umlabalaba, noun

/ʊmˌlabaˈlaba/
Forms:
mlaba-laba, umlambalalaShow more Also mlaba-laba, umlambalala, umrabaraba.
Origin:
IsiZulu.
morabaraba. Also attributive.
1976 Sunday Times 10 Oct. 6I often found prisoners squatting in a circle outside their cells. This could be an innocent gathering for an umlabalaba game.
1979 C. Endfield Zulu Dawn 283Mlaba-Laba is played with great skill and rapidity by its Zulu practitioners. Boards are of several designs depending on the regions where Mlaba-laba is played...The game is structurally the same as a medieval European game called Nine-man Morris.
1982 Signature Sept. 21Baines missed very little...Such interludes as ‘three men playing a game with pebbles which they deposited in small holes’..and he went on to describe the game undoubtedly the one as seen on streets (and on TV3) as umlambalala.
1983 S. Jacobs in City Press 9 Oct. 3The Mlabalaba game programme should be scrapped...We’re living in the 20th century, not the stone age.
1985 W.O. Ka Mtetwa in Staffrider Vol.6 No.2, 44During dinner time a handful of men would gather under an oak tree to play umrabaraba.
morabaraba. Also attributive.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

19761985

Browse Related Words

By Category

Traditional African Sport and Leisure

By Origin

IsiZulu
umkumkani, nounn.umnumzana, nounn.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English