slightly off topic..."Mzungu"...

Hi..just wanted to see what peoples thoughts are on the african word '
Mzungu'...when I lived in Kenya, it was used to describe european settlers
and had absloutley NO derogatory intention or racist connotation to it, but
whilst on safari recently, a lot ot toursits took very verbal exception
whenever the word ' Mzungu' was mentioned.

Is ' Mzungu' evolved into a derogatory referal to colonials or is it still
an innocent used description?


like to see what you guys think....



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"the_niner_nation" wrote in message
.. .
Hi..just wanted to see what peoples thoughts are on the african word '
Mzungu'...when I lived in Kenya, it was used to describe european settlers
and had absloutley NO derogatory intention or racist connotation to it,
but whilst on safari recently, a lot ot toursits took very verbal
exception whenever the word ' Mzungu' was mentioned.

Is ' Mzungu' evolved into a derogatory referal to colonials or is it still
an innocent used description?

Mzungu is the Swahili name for white person. Mlungu (Zulu, iTsonga) has the
same meaning. No racial intentions, compare when you describe someone from
Asia.

Corné.

www.amukela.com

In message ,
the_niner_nation writes
Hi..just wanted to see what peoples thoughts are on the african word '
Mzungu'...when I lived in Kenya, it was used to describe european settlers
and had absloutley NO derogatory intention or racist connotation to it, but
whilst on safari recently, a lot ot toursits took very verbal exception
whenever the word ' Mzungu' was mentioned.

Is ' Mzungu' evolved into a derogatory referal to colonials or is it still
an innocent used description?


like to see what you guys think....



Hapana, Mzungu is just the Swahili word for a European . Like you I
lived in Kenya for a long time and didn`t find it to be a derogatory
term. Tourists probably didn`t know the actual meaning of the word.
Pat.
--
Pat Anderson

On Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:04:28 -0000, "the_niner_nation"
wrote:

Hi..just wanted to see what peoples thoughts are on the african word '
Mzungu'...

Mzungu is seldom used in a derogatory way.

In many small towns and villages in East Africa the kids will come
running up to you yelling "Mzungu, mzungu" at the top of their voices
because you are quite unusual. :-)

I find it a bit unsettling when I am specifically reffered to as "the
mzungu" instead of by my name when people are discussing issues that
involve me, but I understand that nothing negative is meant by it.

A more derogatory term that has evolved is "waBenzi", referring to
succesful black people who now drive Mercedes Benz's and tend to be
quite snooty and offish towards their own people.

Cheers,
Marc

Is ' Mzungu' evolved into a derogatory referal to colonials or is it still
an innocent used description?

like to see what you guys think....


Hello the-niner-nation,

I am a Tanzanian and KiSwahili is my language but not English, but, I
will try to explain.

The word 'mzungu' is generally used to refer to a 'white' person from
Europe or North America and sometimes any white person from Asia and
South America.

It is a good word not assosicated with 'hate race', it is a good way
to explain or distinguish somebody from the normal dark complexion of
our skin.

However, you should be alarmed when somebody calls you 'li-zungu' or
'ma-zungu' or 'kaburu' because, that is calling names. 'li-zungu'
means one mzungu who is not so friendly, it's more like calling
someone 'a thing' while 'ma-zungu' is the plural of 'li-zungu' and
'kaburu' is the worst of the three, it's racist meaning someone who is
colonial type, brutal, mean, etc. So simply and 'informal' the
opposite of Mzungu is Kaburu .

When somebody call you or your child 'ka-zungu' ...it means an
adorable white child (girl or boy) or a pretty white lady or a
handsome white gentleman.

Kwa heri! (Good Bye)
(kwa = with, heri = blessing)
Subi

"Subi - nukta77" wrote in message
...

Is ' Mzungu' evolved into a derogatory referal to colonials or is it
still
an innocent used description?

like to see what you guys think....


Hello the-niner-nation,

I am a Tanzanian and KiSwahili is my language but not English, but, I
will try to explain.

The word 'mzungu' is generally used to refer to a 'white' person from
Europe or North America and sometimes any white person from Asia and
South America.

It is a good word not assosicated with 'hate race', it is a good way
to explain or distinguish somebody from the normal dark complexion of
our skin.

However, you should be alarmed when somebody calls you 'li-zungu' or
'ma-zungu' or 'kaburu' because, that is calling names. 'li-zungu'
means one mzungu who is not so friendly, it's more like calling
someone 'a thing' while 'ma-zungu' is the plural of 'li-zungu' and
'kaburu' is the worst of the three, it's racist meaning someone who is
colonial type, brutal, mean, etc. So simply and 'informal' the
opposite of Mzungu is Kaburu .

When somebody call you or your child 'ka-zungu' ...it means an
adorable white child (girl or boy) or a pretty white lady or a
handsome white gentleman.

Kwa heri! (Good Bye)
(kwa = with, heri = blessing)
Subi

Subi...thnak you so much for taking time and offering such a wonderful
explanation!!
Asante!



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

In message
,
Subi - nukta77 writes

Is ' Mzungu' evolved into a derogatory referal to colonials or is it still
an innocent used description?

like to see what you guys think....


Hello the-niner-nation,

I am a Tanzanian and KiSwahili is my language but not English, but, I
will try to explain.

The word 'mzungu' is generally used to refer to a 'white' person from
Europe or North America and sometimes any white person from Asia and
South America.

It is a good word not assosicated with 'hate race', it is a good way
to explain or distinguish somebody from the normal dark complexion of
our skin.

However, you should be alarmed when somebody calls you 'li-zungu' or
'ma-zungu' or 'kaburu' because, that is calling names. 'li-zungu'
means one mzungu who is not so friendly, it's more like calling
someone 'a thing' while 'ma-zungu' is the plural of 'li-zungu' and
'kaburu' is the worst of the three, it's racist meaning someone who is
colonial type, brutal, mean, etc. So simply and 'informal' the
opposite of Mzungu is Kaburu .

When somebody call you or your child 'ka-zungu' ...it means an
adorable white child (girl or boy) or a pretty white lady or a
handsome white gentleman.

Kwa heri! (Good Bye)
(kwa = with, heri = blessing)
Subi
Subi,
thanks for the Swahili breakdown of Mzungu, I lived in Kenya for
several years but can`t speak fluent Swahili, if I had lived in a town
I would have gone to a class to learn, I had to make do with "Jifunze
Kiswahili" book and cassettes!
The word Kaburu," there was a site called Kenya Kaburus but it seems
to have gone, it was people in Kenya who wrote about their schools and
experiences in East Africa.
Asante sana.
Patricia.
--
Pat Anderson

Subi,

thanks for the excellent explanation!

Hans-Georg
http://elephanttrust.org/blog/2
--
No mail, please.

"Hakuna matata" (no problem)
I am glad I could help you understand some KiSwahili words.
Siku njema (Good day) or Usiku mwema (Good night).
Subi.

Dear Pat,
Kenyans speak and know more of English than KiSwahili, that's why they
always belittle Tanzanians because we largely speak KiSwahili while a
few understand English and very few speak English. So, I am not
astonished when they have/had a place called Kaburus, the 's' in the
end makes me think that, the word most likely originates from one of
the local languages rather than from KiSwahili so it could have a
different meaning from 'kaburu'.

A lot of Kenyans along the coast of the Indian oceans such as in the
towns of Mombasa and Lamu speak very good KiSwahili though, just like
the people of Zanzibar (Tanzania islands).

I do not know any good book one can use to study KiSwahili but, I
trust that some of the printed KiSwahili teaching books out there
could be helpful to someone who wants to know the a, be, che and moja
(1), mbili (2), tatu (3) of KiSwahili.

Good luck to you all and be blessed!
Subi.