Sandy's Say: Out Of Africa
...Naturally, I had been unable to resist the temptation to respectfully meet and greet in Zulu and I had also been overheard translating the odd word or phrase for my son. So, by the time that we sat down in the hut, the" inkosi" or chief had his eye on me.
He turned to my husband and said solemnly," I will give you twenty head of cattle in exchange for your wife."...
Sandy James tells of the time when her cautious-accountant husband had to weigh an offer from a Zulu chief.
Dragging the garbage bin behind me, I unlatched the side gate and almost fell over a Black man who was busy mixing concrete. Unbeknown to me, he had been working there silently since early morning, helping the builders who were doing renovations next door. Back in South Africa, I would have greeted him and thought nothing more of it but here, on Sydney's North Shore, a dark skinned man is a rare sight indeed. My curiosity took over.
"I too am from Africa, "I said."May I ask where you are from?"
"Ah yes," he replied."I am from north Sudan."
"Oh," I remarked, "then I won't be able to practise my Zulu language with you."
"No, sorry about that. My first language is Nubian, then Arabic. English is my third tongue."
I tried to remember when I'd last been able to converse in Zulu. It had been four years previously when, on a visit to my old home town of Durban, we had taken our Aussie son to a tourist venue called PheZulu to educate him in the ways of the Zulu culture. Here we were treated to an energetic display of traditional dancing before being guided into one of the beehive shaped, thatched huts where the various artefacts, rituals and beliefs were explained to us. Naturally, I had been unable to resist the temptation to respectfully meet and greet in Zulu and I had also been overheard translating the odd word or phrase for my son. So, by the time that we sat down in the hut, the" inkosi" or chief had his eye on me.
He turned to my husband and said solemnly," I will give you twenty head of cattle in exchange for your wife." Despite suddenly finding myself reduced to a commodity, I knew that this was a most generous offer as twelve cattle was the current going rate. I expected my husband to jump to my defence immediately, perhaps declaring loudly that I was too precious, adored and unique for him to even contemplate such a matter. But no. There was silence. A very long silence, actually. My son did nothing to help my cause, elbowing his father and remarking, "Hey Dad that would cover the cost of school fees for the rest of my school career."
"I'd have to think about it," came the eventual reply, as every one of my husband's no risk, accounting traits came to the surface. "Firstly, we'd have to agree on an exchange rate. Secondly, I'd have to find out exactly how much it will cost me to have them shipped out to Australia. Most importantly, I must insist on sighting these cattle, before I make a decision."
Fortunately for me, the cattle could not be produced on the spot, so the proposed transaction never took place.
Back in Australia and walking into the car service centre, I couldn't believe my eyes. The customer service representative extended his hand in greeting, "Hello, "he said."My name is Owen Ngwenya." I had found a Zulu speaking man right here in my local suburb. Well, Mr Ngwenya and I couldn't help ourselves and we broke into a wonderful, noisy Zulu chat until we realised that the whole office had stopped to gape at us. After this we reverted to English.
When it came time for me to collect my car, I was given the right royal treatment. The other customers were handed their keys and pointed in the general direction of their cars. I was offered a cup of coffee in the VIP lounge while Mr Ngwenya himself valeted my car to the front door. It had been specially vacuumed and washed at no additional cost and there was a small box of chocolates on the passenger seat. As he opened the car door for me, Owen graciously said, "It has been a pleasure doing business with you, Sandra." We were on first name terms by now.
Excitedly I rang my husband to tell him of my new found admirer. They say a little jealousy goes a long way but, to my husband's credit, he was not in the least bit threatened.
"Always good to have a boyfriend in the car business, "he responded enthusiastically."Cars are one of our major expenses. How long will it be before he is promoted to CEO then we can negotiate a discount?"
All of which just goes to reinforce that world famous adage, "You can take a Black man out of Africa but you absolutely, definitely and categorically cannot take the bottom line out of an accountant."
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