The Kamusi Project
Swahili as a Language of Africa
Hey,
I am from Tanzania. I have travelled extensively on the continent of Africa and have come across many different African languages, ranging from Arabic up north, to Nyanja and Chewa in Zambia and Malawi respectively, to Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans in South Africa to Chwi in Ghana.
All the languages of Africa are beautiful and unique in their own way, however, besides Arabic, I am yet to see a language that holds an extensive vocabulary as Swahili does, a language that has sophisticated sentence structure and rules that govern conversations like Swahili does. I understand English, French and Portuguese are spoken in Kenya, most parts of West Africa and Central, Mozambique and Angola respectively. However these are languages foreign to Africa, if one were to suggest a language that all of Africa can adopt (south of the Sahara), what would it be?
Adopting a unilateral language would facilitate political, cultural and social relations among the peoples of Africa. The language would foster greater economic growth and abet in the movements of people between countries. Perhaps with a common language we can even help eradicate all wars and conflict that plague the beautiful continent of Africa.
Please contribute your thoughts and ideas, whether African or a friend of Africa, I welcome all perspectives.
Shukran.
English
Swahili
wise sentence
Hey,
I'm realy appreciating this discussion. Aan old cancelor of Germany already said: If i want to sell something to you, i need to learn Swahili.......if you want to buy something, dann must du deutsch lernen (than you have to learn german). I'm just starting to learn swahili, as my company does some business in Easte Africa and i've visited countries like Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania over the last month and i realy enjoy the countries and their peolple and the culture.
As i want also to sent a message to our local team in Nairobi in swahili, but i've no clue how to do.......every help is appreciated. Should be short one, 3-5 lines, including sending thanks for all the good things they've done to me during my visits, merry christmas, happy new year and all the best and success for 2007.
Greetings from Germany
Lothar
Lothar and Kenya ...
Jamboni marafiki!!
Lothar hapa!
Sasa kwa wakati huu ningependa kuwasalimia nyinyi nyote.
Nawashukuru kila mtu kwa vile mlivyonikaribisha kwenu. Asante sana.
Nawatakieni nyote Krismasi njema kabisa.
Tena Mwaka Mpya uliojaa mafanikio mazuri!
How are you my friends?
Lothar here!
At this time I would like to say “Hello†to you all.
Thanks very much for the welcome you gave me when I was with you.
I wish you all a very Happy Christmas!
And a Happy New Year full of success!
Lothar
Auf Wiedersehen und bis bald! = Kwa heri ya kuonana!
Alles gute zum Weihnachten! = Nakuakia heri na baraka kwa Krismasi!
Was fur eine Freude! furaha iliyoje!
Wenn Gott uns Leben gonnt, werden wir uns wiedersehen! = Mungu akitujalia uhai tutaonana.
Viele Grusse aus ... = Salama nyingi kutoka ...
Ich wunsche Ihnen alles Gute = Nakutakia kila la heri!
Und mehr : www.swahili.at/kiswahili.at/mfano.php
Swahili as a Language of Africa
StrotherMusyimi,
You are very right. A language can only be inducted into a society that is ready to embrace the language.
I do however beg to differ with your opinion firstly that Swahili is not spoken anywhere else in the continent except East Africa and secondly that it would not be accepted.
Swahili is spoken in Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Rep. of Congo, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and even in South Africa. The language in is spoken by ever fewer people in the Southern part of Africa. This is due to the reason that Tanzania for instance had been a major part in aiding countries in Southern Africa in gaining their independence. South African freedom fighters such as Mandela and Sisulu all were given refuge in Tanzania. Mozambique also owes some of its success in Independence from Tanzania. This is why Tanzania is a part of SADC today, even though geographically Tanzania is not considered part of Southern Africa. My point is that, over the decades, these people have lived and learnt Swahili and have migrated back to their countries with the love for the peoples of Tanzania and the enthusiasm for Swahili.
Another valid point for Swahili is that it contains over half of its mechanics and vocabulary from "Bantu" group of languages. These are languaged that are synonymous with almost all African languages, even West African languages. For instance, Nyanja a Zambian language, they call a snake "njoka", in Swahili we say "nyoka". In South Africa they call togetherness "ubuntu", Swahili alludes to humaneness as "utu" coming from the root word "mtu" meaning person.
Bantu languages have a similar origin and do coincide, hence it would not be as hard for Bantu speaking peoples of Africa to transition into Swahili. However, I do acknowledge as you said the size of the continent and its clear diversity, which I believe should be encouraged and celebrated. But I think like the old Swahili proverb, "chanda chema huvishwa pete", meaning "the best finger gets to bear a ring", the language of Swahili is superior to most indeginous African languages if not all. The language will empower Africans not to use English or French when referring to high numbers (i.e. in Malawi there is no word for ten thousands!) or use foreign words when surfing the internet. Swahili even has a Microsoft Windows, all in Swahili!
Conclusively, I appreciate your valid points and understand your concerns, however I believe we need to be optimistic about Africa and Swahili's role in the continent. Africans are relatively a great welcoming people, if they could welcome the colonialists I am confident they will welcome Swahili as well.
Swahili
Strother Musyimi
Lo ajabu! I did not realize that the language was spoken in as many countries as you mentioned. I love the language myself and hope that it will become more predominant.
The Bantu component is certainly a key to the issue. For instance, in Kenya, Luo people have an easier time with English than Swahili for a variety of reasons, some of them cultural -- Nilotic dialects are very different from Bantu dialects.
In the move towards a more global world, Africa needs a common language. I wonder how Swahili stacks up against English French or Arabic in terms of usage?
Tribalism is a fact of African culture. Swahili is closer to the roots of African culture than the languages of its colonial forebears. I wonder what political incentives exist for such a change?
How does one advocate for a language? I am thinking that economically there are a lot of reasons to maintain the staus quo -- education would have to change, not to mention so many other things including businesses and signage.
Thanks for your response. I guess I am more interested in this than I realized.
Pan African Swahili
Strother Musyimi,
Isn't interesting to think of a uniting language for Africa? It is ideally a productive dream, I believe.
Swahili in terms of English, French and Arabic is of course at a disadvantage. To begin with the latter languages have existed longer than Swahili has and have saturated different other languages, specifically Persian, Saxon(Scotland area), German and many others. As a result, these langauges have fortified their dominance in the world, by their sophistication and variety of vocabulary.
However, it is important to note that Swahili is the "lingua franca" for most parts of Sub Saharan Africa. Swahili has political incentives to be adopted unanimously by most African countries. Rwanda and Burundi have now officically joined the East African Community, and am sure with their memberships, they will, as a part of harmonization to the Union, adopt Swahili as an Official Language in their respective countries in addition to French. That will add Swahili language coverage to over 120 million people, this is equivalent to French which has just under 130 million speakers. That makes Swahili the 7th most spoken language in the world if you discount Chinese which is dominantly spoken in one country, China.
Joaquim Chisano, the former president of Mozambique in the inauguration of the African Union in Lusaka, Zambia addressed the assembly of African leaders in Kiswahili, and most of them needed not any translation head phones!
Economically it is easier for people to trade when the countries involved are harmonized in the purest sense. Uniform currencies, such as the Euro in Western Europe, but also a language enables faster and efficient business transactions. The East African Community is looking to be, in the coming decade, the first Trading Bloc to have one currency (the East African Shilling I assume) in Africa, the second in the world. This will mean that this will be the greatest single trading bloc in the continent by population and by output (as long as SADC stays constant with their policies). Swahili will foster in such an environment and I am waiting for this day anxiously.
I thank you for your interest, and hope that you will be a dedicated ambassador of Swahili and its people.
Swahili kuwa linguafranca
Shukran kwa maoni yenu nyote.
I totally agree with musyimi. Much as we would love to see swahili become a uniting language in the continent, i do not think that this will be achievable. As i see it, the language has just about reached its widest possible geographical reach, as is described by manda above, within which it MAY evolve to become the dominant language. Other regions in the continent have their own dominant languages which are also being vigorously promoted to become africa's unifying languages. Contrary to what most people think, swahili is really not so commonly spoken in countries outside tanzania and kenya.
With regard to language unification of africa, I believe that in the long run arabic language has a greater chance (if any) than all other african languages because of the following reasons:
1. It is an african language with the widest geographical reach in africa thus making it THE lingua france (not swahili!)
2. With over 250m speakers, it is already widely spoken albeit in the northern parts of the continent
3. Among the competing regionally dominant languages it serves as a suitable compromise between the east, west and southern regions
4. It already recognised as lingua franca by all global bodies
ahsante
O.A.U and Kiswahili
A little footnote to the excellent discussion about the role etc. of Kiswahili in Africa ...
It is the only Bantu-based language adopted by the OAU as an official language of that body.
Looking at the current proliferation of languages in the E.U and the nightmare problems this is creating, tI think the likelihood that the OAU might have, say, English, French, Arabic, Portuguese and Kiswahil as official languages appears to be positively liberating.
OAU, Arabic
You know, it has been a long time since I lived in Kenya. When I was there, the East African Community was really quite fractured with border closings between countries. The railway system and airways were nationalized in Kenya. It seemed to be a step backwards.
I think there will be a strong parallel between the future of Swahili as a common language and the ability of African nations in East and Central Africa to get along with each other. If those nations can work positively together to develop viable joint business and political ventures in the future, Swahili will be a big part of what unifies them.
Anyone who has heard the language spoken and sung will fall in love with its' inherent rhythm and cadence. I believe it is a true statement of the African soul.
That said, the point about Arabic is also well taken. Swahili is certainly a sister to Arabic in many ways, owing its' birth and continued existence as a language to the tradewinds between Africa and Arabia and the commerce they brought to the shores of East Africa. The closer you get to the East African coast, the more Arabic Swahili will sound.
I was very intrigued by this fact. When I grew up in Kenya, we would take trips down to Mombasa from Nairobi. There is a little rest stop of a town along the way called Mtito Andei, which featured a small mosque and a minaret on the roadside. From that point on, as you travel down to Mombasa, the Arabic influence grows stronger. When you are in Mombasa, the Swahili you will hear there has a lot of Arabic embedded in it.
This is one of the reasons I love Kenya so much -- it has so many different cultures wrapped up in it. The connections between Arabic and Swahili will grow more significant as concerns of global terrorism loom. Perhaps the connections between Arabic and Swahili can point the way towards a common future for Africans of all religions and cultures.
Swahili as a Language of Africa
Manda,
You are quite right about the extensive vocabulary that Swahili has, and the fact that it is the language spoken by most Africans that is indigenous to the continent places it at the fore as the one most likely to unite Africa. Not to denigrate the importance of other languages, but Swahili has the appeal andmos other (tribal/region languages) can easily adopt to it.
However, I beg to differ that that langauge alone can really deal with the political, social and cultural problems that afflict Africa as a continent. To a certain extent alright, but most of all what Africa needs is a change of mentality and a cultivation of self-respect in respect to the aforementioned problems.
But to answer the main question you raised about the language that would most likely be the best choice for adoption, Swahili should. It is the world's most recognizable African language...even in movies that take place in other parts of Africa, the scripts use Swahili to direct the viewer that that's Africa and not Haiti or other places with dark skinned people.
Swahili as a continental language
I think that Africa is large enough to have more than one language, since it represents people from a variety of backgrounds. The influence of Swahili is strongest in East Africa, but I do not think anyone in North, West or South Africa uses the language at all.
Language is interesting b/c of its' living quality. You can't make a language thrive where people do not wish to speak it or would rather speak something else. We are having a conflict in the US over Spanish vs. English. In the SW part of the country, Spanish is just about as common. No law will change that fact.