Among the natives of South Africa relationship is viewed differently
from what it is by Europeans. I have more than once heard Kaffirs
accused of falsehood because they asserted one person to be their
father or mother at one time and a different person at another time.
Yet they were telling the truth according to their ideas. A common
complaint concerning native servant girls is that they claim every
other person they meet as a brother or a sister. Now, from their point
of view, what we should term cousins are really brothers and sisters.
It is not poverty of language, for they have words to express shades of
relationship where we have none, but a difference of ideas, that causes
them to use the same word for father and paternal uncle, for brother
and cousin, etc. Bawo is the word used in addressing father, father’s
brother, or father’s half-brother. Little children say Tata. But there
are three different words for father, according as a person is speaking
of his own father or uncle, of the father or uncle of the person he is
speaking to, or of the father or uncle of the person he is speaking of.
Speaking of my father, bawo is the word used: of your father, uyihlo;
of his father, uyise. Malume is the brother of any one called mother.
Ma is the word used in addressing mother, any wife of father, or the
sister of any of these. The one we should term mother can only be
distinguished from the others, when speaking of her, by describing her
as uma wam kanye—i.e., my real mother; or uma ondizalayo—i.e., the
mother who bore me. Speaking of my mother, ma is the word used: of your
mother, unyoko; of his or her mother, unina. A paternal aunt is
addressed as dadebobawo—i.e., sister of my father. Mnakwetu is the word
used by females in addressing a brother, half-brother, or male cousin.
Males, when addressing any of these relations older than themselves,
use the word mkuluwa; and when addressing one younger than themselves
say mninawe. Dade is used in addressing a sister, a half-sister, or a
female cousin. Females, when speaking to any of these relations younger
than themselves, usually say msakwetu. Mtakama is an endearing form of
expression, meaning child of my mother. Bawomkulu is the address of a
grandfather. Makulu is grandmother. Mtshana is the son of a sister.