
A glossary of words used in the
plays. This includes words from Afrikaans, Xhosa
and Zulu, as well as words and references in English that
may not be clear to people in different parts of the
world.
Updates, corrections and enquiries are welcome.
- apartheid
- political system of separate development of different national
peoples. In practice it meant the discrimination of
non-whites within South Africa (Afrikaans)
- baas
- boss, sir (Afrikaans)
- boet, boetie
- brother, comrade (Afrikaans)
- dankie, dankie baas, dankie my baas
- thank you, thank you sir (Afrikaans)
- ja
- yes (Afrikaans)
- ou
- old (adjective), old man, person (noun) (Afrikaans)
- shebeen
- a cheaper drinking place
- struesgod, ´struesgod
- swear word: good god (Afrikaans)
- rand
- South African currency
- TRC
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission which looks at abuses under the apartheid
years
Blood Knot
- aitsa
- ooh
- bokhie
- girl, chick
- Chevy
- a type of car
- chick-a-doem-doem
- the noise sounds like the rhythm of the music
- cookie, hey cookie
- hey girl, hey chick
- ek se
- right! OK! (Afrikaans)
- hoe´s dit vir ´n ding!
- look what we got here- said insultingly (Afrikaans)
- hoer
- whore (Afrikaans).
- hotnot
- swear word: native
- kaffermeid
- offensive term for a girl who is going with a black man (Afrikaans)
- koppie
- hill (Afrikaans)
- links draai, rechts swaai
- turn left, swing right (Afrikaans)
- opskud en uitkap
- get up and go (Afrikaans)
- ou hoer
- old whore (Afrikaans)
- ou pellie
- old friend
- pellie
- friend
- polka
- a dance
- P.S.
- post script. Indicates a late addition to a letter
- tickey draai
- a dance (Afrikaans)
- Zwartgat
- offensive term for a black person (Afrikaans)
Boesman and Lena
- aikona
- no! (Xhosa)
- al weer sukke tijd
- here we go again (Afrikaans)
- arme ou Lena
- poor old Lena (Afrikaans)
- arme ou Lena se maer ou bene
- poor old Lena with her thin old legs (Afrikaans)
- baasie
- boss, with affection (Afrikaans)
- babalas
- hung-over (Zulu)
- bang in my broek
- shit in my pants (Afrikaans)
- bedonnerd
- beaten into the ground (Afrikaans)
- blikkie
- tin, can (Afrikaans)
- boesman
- bush man, someone from the wilderness (Afrikaans
- bhomboloza outa, bhomboloza
- cry out old man- from notes to Selected Plays
- boggerall
- swear word: nothing
- brak
- mongrel, bitch dog (Afrikaans)
- broek
- trousers (Afrikaans, Boesman and Lena)
- daar kom ´n ding die kant
- something's coming (Afrikaans)
- die geraas van ´n vervloekte lewe
- the ramblings from a cursed life (Afrikaans)
- dop, lets have a dop
- lets have a drink (Afrikaans)
- drol
- turd (Afrikaans)
- dronkies
- drunks (Afrikaans)
- dwaal, being in a dwaal
- being in a haze, being confused (Afrikaans)
- eina
- ow! - from notes to Selected Plays
- en dit
- and this (Afrikaans)
- en klaar, finish en klaar
- finished and done with (Afrikaans)
- ewe
- yes (Xhosa)
- gebabbel
- chatter (Afrikaans)
- grappie
- joke (Afrikaans)
- hamba wena
- get lost, go away (Xhosa)
- hond
- dog (Afrikaans)
- jou verdomde...
- you damned... (Afrikaans
- jou lae donner
- you dirty bastard- from the notes to Selected Plays (Afrikaans)
- kaalgat
- bare-arsed, naked (Afrikaans)
- kijk net
- jusy look (Afrikaans)
- klap
- a punch (Afrikaans)
- kom die kant
- come this way round (Afrikaans)
- kondens melk
- condensed milk, milk from a tin (Afrikaans)
- lieg
- lie (tell a lie) (Afrikaans)
- loop
- walk (Afrikaans)
- maak sy bek oop
- open his mouth (Afrikaans)
- manzi
- water- from notes to Selected Plays (Zulu)
- moenie skiet baas
- don't shoot sir (Afrikaans)
- more is nog ´n dag
- tomorrow is another day (Afrikaans)
- net ´n bietjie warm gemaak
- just been made nice and warm (Afrikaans)
- nog ´n een
- another one (Afrikaans)
- oppas
- look out, take care (Afrikaans)
- ou blikke kondens melk...hoed
- old can of condensed milk/ make this life sweet/ Boesman is a bush man/ but he has a
natives hat (Afrikaans)
- ou grappie
- old joke (Afrikaans)
- Outa
- old man (Afrikaans)
- poep
- shit (Afrikaans)
- Pondokies, pondoks
- huts
- safa
- suffer, I'm suffering- from notes to Selected Plays
- sa! sa vir die kaffir
- get him!! Used when setting a dog on someone-
from notes to Selected Plays (Afrikaans)
- siestoggies, my baas! Siestoggies, my groot little baasie
- ah, no, my master! No, my big little master! -
from notes to Selected Plays
- sinkplaat
- corrugated iron- from notes to Selected Plays (Afrikaans)
- skeef, why you looking at me so skeef
- sideways, strangely. Why are you looking at me so strangely (Afrikaans)
- soeterigheid
- sweetness (Afrikaans)
- sommer
- just (Afrikaans)
- stompie
- cigarette end (Afrikaans)
- sukkel along
- struggle along (Afrikaans)
- vark
- pig (Afrikaans)
- vastrap
- a dance (Afrikaans)
- vat jou goed en trek
- take your possessions and go (Afrikaans)
- vies
- dirty, angry (Afrikaans)
- vlenterbroek
- torn trousers- from notes to Selected Plays (Afrikaans)
- voetsek
- go to hell (Afrikaans)
- vrot ou huisie vir die vrot mens
- a rotten old house for those rotten people (Afrikaans)
- vuilgoed
- piece of rubbish (Afrikaans)
- weg is ons
- we are on our way (Afrikaans)
- wie´s die man
- who is that (Afrikaans)
- witman is ´n snaakse ding
- the white man is weird (Afrikaans)
- yessus
- Jesus! Oh no
- The Coat
ag sies tog
- oh what a pity (Afrikaans)
- arrears
- money owed for the rent
- boeie, boet
- friend
- ewe
- yes
- Rooi Hell
- South African prison. Literally Red
Hell
- samp
- a food dish made of dried maize kernels
- sis
- sister
-
tsotsi
-
gangster (The Coat, Sizwe Bansi, Tsotsi)
- tula
- silence, quiet
- Hello and Goodbye
-
- Errol Flynn
- Hollywood actor
- hoer
- whore (Afrikaans).
- hoered
- had sex with (Afrikaans)
- jiffy, in a jiffy
- quickly, shortly
- Jo´burg
- Johannesburg
- kaffir
- offensive term for a black man (Afrikaans)
- P.E.
- Port Elizabeth
- S.A.R.
- South African Railways
- voortrekker
- the Boers who established the Afrikaners in South Africa (Afrikaans)
The Island
- 1965
- June 1965 refers to an actual performance of Antigone in St. Stephen's Hall- from the notes
to The Township Plays
- Antigone
- a classic Greek play Sophocles. Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus
- bioscope
- the cinema, the movies. Winston acts out films (Afrikaans)
- die Hodoshe Span
- The Hodoshe shift. Hodoshe is a Xhosa word for a carrion fly, which lays its eggs in
dead bodies. So Hodoshe became the nickname of a hated prison guard. John and Winston
are on the team of Hodoshe. (Afrikaans/Xhosa)
- Eteocles
- in the classic Greek play Antigone by Sophocles, Eteocles is the dead brother of
Atigone. He is honoured whereas the other dead brother Polynices is seen as a traitor
- Glenn Ford
- Canadian born Hollywood actor
- Georgie
- Geordie Mnci played in Antigone in St. Stephen's Hall in 1965- from the notes to The
Township Plays
- haai
- wow, gosh (Xhosa)
- hodoshe
- a fly. See die Hodoshe Span
- lap, lappie
- rag (Afrikaans)
- moer
- a swear word: fuck (Afrikaans)
- moeg
- tired (Afrikaans)
- Mulligan
- Mulligan Mbikwane played in Antigone in St. Stephen's Hall in 1965- from the notes to The
Township Plays
- Nomhle
- Nomhle Nkonyeni who played in Antigone in St. Stephen's Hall in 1965- from the notes to The
Township Plays
- Number Four, Number Fourteen, Number Twenty-two, Number 42
- other units in the prison
- nyah nyah
- na na (more or less meaningless sound)
- Nyana we Sizwe!
- patriotic Xhosa rally cry meaning "son of the land" -from notes to The Township
Plays (Xhosa)
- ons was gemoer vandaag!
- we were really messed about with today (Afrikaans)
- operator
- John is pretending to talk to the telephone operator
- poes
- swear word: pussy, cunt (Afrikaans)
- pleading in mitigation of sentence
- in a court attempting to obtain a lesser punishment
- Polynices
- in the classic Greek play Antigone by Sophocles, Polynices is the dead brother of
Atigone. Polynices is seen as a traitor whereas the other dead brother Eteocles is
honoured
- Prisloo
- Commander of Robben Island prison
- prison regulations
- the official rules of the rights and obligations of prisoners
- punkie
- a type of fly, slang for a prostitute (Afrikaans)
- quarry
- a pit for digging minerals
- the Queen
- Eurydice, wife of King Creon in Antigone
- Robben Island
- A South African island used as a political prison. Nelson Mandela was one of the
prisoners. This is the island of the play The Island
- solitary
- solitary confinement- when someone in prison is punished by being kept isolated from other
people
- Speedy Gonzales
- slang for someone who is very fast
- strand
- beach (Afrikaans)
-
'Master Harold' ... and the Boys
- balls
- nonsense
- Batman and Robin, Submariner
- children's comics
- Brown Bomber
- the Brown Bomber was black American boxer Joe Louis. In his first attempt at the world
title he knocked Max Schmeling down three times but lost. In his second attempt in 1938 he
won the world title
- bullshit
- nonsense
- cats and dogs (coming down cats and dogs)
- raining very heavily
- Churchill
- prime minister of Great Britain during the second world war
- cream in my coffee/...
- you're the cream in my coffee is a popular song written by Brown/DeSylva/Henderson
- fart-face
- swear word: an ugly person
- foxtrot
- a dance
- Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers
- famous Hollywood dancers
- haaikona
- no! (Xhosa)
- helter skelter
- all over the place
- hunky dory
- perfect
- jaw-breaker
- very difficult
- Joan of Arc
- a heroine in France in the 15th century. She was executed by being burnt at the stake
- Joe Louis
- the Brown Bomber was black American boxer Joe Louis. In his first attempt at the world
title he knocked Max Schmeling down three times but lost. In his second attempt in 1938 he
won the world title
- Julius Caesar
- a play by William Shakespeare
- Jungle Jim, Batman and Robin, Tarzan
- children's comics
- kip and toss
- a sleep
- M.C.
- master of ceremonies. The person who introduces events
- mom
- mother
- os-killate
- oscillate
- quickstep
- a dance
- Rita Hayworth
- Hollywood film actress
- Salvation Army
- a charity organisation
- Sarah Vaughan
- black American jazz singer
- Max Schmeling
- the Brown Bomber was black American boxer Joe Louis. In his first attempt at the world
title he knocked Max Schmeling down three times but lost. In his second attempt in 1938 he
won the world title
- William Wilberforce
- British politician who worked for the abolition of slavery, which became law in the
British Empire in 1833
- Winston Churchill
- prime minister of Great Britain during the second world war
- Nongogo
- Nongogo
- a prostitute
- Playland
- ANC
- The African National Congress. Liberation movement in apartheid South Africa, later the
government party
- M.C.
- master of ceremonies. The person who introduces events
- Sizwe Bansi is dead
- Armstrong on the moon
- Neil Armstrong was the first man to land on the moon in 1969
- big-shot
- very important person
- blourokkie next time
- blue clothing, meaning next time its prison, with blue prison clothes
- buggerall
- swear word: nothing
- Ciskeian Independence
- Ciskei s a region of South Africa. Under apartheid it was made a home-land, a sort of
self-governing area for Xhosa blacks, but in practice it was an impoverished area and
"self-government" had no meaning. Later Ciskei was given pseudo-independence in an
attempt to present apartheid as fair. It meant the inhabitants lost their rights and South
African nationality
- cunt
- swear word: person
- Galaxies
- the Galaxy is a model of Ford car
- General Cleaning
- a major cleaning up of the factory, to impress the bosses
- gqokra izi khuselo zamehlo kule ndawo
- put on safety glasses here - from notes to The Township Plays
- Ford, Henry Ford Junior Number two
- Ford car factory in South Africa, with factories in Port Elizabeth and Pretoria.
The car manufacturer was founded in 1903 in the USA by Henry Ford. His grandson Henry Ford
II took over the company in 1945 just before Henry Ford's death
- foreman, general foreman, plant supervisor, plant manager
- managers in a factors, in order of increasing importance
- hier is ek, my baas
- here it is, sir (Afrikaans)
- kak
- shit (Afrikaans)
- kitsy
- a cat´s name
- Labour Bureau
- government office for employment
- line, on the line
- on the production line. In car factories a line of workers added different components to
new cars
- makulu, makulu baas
- big boss - from the notes to The Township Plays (Afrikaans)
- Natal
- One of the nine provinces of South Africa, now called Kwa-Zulu Natal
- N.I. Number
- National Insurance number
- Nixon
- former president of the USA. The newspaper is reporting the American election
results of 1968
- pay-packet
- wages were given in a paper envelope, the pay-packet
- piece of cake
- very easy
- proprietor
- owner
- Stetson
- a type of hat, like a cowboy hat
- tow motor
- a vehicle or machine which is powerful enough to carry or drag heavy weights or other vehicles
- tsotsi
- gangster
- Ttshotsholoza, kulezondawo, vyabaleka
- a work song - from notes to The Township Plays
- yo
- wow
Sorrows and Rejoicings
- pep talk
- a talk to motivate or cheer someone up
- Soweto uprising
- a protest in 1976 by students against the teaching of Afrikaans in schools. The
police opened fire resulting in more than a hundred deaths
- Witts campus
- University of Wittwatesrand, South African
- Tsotsi
- tsotsi
- gangster (The Coat, Sizwe Bansi, Tsotsi).
- Valley Song
- boeremusick
- farmers folk music (Afrikaans)
- Glenryck Maalvis Chilli chilli Aartappel en Wortels
- Glenryk fish, chilli chilli, potatoes and carrots (Afrikaans)
- oupa
- grandfather, grandpa (Afrikaans)
- ware karoo pampoen saad
- genuine karoo pumpkin seeds (Afrikaans)
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