The Sunday News
WHO can tell us where the word slug, what we call “islagi”, that mini-soccer game commonly found in shopping centres, comes from?
I have tried to search online for it, and every time I hit a blank. But if I combine “slug” with “mini-soccer,” that’s when it surfaces, but never alone, unless if it is in reference to that creature going by the same name.
I am now wondering if people in our neighbouring countries also call mini-soccer “slug,” say in Bots, Mzansi, in Z, to name just a few.
I am also wondering too if the spelling should not be “islagi,” and not slug. And can somebody tell us too, what is “islagi” called in Shona, Kalanga, Tonga and some of our other languages, as I have concluded that “islagi” is a Ndebele word.
It certainly is not English, unless of course if we say “slug”.
But which word comes from the other? Does “slug” come from “islagi,” or the other way round? Which word was first used to call mini-soccer that?
I am reminded of a biology lesson when I was in High School. The teacher asked us to describe what a “slug” was, and this happy chap said it is the game played at the supermarket.
Of course the teacher meant the creature, and that answer told us who spent their day hanging around “izlagi.”
And by the way, do some of us know that there really is a creature called a slug? If you didn’t, and you love “islagi” and thought it owned the word, you can take your dictionary today and check it out, or if you are online, just search for the word using Google images and see what pops up — not even a single mini-soccer game.
But what is a “slug” (the creature) called in your vernacular language? Please don’t say “islagi,” lol. I know that the “slug,” the creature, is of the snail family, called gastropods, and in Ndebele we call the snail umnenke — but what of the slug, yes that slimy creature normally found in wet places.
Now back to my initial question. Do pastors, our preachers play islagi?
This is a strange question isn’t it? And why am I asking it?
I guess it must be the influence of the Afcon games, and seeing that islagi is a miniature replica of the world’s most beautiful game, so naturally, I found my inquisitive mind drifting that way.
I know pastors play social soccer sometimes with their congregations on free days, which is commendable as exercise keeps body and mind healthy for spiritual connection with the world — but what about islagi?
I know some sections of our population regard islagi as an immoral game, and would never want to be seen playing it, but is it really so?
And talking of righteousness, here I am reminded of “u-ski”. And by that I don’t mean skiing by the way, I mean that coin gambling game played by kids, which is kindergarten for the world of adult gambling.
Most of us will not readily admit that they played u-ski when they were kids. Of course there are those like me who don’t care about dignity and will openly admit that yes, I played u-ski when I was a kid.
I have a very fresh memory of beating some guys in “u-ski” out of the money their parents would have sent them to buy breakfast foodstuffs at the shops, and then they tried to risk it in the game to make a quick profit, and later went home crying.
Lol, if you were to step into the august chambers of Parliament and asked ministers who played “u-ski” during the heyday of growing up to raise their hands, I wonder how many would not raise their hands. Such is the beauty of growing up.
Maybe only the ladies would not, as this has normally been a male-dominated game, as all sorts of gambling.
But to ask again, if you have a friend who is a pastor, and you invited them to the shops to play “islagi,” do you think they would agree, or you would be told that you needed to be healed?
Fact is, I think that it would be a great idea for churches with premises to have “islagi” within them, the reasoning is thus, if we can play physical soccer or take pleasure in watching it on TV or sports stadia, so why not relax over a game “islagi” too?
Lingabheji kodwa.
