Tell us how they place the loads, and secure them to the backs of the animals,’ Jim ordered. ‘That I do not know,’ Tegwane admitted. ‘I have only watched their advance from afar.’ ‘Smallboy will be able to work out the harness for himself,’ Jim decided, ‘but it would have been better to use a method to which the cattle are accustomed.’ Then he turned to the small group of herd-boys and said, ‘Can you men’ – they liked to be called men and they had earned the right at the barricades – ‘can you men take care of so many?’ They considered the vast herds of cattle that were scattered down the full length of the valley. ‘They are not so very many,’ said the eldest, who was the spokesman. ‘We can herd many more than that,’ said another. ‘We have vanquished the Nguni in battle,’ squeaked Izeze, smallest and cheekiest of the boys, his voice not yet broken. ‘We can take care of their cattle, and their women also, when we capture them.

Ngoba badla babodwa. Bazodcina badlana bodwa.

[M]adali nating masasabi na ang wika ay hindi nangangailangan ng nasyonalismo nguni't ang huli ay kailangan ang una upang sumilang, sumigla, yumabong, at magkaroon ng diwa't buhay.

Nonreligious Nelson Mandela expressed his humanism as ubuntu. A Nguni Bantu word translated as “humanity toward others,” ubuntu incorporates aspects of sharing, community, respect, caring, trust, and unselfishness.

May isáng matandáng salitáng hindî na gamit at maanong kilalâ man lamang ngayón, nguni’t nakapagpapáhayag din ng pagpapasalamat na may diwang wari’y pakutyâ o paaglahì. Ang tinurang salitâ ay nangháw, na ang halimbawang n asatalatinigan ay: Nangháw, at namatáy ang kaaway ko (salamat o mabuti at namatay . . .) Sa kahulugáng pasaliwâ ng salamat, álalaóng bagá’y di-marunong magpasalamat o tumanáw ng utang na loób, ang karaniwang ginagamit ay mga pariralang waláng turing, waláng utang na loób, o kaya’y ang mga salitáng lanuwáng, busóng; nguni’t ang mga parirala’t salitáng itó’y malamáng na mga pang-urì kaysá pang-abay.

Nagaganap din ang pag-iisang salita ng mga prase o parirala. Magandang halimbawa nito ang nangyari sa bakit, ngunit, subalit, datapwat, at sapagkat mula sa sinaunang “bakin at,” “nguni at,” “subali at,” “datapuwa at,” at “sapagka at.” Nito limang makaraan ang Ikalawang Digmaang Pandaigdig isinagawa nina Alejandro G. Abadilla ang welding sa ngunit at mga kasama.

Noong araw, ang inihanay kong modelo ay binibigkas at isinusulat na “bakin at,” “bawa at,” “sapagka at,” 'nguni at,” “subali at,” at “datapuwa at.” . . . Ngunit sa ika-19 na siglo ay tila nawala ang mga anyong ito at higit na ginagamit sa anyong pinagdikit bagaman may kudlit bilang simbolo sa inalis na titik A: “baki't,” “bawa't,” “sapagka't,” “nguni't,” “subali't,” at “datapuwa’t.

Imali yenzana isilima.

Kuncono kakhulu ukuyihluphekela. Kunokuthi uyihluphekise . Abantu abaningi bayihluphekisa ngezenzo zabo .