Appendix:Glossary of isiGqumo

Here is a list of terms in isiGqumo, a cant (argot, jargon) used by the Bantu, African mine workers in small townships in South Africa, in same-sex circumstances. This jargon arose as male workers often lived in hostels without their families and developed relationships with their fellow workers. The cant, which does not currently have an entry in ethnologue, draws on the Sotho, Shona, Nguni, Tswana and Zulu languages.

Vocabulary

• injonga - active male
• mantlwana - a gay free-spot in the mines
• masala - versatile male
• nongolozi - gay man - derived from a Johannesburg gang called the Ninevites, whose leader Nongoloza Mathebula forbade contact with women.
• skesana - passive male
• shaya marete - to masturbate

See also

• Gayle

References

• Gayle: the language of kinks and queens: A history and dictionary of gay language in South Africa, by Ken Cage, Moyra Evans, 2003, page 23.[1]
• Moffies by Bart Luirink
• Gayle: South African Gay slang, by Laura Eddy, ETONSA.
• Homosaurus - A to Z of anything queer
• Boy-Wives and Female Husbands, by Stephen O Murray and Will Roscoe, an article on historical same-sex partnerships in Africa with a list of native African terminology