Early Participants in the Kamusi Project

The following people participated in the early stages of the Kamusi Project, prior to the introduction of the Edit Engine. Information in this section was provided in 1995, and is certainly out of date. People listed on this page who would like to update their profiles are requested to join the project through the current registration system, through which we are able to credit all active contributors on our Participants Page.

Abdulla Mzee Abdulla (AMA8_at_PSUVM.PSU.EDU) is a native speaker of Kiswahili from Zanzibar. He is fluent in 3 Kiswahili dialects of the isles. He is a graduate of the University of Dar es Salaam with a major in Kiswahili. He is currently at Penn State University, in State College, PA.

Kassim Abdullah (kassim_at_ME.QUEENSU.CA) is a graduate student at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Queen's University, Canada. He writes: "I am a native Swahili speaker. I understand many Swahili dialects. Kiswahili is my first language, so, I will engage in all efforts towards its development. I will stand firm against its curruption. They say "old is gold", and I like the beauty of old, traditional Swahili.

Abdushakur Aboud (aaboud_at_voanews.com) is a Swahili radio broadcaster for the Voice of America.

Steven Anderson (anderson_at_aol.com)

Reite Arild (arild.reite_at_skripost.md.dep.telemax.no) .

Uriel Ballast (uriel_at_euronet.nl)

Kwame Bandele (BANDELE_at_DELPHI.COM) has studied linguistics at the graduate level. He reads and speaks Swahili regularly, and has studied with the Swahili Institute of Chicago. He also has some knowledge of other Bantu and Kwa African languages.

Gregory Barz (ST403323_at_BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU) just returned to the US from a year and a half teaching in the music department at the University of Dar es Salaam. He is writing a dissertation at Brown University on Tanzanian kwaya music.

Elena Bertoncini-Zubkova (AFRICA1_at_VM.CNUCE.CNR.IT) is a professor in the Dept. of African and Arabic Studies, Istituto Universitario Orientale, Napoli, Italy. She teaches Swahili language and literature in Naples, and intensive courses at INALCO (Paris) and other European universities. Her extensive publications about Swahili will be included in our list of references. Her mailing address is Via dell'Aeroporto 68, 56100 Pisa, Italy.

Ann Biersteker (abierst_at_YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU)

Tony Boucher (tboucher_at_canfor.ca)

Richard Chowning (chowning_at_ACUVAX.ACU.EDU)

Ellen Contini-Morava (elc9j_at_faraday.clas.virginia.edu) has compiled a fantastic list of 4650 Swahili nouns that we will soon incorporate into the Kamusi Project database. She is in Virginia.

Mathias Cyamukungu (MATHIAS_at_FYNU2.FYNU.UCL.AC.BE) is from the Great Lakes Region of Africa.

Robert Daniels (rdaniels_at_ospafha4.ssw.dhhs.gov)

Meredith Dixon (mdixon_at_vbs.com)

Hussein Farah (hfarah_at_interlog.com) is from Kenya.

Michael Fletcher (FLETCHER_at_YALEVM.cis.yale.edu) is at Yale.

Douglas Friend (dcf7_at_columbia.edu)

Mark Gandler received an MA in African Studies at Yale, with a specialization in economics. He served briefly on the Kamusi Project staff and was a 1995 participant in the Fulbright-Hays Swahili program in Tanzania.

Chege Githiora (githiora_at_student.msu.edu) is a Kenyan currently working on a doctorate in Linguistics at Michigan State University. In addition to serving on the Kamusi Project Staff, he is working on a Swahili-Spanish dictionary.

Gerhard Gonter (gonter_at_isis.wu-wien.ac.at)

Mehboob M. Hassani (mef3011_at_sakaau03)

Magdalena Hauner (HAUNERMA_at_MACC.WISC.EDU) is a professor of African Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her postal address is Department of African Languages and Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 866 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706.

Jon Hawkins (hawkjo_at_wwc.edu)

Thomas Hinnebusch (ibenarj_at_MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU ; HINNEBUS_at_HUMNET.UCLA.EDU) is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is coauthor with Sarah Mirza of _Kiswahili: msingi wa kusema, kusoma, na kuandika_, from which we drew part of our initial vocabulary.

Joel Hiza (hizaj_at_uclink.berkeley.edu) received his BA from Yale in 1993. He is currently studying for a doctorate in Political Science at UC Berkeley. He wrote his senior essay about the politics of Ujamaa in Tanzania, the country of his father's family.

Arvi Hurskainen (ahurskai_at_WALTARI.HELSINKI.FI) was born in Kitee, Finland. He has studied languages at the University of Helsinki, St. Giles School of Languages in London, and S.P.C.K. Language School in Nairobi, as well as receiving a degree in sociology and a PhD from Univerity of Helsinki. He has been a Professor of African Studies in the Dept. of Asian and African Studies at the University of Helsinki since 1989. His present activities with Swahili are extensive, and we hope he will soon have his Swahili corpus available for links on the World Wide Web.

Ellen James (james_at_LTUVAX)

Francine M. Jasper (fj10_at_CORNELL.EDU) is at Cornell.

Christopher Johnson (batian_at_GROVE.UFL.EDU) is at the Center for African Studies, Grinter Hall, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32601, USA. He has lived in Kenya for three years. His professional focus is Comparative Politics and Administration in Africa with a particular emphasis in East Africa. He writes: "I have downloaded the fruits of the project so far and am using it in the Swahili class I have here. It has already come in quite handy. There you have it, an unsolicited testimonial, ladies and gentlemen..."

Ben Kobus (benk_at_reso.demon.co.uk)

Steven Krueger (0005507294_at_mcimail.com)

Jeff Lanse (jlanse_at_csua.berkeley.edu)

Richard Lepine (lepine_at_nwu.edu) is the Director of the Program of African and Asian Languages, 356 Kresge Hall, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-2209.

Rajab Litto (litto_at_KJEMI.UNIT.NO) lives in Trondheim, Norway

John Lowe (jblowe_at_garnet.berkeley.edu)

Friederike Lupke (a2558998_at_athena.rrz.uni-koeln.de)

Jouni Maho (jouni_at_ling.gu.se)

William Mann (BILL-USA_MANN_at_SIL.ORG) is an American teacher and researcher living in Nairobi, Kenya. He is building a computational linguistic analyzer of standard Swahili text, is active in developing computational translation aids for various African languages, and teaches the use of translation aids. His postal address is: Dr. William C. Mann, Africa Area Computational Linguistics Consultant, Summer Institute of Linguistics, P.O.Box 44456, Nairobi, Kenya.

Kamau Mbugua (emkamau_at_msuvx2.memphis.edu)

Sheryl McCurdy (mccurdy_at_pop.psu.edu)

Charles Mironko (charles.mironko_at_YALE.EDU) is a first year graduate student in anthropology at Yale. He was born in Zaire and grew up in Tanzania. He has a graduate degree in Education from University of Southampton, in England, and has worked in Cambodia. He speaks 8 languages and is a member of the staff of the Kamusi Project.

Haneef Mohamed (haneef_at_ix.netcom.com)

John Mole (mole_at_inbio.demon.co.uk)

Noelle Morrissette (noelle_at_pantheon.yale.edu) has just completed a Masters' degree in African Studies at Yale. After participating this summer in the Fulbright-Hays GPA Swahili program in Tanzania, she will begin work on a PhD in English and Afro-American studies at Yale. She is also a short-term staffer for the Kamusi Project during summer 1995.

Jeri Leigh Moxley (jmoxley_at_garnet.berkeley.edu) is a graduate student in linguistics at UC Berkeley. She studied Swahili as an undergrad at UVA with Ellen Contini-Morava, then received an MA in African Languages and Literatures at Wisconsin-Madison, studying with Magdalena Hauner. Her MA thesis concerned aspiration in Swahili. She participated in the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Swahili Program in Tanzania in 1991. Her work now focuses more broadly on Bantu languages.

Basilio G. Mungania (mungania_at_pantheon.YALE.EDU) is a first year graduate student in linguistics at Yale. He graduated with an MA in Swahili Studies from the University of Nairobi and taught Kiswahili at several levels in Kenya before coming to the US to do graduate work. Mungania is now on the staff of the Kamusi Project.

Henry Muzale (hmuzale_at_morgan.ucs.mun.ca) was born and educated in Tanzania. He studies linguistics, specializing in Bantu languages, at Memorial University in Canada. He is a co-translator of signs into Swahili/English for the first Tanzanian Sign Language Dictionary, compiled by TAD=CHAVITA in 1994. His postal address is Linguistics-M.N.U, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada A1B 3X9.

Dorothy Nakimbugwe (dnn1_at_CORNELL.EDU)

Morille Njau (M.Njau_at_HEFCE.AC.UK) is a native Swahili speaker living in the United Kingdom

David Oryang (oryangd_at_acd.tusk.edu)

Ben Parker (BEN.PARKER_at_UNEP.NO) in Nairobi, Kenya, has generously agreed to gate the Kamusi Project into Fidonet, which makes it possible for people in East Africa to participate in our discussions.

Umberto Quattrocchi, M.D. (umberto_at_cere03.cere.pa.cnr.it) is a twice graduated (Political Science and Medicine) professor at Palermo University. His address is: Via Ignazio Gioe'22, I-90146 Palermo, Italy. He is an amature botanist who is preparing an ambitious and completely new kind of etymological/vernacular dictionary of plant names which deal with:

-biographical/ bibliographical news

-meanings of thousands of names of genera and species

-vernacular/ common/ trade/ botanical names; vernacular names from villages and ethnic groups and cities and people from Africa, Asia, and the Americas, etcetera.

Noah Ranells (nnranell_at_unity.ncsu.edu)

James Rawls (JamesRawls_at_aol.com)

Arild Reite (arild.reite_at_SKRIPOST.MD.DEP.TELEMAX.NO)

Amir Roggel (aroggel_at_fab8.intel.com)

John Russell (jrussell_at_gate.net)

Eugeniusz Rzewuski (rzewuski_at_plearn) joins the Kamusi Project from Warsaw, Poland.

Jon Sheldon (jpshel_at_mail.wm.edu) was a Peace Corps volunteer on the south coast of Kenya, near the village and game park called Shimba Hills, from 1987 to 1989. He lives at 109 Stratford Drive, Apt. E, Williamsburg, Virginia 23185.

Tim Skellett (skellett_at_sapir.ling.uni-duesseldorf.de)

Paul Snell(p.c.snell_at_bham.ac.uk) is an "IT Trainer" (Information Technology?) at the ACS IT Training Centre, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom.

Evelyn Staus (gastaus_at_halcyon.com) or (estaus_at_mm.com) is developing a small tour business to Kenya, marketed to women who are interested in meeting Kenyan women as peers. She has studied Kiswahili forabout 2 years with a tutor who is from Kenya. Her address is: Womanpower Enterprises, 2551 Sumac Circle, St. Paul, Minnesota 55110.

Fridrich Strba (fridrich.strba_at_unifr.ch) graduated from the Technical University of Transport and Communications in Zilina, Slovakia, with honorable mention in Technical Cybernetics (specialisation in telecommunication systems) in 1993. In September he will complete his studies at the Institute of Journalism and Social Communications at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He is fluent in Slovak, Czech, Spanish, French, Italian, English, and German, understands well Russian and Polish, has basic knowledge of Portuguese and Catalan, and is learning Swahili.

Eric Thomas (eric.t7_at_ix.netcom.com)

Robert Thomas (faa58_at_dial.pipex.com) has worked & lived in East Africa & the Middle East. His wife was born and raised in Zanzibar and he is presently trying to keep his learning of Swahili up to speed with that of his sons, aged 3.5yrs & 1.5yrs. His address is: 49b Ferrybridge Road/ Nevison/ Pontefract/ West Yorkshire/ England/ WF8 2PG.

Nino Vessella (n.vessella_at_agora.stm.it) is a 1982 graduate of the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples, Italy, with a degree in Swahili Language and Literature. His thesis looked at socio-political themes in Kezilihabi's narrative works ("Tematiche socio-politiche nell'opera narrativa di E. Kezilihabi"). He is now a teacher in a secondary school in Italy, as well as a freelance computer programmer. He has been working on a Swahili-Italian-Swahili dictionary. Nino has contributed wordlists with several thousand entries to the Kamusi Project.

Linda Wallace (p26796_at_po13.geg.mot.com) has been learning Swahili since autumn 1994. She is a software engineer with Motorola in the valley of the sun (Pheonix, Arizona).

Janette Wallis (JANETTE-WALLIS_at_UOKHSC.EDU) is on the faculty of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Oklahoma Hospital, Box 26901, Oklahoma City, OK 73190. She has studied chimpanzees in Tanzania for the last six years.

Lenne Ward (ward.lenne_at_epamail.epa.gov)

Carrie Wenninger (sequoia333_at_AOL.COM)

Stephen Winnall (Stephen.Winnall_at_ska.com), also known as Mwalimu Wino, studied Swahili at the University of York (Britain) and worked in Kenya from 1974 to 1976, during which time he was the Swahili teacher (amongst other things) at Chewoyet School in Kapenguria. Since 1977 he has been working in computing and is now responsible for New Technologies in IT at Credit Suisse in Switzerland. He speaks English (native language) and German fluently. He writes: "My Swahili is not as good as my computing. I can read quite a few other European languages and enjoy hacking."

Participants / Washiriki