BA MWENYE – HOW ZAMBIANS BEGAN CALLING INDIANS “MWENYE”
Indians from Gujarat arrived in what was then the British territory of North-Eastern Rhodesia (later part of Northern Rhodesia and now Zambia) in 1905 via Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) or the British Central Africa Protectorate (later Nyasaland, now Malawi). Unlike the population of Indians in South Africa, the proportion of indentured labourers among them was quite small; most instead were skilled artisans or businesspeople.
The word “Mwenye” is of Swahili origin. Mwenye literally means owner. Mwenye is Mwini in Tonga, Mwine in Nyanja and Umwine in Bemba.
Back in the early days of Indian settlement in East and Central Africa, they became well known for being shopkeepers as that was the business they did well at. So to be Indian became synonymous with being a shop owner. So an Indian settler was called Mwenye Duka, which in Swahili means a shop owner. By the way, the Swahili word Duka (shop) was also loaned to Bemba as Tuka or Ituka with the same meaning.
Eventually the meaning of owning shops completely got lost and “Mwenye” simply came to mean a person of Indian origin.
SOURCE: Pwando 24