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Punda Maria "Punda Maria is a bastardisation of the Swahili word for zebra, which is punda miliya. The name of the camp was coined in 1919 by the first ranger in charge of the area, JJ "Ou Kat" Coetser, who named it after his wife, Maria. She apparently hated the rigours of living in such an isolated part of the country and had a predilection for striped dresses."

Source: Prime Origins Guide to Exploring Kruger

Hi there. Can any one tell me were the name "Dugga boy" comes from for a old Buffalo bull.

Ogilvie, as far as I know that it is derived from a black language, but I am not sure which one. It refers to the mud that covers them after they have gone wallowing for a while. They do have a habit of spending long hours covering themselved with this mud.

I remember when the Orpen cam had a natural waterhole, we spent a long long time wondering if an old dugga boy had died in the pool.

From the olden days.

Where did Transport (waterwhole) get his name from
On my last visit there I saw some rangers transporting a white rhino away to another park or an auction, but I think this won´t be the reason for the name

Tranport Dam= A dam donated to KNP by the National Department of Transport during 1971, after the terrible preceeding dry years.

I recently had a request for the meaning of Shilowa.

There is a tale going round that it is named after a man who who was not of sound mind who roamed the area, this is not quite true.

Shilowa is named after a Shangane chief who lived east of the Great Lebombo Mountains during the 19th century.

I am still exploring the name of BALULE.

I am still trying to find the meaning of Balule.

No one can tell me, none of the older generation and none of the current generation, no Shangane, Tsonga, Zulu, Pedi or Sotho dictionery or any note - nothing.

Should anyone have any information regarding this, please PM me.

Referring to RichPrins on page 1 on the name : Mhlanganzwane - it is a previous spelling of Nhlanganzwani.

Previously any spelling was accepted, in some old reports and journals one would find two or three different spellings for the same name in possibly as many or a few more pages.

Mr. Johan Kloppers who started as a Ranger in KRUGER and retired as a Deputy Director - Nature Conservation did much work in drawing maps of the Park from aerial photos and also the standardising of the different names.

When he started in the Park in 1955 the only reasonably reliable map of the Park was one issued by the Department of Water Affairs.

The many different spellings do not necessarily mean that they were incorrectly spelt, the were just phonetically written as heard by the listener.

Asked a Siswati teacher, and he suggested Sotho...although Pedi comes closest to that in the area referred to...

"Bha/Ba" means "place of", in most Northern local languages, as in "BhaPhalaborwa"

So now to find out who/what "Lule" is...probably just a misinterpretation of "lala" - "Sleep"?!

Thanks I have tried that one but it did not work.
The original name was Rimbalule, then changed to Olifants and then to Balule, please keep on trying.

Found this one here.
But I suppose you are looking for the traduction from Tsonga

So what does "Nhlanganzwane" mean, then?

According to my book it is ZULU: Nhlanganzwani - from inhlanga izinzwani, means "Reed Toes" probably referring to the thick reed bands (due to the many streams) in the bed of the Sabie River.

And it seems there were many previous spellings:
Mhalangamzwane, Mhlanganzwane, Nhlangmutwana, Nhlangamzwane, and Nhlanganzwane.

But as Gmlsmit says previously any spelling was accepted as it was based on the spoken language.