Mambookie

English

Alternative forms

• Mambuki, Mambucki

Etymology

Uncertain. Probably from Xhosa amaMbo or Zulu amaMbo affixed with the Afrikaans -ie diminutive; compare Tambookie. Alternatively a Khoekhoe term. First attested in 1786.

Noun

Mambookie (plural Mambookies or Mambookie) (South Africa, obsolete)

1. Synonym of Mpondo (“a Bantu people group indigenous to South Africa or a member of it”).
   • 1786, Anders Sparrman, translated by Georg Foster, A Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, 2 edition, volume 2, page 147:

     Adjoining this nation, towards the north, there is, according to them, a still more warlike and intrepid people, whom they call Mambukis.

   • 1836, Robert Godlonton, Introductory Remarks to a Narrative of the Irruption of the Kafir Hordes Into the Eastern Province of the Cape of Good Hope, A.D. 1834-35, Meurant and Godlonton, page 211:

     [A]s, for instance, at the present day we find the Amakosa and Amatembu branches perfectly distinct from that of the Mambookie.

   • 1851, Robert Gordon Latham, editor, The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies, →ISBN, page 76:

     Between the Amatembu and Port Natal lie the Amaponda, or Mambuki (Mambookies) […]

   • 1812, Hinrich Lichtenstein, translated by Anne Plumptre, Travels in Southern Africa, volume 1, Henry Colburn, page 298:

     Proceeding along the coast, the next tribe to the Koossas is one which is called by many different names; that by which it is most generally known is the Gonaaquas, but by the colonists they are usually called Mambuckis.

Descendants

• → German: Mambucki

Adjective

Mambookie (not comparable) (South Africa, obsolete)

1. Synonym of Mpondo (“of or relating to the people group”).
   • 1827, George Thompson, chapter 18, in Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa, volume 2, Henry Colburn, page 203:

     The reader, by referring to the map, will perceive that the great range of mountains  […] is continued through what is called the Mambookie country, and that of the tribes beyond, as far as the vicinity of Delagoa bay.

   • 1834, Thomas Smith, John Overton Choules, The Origin and History of Missions, page 166:

     He is not a Caffe, but a Mambookie chief, residing about one hundred and twenty miles from Butterworth, in a direct line towards Port Natal.

References

• “Mambookie, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.