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From: David Gordon <dg165@umail.umd.edu> As part of an investigation into early African perceptions of Europeans, I'm trying to locate the etymology of the term "muzungu / mzungu / msungu", which in a variety of forms of the -zungu / sungu / lungu root seems quite widespread among Bantu languages as a reference to European people or things European. I'm familiar with 19th c. references to Portuguese "mulattos" in south-east Africa as muzungu, and of course to its current usage as "white person", but any ideas on its early origins.
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