UZONDI – NIHLALA KULIPHI?

In isiZulu, the title is a question put to more than one person, so it sounds like someone addressing a whole household or a group of friends. Where do you people stay? It is the sort of thing relatives ask when you move to the city and stop coming home for December, or what a neighbour asks about a family that packed out without telling anybody.

What I like about the title is how ordinary it is. Nobody dresses it up. It is the kind of line you hear at a bus stop, a family gathering or on a phone call where the network keeps cutting. A simple question can carry suspicion, curiosity and a little accusation all at once, depending on who is asking and how they say it.

That is where the record gets interesting as a subject. Place means a lot in Nigerian and southern African culture alike, because your address tells people who you are and who you answer to. Putting NIHLALA KULIPHI? in front of listeners turns that everyday curiosity into a conversation starter.

Anyone who has been asked to explain where they disappeared to, or who has wondered the same about old friends, will see themselves in this one. Sometimes the question is a complaint, and sometimes it is just love asking for directions.

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