Bunga (pronounce bung-gah)
(1) A name given by locals to a location near
Moreton Bay in what is now the state of Queensland, Australia.
(2) Phrase associated with a visit by a fake Prince
of Abyssinia and his entourage to a British warship in 1910.
(3) A term used by for former Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi to describe some of the social events he hosted, derived apparently from certain behaviour at the events.
Early 1800s: A word known in English in the
early nineteenth century, drawn from various parts of the British Empire. In Malay-speaking countries bunga means
flower and bunga bunga is the plural. It’s
an Aboriginal place name in Queensland and the name of a deity worshiped in
Malaysia, Thailand, the southern Philippines and northern Sumatra
The Dreadnought Hoax
In 1910, Horace de
Vere Cole (1881-1936), Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), her brother Adrian Stephen (1883-1948) and a small group of
friends, made up in the now socially unacceptable black-face, pretended to be
the Prince of Abyssinia and his entourage, obtaining permission to visit the Royal Navy battleship HMS Dreadnought at anchor in Weymouth, Dorset. The party was welcomed aboard the ship and an honor guard presented arms, accompanied by a rendition of a national anthem (which actually wasn't that of Abyssinia). It was reported that each time they were
shown some marvel of the ship, such as electric light, they murmured the phrase
bunga, bunga! When the pranksters revealed the hoax, there was some embarrassment but remarkably, it transpired no laws had been broken so prosecutions weren't possible (it would be very different today). The Dreadnought's junior officers decided justice had to be done and met in the wardroom, staging a symbolic thrashing of the buttocks of the male miscreants. Ms Woolf wasn't punished in absentia, the Royal Navy's long tradition with the lash not extending to the spanking of women.
Silvio Berlusconi and the bunga bunga parties
Officially, former Italian
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (1936-2023; prime minister of Italy 1994-1995,
2001-2006 & 2008-2011) hosted private parties. It later emerged they were a sort of
semi-structured orgy run by signor Berlusconi to permit his (male) friends to enjoy the conversational skills of young women, anxious to please both host and guests. Some of the women were younger than others
and one turned out to be Ruby the Heartstealer,
a pleasingly pneumatic nymph younger even than she at the time admitted.
Evidence Ruby the Heartstealer supplied in 2010 suggested she had received US$10,000 from signor Berlusconi while attending parties at his mansions. Hoping to clarify the nature of these events, Ruby the Heartstealer described orgy-like behaviour where signor Berlusconi and more than a dozen young women performed an “African-style” ritual, referred to by those in attendance as "bunga bunga", the young ladies performing in varying degrees of undress. Ruby the Heartstealer though maintained she never enjoyed intimacy with signor Berlusconi and that he "behaved like a father", adding he had given her the cash only because she had told him she was in some trouble. In June 2013 he was found guilty of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and of abusing his office, was sentenced to seven years in prison and banned from holding public office for life. A year later, judges in Milan overturned the conviction on appeal and the only conviction which was sustained was for tax evasion although, because of his age, he was spared prison and required to perform "community service". Ruby did lie to him about her age and and few would deny it was at least plausible she was older. Really, he was a victim.
A great character in European politics, he remains Italy's longest-serving prime-minister since Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943), a reasonable achievement given the churn-rate in those years. Although there were scandals aplenty signor Berlusconi proved to be a great survivor and as soon as the pleasing technicalities of Italian law allowed his ban on seeking public office to expire earlier than that imposed in the headline sentence, he sought a seat in the European Parliament and was elected in 2019 and three years later returned to the Italian Senate after winning a seat in the 2022 Italian general election which brought Giorgia Meloni (b 1977; prime minister of Italy since 2022) to power. There will be critics and it's absurd to suggest (as a few have) that he was to blame for the political emergence of Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) and polarizing as he was, many of his achievements were real and Italy has had prime-ministers who promised more and did less. The government announced a national day of mourning for Wednesday 14 June, the day his state funeral will be conducted at Milan Cathedral. Despite it all, he'll always be remembered as someone who got a bit of fun out of life and there are worse ways to be remembered.
Silvio's linguistic gift: After bunga bunga re-entered the language, not even The Observer could resist using it when commenting (with their usual superior air) on Vanity Fair's photo-spread of Lindsay Lohan for the Italian edition.
