Bantu Words Popularised in Western Cultures
Some words from various Bantu languages have been borrowed into western languages. These include:
- Bomba
- Bongos
- Boogie-woogie
- Bwana
- Candombe
- Chimpanzee
- Conga
- Goobers
- Gumbo
- Hakuna matata
- Impala
- Indaba
- Jenga
- Jumbo
- Kalimba
- Kwanzaa
- Mamba
- Mambo
- Mbira
- Marimba
- Rumba
- Safari
- Samba
- Simba
- Ubuntu
A case has been made out for borrowings of many place-names and even misremembered rhymes such as "Here we go looby-loo ... " – chiefly from one of the Luba varieties – in the USA.
Read more about this topic: Bantu Languages
Famous quotes containing the words words, western and/or cultures:
“... it was religion that saved me. Our ugly church and parochial school provided me with my only aesthetic outlet, in the words of the Mass and the litanies and the old Latin hymns, in the Easter lilies around the altar, rosaries, ornamented prayer books, votive lamps, holy cards stamped in gold and decorated with flower wreaths and a saint’s picture.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“Every age, every culture, every custom and tradition has its own character, its own weakness and its own strength, its beauties and cruelties; it accepts certain sufferings as matters of course, puts up patiently with certain evils. Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap.”
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)