Commitment - 29 February 2008

A story that my father-in-law Mr Josias Dube told me is a cute example of commitment within the context of a traditional Zulu home.

During mealtime my mother-in-law MaGasa would bring her husband a dish of food. Then his mother MaMyeza, my mother-in-law's mother-in-law, would bring him a dish from her pot too. To crown it all, his grandmother MaNzuza, my wife's grandmother's mother-in-law, would also bring him a dish from her pot.

My father-in-law would ask his grandmother why she bothered herself to cook for him since his wife and mother did that for him. Her response was, "Phela mina ngazogana lapha kwaDube."

Untranslatable. The nearest I could come to was, "When I married into the Dube family I reported for service as a wife."

How is that for commitment?