US students on isiZulu course granted audience with King Misuzulu

“Sawubona. Igama lam nguAmya,” was the greeting from a Howard University student who came to South Africa from the US to learn and appreciate the isiZulu language and culture.

Amya McClenton, 18, is among 11 students from the US who have enrolled in Howard University's Zulu in South Africa study-abroad programme. The six-week programme immerses students from Howard University, Jackson State University and Harvard University in the Zulu language and culture.

Since June 2, the students have visited KwaZulu-Natal’s rural villages, urban areas and cultural museums, and even met King Misuzulu ka Zwelithini when they were invited to lunch at the royal palace.

Their Zulu instructor Dr Sipho Sithole said the language programme formed part of their university degree studies and required the students to complete 140 credit hours in isiZulu.

“Classes include learning the language such as how to greet, how to introduce yourself, being able to find your way around, booking a room at a hotel, as well as grammar and being able to talk about their families. We also went to a market and taught them how to buy and negotiate in isiZulu.

“We teach them about the history and the cultural part of isiZulu, the practices and traditional religions. Then after that, they go out and see sites and practise what they have learnt,” he told TimesLIVE.

McClenton said she did not know what isiZulu was before attending Howard University until she enrolled in the course, that she learned more about the language and took further steps towards learning about the culture. She said back home, she was only exposed to English and Spanish.

“Learning about the different economic statuses and different levels of socialisation between the races” has been an eye-opener for her.

IsiZulu was difficult at first but as she quickly grasped the basics, she said she was yearning for the opportunity to continue using the language abroad.

While she discovered her favourite South Africa meal is pap “paired with the right meat” and described the country’s winter as “jiki jiki”, what took her aback was attending the reed dance in KwaZulu-Natal, as it was uncommon in her home country for women to be publicly topless.

“That was very interesting for me, that it is a show of purity. We don’t emphasise that in America. I see and understand the reasoning behind it, though, of wanting to lower the levels of sexual assault. In America, we don’t take those types of steps to lower it. Coming from America, it is shocking to look at some of these things. That you don’t wear a shirt and it’s normalised and not sexualised and women walk topless to the king to show their purity, it made me uncomfortable because of where I come from.”

The group is expected to complete their programme in Gauteng and return home on July 14 after tours of the set of DStv programme Shaka iLembe in Johannesburg, the Voortrekker Monument, Credo Mutwa Cultural Village and the house of Nelson Mandela in Soweto.

Sithole said he has requested the Zulu kingdom to come on board with Howard University, where he is a language professor, for Zulu students to study at the university.

“We are moving full steam ahead with that and have now invited the kingdom and the director of the Centre for African Studies for a meeting later this year to see how that project can materialise. I personally would like to see the first cohort be received in 2025.” 

TimesLIVE