giya, noun

/ˈɡiːjə//ˈɡiːja/
Forms:
Also ukugiya, and with initial capital.
Plurals:
unchanged.
Origin:
IsiZuluShow more IsiZulu giya perform a war-like dance.
A Zulu dance (often performed at weddings) which celebrates conquests in battle, and in which exaggerated acts of aggression are mimed. Also attributive.
1905 R. Plant Zulu in Three Tenses 39Together with the bride’s brothers, he begins a frantic leaping and jumping performance called uku giya.
1923 G.H. Nicholls Bayete! 25None but those who had been often in battle could perform the giya...It now remained for him to show by the giya that he was worthy of such warriors.
1943 D. Reitz No Outspan 65Many of them were indulging in the provocative custom of giya whereby a man would break rank and rush forward, leaping and stamping, his shield and stabbing spear held threateningly aloft, while he boasted of his prowess in battle and his victories.
1955 E.A. Ritter Shaka Zulu 23Shaka’s commander, Buza, and in fact the whole regiment, did not fail to note the prowess of the young warrior; he was allowed to lead the giya or victory dance.
1960 J. Cope Tame Ox 20As a thousand hands clapped a rhythm, he whirled into the giya dance with a stupendous leap, the war-dance of the Zulus.
1961 T.V. Bulpin White Whirlwind 97He watched with humour and admiration as renowned warriors singled themselves out in the vain-gloriously exciting custom of Giya..; leaping into the air with shield and spear; running in front of the dancers with long, exaggerated strides; brandishing their skins and sticks; and shouting out the praises and glorious deeds of themselves, their regiments and chief.
1979 C. Endfield Zulu Dawn 150Earlier on that same day he had participated in the giya, the exaggerated dance-mime performed by the regiment before the King, wherein was enacted the fantasy of how the shields they were begging would be used in engagement against the enemy. But the giya of some of the warriors were not fictions. They were accounts of true feats in battle, or in the hunt.
1991 J. Clegg on M-Net TV Feb.The Zulu male body is wired up to perform certain symbolic acts..which include..a thing called the giya which is like shadow-boxing but with your weapons, to show off your skill.
A Zulu dance (often performed at weddings) which celebrates conquests in battle, and in which exaggerated acts of aggression are mimed. Also attributive.
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IsiZulu
girl, nounn.giya, verb intransitivev.
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