Origin of Name "Melungeon"

Portuguese diplomat Louis de Sousa added to Kennedy's research saying, "West Africans used the word Mulango to refer to white people. They would mean people from Portugal, as Portuguese were the first white people they saw."
It was never an approved Portuguese word.The term was used in many nationalities with various spellings, but similar pronunciation. This included the Portuguese, Berber, Arabic, Turkish, West Africa, and among the Spanish/Moors. It developed into meaning shipmates to these disenfranchised people. Some were captured, or of the lower classes sent from their homelands to battle or to colonize other lands. Mulungo is seen in Spanish folk stories according to Eloy Gallegoes, Spanish historian. Dr. James Guills author of the book, "Azores Islands, A History," 1993, told me that, the Portuguese word "Mulungo's for shipmate was used by all the families sent to the Azores. And, to all other places they went to colonize. All the people on board the ships sent to the Azores were Malungos and would identity themselves as such to anyone one they might meet. Or, to anyone they might encounter later in their new location." It was suggested to Kennedy that the sea travel of the Ottoman Turks should be looked at. They certainly conscripted a variety of nationalities into their vast Empire. People moving throughout the world in the 15th-18th centuries would be revisited. He learned from Turkish scholars, the term 'Melun can' among the Turkish Levant Ottoman soldiers was pronounced the same as Melunjun. Meaning lost or cursed soul. Arabic Melun jinn meant cursed spirit. Melungeon, with various spellings and similar sound, was used by the Turks, Moors, Arabs, and Portuguese. Was Melungeon perhaps used by others who considered themselves disenfranchised ethnic mixed peoples of 'fringe' tribes from the Caribbean, West Indies or elsewhere? Perhaps some sent to colonize, to battle, or as marauding lost traders, never to return to their home lands. Mulungo / Melunzhawn / Melun can / Melunjinn / Melungeons were all terms for disenfranchised people.

Evelyn McKinley Orr
Gowen Research Foundation