Where did the term Fun-ky originate from?

 The slang term "funky" in black communities originally referred to strong body odor, and not to "funk," meaning fear. The black nuance seems to derive from the Bakongo (Bantu) lu-fuki, "bad body odor," and is perhaps reinforced by contact with fumet, "aroma of food and wine," in French Louisiana. But the Bakongo word is closer to the jazz word "funky" in form and meaning, as both jazzmen and Bakongo use "funky" and lu-fuki to praise persons for the integrity of their art, for having "worked out" to achieve their aims or just gettin' deep.
    
     
In Kongo today it is possible to hear an elder lauded in this way: "like, there is a really funky person! - my soul advances toward him to receive his blessing."Baba Fu-Kiau Bunseki, a leading native authority on Kongo (Bantu) culture, explains:
"someone who is very old, I go to sit with him, in order to feel his lu-fuki, meaning I would like to be blessed by him." For in the Kongo the smell of a hardworking elder carries luck.
  
     

Capoeria Dancing from West Afrika by way of Brazil
   
   
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