#KingsMemoirs
If you grew up in Zimbabwe during the transition from Rhodesia to Independence, you’ll remember how accents alone could tell you which school someone went to, which suburb they came from and sometimes even how much money their parents had 😂😂😂
Just before full Independence in 1980, and during Bishop Abel Muzorewa’s short-lived Zimbabwe Rhodesia government of 1978/79, the old whites-only schools finally began opening their doors to Black, Coloured and Asian students.
Schools like Roosevelt, Churchill, Girls High, Oriel Boys, Gifford and others slowly started integrating.
Parents who could afford it rushed to enrol their children there. Suddenly a whole new generation of Zimbabweans began emerging.
By the mid to late 80s, and especially into the 90s, a completely different accent started developing. It was a unique blend of the old white Rhodesian twang mixed with the hard township and local accents many of us had grown up hearing.
These kids spoke with a smoother, softer nasal twang and quickly earned the nickname “Nose Brigades” from those still attending the F1 and F2 schools reserved mainly for Black students, and from some of us who had gone through Coloured schools like Morgan High and Founders.
Meanwhile, those with deep rural or ghetto accents were labelled VSRBs… “Very Strong Rural Backgrounds” 😂😂😂
There was always a silent class war hidden inside those accents.
The “Nose Brigades” were seen as polished, suburban and middle-class. The VSRBs were viewed as rough around the edges. But funny enough, many of the so-called VSRBs were academically brilliant and ended up humbling the very people mocking them.
Then came another generation altogether.
The “Nose Brigade” crowd slowly gave way to the “Salads”... also known in street lingo as “Ma Saladhi” or “Masalala.” The accents weren’t very different, but this new lot carried themselves with even more class consciousness than their predecessors 😂😂😂
When my brothers and sister got to the University of Zimbabwe, they used to tell me how some of these Salads would openly mock fresh arrivals from the rural areas because of their accents, constantly calling them VSRBs.
But the plot twist was beautiful 😂😂😂
Many of those same “VSRBs” proceeded to set lecture rooms on fire academically while the Salads watched in disbelief.
My brother from another mother
@DMwonzora ,Douglas “Dhagi” Mwonzora was one of those guys labelled a VSRB because of his hard accent, but he was exceptionally bright. Before long the mockery died a natural death 😂😂😂
Today, no matter where I am in the world, I can identify a Zimbabwean almost instantly just from the accent alone.
Whether it’s the Nose Brigade twang, the Salad accent or the deep VSRB growl, there’s something unmistakably Zimbabwean about all of them.
And speaking of VSRB accents… one man I could listen to all day is ZANU PF stalwart Patrick Chinamasa
@ChinamasaPA regardless of whether I agree with what his saying or not 😂😂😂
That man’s accent is deeper than the Zambezi Valley itself 😂😂😂