SWAHILI AND ITS ORIGINS

• Introduction

Swahili is the most spoken language in Africa. Speakers refer to the language as  “Kiswahili”. In fact, etymologically, Kiswahili is made up of two words: the Arabic word sahel, which means “coast”, and the prefix “ki” which refers to the language. “Swahili” indicates the people who speak the language and “kiswahili” indicates the language.

Kiswahili is the most studied and spoken language of Africa’s indigenous languages. Two countries recognize Kiswahili as their first language: Kenya and Tanzania. It is, nevertheless, the mother tongue of many countries on the east coast of Africa and the islands adjacent to the coast, from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique. There are also many native speakers of Kiswahili on the islands of the Indian Ocean: Lamu, part of northwestern Madagascar, the two islands of Unguja and Pemba (which together form Zanzibar), and the Comoros Islands.

It is also a lingua franca in several other countries on the African continent, that recognize Kiswahili as a second language, mainly in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Congo Kinshasa, Burundi, and Rwanda. There are also speakers from Malawi and Zambia.

One similarity will be noticed between all Kiswahili speakers: They like to refer to their origin. For example, Kiwahili speakers in Tanzania identify themselves as watanzania, those in Kenya and Burundi as warundi, those in Rwanda as wanyarwaranda, those in Unguja as waunguja or wazanzibari. Others prefer to simply use the term “waswahili” which unifies all Kiswahili speakers regardless of their country of origin.

Over time, Kiswahili has become international. It is now taught in several universities and language centers around the world, including in Japan.

As a result, speaking Kiswahili has many advantages, and is also a good way to access its rich culture, as the language has a long and distinguished written and oral tradition. Moreover, it is clear that knowledge of Kiswahili and its many varieties is essential for working on the African continent.

The popularity of Kiswahili is therefore increasing not only in Africa, where there are more than 10 countries with Kiswahili as a mother tongue or second language, but all over the world. There are now more than 150 million speakers of Kiswahili in the world.

• The origins of Kiswahili

The east coast of Africa has had many visitors from other continents for example after the 2nd century A.D., with Arabs and Persians visitors who have left their influences on the culture and language of these countries through living and intermarrying with the local community.
As a result, many local people have modified and adopted the traditions of the visitors. For example: on the island of Unguja (Zanzibar) they have a traditional New Year “Mwaka Kogwa” which is celebrated in June, very similar to the Persian New Year in Neyruz. Today many speakers of Kiswahili on the east coast are Muslims because of the arrival of the Arabs. Other travelers, notably English and Germans, also visited East Africa.

Swahili is a Bantu language of the Niger-Congo family with a complex structure. Indeed, like Romance languages with 13 genera, Swahili uses more than 13 noun classes. Three full noun classes are devoted to different aspects of space and time. In addition, it represents a rather different view of the African world than a European language.

Depending on their nature, several classes of nouns are distinguished. Human beings belong to the class watu ‘people’/ mtu ‘person’. Trees belong to the class mti: miti “trees” / mti “tree”.

• Swahili a written literature

Kiswahili has a tradition of written literature that spans several centuries as evidenced by manuscripts preserved around the world. Several collections of Swahili manuscripts telling the linguistic and literary history of Kiswahili have been preserved. The main manuscripts are held in archives and libraries in East Africa, the UK and Germany. Kiswahili manuscripts have been a key element in the study of the history, literary traditions and culture of the East African coast. These manuscripts represent an African cultural heritage.

• Cultural aspects of Swahili

The language is also present in the arts and culture, with famous singers such as Diamond Platnumz, and in popular movies such as The Lion King with the famous term “Hakuna Matata”. In the United States, African-Americans also emphasize Kiswahili, referring to it in their annual cultural festival as “Kwanzaa”, which means “first”.

khanga – the leso: Kiswahili speakers also use a unique mode of communication through the “leso”. This is an indirect way of communicating by writing a few words or pictures on a “khanga” cloth that women wear. The purpose of these fabrics is to convey a proverbial or political message to the public.

Time in Kiwahili: To express time, most speakers still use sunrise and sunset to tell the time. The first hour of the day comes after sunrise, and therefore not after midnight. Similarly, the first hour of the night comes after sunset.

Author: Archimella Ndabaniwe

Sources:

1. https://www2.ku.edu/~kiswahili/pdfs/intro.pdf
2. https://www.lafriquedesidees.org/khanga-histoire-swahili/#:~:text=Quoi%20qu’il%20en%20soit,un%20coffre%20embaumant%20l’encens.
3. http://www.sorosoro.org/en/niger-congo-languages/
4. https://digital.soas.ac.uk/swahili/about/