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Glite Dictionary
🏕️ A traditional hut village 🏚️ A slum settlement
manyatta

manyatta

1 9.9
A group of simple huts where herders like the Maasai live temporarily with their cattle
  • noun
  • UK
: manyatta
  • He spent half an hour telling us myths about how his people used to live in huts called manyattas and how their rite of passage to manhood was to kill a lion with a spear.

Examples

  • Families live in a traditional manyatta, where huts are made of mud and grass.

  • Naikosiai walked out the door and positioned himself in front of his house—his manyatta.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Then we go southeast to the old Manyatta and we are in the gerenuk country. "It will be nice to be there," she said.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The Maasai built their manyatta near the water source for easy access to drinking water.

  • During the festival, the vibrant colors of the clothing brightened the manyatta as the community gathered.

Synonyms

kraal
vsmanyatta
  • South African
1 9.9

An enclosed area where people keep cattle or live in huts in southern Africa

is a temporary people settlement used by East African pastoralists not an animal enclosure
douar
vsmanyatta
  • UK
1 9.9

A small village or camp in North Africa

is a settlement used by East African pastoralists rather than a general village

Surface Forms

manyatta singular
manyattas plural

Etymology

Manyatta comes from East Africa, from Swahili and the Maasai language where it meant 'home' or 'enclosure' of huts. So a manyatta is a group of huts used as a temporary camp or homestead, especially by people moving with their cattle.