Why Zuma’s chuckles are no laughing matter

By Tinyiko Maluleke

The rise of President Jacob Zuma was as improbable as the elections of Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama. Unlike Obama, with his impressive academic credentials and Trump with his reputation as a successful businessman, the son of Gcinamazwi Zuma came to leadership without the advantage of fame, royalty, class or fortune.

“I am just an ordinary person,”said Zuma to his unauthorised biographer when asked why no one had written a book about him.

And yet, within the ANC, which he joined in 1959 at the age of 17, Zuma has managed to outmanoeuvre and vanquish men and women of considerable talent on his way up.

The only thing more astonishing than Zuma’s ascendancy has been his ability to survive politically. If Mandela left a legacy of nation building and Mbeki that of the African Renaissance project, Zuma may be remembered mostly for his tenacity and political survival skills.

Indeed, some may argue that, he has no business to still be at the helm in 2017. Not after the 783 counts of corruption charges, Nkandla, Marikana, State Capture GuptaGate, NeneGate and other gates. But Zuma has survived it all so far. Just like he survived Robben Island from December 30, 1963, when he was imprisoned at 21 years of age, until December 29, 1973, when he was released. All through the 10 years of his incarceration, Zuma “never received one visit”, writes his biographer.

There is nothing scientific about the widespread belief that names can influence character. Nevertheless, allow me to wonder aloud about the possibility of the names Jacob and Gedleyihlekisa shedding some light on Zuma’s character.

With a little help from his mom, Jacob of the Bible tricked his starving twin brother into selling him his paternal blessings for a bowl of goulash. And Biblical Jacob went on to live happily ever after. Except for those times when he had to draw deep into his bag of tricks so as to stay one step ahead of his furious twin brother, who was in hot pursuit. If there was Twitter in those Biblical times, Jacob’s twin brother would have launched #PayBackTheBlessings.

Two words appear to be key in Zuma’s other name, Gedleyihlekisa, namely, ukugedla (to gnaw) and the reflective, ukuyihlekisa (to cause oneself to laugh or to pretend to be laughing). Linguists Doke, Malcolm, Sikakana and Vilakazi provide several shades of meaning for ukugedla: gnaw with the teeth, a grinding pang of bodily pain and the act/sound of chewing something hard.

We may therefore tentatively deduce that the word Gedleyihlekisa speaks of one who gnaws at something or someone, while (pretending to or causing him/herself to be) laughing. Jeremy Gordin’s contextualised translation of the name into “someone who pretends to love with a deceitful smile” may be a little too colourful. But it doesn’t feel completely off the mark either.

It seems, therefore, that cunning (a character trait ascribed to Zuma by his biographer) and laughter appear to be deeply inscribed both in the meanings of the names of Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma and in his character.

No doubt laughter is Zuma’s favourite mode of delivery. At one time he told parliamentarians he did not know how to stop himself from laughing. As if he felt real pity for them having to endure his laughter! And then he asked them mercifully: “Is it hurting?” As if he would have stopped if they asked him nicely!

Many things seem to trigger Zuma’s laughter: from his own inability to pronounce difficult words, to his infamous difficulty in reading numbers. At these times his laughter forms part of his self-effacing character pose, for which he has become well known.

At other times, his laughter is defiant. He laughs precisely and deliberately where and when he is neither supposed nor expected to. At those times, Zuma’s laugh is like the flamboyant celebration of a goal scorer – in the faces of members of the losing team – during a tense a soccer match.

The aim here is both to celebrate victory and to strike a psychological blow.

Zuma has the uncanny ability to deploy a rich variety of laughing styles, spanning different kinds and tones of giggles to the most raucous forms of laughter. Sometimes his chuckles come mixed with scorn and derision – ukuklolodela in isiZulu.

An example of such derisive laughter came during his eye-rolling parody of what he saw as his detractors’ obsession with “Nnkaandlaa!” Consider that giggle of a laugh which explodes out of Zuma moments after witnessing the action of the parliamentary “white shirts” beating, pushing, dragging and carrying members of the EFF out of the parliamentary chambers.

Is that Zuma laugh a display of pure joy, disguised embarrassment or a just means of coping?

As well as his tried and tested cabinet reshuffles, his beautiful lead vocals and his vigorous dance moves, laughter seems to be a key tool in Zuma’s political survival kit.

As Zuma shuffles his nimble feet, occasionally breaking into a Michael Jackson moonwalk, you can be sure that he will sing and he will laugh his way to the end of his presidential term. While he is at it, he might shuffle the cabinet once or twice.

* Maluleke is a professor at the University of Pretoria and an extraordinary professor at the University of South Africa. He writes in his personal capacity. Twitter handle – @ProfTinyiko.