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Swahili, also known by its local name Kiswahili, is the native language of the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. It is a Bantu language, though Swahili has borrowed a number of words from foreign languages, particularly Arabic and Persian, but also words from Portuguese, English and German. Around forty percent of Swahili vocabulary consists of Arabic loanwords, including the name of the language. The loanwords date from the era of contact between Arab traders and the Bantu inhabitants of the east coast of Africa, which was also the time period when Swahili emerged as a lingua franca in the region. The number of Swahili speakers, be they native or second-language speakers, is estimated to be around 80 million.
Bongo Flava is a nickname for Tanzanian music. The genre developed in the 1990s, mainly as a derivative of American hip hop and traditional Tanzanian styles such as taarab and dansi, with additional influences from reggae, R&B, and afrobeats, to form a unique style of music. Lyrics are usually in Swahili or English, although increasingly there has been limited use of words from Nigerian languages due to the influence of afrobeats.
Tanzanian Hip-hop, which is sometimes called Bongo Flava by many outside of Tanzania's hip hop community, encompasses a large variety of different sounds, but it is particularly known for heavy synth riffs and an incorporation of Tanzanian pop. There is some debate over whether Bongo Flava, which has emerged as a defined pop movement, can really still be qualified under the overarching term "hip hop" and not a movement unto itself, when it is beginning to develop a distinctive sound that differs from hardcore rap or, for example, the Maasai Hip hop of X Plastaz, who use the tradition of the Maasai tribe as the focal point for their sound and style. Tanzanian hip hop influenced the sound of the Bongo Flava genre. While Tanzanian hip hop retains many of the elements found in hip hop globally in terms of sound and lyricism, Bongo flava, derived from the Swahili word "ubongo", incorporates hip hop, Indian filmi, taraab, muzik wa dansi, and dancehall beats. It all began in the 1980s when Tanzanian teenagers were really interested in the American hip hop scene. At first, they took American beats and rapped to them. As the youth rapped, the hip hop in Tanzania began to develop into a mix of traditional and localized hip hop scene. As a result, it began a wave of interest from other people in Eastern Africa.
Gogo is a Bantu language spoken by the Gogo people of Dodoma Region in Tanzania. The language is spoken throughout Dodoma Region and into the neighbouring district of Manyoni.
The Sumbwa are a Bantu group native to Bukombe District, Geita Region in central Tanzania. In 1987 the Sumbwa population was estimated to number 191,000 .sumbwa is a tribe that has had its own traditions and good practices some of their traditional dances are mulekule
The Kahe are an ethnic and linguistic group based southeast of Moshi in Kilimanjaro Region Tanzania. The Kahe language, or Kikahe, is in the Chagga cluster of Bantu languages. Three dialects are recognized: Kimwangaria, Msengoni and Kichangareni. Kikahe is spoken by 9,130 people, and is one of the smaller language communities in Tanzania.
The Jita are a Bantu ethnolinguistic group based in Rorya District of Mara Region in northern Tanzania, on the southeastern shore of Lake Victoria. In 2005 the Jita population was estimated to number 205,000. The Jita have many clans such as the Rusori clan, Batimba clan, and Bagamba clan.
Gweno is a Bantu language spoken in the North Pare Mountains in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. The people known as the Gweno are a Chaga ethnic and linguistic group. Since the Chaga people are Bantu speakers, the adopted language contains dialects similar to that of the Kenyan language Kamba. Gweno shares about 54% to 56% of its vocabulary with other Chaga dialects and 46% with Taita dialects. However, a large percentage of its vocabulary is not seen in the other dialects. Also at the start of the 11th century, the Chaga people descended and migrated from the Bantu group in which they migrated to the foothills of mount Kilimanjaro. The Gweno language is today spoken mostly by older adults, with younger generations having shifted to Asu and Swahili. Ethnologue considers Gweno to be moribund; the language is not being passed down because children have not been exposed to Gweno since the 1970s. The generational shift from Gweno to either Asu or Swahili has certainly created shifts in dialect, however Gweno speakers do not see this as a threat.
The Bondei People are a Bantu ethnic group based in Pangani District in east Tanga Region in northeastern Tanzania. Bondei speak a Bantu language and are related to the Shambaa ethnic group.
Baraza la Kiswahili la Taifa is a Tanzanian institution responsible with regulating and promoting the Kiswahili language.
The Swahili Wikipedia is the Swahili language edition of Wikipedia. It is the largest edition of Wikipedia in a Niger Kordofern, Niger–Congo or Nilo-Saharan language, followed by the Yoruba Wikipedia.
Swahilization or Swahilisation refers to one of two practices:
Mwananchi Communications Ltd is a company based in Tanzania. Mwananchi Communications Ltd, engages in the print media and digital media, and is the publisher of Tanzania's leading daily newspaper, Mwananchi, and others such as The Citizen, Sunday Citizen, Mwananchi Jumapili, Mwananchi Scoop and Mwanaspoti.
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa is a Kenyan institution founded in 1998 responsible for the promotion of the Swahili language in Kenya. The Founding Chair is Prof. Kimani Njogu, a graduate of Yale University's department of Linguistics.
Tanzania is a multilingual country. There are many languages spoken in the country, but no one language is spoken natively by a majority or a large plurality of the population. Swahili and English, the latter of which was inherited from colonial rule, are widely spoken as lingua francas. They serve as working languages in the country, with Swahili being the official national language. There are more speakers of Swahili than of English in Tanzania.
Geita Region is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers an area of 20,054 km2 (7,743 sq mi)."Geita Region Size". The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Slovenia. Geita Region is bordered to the east by Lake Victoria, Mwanza Region and Shinyanga Region. The region is bordered by Tabora Region and Kigoma Region to the south and south west respectively. Lastly, Gieta is borders Kagera Region to the west.
Ikizu is a Bantu language spoken by the Ikizu peoples of Tanzania. Dialects are Ikizu proper and Sizaki. Maho (2009) treats Sizaki (Shashi) as a separate language. However, Ethnologue 16th edition retired the ISO code for Sizaki, merging it into Ikizu.
Mathias E. Mnyampala (1917–1969) was a Tanzanian writer, lawyer, and poet. Mnyampala was born on 18 November according to a personal record form of 1956, but he wrote in his autobiography that he only knew the year with accuracy. He was born in the hamlet of Muntundya depending on the village of Ihumwa in Chamwino District in Dodoma region at the time part of German East Africa. He died on 8 June 1969 in Dodoma city, Tanzania. Mnyampala wrote in Swahili, the lingua franca of East Africa, not Cigogo, the native language of his ethnic group.
UN Swahili Language Day is observed annually on 7 July. This began when the United Nations declared 7 July as Swahili Language Day in 2022. On 7 July 1954, Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) leader Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the eventual first President of Tanzania, adopted the Swahili Language as a unifying language for African independence struggles. Jomo Kenyatta, the first President of Kenya, followed suit and also used the Swahili language to mobilize and unify the people of Kenya in the struggle against colonialism through the use of the popular “Harambee” slogan.
References
- Rubanza, Yunus (2008). Luzinza: Msamiata Luzinza-Kiswahili-Kiingereza na Kiingereza-Luzinza-Kiswahili / Zinza-English-Swahili and English-Zinza-Swahili Lexicon. ISBN 9987-691-10-2.
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