Reconsidering the Etymology of the Ethnonym Balanda: An Oral-Historical and Linguistic Perspective from the Njo Viri Language

The ethnonym Balanda has frequently been attributed in colonial and post-colonial literature to a Bongo-language origin, often glossed as “people of the mountain.” This paper presents an alternative explanation grounded in Balanda oral history and linguistic analysis of the Njo Viri language. Drawing on documented grammatical structures and morphemes, it argues that the name Balanda derives from an internally coherent Balanda expression meaning “people like us,” and that the commonly cited form emerged through colonial mistranscription and semantic reinterpretation.