Portuguese translation?

Question

Does anyone know the meaning of the Portuguese word "malunga"?

Answer 1

The name "Melungeon" comes from the Angolan-Kimbundu word malungu which
originally meant "watercraft". It was brought to Virginia with Angolan
captives arriving by sea in the 17th century. According to John Thornton of
Millersville University of Pennsylvania, and Linda Heywood of Howard
University,

"In Brazil, which had a heavily Kimbundu-speaking African population, the
term malungu was used
to mean anyone who had traveled on the same ship together, and gradually
extended (by definition) to
other close companions or friends. Since the word derives from Kimbundu
(the same word is also used
in Kikongo) and not Portuguese, there is no reason that it can't also be
used in areas outside Brazil
where the Angolans went."

The term was borrowed into Portuguese as "melungo" (shipmate) from Kimbundu
and Kikongo. Originally the Angolans in Virginia, as in Brazil, used the
name for those of their captive people who had come to the Americas on slave
ships. Professor Robert Slene wrote an article entitled, "Malunga, ngoma
vem! Africa encoberta e descoberta no Brasil" [Malungu, ngoma comes! Africa
uncovered and discovered in Brazil]. Slene notes that the philologist Macedo
Soares gave as a definition of "malungo"in 1880 (in Portuguese):

"companheiro, patricio, da mesma regiao, que veio no mesmo comboio"
parceiro da mesma laia,
camarada, parente." (translated: companion, fellow countryman, from the
same region, who travels on
the same conveyance, from the same background, comrade, relative).
Soares cites a 1779 Portuguese
dictionary with the example, "Malungo, meu malungo...chama o preto a
outro cativo que veio com ele
na mesma embaracao"...

which is translated (Malungo, my malungo...the black calls another
captive who
came with him on the same ship)

Slene finds the etymology of the Portuguese word melungo in the Angolan
malungu from the languages of Kimbundu, Kikongo, and Umbundu (spoken in
central Angola). In the modern languages, the definition of malungu can mean
"companion". Thornton and Heywood write:

"...the idea that the term means "shipmate" and could be extended to
"countryman" or "close friend"
and"relative" makes great sense to us and gives the term "Melungeon"
great significance."

The name "Melungeon" is likely an English elongation of the Kimbundu malungu, used by new Angolans in colonial Virginia to describe themselves; companions, shipmates, fellow passengers who had endured the great Atlantic crossing together. These first Angolans in British-America were the Ndongo, seized with their fellow countrymen by the Portuguese who, in 1618, came with a terrible ally to enslave and colonize.

Answer 2

It seems to me that there is something wrong with the spelling..I am not sure though.