My mixed family

My family comes from far and wide

We’re two parts Zulu

And Swedish – on one side.

My Mother has some Scottish blood

My Dad is part Mauritian.

One grandpa was a missionary,

Another a magician

Some ancestors are from the South

And others from the West.

It’s very hard to label me

That’s what I like the best.

My English roots are holding up

A complicated tree

With mum and dad, my mother’s clan,

My two sisters and me.

There are first and second cousins,

Aunts and uncles, some are ‘great’.

I never really understand

The way we all relate.

Some are stepsons, some half-sisters,

Some are cousins ‘twice-removed’.

Now my African ancestors

Would find that rather rude.

The tree grown from our Zulu blood

Is tall and very clear.

There are brothers, sisters, sons and daughters,

Straight, from there to here.

There are dads and mums, more dads and mums,

Both big and also small.

No great uncles, or distant nieces,

None ‘removed’ at all.

What makes them all a family?

It depends upon the name

I think izithakazelo means

Their roots are all the same.

I like that kind of culture,

Where we’re all sisters and brothers.

But I’ll keep the English side as well.

I don’t want any more mothers!

2014

Photo description: A

massive baobab tree dominating the hilly landscape beneath a bright sky with one fluffy white cloud, in Mapungubwe, Limpopo, South Africa.

izithakazelo is the Zulu word for family praise names, which are used in many African cultures to remember and respect family members, living and dead, and to indicate a person’s origins.