mtumba

English

Noun

mtumba (uncountable)

Alternative form of mitumba.
- 2009, Peter Okaalet, Bridge Builder, page 92:
  We could not afford nice sweaters for them, […] so they wore threadbare ones bought from a mtumba, second-hand, clothes stall.
- 2020, Moraa Gitaa, The Shark Attack, page 124:
  The MV Indigo was a twenty-year old^[sic] former Russian-registered grain freighter, now registered as transporting sugar and mtumba clothes around the East African coast.

Swahili

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.). The sense of second-hand clothing is because second-hand clothes are often packaged in bundles or bales.^[1]^[2]

Pronunciation

Audio (Kenya): (file)

Noun

mtumba class III (plural mitumba class IV)

bundle, bale
(usually in the plural) secondhand article (especially clothes)

Adjective

-a mtumba (invariable)

secondhand

References

^ Martina Tondo (27 October 2023), “A third of all second-hand clothing shipped to Kenya is plastic waste in disguise”, in Lampoon‎^[1] (in English): “When the ships full of used clothes arrive at Mombasa port, large bundles are unloaded and placed in warehouses. These imported second-hand clothes are referred to as ‘mitumba’, a Kiswahili term meaning bale or bundle, as the clothing is often packaged in bales for sale to retailers.”
^ Morris Kiruga (1 December 2013), “‘Mtumba’ means bale, nay, second-hand in market language”, in Daily Nation‎^[2] (in English): “Mitumba is now synonymous with second-hand clothes in East Africa. It is a Kiswahili word for “bales” or “bundles”, but the modern-day use is in reference to the way second-hand clothes are packed in plastic bundles prior to shipping.”

[1] Martina Tondo (27 October 2023), “A third of all second-hand clothing shipped to Kenya is plastic waste in disguise”, in Lampoon‎^[1] (in English): “When the ships full of used clothes arrive at Mombasa port, large bundles are unloaded and placed in warehouses. These imported second-hand clothes are referred to as ‘mitumba’, a Kiswahili term meaning bale or bundle, as the clothing is often packaged in bales for sale to retailers.”

[2] Morris Kiruga (1 December 2013), “‘Mtumba’ means bale, nay, second-hand in market language”, in Daily Nation‎^[2] (in English): “Mitumba is now synonymous with second-hand clothes in East Africa. It is a Kiswahili word for “bales” or “bundles”, but the modern-day use is in reference to the way second-hand clothes are packed in plastic bundles prior to shipping.”

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