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Muzungu

By jojoraewilliams

If you are white and ever find yourself outside in Uganda, a chorus of "Muzungu, Muzungu!" will follow you wherever you go. Kids will chase you yelling it, men will try to get your attention with it, and taxi conductors will shout it to get you to go with them. Being white in Uganda you already stick out like a sore thumb, and having locals constantly point it out doesn't help very much. Muzungu is just their name for a non-African, and while sometimes it can get on your nerves, if you remember that no one means it to be offensive, you get used to it pretty quickly.

The word actually means wanderer and has an interesting history. When Europeans first started exploring Africa the locals didn't understand why all these crazy white guys were just walking aimlessly into the bush, so the locals starting calling the explorers wanderers, or Muzungus. The name stuck and has spread to most of East Africa. After years of colonialism and then the era of aid in this continent, Muzungu has evolved to also mean a person of wealth and so sometimes wealthy locals are called it as well.

Muzungu will follow me around for the rest of my time here. As I hike the beautiful national parks, walk the banks of the Nile, or continue exploring the crowded capital I think about how the term wanderer is fitting.