mfowethu, noun

/ˌ(ə)mfɔˈweːtʊ/
Plurals:
bafowethu.
Origin:
IsiZuluShow more IsiZulu, vocative of umfowethu (plural vocative bafowethu), umfo brother, kinsman + wethu our, ‘my’.
colloquial
Among speakers of Sintu (Bantu) languages:
1. ‘My brother,’ a term of address; mfo. Cf. bra sense 1.
1979 F. Dike First S. AfricanHayi Kona Max mfowethu, I’m not a coward, do what you like..do it now.
1979 M. Matshoba Call Me Not a Man 145One needs something cool to drink. Here’s a beer and a brandy, bafowethu.
1979 M. Matshoba Call Me Not a Man 195Give him the five cents, mfowethu.
1980 M. Matshoba in M. Mutloatse Forced Landing 106Say it again, mfowethu. We are all used to it at one time or another of our lives.
1982 Pace Nov. 47But mfowethu, do you think these days it’s easy to get away with controversial rulings like that one?
1987 Pace June 4Tell me, mfowethu, say you had been allowed to vote in the mlungu general elections, which party would you have made your X for?
1994 D. kaNdlovu in Sidelines Dec. 23Mfowethu, it was on July 14, 1990, when we woke up to find the hostel surrounded by hundreds of children bent on destruction.
2. As a common noun: a close friend.
1987 O. Musi in Drum June 58Hau, I sympathised with him, treating him like mfowethu; after all he even knew my clan-name, knew our chief way back home and sounded genuine.
‘My brother,’ a term of address; mfo. Cf. bra sense 1.
a close friend.
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19791994

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colloquial
mfo, nounn.mgqashiyo, nounn.
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