ABOUT THE LANGUAGE
The Swahili language or Kiswahili is a Bantu language which belongs to the Niger-Congo language family. The word ‘Bantu’ means ‘people’ watu in Swahili. The singular is mtu (a person). In many Bantu languages, the word for people (Bantu) is very similar. It is abantu for the Baganda of Uganda and the Zulu of South Africa, batho for the Sotho of Lesotho and abato for Kikuyu of Kenya.
Kiswahili was originally spoken along the East African Coast from the southern part of Somalia to the northern part of Mozambique. When the Arabs arrived on the East Africa Coast in the 6th century, they found people there conversing with one another in Swahili. The visitors called the language ‘Sahel’ meaning the language of the costal people.
The expansion of Kiswahili to the interior was facilitated by the slave traders, merchants, missionaries, colonialists and politicians. The first President of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, has promoted Kiswahili in many ways including the translation of two Shakespearean plays in Swahili, namely, the Merchant of Venice (Mapebari wa Venice) and Julius Caesar (Juliasi Kaisari). During President Nyerere’s era, which lasted for more than 30 years, Kiswahili was made the country’s national language and used in primary schools and teacher training colleges as a medium of instruction.
Outside Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, Kiswahili is spoken in other countries in Africa, namely, Rwanda, Burundi, the Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Somalia, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Madagascar, South Africa. Outside the African Continent, Kiswahili is spoken in Oman (as a result of historical connection with Zanzibar), Comoro Islands and Djibouti.
There are more than 15 dialects in Swahili. The Kiunguja dialect of Zanzibar has been adopted as Standard Swahili since 1935 and is used in the media, schools and business transactions. Other major dialects are Kimvita and Kiamu based in Mombasa Kenya, Kipemba and Kitumbatu based in Pemba and Unguja Islands in Zanzibar.
Kiswahili has many loan words borrowed from other languages such as Arabic, English, German, Portuguese, Persian and Hindi. Loan words comprise 40% of the Swahili vocabulary. The remaining 60% is made up of Bantu words.
While it is true to say that Kiswahili has many loan words, it is also true to say that some Swahili words have been adopted in other languages. For example, the word safari which means ‘journey’ is now an English word.
Kiswahili has been adopted the Africa Union as the official language of Africa. For many years major radio networks such as the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation-UK), VOA (Voice of America-U.S.A.), Deutschewelle (Germany), RSA (Radio South Africa), Radio Cairo (Egypt), Radio Japan, Radio Beijing (China), All India Radio and Radio Moscow. Kiswahili is taught in many universities and colleges in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia. The movie industry is not far behind in the use of Kiswahili. Swahili words can be heard in movies such Hotel Rwanda, the Last King of Scotland, the Lion King, Darwin’s Nightmare. Many popular songs use Swahili words. They include: Malaika Nakupenda (Angel, I love you) by Miriam Makeba of South Africa, Hakuna Matata (No Worries) in the Lion King, Jambo Bwana (Hello Mister), All Night Long (by Lionel Ritchie), Nakupenda Regina (I love you Regina), the Liberian Girl (by Michael Jackson. You Tube has hundreds of Swahili songs.
The international status of the Kiswahili has made it accessible to all those who would like to know the Swahili culture, history and grammar of the language by a click of a mouse. Both Google and Microsoft have launched Swahili language Internet search engines. American universities have taken the lead in promoting Swahili through the famous Kamusi Project which is managed by Yale University. There are more universities in the United States offering Swahili courses than any other country in the world.
