“aweh”
I randomly decided to look at my first album on my laptop a few wasted minutes ago because I wanted to upload something interesting that I hadnt thought about for a while … I had to giggle that it was photos of a day festival in Jozi starting with photos of Jack Parrow. For those of you unfamiliar, Mr Parrow is an anti-hipster-hispter rapping/vocalising his songs in slang ridden english-afrikaans with a unique unfashionably-obscurely-fashionable dress sense and generally completely entertaining and brilliant.
My teacher friend had us in hysterics this weekend at the classroom slang-lingo that gets used these days and how Mr Parrow’s saying “aweh” (that he uses the end of every sentence – think he means it in place of saying “word” among other things) and how its gets used as a general meaning for anything by her students. From that moment we all giggled and threw the saying as part of a way of understanding and articulating how ridiculously funny it is. One of his more/most popular songs reads “jy dink jy’s cooler as ekke” – roughly translated: you think you’re cooler than me.
… Later on this weekend, we got chatting to some chaps at my friends favorite local where we were celebrating and one of them said “aweh” … oh dear, age was obvious to us old ducks, totally cooler as ekke. totally hilarious, aweh.
Jack Parrow “in jou moeder se huisie” as I like to think of him.
(opening lines to his famed song – “jy dink jy’s cooler as ekke” )
Last night a friend pointed out to me the meaning and origin of “aweh” :
‘Aweh’ is a greeting or word for agreement/understanding that the funky kids of Namibia brought down along with them as they flooded the schools and universities of the Cape [South Africa]. It has infiltrated the main stream due to people such as Mr. Parow who use it notifiably!! It is similar to that of ‘Zef’, which has been used in Namibia and the Cape for ages, only to be commercialised by the Popularity of Die Antwoord[band]. I have heard both terms used frequently on my travels to Namibia and CT growing up – not so fresh but defs mainstream nowadays
~thanks Richie
Kovo,
‘Aweh’ is a greeting or word for agreement/understanding that the funky kids of Namibia brought down along with them as they flooded the schools and universities of the Cape.
It has infiltrated the main stream due to people such as Mr. Parow who use it notifiably!!
It is similar to that of ‘Zef’, which has been used in Namibia and the Cape for ages, only to be comercialised the the Popularity of Die Antwoord.
I have heard both terms used frequently on my travels to Namibia and CT growing up – not so fresh but defs mainstream nowadays
Many thanks,