twala, verb transitive

/ˈtwɑːlə//ˈtwa(ː)la/
Forms:
Also thwala.
Origin:
IsiXhosaShow more IsiXhosa thwala carry off, abduct.
Especially in traditional Xhosa society: to abduct (a girl or young woman) by force, often with the consent of her guardians, for the purpose of marriage.
1908 F.C. Slater Sunburnt South 58‘What are you doing with the girl?’ he asked. ‘Don’t you see we are carrying (twala) her,’ said the stout man. ‘I want her for my second wife.’
1961 P. Mayer Townsmen or Tribesmen 239Parents can privately authorize a suitor’s kin to thwala their daughter, that is, take her by suprise somewhere in the bush and carry her off by force to the suitor’s home, where she will be made to put on the clothes and insignia of a newly married wife.
1961 P. Mayer Townsmen or Tribesmen 240Next day four men thwala’d her as she was drawing water.
1963 Wilson & Mafeje Langa 47It shocked even the pagans, both because Christians do not ordinarily practice [sic]twala marriage, and no man had even been known to twala two women at the same time.
1971 Daily Dispatch 13 Feb. 2Pleading mitigation her council, Adv. J— asked the court to be lenient because Noranga was forced by her parents to marry a man she did not love. She was ‘twalaed’ (abducted..).
to abduct (a girl or young woman) by force, often with the consent of her guardians, for the purpose of marriage.
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19081971

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IsiXhosa
twala, ukutwala, nounn.2Tweede Nuwejaar, noun phrasen. phr.
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