‘Usilima’, other lies we tell our children
Reading Time: 4 minutesWe can leave home, yet we carry our parents with us. Their voices live in our minds, and they speak loudest at the worst moments: before an interview, after a mistake, when we are tired and doubting ourselves. That inner voice is the harshest cheerleader we will ever have, and it often sounds exactly like someone who raised us. Picture a boy who brings home a poor report card. His father, tired and worried about school fees, shouts, “Usilima wena!” (“You are a fool!”). The father does not hate his son. He hopes the sharp words will shock the boy into working harder. But the boy does not hear a frustrated man. He hears a verdict. That is what makes these words lies. The label is untrue: the boy is not a fool, only a child who struggled with a test. Yet he will believ…
