Yo fam, I think I'm beginning to like the yanos.
Hip Hop has taken over now, Kwaito is no longer the same.
Serendipitously the word is a title of the song that shook the whole mzansi, nation as a whole, it was in every corner one would turn.
ntwana ako sike gumba dar, lend me some cash nyana.
They climbed the stop nonsense and stole the dog
I'm so broke I don't even have isheleni under my name.
I rep 031 till the day I die.
I knew they were Zama zamas because I heard them speaking Fanagalo.
Pronounced (ggggaaah); is a Khoikhoi word for “plenty” or “enough”. Used in Xhosa as a term for “That’s enough”often in anger and sometimes in disgust hence mistaken for “ew”.
In Khoikhoi: There is a river in the Eastern Cape called Birha. Bi is milk, and rha is plenty. Hence “a place of milk”. Another use is in the Xhosa chief Gambushe’s nickname: Rharhabe meaning “Minister of Plenty”.
In Xhosa it varies:
In a Dismissal Manner
Someone: I’m going to out race you.
Me: Rha! That would be the day.
To stop a child who is hitting another child a parent could say “Stop it. Rha! That’s enough”
In a Disgusting Manner
When a child see poop usually they used to say “Rha! Poo”
When people hear, smells, or see a disgusting thing they can say “Rha!”
In an Elated Manner
A person recounting an exciting moment of thriumph can say “Rha! I out did myself”
Feeling pretty? “Rha! I’m beautiful”
Big Bro: Who ate the mnyanelis I left in fridge?!
You: It was me big bro, hade.
Did you see that dzubha over there?