Mambo!
In November 2021 UNESCO declared July 7th World Kiswahili Language Day. Kiswahili, perhaps better known just as Swahili, is a language native to Eastern and Central Africa. It is estimated that there are more than 200 million speakers worldwide.
Swahili was once the lingua franca of trading societies in what was known as the Swahili Coast. In origin it is a Bantu language, but its history is reflected in the fact that up to 20% of its vocabulary is made up of loan-words from Arabic. Like most languages, Swahili continues to adapt and borrow from other languages. Other languages reflected in its make-up include Portuguese, German, English and Hindi. Again, history explains why this is; this time, the colonial history of East Africa.
In my own home country, Tanzania, a conscious decision was made to promote Swahili as a language of national unity at the time of independence. Most Tanzanians at the time spoke regional Bantu languages with Swahili, alongside English, being more of a commercial and administrative language. Now, Swahili is very much the primary language of Tanzania. It is also an official or national language in Kenya, Ugandaand the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and is spoken to different extents in other East and Central African nations.
Countries outside the traditional Swahili heartlands have started to see its value as an international language. It has been introduced to schools in South Africa, Botswana, Ethiopia and South Sudan, and will soon be introduced in Namibia. Swahili was first suggested as a pan-African language in the 1960s by Julius Nyerere, who led the campaign to make it Tanzania’s national language. There is renewed support for this idea from many quarters, especially in universities across Africa. For example, the BBC reported on a student in Ghana, almost 3000 miles from Swahili’s heartland, who had taken up the language because she felt, "It's high time we move from the coloniser's language."English, French and Arabic are the other main international languages used in Africa.
I don’t know what will come of this movement. Maybe cultural influences will have a greater effect. Tanzanian music, known as Bongo Flava, is becoming increasingly popular, especially through the success of Diamond Platnumz, and Swahili is reaching a new audience through this music. As a Swahili speaker, I welcome the growth of this rich and vibrant language.
Some of you may recognise the Swahili phrase on my T-shirt in this picture. Maybe you’d like comment with any Swahili words you know – keep it clean please!
Writer - Pru Kimiti