Zulu Kingdom

• In South Africa “umlungu” is a word that’s commonly used to refer to white people.
• There was, however, a word “ubulungu” which meant “that deposited out by the sea” or sea scum.
• Many white South Africans don’t mind calling themselves umlungu – there are even T-shirt ranges bearing the word.
• The word umlungu has taken on multiple meanings as a result of historical events, showing how language evolves through social interactions.

Colonial times

• The sea’s tendency is to toss anything out that is dirty in order to clean itself.
• The shipwrecked white people were given the name “abelungu/umlungu”, which means “filth that is rejected by the ocean and deposited on the shore”.
• Some of those shipwrecked remained and the clan name Abelungu was used to record their children.
• Read more:
  Shaka Zulu is back in pop culture – how the famous king has been portrayed over the decades

  Various events throughout the colonial era forced black people into poverty, particularly after the Nongqawuse episode.

Apartheid

• An umlungu was an esteemed member of society during the apartheid era because of the power and authority that they possessed.
• It’s my view that because of the apartheid system, black people were psychologically influenced to perceive everything linked with a white person as better and of a higher standard.

Today

• The concept that anything finer, richer and whiter in colour is umlungu has given rise to new positive connotations for the term.
• The word umlungu today can refer to an employer, a black person of a certain ethnicity with a lighter skin colour, someone of higher standing, a wealthy person – or simply a white person.
• A black person who owns and runs a farm like a white person using a labour tenancy arrangement, for example, is referred to as an umlungu.