Yesterday, I used to the word “muzungo” in a post. That’s what they call all us white folks around here. It would presumably mean “white people”, but someone named Morgan C. dug a little deeper and found out a much more interesting etymology:

The Rwandans didn’t always call white people abazungu. Back when the Germans were the colonizers, they were called German. The French were the French. Et cetera.

But after World War I, when the Belgians came to take over the territory from the Germans, they were called Abazungu, not Belgians.

…Because the verb that Muzungu and Abazungu come from is “kuzungura,” which means “to replace, to take over.”

So, it would seem Muzungu means replacers/ take over-ers. And so now it gets even more interesting. Morgan, again:

As a quick side note, the Kinyarwanda word for muzungu comes from the Swahili “mzungu.” Back in the days of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president, there was a rebel movement called the “Mau Mau,” which was actually an acronym:

Mzungu Aende Ulaya
Mweusi Apate Uluru

Which means: “Conquerors return to Europe, black men recover independence.”

So they’re not yelling “White people! White people!” every time we pass on the road or the street. They’re yelling “Conquerors! Conquerors!” I’m not sure which is worse, but if this is how the Rwandese treat they’re “conquerors” — jumping up and down, laughing, and smiling — then I can only imagine what they do for their liberators.

[Thanks Morgan C. Also home to the best English-Kinyarwanda Dictionary I know of. In case you want to brush up on your kinyarwanda (Oren, here's thinking of you).]