My ‘atchar chronicle’
A few weeks ago, I met a woman at the Buhlepark Taxi Rank, it doesn’t look like a taxi rank but the residents kind of gave it that title because that’s where we queue for taxis.
For taxis going to MTN Taxi Rank, we queue at a stop sign outside a church.
To my surprise, there was no queue, which was strange because queues either make or break my day. Like the day when I ended up sitting in the front because the queue was ridiculously long. Anyway, there was a woman on the other side of the road who crossed to join me in the ‘very short queue’.
I greeted her with an ashe instead of a dumela – both SeSotho greetings but ashe is mostly used by Pretorians and may be perceived as disrespectful because, in my opinion, Pretorian language sounds a bit harsh and free, unlike most indigenous languages where there is a clear distinction of language used when addressing adults and children.
It turned out I was not the only one with that perception because immediately after greeting her, the woman asked if I was from Pretoria. I confirmed and she laughed and said there was no way I could even try to lie about my origin because my Pretorian language gave it away.
We had a nice discussion about it and she told me about the atchar vendor at MTN Taxi Rank. Apparently, Pretorian people love atchar aka ‘mango salad’ (I actually heard that Sandton people call it that. Is it true?). This was according to her and I guess I corroborated her generalisation because I actually love it. The vendor is from Pretoria and has made good friends with the woman. I am guessing it’s because she loves the language because she speaks it very well. I started buying from him and I am now a loyal customer.
I have realised that every time I buy from him, the next morning or afternoon I bump into the woman and we then have the same ‘atchar’ conversation. I told her about it and we laughed but I can’t help but wonder if this is a coincidence? I really find this weird and strange, to say the least.
But what’s really interesting is I gave her my WhatsApp number and I am asking myself if we are going to continue discussing atchar? What’s more to say about it? It’s made with mango, oil and spices, it’s nice and then what? I guess we’ll have to wait until the first WhatsApp conversation.
