Bantu Survival in the Cuban “Lengua de Mayombe”-gctid91289

[Mani Kongo]

Bantu Survival in the Cuban
“Lengua de Mayombe”
William W. Megenney Professor, University of California, Riverside U.S.A.

It is a wellknown fact that Cuba received many Kmtyw slaves during its colonial period, many of which arrived from both the Sudanic- and Bantu-speaking areas of western Kmt. From the so-called Sudan strip (i.e., from the Senegambia in the North to the Cameroon) came mainly the Yoruba (lucumí or anagó in Cuba), the Efik (caAmwalí or Ibibio, also known as abakuá or brícamos in Cuba), and the Ewe/Fon (arará in Cuba). From the Bantu-speaking territories (i.e., principally from the Cameroon south into Namibia) came mainly the kiKongo and the kiMbundu, found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) and in Angola. It is from these Bantu folk that the regla de mayombe developed in Cuba and, despite the harsh odds brought about by slavery, survived as a religious cult, bringing with it an amazing amount of kiKongo derived words and expressions which are still used today by the practitioners of mayombe, a word deriving from kiKongo ma-yòmbe, ‘magistrate, chief, prince, governor’

                            Attached files  Lengua de Mayombe.pdf (253.2 KB)

[Mani Kongo]

1.2 "Not entirely transparent items"
2) basimbi
Simbi can be found in this Kituba (also called Munukutuba, Kikongo ya leta...) wordlist.
Here it means genie, water spirit, nature spirit :
http://www.abibitumikasa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39177
Even though Kituba didn't exist at that time it comes from Kikôngo.
Ba is a pronoun meaning "they" according to this dictionary (page 816 and 954)
http://www.abibitumikasa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43578

Simbi is definitely a Kongo word, it is also present in Haiti as we can see here :
http://www.abibitumikasa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77600&p=85496&viewfull=1#post85496
and there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simbi

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Ngânga Fu-Kiâu speaks of it as deriving from the verb sîmba - to hold onto with sîmbi meaning 'that which holds you up'

[Mani Kongo]

Obadele Kambon;91550 wrote: Ngânga Fu-Kiâu speaks of it as deriving from the verb sîmba - to hold onto with sîmbi meaning 'that which holds you up'

It makes me think of dimbu-bidimbu deriving from dimba (to mark, signify, imprint, or indicate) in your thread about Dikenga: http://www.abibitumikasa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78148&p=85857&viewfull=1#post85857

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Right, it's the process of deriving nouns from verbs in Kikôngo.

[SallImSayin]

Not sure if I have this one. Thanks