So the other day while having dinner at home with a pair of close friends Siso (Please take note of this name as it is bound to come up quite often) and I, we started discussing the words that we use to refer to certain objects. The words we ascribe to objects are generally accepted by most, not only are they accepted but these words are also understood in reference to objects, ie the word dog generally refers to the four legged, domestic animal that barks, coffee refers to the caffeine based drink that is made from coffee beans… and so on and so forth.
So back to the conversation… I’m not sure exactly how this topic came up but none the less it was established that as black people and more specifically as black South Africans we tend to refer to items using a popular brand name. So this is how it works, a plastic bag that is used to carry items out of a supermarket is called a chekas yes that is correct… a checkers, after the supermarket CHECKERS HYPER. Toothpaste, which is what we use on our toothbrushes to clean our teeth this is called colgate, no matter which brand of toothpaste you use in your home when you are asked for the colgate, it is immediately understood that the toothpaste is needed.
Why this phenomenon exists or how its came about is not a question I have the answer to but the trend is that the most known brands, or the brand that was most commonly known back in the day is the word that is used to refer to certain items. I suppose that at the time when these associations were made there were very few brands if any, to choose from and as time went on and more brands came into existence it was just simpler to stick to what was known. However this is not an explanation that makes sense for everything, for instance the fact that cold drinks are all referred to as coke cannot be understood in terms of the above because all flavours and names of coke products have generally existed for the same amount of time. Fanta and every other cold drink is however called coke, ya fanta, I suppose. A kudbery(Cadbury) is a chocolate and chewtex (kutex) is nail polish. These are but a few of the brands that get total exposure through the use of everyday language here in South Africa...
It amazes me how language and just verbal communication in general is used by particular groups of people to suit them and the thoughts that they want to express… in Durban a similar phenomena exists, where the Durbanites have created a language that is completely their own, they will poke you with cutlery if you don’t buy them a groovy… lol…. But alas, this is a story for another day.
