Mantateen.adj.
/manˈtɑːti/, U.S. /ˌmænˈtɑdi/, South African English /mənˈtɑːti/ Now historical.
A. n.
1. (A name for) a member of the Batlokwa people which, during the early 19th-cent. under the leadership of MmaNtatisi, created instability in the area later known as the Orange Free State (now the Free State province of South Africa).This instability was part of the larger 19th-cent. southern African population movement known as the Mfecane (see Mfecane n.).
ΚΠ
1823 R. Moffat in I. Schapera Apprenticeship at Kuruman (1951) 84 The Mantatees had driven the Barolongs from their town.
a1832 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) XIX. 666/2 This barbarous horde, called Mantatí, i.e. Invader or Marauder, by the Mátshapings.
1939 V. Ellenberger tr. in Bantu Stud. 13 175 Sebetuane..was joined by two other chiefs... They left the vicinity of the Vaal at the beginning of 1823... They were overtaken by their old enemies the Batlôkwa (Mantatees) who were also roaming about the country.
1961 R. F. Kennedy Jrnl. T. Baines I. 67 The Mantatees, a marauding horde under the leadership of Ntatisi the chieftainess of the Batlokua,..laid waste the country and destroyed the tribes between the Caledon and the Vaal Rivers, and farther north.
1970 Standard Encycl. Southern Afr. VII. 180/1 Her name was so feared that the groups fighting between the Vaal and the Orange Rivers were frequently, but erroneously, referred to as Mantatees (followers of MaNtatisi).
1989 J. Crwys-Williams S. Afr. Despatches 14 A general assembly of the tribes making up the Bechuana nation..was called together at Kuruman to meet the threat of advancing Mantatees.
2. In extended use: a person of Sotho (as opposed to Nguni) origin; esp. (in the Cape Colony) a Sotho refugee.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > ethnicities > peoples of Africa > peoples of Southern Africa > [noun] > Bantu peoples > person
Kaffir1588
Zulu1824
Mantatee1833
Basotho1835
Mosothoa1838
knobnose1839
Manganja1859
1833 Graham's Town Jrnl. (S. Afr.) 6 June 3 The greater part..of these aliens, are destitute people of the Bechuana tribes, usually designated by the Frontier farmers ‘Mantatees’.
1843 J. C. Chase Cape Good Hope 238 The Mantatees, the remnants of tribes broken up and dispersed by the Zoolah conquests in 1822 to 1824.
1848 T. Baines Jrnl. (1961) I. 67 We were met..by a couple of Mantatees, or, more properly, Ficani..and soon after, another pair of the same tribe..sauntered out of an adjoining field.
1864 Lady Duff-Gordon in F. Galton Vacation Tourists & Trav. 1862–3 151 The boots here is a mantatee, very black, and called Kleen-boy, because he is so little.
1985 Weekend Post (Port Elizabeth) 27 July 5 The building..was built for and by a group of Southern Sothos called the Mantatees. The Mantatees had fled across the Orange River and settled in the area.
B. adj.
Of or relating to the Mantatees; (in extended use) Sotho (see Sotho adj.).
ΚΠ
1827 G. Thompson Trav. S. Afr. i. xiv. 161 I gave a hasty sketch of the state of affairs on the northern frontier, and what I had seen and heard of the Mantatee invaders.
1882 J. P. Peters tr. W. Müller Polit. Hist. Recent Times (rev. ed.) Index 686/1 Secocoeni, Mantati chief.
1934 E. A. Walker Great Trek vi. 176 Sometimes the waggons returned from the neighbouring Zulu or Mantati kraals beyond the upper Tugela fully loaded, but often they came trundling home empty.
1972 A. Scholefield Wild Dog Running 134 A branch of the Mantatee horde called the Fetcani had driven south-west and, after savaging the land of the Tambookies, were now plundering the country of the Galekas.
1980 J. Cock Maids & Madams 200 Somerset arranged for the original 13 Mantatee women and children to be apprenticed for seven-year periods in Graaff Reinet.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2000; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1823