Wabenzin.
/wɑːˈbɛnzi/ In Africa, ‘the Mercedes-Benz tribe’: used jocularly to designate those black politicians, businessmen, and others whose success is characterized by their ownership or use of a Mercedes-Benz car.
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society > society and the community > social class > nobility > rank > [noun] > person of > characterized by ownership or use of Mercedes-Benz
Wabenzi1967
1967 Economist 8 Apr. 112/1 Africa is rapidly earning itself the reputation of the world's biggest joke..the ‘Wabenze’, the new but already well-known African people whose tribal mark is a ministership and a Mercedes.
1972 J. Biggs-Davison Africa—Hope Deferred x. 92 The sweeteners of deference and the shining, pennanted cars that have given their name to such new and privileged tribes as the ‘Wa-Benzi’.
1978 S. Naipaul North of South i. i. 42 ‘Wabenzi’ is the pleasantly jocular term used to describe the nouveau-riche black middle-class... They signal their status by the acquisition..of a Mercedes Benz. Hence, the Wabenzi—the Benz tribe.
1980 Times 17 July 11/1 The Wa-Benzi are the new tribe of Mercedes-Benz mounted black bureaucrats and politicos.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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n.1967