Scribbling the Cat - Alexandra Fuller [99]
Porks: slang for Portuguese
Ptozzie: prostitute
Putzi: the maggot formed when a fly lays its eggs under the skin
Sadza: porridge made from ground maize
Scribble: to kill
Sekuru: grandfather (Shona)
Skop: head (Afrikaans)
Shateen: backcountry
Sjambok: whip
Spazed: mentally impaired, also very concerned, “freaked out”
Sterek: a lot
Stompie: cigarette butt
Stone China: best friend, as in a friend that doesn’t move and is always by your side
Stonked: killed
Struze fact: from “it’s as true as fact”
Sumudza: on top (Shona)
Tatenda: thank you (Shona)
Thrombie: long harangue, from thrombosis
Tsotsis: thieves, rogues (Shona)
Underrods: underwear
Vleis: low, seasonally wet area
Voddies: Vodka
Wagon Burner: East Indian
Wazungu (pl.) mazungu (sing.): white person
Wee wee: literally urine, but here means a wimp
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alexandra Fuller was born in England in 1969 and in 1972 she moved with her family to a farm in Rhodesia. After that country’s civil war ended, the Fullers moved first to Malawi, then to Zambia. Fuller received a B.A. from Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her first book, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, was a national best-seller, a New York Times Notable Book of 2002, Winner of the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize 2003, and a finalist for the Guardian First Book Award. Fuller lives in Wyoming and has two children.