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Wabenzi

Term referring to corrupt government officials

Summary

Term referring to corrupt government officials

Wabenzi is an Anglicization of the pejorative Bantu colloquialism WaBenzi, originally used in Kenya to refer to members of the new ruling class that superseded the colonial regime, that has come to refer to the new ruling class in any post-colonial African country. The term usually refers to a corrupt government official, or family member of one, and derives from their being seen as driving an imported car. "Wa" is a prefix that refers to people in some Bantu languages; "benzi" comes from Mercedes-Benz, a car perceived as prestigious. The Anglicized spelling form is more common than the original Bantu WaBenzi.

References

Eliseev, Alex, [http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/it-s-a-wabenzi-frenzy-1.446221 Its a Wabenzi Frenzi] June 2009, IOL News. Retrieved June 2011
978-0-14-196197-2. Retrieved June 2011
Tarzie Vittachi, The Brown Sahib, London: Deutsch 1962
Tarzie Vittachi, The Brown Sahib Revisited, Penguin India 1988 {{ISBN. 978-0-14010784-5

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

class-related-slurs colloquial-terms corruption-in-kenya society-of-kenya upper-class

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