The connotative meaning of the Xhosa word <i>umlungu</i> before and during the democratic era

Abstract

The meaning of umlungu is analysed as it evolved and assimilated many meanings around the start of colonialisation in South Africa and during the apartheid era. Colonialisation and apartheid psychologically persuaded black people to believe that anything better, rich and white in complexion was umlungu (a white person), and employers were mostly abelungu (white people). When they discovered that their fellow Africans acquired some of these attributes, they would call them abelungu abanyama, which means a black, white man. This article, using a qualitative research methodology, will show that the word umlungu assimilated different meanings due to the circumstances that black people endured during colonialisation.