Keeping isiMpondo alive: Zinzi Nsele takes Isimpondo to the nation

Mbizana-born Gomora actress Zinzi Nsele says her pride and passion for being Impondokazi and preserving the Isimpondo language has propelled her to create the Yembhem T-shirts. In an effort to popularize and normalize the Mpondo culture, Nsele created the Yembhem custom T-shirts which were sold out in a month.

I have realized that people have a lot of interest in knowing or learning more about Amampondo. Hence I created Yembhem T-shirts which sold out in one month. I wanted people to know that irrespective of me being on TV I am also Mpondo and I love it. – Says Zinzi Nsele.

Isimpondo is a language spoken in the Pondoland region or the former Transkei area of the Eastern Cape. This language comes with an entire culture that includes the food, dance, music, clothing and lifestyle. AmaMpondo are the people that speak the language. Out of the 11 official languages in South Africa Isimpondo is not included and is considered as just a mere dialect that falls under the isiXhosa language. It is because of this reason that there is not much known about amaMpondo but a lot is known about the Xhosa nation.

Nsele says people do not know about amaMpondo because of a lack of acknowledgment in one’s culture and a low self-esteem in Amampondo in presenting themselves as who they truly are. She continued by saying;

Also a lack of knowledge of how powerful it is being uniquely yourself. There are Mpondo people in the industry who start speaking IsiXhosa when on national Television and even lie about their home towns. It is so disturbing because these people should be showing off their talent as AmaMpondo.

When watching and listening to Miss Madikizela a character played by Zinzi Nsele on Gomora, speakers of IsiMpondo can tell from her dialect that she is not completely Xhosa. Nsele blames that to her Mpondo DNA she explains her ascent by saying “speaking like that is both deliberate and also the fact that Isimpondo cannot be hidden. It is who I am, I grew up in a Mpondo speaking household. So I suckled the language from the breast of my mother.”

People of Mbizana where Zinzi Nsele was born are very proud to see one of their own on national television. Nsele also takes so much pride in her culture, she says where ever life takes her she will always represent amaMpondo.

I love being impondo, we have great leaders that come from Mpondoland. The likes of OR Tambo, Winnie Madikizela Mandela etc. These are people who liberated this country and I am glad that they come from my home town Mbizana, Mpondoland. – Said Nsele.

Nsele is very rooted in her culture and says being in the acting industry for her is the most exciting and heartwarming experience because she is approaching the industry as her authentic self. She says “I get to embrace my Mpondoness very Queenly as I own it, it’s me, and it’s who I am.”

The beautiful and talented actor and lover of her culture added that television can do more in shedding a light on the Mpondo nation. Zinzi Nsele concludes that “I think television should have more Mpondo dramas so people can learn about how beautiful our culture is. That we are beautiful our souls who always want the best for others. Believe me people will be glued on their screens every day to learn more. We are very unique.”