It’s something I’ve been battling with since I came to Kenya in 2007. This evening I was walking through Uthiru after work and some kids saw me and shouted, “Mzungu!” You’d think I’d be used it by now but alas, even after two years of living in Tala and hearing kids shout that and more at me every day as I walked the two kilometers to the market, it still bothers me. Plenty of well-meaning Kenyans have tried to explain to me that it just means “white person,” but I’m yet to be persuaded; a “mzungu” is a person who comes from the magical country of “zungu.” Huh?
You see, the rules of Swahili say that you prefix the name of a country with an “m” to denote a person who is a native of that country. For example, an “mkenya” is a person from Kenya. An “mtanzania” is a person from Tanzania. I don’t know what a person from America is, because I’ve only heard it like once. I think it’s something like “mamericano,” but that sounds like something you’d order at Starbucks and it’s irrelevant anyways. It’s irrelevant because even if they were yelling “American,” that doesn’t make any sense either. In what universe is it acceptable to yell someone’s country at them as a greeting? Besides, you don’t hear Kenyans yelling “Ugandan!” when a Ugandan dude walks by… they say, “Niaje?!” (what’s up?).
In Kenya, as long as you’re not black or Indian, you’re a mzungu… unless you are Filipino or Japanese (or anything else Asian which is NOT Chinese), in which case you are Jackie Chan and you know karate. Pole sana, guys (so sorry)!
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Lover of Linux, death metal and Indian food, blogs about living and working in Nairobi, Kenya.
Hey, I am a mhindi and they still called me “muzungu”.
Thaths, pole sana! Welcome to the club…?
I come from the magical country of Zungu… where the food is served in plastic containers and has no flavor.
China? :)
Alan, I think I just heard your vuvuzela all the way here in the states.
I don’t have a vuvuzela… maybe you forgot to turn off the vuvuzela “feature” on youtube? :)
Alan, sorry about that, but it’s a kidds thing.
there are some kids, no matter how many mzungus
they see, they will still be amazed!
It can be annoying, especially if the follow you around, but that’s just it.. Pole sana!
I don’t get it. When kids in our country see Chinese people, do they shout “Chinese! Chinese!” When they see a black person, do they shout “African!” I know its a kid thing, but its just rude. And you can’t even say its a kid thing, because parents ACTIVELY ENCOURAGE their kids to do it. I see parents every day, showing me to their kids and teaching them say “Jambo mzungu.” DON’T TEACH THIS TO YOUR KIDS. How many parents in our country do we see teaching their kids to say say “How Red Indian” when you see a native American? No. How many would protest if we began doing this? Its just so frustrating, so offensive somehow. Please, Kenyans, stop calling us mzungu. Its rude. We hate it.
I feel like you and I wrote the same blog post, haha. The ONLY reason new babies learn this is because parents teach them… where else would it be coming from!? It’s just so annoying.
hahahah. Exactly. I don’t know why they do this. Do they think we like it? Or they just get off on it for some reason?