Coloured pencil on A4 Paper
Panther Leo

The drawing for the Leo season, although I'm a bit late as we're already in Libra... Oh well.
My scanner didn't want to scan this properly for some reason, so I had to take a photo instead. Unfortunately, the colours are rather muted, they're much more vivid in real life.

This drawing is dedicated to my dog, Sophie. My favourite Leo in the whole world.

(uyimbube, uyimbube...)
Ehlatini, ihlatikhulu, imbube lala manje
(uyimbube, uyimbube...)
Eduze nomuzi, umuzithule, imbube lala manje
(uyimbube, uyimbube...)
Thul' uthando, mus' ukwesab' uthando, imbube lala manje

My Zulu translation of The Lion Sleeps Tonight (which was originally a Zulu song).


I'd also like to mention that Zulu actually has multiple words for lion:

Firstly, one of the Proto-Bantu words for lion was 'ncimba', which actually meant any wild feline in general. This is where Swahili famously gets the word 'simba', and Zulu gets 'insimbi', which means genet.

Another Proto-Bantu word for lion was 'nkoci', which evolved into the Zulu 'inkosi', which means king. Obviously people began referring to their kings as lions because they were brave and fierce. Another example of this is that Shaka was known as 'Indlovukhulu', the Great Elephant.

One of the words for lion in Zulu is 'isilo' which can mean either lion, leopard, wild animal, or more interestingly, intestinal parasite. I assume that this word once meant carnivore. It can also be used to refer to a monarch, similar to His Majesty.

Ingonyama is a compound of 'ingwe' (leopard) and 'inyama' (meat). It essentially means 'Meat Leopard'. I assume that this was because people were afraid to say the lion's real name in fear of attracting one (similar to many Indo-European words for bear, e.g. the Slavic word 'medved' translating to 'honey eater'). This is also the word used in The Circle of Life: 'Ingonyama, nengwe namabhala' means 'A lion and a leopard with spots/markings'.

'Imbube' the one that I was taught. I don't know the etymology of this one.

The last word is 'ibhubesi', this is the most commonly used one. My hypothesis is that it's short for 'imbubesilo' which is a compound of 'imbube' and 'isilo', therefore meaning something along the lines of Wild Lion.


So there we have it.

Ngiyakubonga khakhulu ngenxa yafunda lento.