Читать книгу To Khaya With Love - Samara Jr. Zimmel - Страница 3

Now that we are in a new country, and you are born here, my granddaughter, I see it as my pleasant duty to write to you so that you will know our origins. Therefore let me introduce you to your family:

We come from the eastern part of South Africa, the warmest one called Natal-kwa Zulu. My parents came from a small district of Eshowe. My dad is Maurus Mzimela, my mother is Maria Mzimela, originally Ngonyama. Our surname Mzimela may mean “press on, lean hard to, standing independently or trusting strongly on.”

You will wonder why I write them in the present when they have passed on. I’ll tell you why, it is because for me they will always be my parents whether dead or alive, they are irreplaceable.

My dad was the oldest of the two brothers, Dominic and Conrad, with the two sisters. They were married and gone by the time I was born. I know my uncles better. Yes, the youngest sister of my father visited us regularly, we even visited her. She was comfortably off with her family, and her name was Mfongoza (I don’t really know what that means). The other sister was called Ndomba. I never got to know her though, if I have seen her it was once and I can’t remember how she looked like.

Back to my immediate family. We were seven children of my parents, six girls and one boy. The eldest was sis’ Thokozile (Augustine) known as Thoko, brother Lawrence generally known as “Two.”

The five sisters are as follows: Monica Thandaphi, known as Monica; Elizabeth Fikile, known as Matiya; Salutaris Sibongile (your gogo), known as Sibongile; Eunice Zanele, known as Eunice; Gloria Toli, known as Toli.

Presently Lawrence and Elizabeth have passed on.

There are others that have passed on, but I would rather talk about each separately.