"Good Juju" in Swahili

[GoodJuju]

Hi,

I was wondering if "Good Juju" in Swahili would be "Nzuri Juju".

Actually, I was also wondering it it would be correct to translate Good Juju into Swahili, or if it would be more appropriate to use another African language to which the Juju beliefs apply. If so, which language? And what would the translation be?

Thanks in advance!

[Sarabi]

I have no idea. What is Juju and why would Juju beliefs apply to a language?

The adjective follows the noun. Is Juju a person? In that case, you would say Juju mzuri. You might even have to add a person prefix if it is a person, though I wouldn't know for sure.

[GoodJuju]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juju

[kalemiye]

Nzuri isn't used to address white people?

[Sarabi]

Where did you get that idea?

I honestly don't know what you would say, but my guess would be juju nzuri. According to one dictionary, juju translates to juju, but there are no details.

[kalemiye]

Where did you get that idea?

I honestly don't know what you would say, but my guess would be juju nzuri. According to one dictionary, juju translates to juju, but there are no details.

My frıend that lıved ın South Afrıca for a year told me so, but I cannot remember ıf ıt was Nzurı or some other word that sounds close to that.

[Sarabi]

I don't know what living in South Africa has to do with Swahili, considering it's not spoken there. And South Africa is a relatively racist country. It's not nearly the same in Kenya or Tanzania, from what I understand.

[eskandar]

South Africa is a very racist country.

[Sarabi]

Sorry, I didn't mean to characterize the whole country. I was just posting quickly, and this is not a political forum. But obviously South Africa is much more famous for its racist problems than East Africa. I'm confident that I would have heard about it if there were a word like "nzuri" not used with white people because the Swahili language is big on greetings and has songs devoted to addressing foreigners.

[kalemiye]

Sorry I didnt have time to elaborate. My friend lived one year in Africa, travelling through many countries doing social works there. One of them was South Africa, but he's travelled\lived in pretty much all of Africa, including those you mentioned, Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda, Nigeria, Mali... While there, He learnt some Xhosa and Swahili. In Swahili, He was always addressed as a word similar to the "Nzuri" you are discussing, which seems to be used to address white people, which actually is not even a racist word but a respect term.

He told me that in South Africa He never had to face any problem related to racism, in fact, he lived with a Xhosa family for a while. Probably there are still racial problems there, but nobody should say it is a racist country without being there first or having enough information about this issues. I haven't have the chance of visiting it, but after my friend's feedback I am really looking forward to it.

[Sarabi]

Okay, lol. I apologize for making assumptions about your message. "Nzuri" means good, so I wonder in what sense he was "addressed" with this word. It is a response to being asked how you are. I've never heard of just greeting someone with "Nzuri!" and have no idea what that would mean. My guess is that it is not a term used to address "white people", but foreigners, and white people may be assumed to be foreigners. I say this because "Jambo!" is a simplified form of the greeting "Hujambo!" which is often used with those who do not speak Swahili. Just a guess, though. Of course, there are white people living in Kenya, for example, but supposedly white residents are not often seen in Nairobi.

I apologize again for characterizing South Africa. I don't think the point is whether or not I've been there, but it is not wise to characterize any nation as one homogeneous place.

[Sarabi]

I wonder if it's not "Mzungu" that your friend heard? Well, I guess it's probably not... It's just that I was reading a book about Nairobi and a guy being greeted, "Mzungu, mzungu! How are you, how are you?" Mzungu means "white person". Now that I think of it, from what I've heard, white people often get greeted with excessive giggles and staring in Kenya because there aren't that many white people there, so the children think it's funny.

[kalemiye]

I wonder if it's not "Mzungu" that your friend heard? Well, I guess it's probably not... It's just that I was reading a book about Nairobi and a guy being greeted, "Mzungu, mzungu! How are you, how are you?" Mzungu means "white person". Now that I think of it, from what I've heard, white people often get greeted with excessive giggles and staring in Kenya because there aren't that many white people there, so the children think it's funny.

Maybe it was Mzungu, since i know no Swahili myself all these words sound very similar to each other for me . My friend asked if there was a polite way to address the black people and everybody (black people that were teaching him some Swahili) started laughing haha.

Being in a place gives you first hand information about the place, that's why I mentioned it. I didn't mean to question if you yourself had been there.

[slipbats0]

''mzungu'' looks about right, since as far as i know, ''zungu'' means ''european person'' when you add the person prefix ''m-''.

(oops, i didn't read the above posts so this post looks pretty redundant now)