Yebo Kakhulu

I love Swazis.  I think they are the coolest people.  I feel selfish, narrow-hearted, and stunted next to them.  I am challenged from the very beginning here in Swaziland, starting with greetings.   Greeting a person is important.  It is a simple act, but it shows that you recognize the person. 

Americans are terrible about this.  We will just go up to you and ask you a question.  We don’t care about you, we want our question answered.   We don’t have time for you. 

Swazis understand that in order to get a question answered, you need to talk to a Person.  And that person matters.  You always greet someone.  Especially in the rural areas, you can’t walk past someone and not greet them.  The greeting in siSwati is “Sawubona”, or “I see you.”  How right on is that?  The response is then,” Yebo” or “Yes” as a way to acknowledge the person. 

Unjani?  How are you?

Ngiyaphila.  I am fine/alive.

The university is a 40 minute walk from my apartment.  I can take a kombi into town, shaving 20 minutes off the commute, but the kombi doesn’t come at a set time and is sporadic after 9 am.  So I usually walk.  Along the way, I greet and am greeted by many people.  Occasionally when I greet someone they will respond by saying “Yebo kakhulu!”  There is no way to really translate this into English.  Yebo means yes, and kakhulu is an amplifying word, meaning a lot or very.  So if you try to translate it literally, it means very yes!  

But if you remember that a person says “Yebo” in acknowledgment of your greeting, “Yebo kakhulu” would mean that the person is really acknowledging you.  That person is honored by my greeting, probably excited to be greeted in siSwati by an umlungu (white person).  I am likewise so tickled anytime someone says “yebo kakhulu.”  Not only is it funny to me because there is no context for it in my language and culture, but it is said with so much joy and feeling that I cannot help but smile.  It totally makes my day, and my 40 minute walk that much more enjoyable.