Can you believe that ‘fundi’, a globally recognised ‘mainstream’ word, actually has its roots here in South Africa?

PW Botha must be turning in his grave, as words like ‘eish’ are being used in Afrikaans farming communities to describe the ice in their glass of Klippies.

Nothing says Rainbow Nation like different cultures embracing each other’s slang words.

I’ll pause here to make it clear that this is not a political post, simply a list of cool South African words that we have noticed being used more frequently across the cultural spectrum.

Here they are, in no particular order:

1) Indaba – According to Wikipedia, “An indaba (pronounced in-dar-bah) is an important conference held by the izinDuna (principal men) of the Zulu or Xhosa peoples of South Africa..” This word is now used in our mainstream lives, to describe conferences, events or get-togethers.

2) Eish – “an exclamation expressive of surprise, agreement, disapproval, etc. Word Origin. from Zulu.” (dictionary)

3) Eita – Urban Dictionary gives it as, “It is a Tsotsitaal word from South Africa. It is used by lads to greet each other.

4) Phuza – “As ‘phuza’ is the traditional zulu term for drink, it follows that ‘phuza thursday‘ is the act of drinking (most commonly binge drinking) on a Thursday night.”

5) Magents – This word, referring to ‘the guys’ or ‘gents’ revealed some very interesting texts (check out this government document). Even more interesting is the fact that this word has gone one step further and is now a very popular SA clothing brand – Magents.co.za. They’re doing pretty well and have just launched a new store over in Menlyn Park, to go with those already at Montecasino and Canal Walk.

According to their website:

In the blazing heat of a South African summer a motley band of artists, students, and sympathisers went into the streets and alleys of cities across South Africa – Johannesburg, Cape Town, Soweto, Soshanguwe – and painted the orange, three-circled Magents logo on bridges, walls, rocks, in underpasses, in stations, in sports stadiums.

And that’s where they left it. Three orange circles with no explanation generated a great deal of mystery. They went back every three months and added the other elements of the logo & three men and the letter “G”. Then in 1999-2003 they began to place the product -a line of men’s and women’s apparel in independent retailers.

Launches of the brand followed in 2005 in France, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Japan, Canada, Vietnam and more recently in the United States.

And a little video:

Very cool – check out more about their brand HERE.