| That special language/slang—the RLI
taal—that developed in the regiment and remained
unique to it. This peculiarity had its origins in a
mix of Afrikaans and English with words borrowed
from Shona and other indigenous languages. This taal
was not dissimilar to the slang used by Rhodesia’s
Coloureds (those of mixed blood) and South Africa’s
Cape Coloureds. The language grew very quickly and
spread not only to the rest of the Army but
civilians also unwittingly adopted many phrases. The
reason for its popularity could perhaps be the fact
that its utterances conveyed an emotional
appropriateness that fitted the troopie’s psyche. It
certainly lacked grammar and syntax and most phrases
ended in ek sê (‘I say’ in Afrikaans). The following
is an attempt to acquaint the reader with a few of
the more common words and phrases in use at the
time: |
| |
|
| babalas: |
a hangover, state of inebriation. |
| boom, gooters: |
dagga (marijuana). |
| breker: |
fighter or scrapper. |
| Burg: |
Salisbury (from the Afrikaans
‘town’) |
| catch us a glow: |
give me a light (for my cigarette). |
| china: |
friend (from the Cockney ‘china
plate—mate’). |
| check you: |
see you (goodbye). |
| chibuli: beer. |
According to Chris Pearce Lieutenant
Nigel Henson coined the word. Henson had gone to
work in Oman for a couple of years. When he came
back someone asked him what the Arabic was for beer.
The quick-witted Henson replied, “Chibuli.” It
transpired later that he had made the word up but by
then it was part of the taal. |
| drifter: |
cloud. |
| flat dog, mobile handbag: |
crocodile. |
| floppy /floppies: |
insurgent/s (so named through their
tendency to flop down when shot). |
| gangen, shateen: |
the bush (Shona). |
| gomo: |
a hill, kopje (Shona). |
| gonk: |
sleep. |
| goose, crow: |
a girl. |
| graze: |
food, eat (also grazing irons:
cutlery). |
| grimmy: |
an uncomplimentary term for
someone’s girlfriend . |
| jacket, jacked: |
smart e.g. I’m a jacked soldier (I’m
a good soldier). |
| joller: |
an extrovert, show-off (from the
Afrikaans jol—to party). |
| jawl, ek sê: |
come along (I say). |
| lekker glide: |
nice lift/trip. |
| lemon: |
failure or wash-out. |
| lighty: |
a kid or baby (from the Afrikaans
laaitjie). |
| main manne what counts: |
the number-one man. |
| naai: |
fuck (Afrikaans slang) |
| ouen (pronounced ‘owen’), oke, ou:
|
fellow or guy (from the Afrikaans). |
| pull, slay: |
to kill |
| pull a fade: |
not show up, run away. |
| Skies: |
Bulawayo (from ‘blue skies’). |
| scene: |
a contact (with the enemy). |
| slayer, gat: |
rifle e.g. ‘I switched my slayer to
sing’ (I cock my rifle and fire). |
| snotsquirt, snotty: |
to shoot, s shot e.g. ‘I gave the
gook a snotsquirt’ |
| snaai: |
cheat. |
| start, kite: |
money. |
| tick taxi: |
dog |
| tune me/us ek sê: |
tell me/us (I say). |
| work us a glide/catch me a glide:
|
give me/us a lift. |
| zut: |
nothing. |
| |
|
| Without overworking the
subject, for the uninitiated we can say here that an
insurgent who had been eaten by a crocodile was in
fact “a floppy what was grazed by a flat dog, ek sê”
and “I think we’d better drink up and get a lift to
town before we’re too drunk” translates as “I scheme
we flatten these chibulies and catch a glide to burg
before we’re babalas.” To the layman a two-way radio
conversation between RLI troopies could be totally
incomprehensible: |
| |
|
| “Check this floppy, ou
Sarge. I double-tapped him in the chest, ek sê. He
was just jolling through the takke not checking
where he was going like so I culled him, ek sê.” |
| |
|
| “Saat, ek sê, the ouk’s
not dead like. Issue him another 762 injection
like.” |
| or |
|
| “Tune me gau ek sê, I’ll
sut you with a half-brick like.” |
| or |
|
| “You should have checked
me clock that civvy when he tuned my chick
anti-clockwise, ek sê.” |
| or |
|
| “Have you got wheels
like?” |
| “Ja.” |
|
| “Catch us a glide into
burg, ek sê.” |
| |
|
| And perhaps the all-time
classic from a coloured whore, complaining about
non-payment for her services: “You RLI ouens smaak
to naai but you don’t smaak to pay, ek sê!” |
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|
| Sources: Alex Binda,
Geoffrey Bond, Chris Cocks |
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