Magu

Magu may refer to:

See also

Magu District

Magu District is one of the seven districts of the Mwanza Region of Tanzania, East Africa. Its administrative centre is the town of Magu on the Simiyu River. It is bordered to the north by Lake Victoria and Busega District, to the east by Bariadi District, to the south by Itilima District, Maswa District, Kwimba District and Misungwi District, and to the west by the city of Mwanza, which consists of Nyamagana District and Ilemela District.

As of 2012, the population of Magu was 299,759. This is less than the district's population in 2002, when the number was 416,113, due to the fact that the district was split up in 2012 and about half of the original Magu district is now part of the new Busega District, Simiyu Region.

Administrative subdivisions

Constituencies

For parliamentary elections, Tanzania is divided into constituencies. As of the 2010 elections Magu District had two constituencies:

Divisions

As of 2012, Magu District was administratively divided into four divisions:

Magu (deity)

Magu (Chinese: 麻姑; pinyin: Mágū; Wade–Giles: Ma-ku; literally: "Hemp Maiden") is a legendary Taoist xian (仙 "immortal; transcendent") associated with the elixir of life, and a symbolic protector of females in Chinese mythology. Stories in Chinese literature describe Magu as a beautiful young woman with long birdlike fingernails, while early myths associate her with caves. Magu xian shou (麻姑獻壽 "Magu gives her birthday greetings") is a popular motif in Chinese art.

The name

Magu's name compounds two common Chinese words: ma "cannabis; hemp" and gu "aunt; maid".

Ma (the modern Chinese character 麻, which derives from a Zhou Dynasty bronze script ideograph, shows 林 "plants" drying in a 广 "shed; shack") originally meant "hemp, Cannabis sativa". Cannabis has been continuously cultivated in China since Neolithic times (Li 1974:437); for example, hemp cords were used to create the characteristic line designs on Yangshao culture pottery and the fibres were used to produce cloth prior to the introduction of cotton. Ma has extended meanings of "numbed; tingling" (e.g., mazui 麻醉 "anesthetic; narcotic"), "pockmarked; pitted" (mazi 麻子 "hemp seed; pockmark"), "sesame" (zhima 芝麻), and an uncommon Chinese surname.