Izele

Izele means someone or something has given birth. But it has a double meaning. It could mean, for example, when you go to a tap and fill up a jug - Izele ijug, is the jug full? Zalisa ijug ngamanzi, fill the jug with water. It means filling something, or adding to something. The idea of giving birth is not foreign to the idea of adding something that is there.

Texts by Nicholas Hlobo, interviewed by Sophie Perryer, Cape Town, August 2006

By Nicholas Hlobo