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Swahili Writing 101: For Excellent Swahili Learning

• , September 15, 2023

Several Swahili-speaking nations in East Africa, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and portions of Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, employ the Swahili script as an official language or a common language. Similar to English and many other languages written in the Latin alphabet, Swahili writing is from left to right.

Therefore, it is not surprising that you have come to this page in order to learn more about this beautiful and elaborate language that is spoken and written in so many places. So come, let’s start our voyage towards learning Swahili writing.

Basics Of Swahili Alphabet

The 26-letter Latin congo Swahili alphabet is used to represent the sounds in Swahili. Diacritics (accent marks) are added to some letters to represent particular sounds. Diacritical marks, such as the one over the letter “i” in Kĩswahili (meaning Swahili ), are unique characters found in each Swahili dialect. The Latin-based Swahili alphabet comprises of 21 consonants and five vowels (a, e, i, o, u). Diacritics (accent marks) are used in Swahili to denote particular sounds. For instance, chini (meaning down ) is written as “çhini,” with the diacritical mark underneath the “c.”

Swahili Language Or Kiswahili Language

The Swahili language, also locally known as the Kiswahili language, is intricately entwined with the rich cultural legacy of the Swahili people, who are primarily found along the East African coast. The Bantu language known as Swahili has developed over centuries of contact between native Bantu groups and numerous outside influences, including Arabic, Persian, and Indian. The distinctiveness of Swahili poetry is a result of this language fusion. Poetry and prose in Swahili represent the region’s rich cultural diversity and historical significance.

Swahili literature demonstrates the Swahili culture and people’s adaptability and resiliency via the blending of native stories and foreign narratives. One of the most extensively spoken languages in Africa today, Swahili is spoken by millions of people either as a first language or as a second language. Its speakers are spread out across East Africa, bringing people together through a shared language and being essential for interregional communication and cultural exchange.

Swahili Alphabet

The Latin-based Swahili alphabet has 26 letters as follows:

X, Y, Z, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V

Although the Swahili alphabet employs the same letters as the English alphabet, it should be noted that due to Swahili’s phonetic structure, some letters’ Swahili pronunciations may differ. Additionally, special diacritics (accent marks) are used in Swahili to change how some letters are spoken.

Swahili Writing & Diacritics

As was previously noted, diacritics in Swahili are distinctive marks added to letters to denote particular phonetic sounds or changes in pronunciation. The use of accent marks is crucial for accurately expressing a language’s sounds. The vocabulary of Swahili frequently uses the following diacritical marks:

1. Kiswahili

The “i” in “Kĩswahili” contains a diacritical mark (dot) above it that denotes a distinct vowel sound, making it sound like the letter “ee” when spoken.

The diacritic (comma-like character) below the “c” in “çhini” denotes the “ch” sound.

A diacritical mark (dot) is placed above the “sh” in “ṡhule” to denote a distinct “sh” sound.

Similar to chini, a diacritic (comma-like mark) is placed beneath the “ch” in “çhakula” to indicate the “ch” sound.

The diacritic (tilde) above the “w” in “mw̃anzo” denotes a nasalized “w” sound.

A diacritic (dot) above the “j” in “maj̇’i” denotes a distinct “j” sound.

The diacritical mark (tilde) above the “u” in “nyũmba” denotes a nasalized “y” sound.

For appropriate pronunciation and representation of the Swahili phonology sounds, these diacritics are essential. They distinguish between letters that have a similar appearance and support the specific phonetic features of the Swahili language translations.

But as writing supports reading, it’s a good idea to know where and when to stretch sounds. In Swahili writing, these diacritics are not indicated often but are helpful to master pronunciation and ensure correct word usage.

Wrapping Up Swahili Writing

Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda all have Swahili as their official national language. However, because of historical and linguistic contacts, the Arabic script and Swahili writing are similar. Many vocabulary in Swahili have been taken from Arabic, and this influence can even be seen in some ways in the writing system. Even Arabic poetry and stories have inspired Swahili speakers due to the Arabic script.

Arabic loanwords have been extensively absorbed into Swahili, particularly in terms of religion, trade, and culture. Many of these words are written in Arabic script as Swahili phrases. The Arabic script is used to write Swahili in some Swahili-speaking areas, particularly along the East African coast. The “ Ajami ” script, which is used in Swahili mostly for religious writings and poetry, is known.

The above-discussed usage of diacritics can be utilized to highlight vowel sounds and other phonetic characteristics in Arabic and Swahili words. Even though the particular diacritics used can differ, the idea of employing markings to change letters is universal.

Since some Swahili vocabulary, word sounds, and pronunciation are comparable to those in Arabic, this may affect how Swahili words are transliterated into Arabic.

Become Fluent Swahili Speakers With Ling

Regardless of whether you intend to travel to the Swahili coast or are just interested in studying an African language, gaining a thorough knowledge of Swahili writing and Swahili dialects is an excellent idea to write and speak Swahili effectively. Keep in mind that the unique quality of Swahili speakers is their ability to communicate in a language that is an official one in several nations!

Why not utilize a tool that might assist you in learning Swahili writing properly? Learning Swahili is advantageous. You can maximize your use of the Ling app, a fantastic language-learning tool developed by native Swahili speakers to pronounce themselves. This app will ensure that you receive a taste of holistic learning by reading, writing Swahili, speaking, and listening appropriately. It is both informative and amusing, even to learn grammar like the noun class and verbal infinitives.

Also, there are distinct African languages and dialects available on Ling. It has a solid reputation for supporting a number of rare languages for which you would often need to look for suitable resources. Install the app right away on your iOS or Android device to get started learning a new language!

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• MobiTuki : Swahili-English dictionary (Tanzania)

• AfricanLanguages : Swahili-English dictionary

• LingoHut : Swahili-English vocabulary by topics (+ audio)

• 17 minute languages : Swahili-English common phrases (+ audio)

• Sl&c : useful Swahili words (+ audio)

• Defense language institute : basic vocabulary (+ audio) - civil affairs - medical

• Swahili-English dictionary by Charles Rechenbach (1967)

• Swahili-English dictionary by Arthur Cornwallis Madan (1903)

• English-Swahili (1902)

• Dictionary of the Suahili language by Johann Ludwig Krapf (1882)

• Dictionnaire swahili-français : Swahili-French dictionary, by Charles Sacleux (1939)

• Dictionnaire français-swahili (1891)

• Vocabulaire français-kisouahili : French-Swahili vocabulary published by the État indépendant du Congo (1894)

• Suaheli-Dragoman : Swahili-German dictionary by topics, by Friedrich von Nettelbladt (1891)

• Wörterbuch der Suahelisprache : Swahili-German & German-Swahili dictionary, by Carl Gotthilf Büttner (1890)

• Swahili etymological dictionary by András Rajki (2005)

• An anthology of proverbs in Kiswahili & translation into English & German, by Claudia Dal Bianco & Johanna Emig (2009)

• African aphorisms or Saws from Swahili Land , by William Ernest Taylor (1891)

• The terms for "emotion" in Swahili : a lexical analysis based on interviews with native speakers , by Rosanna Tramutoli, in Kervan (2019)

• Terminologia del corpo ed estensioni metaforiche  : swahili e zulu a confronto , in Kervan (2020)

• Translating Swahili linguistic terminology into Italian , Nordic Journal of African Studies (2020)

• Texts on textiles : proverbiality as characteristic of equivocal communication at the East African coast , by Rose Marie Beck, in Journal of African Cultural Studies (2005)

• Expanding the Swahili vocabulary : newly adopted words in Swahili in the field of information and communication technology, by Malin Petzell (2005)

• The adaptation of Swahili loanwords from Arabic , by Leonard Chacha Mwita, in Journal of Pan African studies (2009)

• A brief lexico-semantic study of French and Kiswahili by Lester Mtwana Jao, in Mambo (2015)

• Epenthetic vowels in Swahili loanwords by Andrew Harvey, in Journal of linguistics and language in education (2014)

• Phonological and semantic change in language borrowing : the case of Arabic words borrowed into Kiswahili , by Mohamed Abdulmajid Akidah, in International journal of education and research (2013)

• Historical inferences from Swahili etymologies par Thilo Schadeberg, in Unwritten testimonies of the African past (1989)

• Lugha ya mitaani in Tanzania : the poetics and sociology of a young urban style of speaking , with a dictionary comprising 1100 words and phrases, by Uta Reuster-Jahn & Roland Kießling, in Swahili Forum (2006)

• Swahili toponymy of past towns on the East African coast : "What's in a name?" , by Monika Baumanova & Rosanna Tramutoli, in Kervan (2022)

• University of Kansas : Swahili course

• Kiko : pronunciation & grammar (University of Georgia)

• Swahili course (+ video)

• Verbix : verb conjugation & Swahili-English translation

• Andika : Latin <> Arabic scripts of the Swahili language, online conversion

• The Swahili language and its early history , by Martin Walsh, in The Swahili world (2018)

• Swahili colloquial , course for beginners (2003)

• Swahili learners' reference grammar by Katrina Daly Thompson & Antonia Folárin Schleicher (2001)

• Swahili basic course , Foreign Service Institute (1968) (+ audio)

• Swahili language handbook by Edgar Polomé (1967)

• Swahili vowel harmony by Lutz Marten, in Working papers in linguistics and phonetics (1996)

• Noun classification in Swahili by Ellen Contini-Morava, University of Virginia

• The formation and syntax of contractions in Kiswahili with special emphasis on noun-possessive combination , by Titus Mpemba, in Journal of linguistics and language in education (2015)

• Swahili Forum : Journal for Swahili studies (since 1994)

• Swahili grammar and vocabulary by F. Burt (1910)

• A Handbook of the Swahili language , as spoken at Zanzibar , by Edward Steere, revised by Arthur Cornwallis Madan (1894)

• Swahili exercises by Edward Steer (1918)

• Grammar of dialectic changes in the Kiswahili language by Chauncy Hugh Stigand (1915)

• Inkishafi : poem & translation into English, by William Ernest Taylor

• Aids to the study of Ki-Swahili by Mervyn Beech (1918)

• Grammaire kiswahili : Swahili grammar, by Henri Delaunay (1927)

• Grammaire des dialectes swahilis : grammar of the Swahili dialects, by Charles Sacleux (1909)

• Die syntaktischen Verhältnisse des Suaheli (syntax of Swahili) by Wilhelm Planert (1907)

• Suahili Konversations-Grammatik : Swahili grammar, by August Seidel (1900)

• Suaheli Handbuch (Swahili handbook) by Walter von Saint Paul Illaire (1890)

• The metrolingual use of Swahili in urban Ugandan landscapes and everyday conversation by Nico Nassenstein, in Multilingualism in the global South (2016)

• Mombasa's Swahili-based "Coasti slang" in a super-diverse space : languages in contact on the beach , by Nico Nassenstein, in African study monographs (2016)

• books & papers about the Swahili language: Google books | Internet archive | Academia | Wikipedia

• Youtube : 101 Swahili : vocabulary, common phrases, Swahili songs with lyrics and translation

• Mwananchi : newspaper (Tanzania)

• BBC - VOA - RFI - DW : news in Swahili

• Language and popular culture in Africa : texts in Swahili (popular culture) with translation into English or French

• LyrikLine : poems in Swahili, with translation (+ audio)

• Swahili-literatur : narratives in Swahili with translation into German

• A Shaba Swahili life history : text, translation and comments , by Jan Blommaert (2014)

• Mythical and archetypal images of the hero in Swahili literature : more than just warriors , by Graziella Acquaviva, in Kervan (2019)

• Identity and memory in Swahili war verses : the long road to an East African self (2019)

• Immagini e metafore vegetali nella poesia swahili  : dal seme alla pianta (Vegetal images and metaphors in Swahili poetry) (2016)

• Ritual practices, hypnotic suggestions and trance-like states in Swahili written literature , by Cristina Nicolini, in Kervan (2021)

• studies about the Swahili literature, by Xavier Garnier

• Le kiswahili entre Afrique, orient et occident  : quelle littérature pour une langue désancrée ? (2011)

• Traduire le swahili en français  : à propos de Nagona et Mzingile d'Euphrase Kezilahabi , in Études littéraires africaines (2012)

• La poésie orale swahili manganja by Pascal Bacuez, in Cahiers d'études africaines (2000) Swahili texts & translation into French

• Figures du politique en Afrique  : comment prendre en compte la littérature d'expression swahilie , by Mathieu Roy & Charles Mnyampala (2010)

• Mathias Mnyampala (1917-1969) : poésie d'expression swahilie et construction nationale tanzanienne , by Mathieu Roy, thesis (2013)

• Introduction au Diwani ya Mnyampala (Mathias Mnyampala's anthology) (2007)

• Poésie et philosophie d'expression swahilie en Tanzanie  : vision et transformation du monde dans le Diwani de Mathias Mnyampala , in Les Cahiers d'Afrique de l'Est (2012)

• Elisi katika nchi ya ajabu : translation into Swahili of the Lewis Carroll's book, Alice's adventures in wonderland (1940)

• Swahili tales as told by natives of Zanzibar , with translation into English, by Edward Steer (1870)

• Prosa und Poesie der Suaheli : Swahili prose and poetry, with translation into German, by Carl Velten (1907)

• Märchen und Erzählungen der Suaheli : Swahili tales & stories & translation into German (1898)

• Anthologie aus der Suaheli-litteratur : anthology of the Swahili literature & translation into German, by Carl Gotthilf Büttner (1894)

• BibleGateway : Biblia Takatifu , translation of the New Testament into Tanzanian Swahili (+ audio)

• Biblica : Biblia Takatifu , translation of the New Testament into Tanzanian Swahili (+ audio)

• WordProject : translation of the Bible into Tanzanian Swahili (+ audio)

• YouVersion : Biblia Habari Njema (1996)

Watu wote wamezaliwa huru, hadhi na haki zao ni sawa. Wote wamejaliwa akili na dhamiri, hivyo yapasa watendeane kindugu.

• Umoja wa mataifa ofisi ya idara ya habari taarifa ya ulimwengu juu ya haki za binadamu : translation into Swahili (+ audio)

→ First article in different languages

→ Universal Declaration of Human Rights : bilingual text in Swahili, Lingala & other languages

→ Arabic language

→ languages of Africa

→ Kenya - Tanzania

Swahili is the most popular language of Sub-Saharan Africa. It is spoken by approximately 50 million people in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, eastern Congo (DRC), the Comoros, and, marginally, in northern Mozambique, southern Somalia, northern Malawi and northern Zambia. Swahili is a national language in Tanzania, Kenya and Congo (DRC). It also has official status in Tanzania, Kenya and in Uganda (along with English).

Swahili is characterized by the typical complex Bantu structure. However, it is particularly easy to pronounce and fast learned.

Each year at the University of Chicago, we offer a three-quarter sequence of Swahili at the elementary level.  In alternating years, we offer three-quarter sequences at either the intermediate or advanced level.  Depending on student demand, an additional class focused on the grammar and other linguistic aspects of the language may also be available. The elementary course series focuses on communication in everyday life situations, on writing and presenting short descriptive notes about oneself or various situations in relation with East Africa. Elementary level students are also offered a weekly teaching assistant session aimed to improve their speaking practice and their grammar usage.  The intermediate and advanced course series develop further the student fluency and include more discussion about East African cultures and societies as well as current events, basing on extensive textual and audiovisual materials.

Courses Offered: 

Elementary level Swahili is offered every year, while other, more advanced, courses are offered in alternating years or as requested.

Elementary Swahili I, II, III 

SWAH 25200-25300-25400/35200-35300-35400. Swahili is the most popular language of Sub-Saharan Africa, spoken in most countries of Eastern and Central Africa by more than 50 million people. Swahili is characterized by the typical complex Bantu structure. However, it is particularly easy to pronounce and fast learned. The Elementary Swahili series is designed to help students acquire communicative competence in Swahili and a basic understanding of its structures. The course presents basic phonological, grammatical, and syntactic patterns of Kiswahili. Through a variety of exercises, students develop communicative functionality in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Emphasis is put on dialogues and role-plays, individual and group presentations, and the use of audiovisual and web- based resources. Swahili culture and African culture in general are an important component of the course. At the end of the elementary course series, the students are able to communicate efficiently in everyday life situations, write and present short descriptive notes about elementary pieces of verbal creation (documentaries and video series in Swahili). Taught By: Fidele Mpiranya . Autumn, Winter, Spring.

A Linguistic Introduction to Swahili 

LING 28355/38355. Spoken in ten countries of Eastern and Central Africa, Swahili has more speakers than any other language in the Bantu family, a group of more than 400 languages most prevalent in sub-equatorial Africa. Based on  Swahili Grammar and Workbook,  this course helps the students to master key areas of the Swahili language in a fast yet enjoyable pace. Topics include sound and intonation patterns, noun class agreements, verb moods, and sentence structures. Additionally, this course provides important listening and expressive reading skills. For advanced students, historical interpretations are offered for exceptional patterns observed in Swahili, in relation with other Bantu languages. This is a general introduction course with no specific prerequisites. It allows fulfilling the non-Indo-European language requirement. Taught By Fidele Mpiranya . Winter. 

Past Courses

Intermediate Swahili I, II, III 26800-26900-27000/36800-36900-37000.  PQ: Elementary Swahili sequence or consent of instructor.  Students focus on broadening their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in this course. They learn to use sophisticated sentence structures and expression of complex ideas in Swahili. Advanced readings and essay writing are based on student interests. Taught By: Fidele Mpiranya. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

Advanced Swahili I, II, III 27200-27300-27400/37200-37300-37400. PQ: Intermediate Swahili sequence or consent of instructor. This course is focused on advanced listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, with long textual or audiovisual materials.  Exercises in class include discussion about various topics in relation with East African cultures and societies, text rewriting, dialogue production and performance, and essay presentation.  Students are assigned advanced readings and essay writing based on their own interests. Taught By: Fidele Mpiranya. Autumn,Winter, Spring.

Advanced Reading in Swahili I, II, III 28375-28376-28377/38375-38376-38377. PQ: Advanced Swahili sequence or consent of instructor.  This course emphasizes analysis and discussion about various literary and audiovisual works in Swahili.  The presentations in class will cover novels and short stories as well as popular movies.  The students also will be assigned short literary works and other authentic texts or audiovisual materials for written homework and in class discussion.  In the end, the students will be able to express an informed appreciation in Swahili on original works and formal discourse in Swahili. Taught By: Fidele Mpiranya. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

Linguistic Introduction to Swahili II LING 28356/38356.  PQ: LING 28355/38355.  Based on Swahili Grammar and Workbook, this course is a continuation of Linguistic Introduction to Swahili I. It addresses complex issues related to grammatical agreement, verb moods, noun and verb derivation, non-typical adjectives and adverbs, double object constructions, subordinate/coordinated clause constructions, and dialectal variation. Additionally, this course provides important listening and expressive reading skills. For advanced students, historical interpretations are offered for exceptional patterns observed in Swahili, in relation with other Bantu languages. Taught By: Fidele Mpiranya.

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Introduction to the Kiswahili Language

Information provided by:

National African Language Resource Center(NALRC)

A). Why study Kiswahili?

Kiswahili is the most important and widely studied indigenous language of Africa, the National and official language of Kenya and Tanzania. It is spoken as a native language on the East coast of Africa and the islands adjacent to the coast from Southern Somalia in the north down through the Kenyan and Tanzanian coasts.

It is also a Lingua franca of the African Continent spoken as a second language by millions of people mainly in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and East Zaire. There are also speakers in Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Malawi, Southern Arabian countries such as Yemen and Oman, as well as other parts of the world.

It is aired in radio broadcasts such as the British Broadcast Corporation, Voice of America, and Deutsche Welle. It is heard in songs of famous singers such as Miriam Makeba and in popular films like the Lion King. African-Americans refer to their annual cultural festival as Kwanzaa, which is derived from the Kiswahili word kwanza or ‘first.’

Kiswahili is taught in academic institutions from Japan in the East to Mexico in the west. It can be used to fulfill language requirements. The study of Kiswahili also provides interesting issues regarding language policies and language planning. Whatever the area of research one is in, be it linguistics, anthropology, geography, archaeology, or even sociology, knowledge of Kiswahili and its many varieties is essential if one is working in the East African region. There are many benefits of knowing the Kiswahili language, including the fact that it serves as a good vehicle to accessing Swahili culture. Kiswahili has a long written tradition and remarkable history. Finally, knowing Kiswahili enhances the credibility of researchers interested in East Africa.

B). Who speaks Kiswahili? People and History

Over 50 million people in eastern and central African speak Kiswahili. It is widely used in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. A little over one million people speak it as their first language. Most others speak Kiswahili fluently as a second, third or fourth language. Those who speak it as a first language are found along the coast of east Africa stretching from southern Somalia to the border between Tanzania and Mozambique.

There are also many native Kiswahili speakers on the Indian Ocean islands of Unguja and Pemba (which together make up Zanzibar), Lamu, the Comoro Islands and the north western part of Madagascar. Many Kiswahili speakers like to refer to themselves in terms of where they come from. So Kiswahili speakers from Unguja, for example, will refer to themselves as Waunguja or Wazanzibari, those from Kenya as Wakenya and those from Tanzania as Watanzania.

The East African coast was visited by Arabs and Persians as early as the second century A.D. These visitors settled in Africa and married local people. Many local people modified and adopted the visitors’ traditions. On the island of Unguja, for example, the traditional New Year, Mwaka Kogwa, is celebrated during the month of June. This celebration is similar to the Persian New Year of Neiruz. Later visits by Arabs to the area also introduced the Islamic religion, and today many Kiswahili speakers throughout East Africa are Muslim. Travelers from Portugal, Germany, England and various Asian countries also went to East Africa. Each group left its mark on both the culture and the language. Lamu as a center of Kiswahili language, cultures, would be a place of interest to students.

C). Language and Culture

Kiswahili is a Bantu language of the Niger-Congo family and has a typical, complicated Bantu structure. For example, Kiswahili utilizes over 13 noun classes, the equivalence of a romance language having 13 genders. Three full noun classes are devoted to different aspects of space and time. Kiswahili represents an African World view quite different from that of a European language.

Nouns are grouped into different classes according to their meaning. Human beings, for example, belong to one class: mtu ‘person’/watu ‘people.’ Trees, on the other hand, belong to another class: mti ‘tree’/miti ‘trees’. Diminutive and augmentative meanings are also expressed using the noun class system. The following forms of the word ndege ‘bird’ indicate different sizes: ndege (regular sizebird); kidege (small bird); dege (big bird).

The word Kiswahili is a general term for many varieties of the language spoken along the East African coast. It comes from the Arabic word sahel, meaning ‘coast.’ Ki- is a prefix referring to language. In some varieties of Kiswahili, the language prefix appears as chi-, as in Chimiini, which is spoken in Somalia, or shi-, as in Shingazija, a variant spoken on the Ngazija island of Comoro.

Kiswahili language has been influences by a variety of other language, including Arabic, Portuguese and German. There are many Kiswahili words with foreign origins, including the following: sita ‘six’ (Arabic), saba ‘seven’ (Arabic), shule‘school’

(German), bendera ‘flag’ (Portuguese), kitabu ‘book’ (Arabic) and pesa ‘money’ (Hindi).

All Kiswahili speakers share a unique way of expressing time, day or night. Sunrise or sunset are the two focal points used to tell time. The first hour of the day, therefore, comes after sunrise, not after midnight, and the first hour of the night comes after sunset. Also unique to Kiswahili speakers is the way they communicate with each other indirectly by use of the popular language, also known as leso. This multi-purpose cloth usually has a caption that conveys a proverbial message to its target audience.

Lamu is an ancient Swahili city-state in the Indian Ocean off the north coast of Kenya. It is the main town to the traditional swahilini--the original crucible of Swahili culture. In December 2001, UNESCO granted World heritage status to Lamu’s Old town citing the fact that the old town had retained its traditional functions for over 1000 years.

4231 Humanities Building 455 N. Park Street University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI Phone: 608-265-7905  Fax: 608-265-7904 Email:  [email protected]

Dictionary English - Swahili

Translations from dictionary english - swahili, definitions, grammar.

In Glosbe you will find translations from English into Swahili coming from various sources. The translations are sorted from the most common to the less popular. We make every effort to ensure that each expression has definitions or information about the inflection.

In context translations English - Swahili, translated sentences

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Translation memory for English - Swahili languages

The translated sentences you will find in Glosbe come from parallel corpora (large databases with translated texts). Translation memory is like having the support of thousands of translators available in a fraction of a second.

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Picture dictionary

A picture is worth more than a thousand words. In addition to text translations, in Glosbe you will find pictures that present searched terms.

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The story of how Swahili became Africa’s most spoken language

Professor, Harvard University

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John M. Mugane does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Once just an obscure island dialect of an African Bantu tongue, Swahili has evolved into Africa’s most internationally recognised language. It is peer to the few languages of the world that boast over 200 million users.

Over the two millennia of Swahili’s growth and adaptation, the moulders of this story – immigrants from inland Africa, traders from Asia, Arab and European occupiers, European and Indian settlers, colonial rulers, and individuals from various postcolonial nations – have used Swahili and adapted it to their own purposes. They have taken it wherever they have gone to the west.

Africa’s Swahili-speaking zone now extends across a full third of the continent from south to north and touches on the opposite coast, encompassing the heart of Africa.

The origins

The historical lands of the Swahili are on East Africa’s Indian Ocean littoral. A 2,500-kilometer chain of coastal towns from Mogadishu, Somalia to Sofala, Mozambique as well as offshore islands as far away as the Comoros and Seychelles.

This coastal region has long served as an international crossroads of trade and human movement. People from all walks of life and from regions as scattered as Indonesia, Persia, the African Great Lakes, the United States and Europe all encountered one another. Hunter-gatherers, pastoralists and farmers mingled with traders and city-dwellers.

Africans devoted to ancestors and the spirits of their lands met Muslims, Hindus, Portuguese Catholics and British Anglicans. Workers (among them slaves, porters and labourers), soldiers, rulers and diplomats were mixed together from ancient days. Anyone who went to the East African littoral could choose to become Swahili, and many did.

African unity

The roll of Swahili enthusiasts and advocates includes notable intellectuals, freedom fighters, civil rights activists, political leaders, scholarly professional societies, entertainers and health workers. Not to mention the usual professional writers, poets, and artists.

Read more: Hip hop and Pan Africanism: from Blitz the Ambassador to Beyoncé

Foremost has been Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka . The Nigerian writer, poet and playwright has since the 1960s repeatedly called for use of Swahili as the transcontinental language for Africa. The African Union (AU), the “united states of Africa” nurtured the same sentiment of continental unity in July 2004 and adopted Swahili as its official language. As Joaquim Chissano (then the president of Mozambique) put this motion on the table, he addressed the AU in the flawless Swahili he had learned in Tanzania, where he was educated while in exile from the Portuguese colony.

The African Union did not adopt Swahili as Africa’s international language by happenstance. Swahili has a much longer history of building bridges among peoples across the continent of Africa and into the diaspora.

The feeling of unity, the insistence that all of Africa is one, just will not disappear. Languages are elemental to everyone’s sense of belonging, of expressing what’s in one’s heart. The AU’s decision was particularly striking given that the populations of its member states speak an estimated two thousand languages (roughly one-third of all human languages), several dozen of them with more than a million speakers.

How did Swahili come to hold so prominent a position among so many groups with their own diverse linguistic histories and traditions?

A liberation language

During the decades leading up to the independence of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in the early 1960s, Swahili functioned as an international means of political collaboration. It enabled freedom fighters throughout the region to communicate their common aspirations even though their native languages varied widely.

The rise of Swahili, for some Africans, was a mark of true cultural and personal independence from the colonising Europeans and their languages of control and command. Uniquely among Africa’s independent nations, Tanzania’s government uses Swahili for all official business and, most impressively, in basic education. Indeed, the Swahili word uhuru (freedom), which emerged from this independence struggle, became part of the global lexicon of political empowerment.

The highest political offices in East Africa began using and promoting Swahili soon after independence. Presidents Julius Nyerere of Tanzania (1962–85) and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya (1964–78) promoted Swahili as integral to the region’s political and economic interests, security and liberation. The political power of language was demonstrated, less happily, by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin (1971–79), who used Swahili for his army and secret police operations during his reign of terror.

Read more: New Kiswahili science fiction award charts a path for African languages

Under Nyerere, Tanzania became one of only two African nations ever to declare a native African language as the country’s official mode of communication (the other is Ethiopia, with Amharic). Nyerere personally translated two of William Shakespeare’s plays into Swahili to demonstrate the capacity of Swahili to bear the expressive weight of great literary works.

Socialist overtones

Nyerere even made the term Swahili a referent to Tanzanian citizenship. Later, this label acquired socialist overtones in praising the common men and women of the nation. It stood in stark contrast to Europeans and Western-oriented elite Africans with quickly – and by implication dubiously – amassed wealth.

Ultimately, the term grew even further to encompass the poor of all races, of both African and non-African descent. In my own experience as a lecturer at Stanford University in the 1990s, for instance, several of the students from Kenya and Tanzania referred to the poor white neighbourhood of East Palo Alto, California, as Uswahilini, “Swahili land”. As opposed to Uzunguni, “land of the mzungu (white person)”.

Nyerere considered it prestigious to be called Swahili. With his influence, the term became imbued with sociopolitical connotations of the poor but worthy and even noble. This in turn helped construct a Pan African popular identity independent of the elite-dominated national governments of Africa’s fifty-some nation-states.

Little did I realise then that the Swahili label had been used as a conceptual rallying point for solidarity across the lines of community, competitive towns, and residents of many backgrounds for over a millennium.

Kwanzaa and ujamaa

In 1966, (activist and author) Maulana Ron Karenga associated the black freedom movement with Swahili, choosing Swahili as its official language and creating the Kwanzaa celebration. The term Kwanzaa is derived from the Swahili word ku-anza, meaning “to begin” or “first”. The holiday was intended to celebrate the matunda ya kwanza, “first fruits”. According to Karenga, Kwanzaa symbolises the festivities of ancient African harvests.

Celebrants were encouraged to adopt Swahili names and to address one another by Swahili titles of respect. Based on Nyerere’s principle of ujamaa (unity in mutual contributions), Kwanzaa celebrates seven principles or pillars. Unity (umoja), self-determination (kujichagulia), collective work and responsibility (ujima), cooperative economics (ujamaa), shared purpose (nia), individual creativity (kuumba) and faith (imani).

Nyerere also became the icon of “community brotherhood and sisterhood” under the slogan of the Swahili word ujamaa. That word has gained such strong appeal that it has been used as far afield as among Australian Aborigines and African Americans and across the globe from London to Papua New Guinea. Not to mention its ongoing celebration on many US college campuses in the form of dormitories named ujamaa houses.

Today, Swahili is the African language most widely recognised outside the continent. The global presence of Swahili in radio broadcasting and on the internet has no equal among sub-Saharan African languages.

Swahili is broadcast regularly in Burundi, the DRC, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland and Tanzania. On the international scene, no other African language can be heard from world news stations as often or as extensively.

At least as far back as Trader Horn (1931), Swahili words and speech have been heard in hundreds of movies and television series, such as Star Trek , Out of Africa , Disney’s The Lion King , and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider . The Lion King featured several Swahili words, the most familiar being the names of characters, including Simba (lion), Rafiki (friend) and Pumbaa (be dazed). Swahili phrases included asante sana (thank you very much) and, of course, that no-problem philosophy known as hakuna matata repeated throughout the movie.

Swahili lacks the numbers of speakers, the wealth, and the political power associated with global languages such as Mandarin, English or Spanish. But Swahili appears to be the only language boasting more than 200 million speakers that has more second-language speakers than native ones.

Read more: What Kwanzaa means for Black Americans

By immersing themselves in the affairs of a maritime culture at a key commercial gateway, the people who were eventually designated Waswahili (Swahili people) created a niche for themselves. They were important enough in the trade that newcomers had little choice but to speak Swahili as the language of trade and diplomacy. And the Swahili population became more entrenched as successive generations of second-language speakers of Swahili lost their ancestral languages and became bona fide Swahili.

The key to understanding this story is to look deeply at the Swahili people’s response to challenges. At the ways in which they made their fortunes and dealt with misfortunes. And, most important, at how they honed their skills in balancing confrontation and resistance with adaptation and innovation as they interacted with arrivals from other language backgrounds.

This is an edited extract of the first chapter of The Story of Swahili from Ohio University Press

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Home » Articles » Hello in Swahili – “Habari?” and 14 More Swahili Greetings (and Their Response!)

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written by Kelsey Lechner

Reading time: 12 minutes

Published: May 23, 2022

Updated: May 27, 2022

Hello in Swahili – “Habari?” and 14 More Swahili Greetings (and Their Response!)

What if I told you there is no exact translation for “hello” in Swahili, and yet there are dozens of ways to greet people?

When you’re learning a new language, one of the first things you’ll want to know is how to say “hello.” Salutations are an essential part of the  Swahili language and culture , and Swahili is so rich in different types of hellos that conversations of greetings can continue for minutes.

Whether you are planning a trip to Tanzania or Kenya or just want to impress a friend, here are some of the most common “hello” phrases to help you sound like a native Swahili speaker!

Table of contents

• 6. Inakuwaje?
• 7. Unaendeleaje?
• 8. Umeamkaje?
• 9.Umeshindaje?

Beyond the Standard Responses

• 10. Hujambo?
• 11. Shikamoo
• 12. Salaam Alaikum
• 14. Habari za Siku Nyingi?
• 15. Pole na Kazi

Example Dialogue 1: Between Friends

Example dialogue 2: between a younger and older neighbor, “hello” in swahili, say “hello” in swahili to your friends: colloquial swahili greetings.

Swahili values friendliness. It’s important to learn the most common colloquial phrases to avoid sounding stiff.

Nearly all of the colloquial greetings are actually questions that require a certain response from the listener.

I will give you the most standard response for each set of questions, but also provide a section on words that can be flexibly applied as responses to any of the questions.

1.  Habari?

Habari  literally means “news”.

Habari  can be used in many different sentences, such as  Habari za asubuhi/mchana/jioni?  (literally “[What is] the news of the morning/afternoon/evening?”). This expresses how English speakers would say “good morning/afternoon/evening.”

You can add virtually any noun after  za , such as  kazi  (“work”) to ask “How’s work?” or  familia  (“family”) or  kwako  (“your place”) to ask “How’s your family?”

You will also hear  ya  instead of  za  (ex.  Habari ya asubuhi? ) with no change in meaning. Similarly  Habari yako/zako?  (“[What is] your news?”) as well. If you are asking two or more people, you would say  Habari yenu/zenu?  instead.

Habari  will sometimes be used alone (as just  Habari? ) or may be removed when a phrase trails after it, creating questions like  Za kwako?  and  Za jioni?

Standard response:  Nzuri

2.  Mambo?

Literally meaning “things” or “affairs,”  mambo  is the plural form of  jambo . It’s one of the most commonly used greetings in casual Swahili speech.

A quick note:  many foreigners will be told to greet people with  jambo , which was popularized by the hit song “Jambo Bwana.” However, you will almost never hear a native Swahili-speaking adult greeting other native speakers with  jambo . It’s mostly used just for tourists!

To sound like a local, use  mambo  instead.

Standard response:  Mazuri  or  poa  (“cool”)

3.  Vipi?

Vipi  literally means “how?” and can be used alone or in combination with another word or phrase. For example, you can pair it with  mambo  to become  Mambo vipi?  It’s as casual as “How’s it going?”

There is no particular standard reply, so you can respond with whatever you like from the section “Beyond the Standard Responses” below.

4.  Upo?

“You are [here]?” This is a contextual phrase that’s hard to translate literally and threw me off the first time I came across it. “Of course I’m here. You see me right here,” I thought.

However, I quickly realized this is another common greeting to ask how you are. It’s now one of my favorites for its simplicity and shortness!

It may also be used if the speaker hasn’t seen the listener for a bit.

If you are greeting two or more people, you will say  Mpo?  instead. You may also hear  -ko  replacing  -po  (resulting in  Uko? , etc.), although this is less common.

Standard response:  Nipo  (“I am” – for one person) or  tupo  (“we are” – for two or more people)

5.  Niambie

Niambie!  (“Tell me!”) This enthusiastic greeting is usually short for sentences like  niambie habari yako  (“tell me your news”). It’s not a question, but it’s still inquiring about how you are, usually between people who are already on friendly terms with each other.

You may also hear  sema  (“say”) used in the same way as  niambie  in this case.

There is no exact standard response, so you can say whatever you feel, such as  mzuri  (“good”),  niko poa  (“I’m cool”), or  sina jipya  (“I don’t have anything new”).

6.  Inakuwaje?

“How is it?” This is just about the same phrase as used in certain dialects of English.

7.  Unaendeleaje?

Unaendeleaje?  translates to “How have you been progressing?” It’s similar to the English “How have things been going?”

Although it is still fairly casual, it shows that you’re interested in the listener and their affairs on a deeper level than the greetings above. For this reason, you shouldn’t throw this phrase around quite as lightly to people you don’t know or are meeting for the first time.

You may also hear this as  Unaendelea vipi?  with  vipi  replacing the  je . This can also be applied to all of the phrases below ending in  je  with no change in meaning. If you are speaking to multiple people, say  Mnaendeleaje?

Standard response:  Ninaendelea vizuri  or simply  vizuri

8.  Umeamkaje?

This is a common way to greet someone you care about in the morning. Whereas English speakers ask, “How did you sleep?” Swahili speakers most commonly ask the question  Umeamkaje?  (“How did you wake up?”)

However, it is also possible to ask  Umelalaje  (“How did you sleep?”), although it is not used as frequently.

When greeting two or more people, use  Mmeamkaje?  instead.

Standard response:  Nimeamka vizuri,   vizuri,  or  salama  (“peaceful”)

9. Umeshindaje?

This phrase is pretty cool: “How have you won?” It’s similar to asking, “How was your day?”

Like the other phrases above, it is used to dig a little deeper. It is often used between friends, family, and community members. When asking this to multiple people, say  Mmeshindaje?

Standard response:  Nimeshinda vizuri  or simply  vizuri

You may have noticed that there is a vast array of different standard responses.

Swahili has over a dozen different noun classes  (somewhat comparable to genders in many European languages), and most nouns, verbs, and adjectives must match according to their class.

This is often thought to be the most difficult aspect of Swahili to get the hang of. This may seem daunting, but don’t worry: Here is a shortcut to have you mastering greetings in no time. There are a handful of responses that can be used for all of these greetings above that can be used regardless of noun class. They include (in descending order of slanginess):

• Salama  (“peaceful”)
• Safi  (“clean”)
• Poa  (“cool”)
• Freshi  (“fresh”)
• Shwari  (“calm”)

Therefore, when someone asks you,  Habari za asubuhi?  you can respond,  poa . When someone asks you,  Mambo?  you can respond,  poa . When someone asks you,  Upo?  you can respond,  nipo poa . And so on and so forth, with your choice of word from the list above, depending on how hip you want to seem.

The best part? Let me tell you.

Perhaps due to their near universal applicability, these are some of the most common responses you’ll hear in colloquial Swahili. They’re even more common than some of the standard responses.

Note that the older the other person is, the more likely they will stick to a phrase toward the top of the list, such as  salama  or the standard response.

Also, this list is not exhaustive. The responses include a vast array of  street slang that is ever evolving . While I was living in Tanzania, it seemed every month I learned a new slang response, like  mzuka  or  bie .These vary depending on what part of the Swahili-speaking world you are in or where the person you are talking to is from.

You can also strengthen any of the responses with  sana  (“very”),  kabisa  (“totally”), or  tu  (“just”). You can respond to greetings with phrases such as  nzuri sana,   nipo kabisa,  or  salama tu .

Keep in mind that even if you’re not doing well or feeling fine, you should generally still respond in a positive manner to Swahili greetings. Usually, people don’t say, “Bad” when asked, “How are you?”

If you are close with the other person and prefer to be honest on a rough day, you can express this with  siyo poa sana  (“I’m not very good”) or  hivyo hivyo tu  (“Just okay”).

Polite Greetings

Learning polite and formal Swahili is equally important as learning the colloquialisms.

There will be times when you want to be perceived as proper and showing respect, and here are the best ways to do so. Luckily in these cases, the standard responses are the only responses possible.

10.  Hujambo?

This greeting has roots in the word  jambo  introduced above and is a mildly formal way to greet someone. It’s more similar to “hello” than the colloquial “hi” in English.

The equivalent when speaking to multiple people is  Hamjambo?  This is often used when talking to strangers you don’t want to sound too casual with, when giving a speech, or when an older person greets a younger person.

Standard response:  Sijambo  (for one person) or  hatujambo  (for two or more people)

11.  Shikamoo

Swahili culture holds age and status in high regard. When you greet someone significantly older or with more authority than you, you are expected to show respect by using  shikamoo .

A child may use this toward an adult, a student toward a teacher, a young adult to an elderly neighbor, a citizen to an elected official, an employee to a boss, etc.

If you are greeting a group of people you want to show respect to, you can make this word plural by saying  shikamooni .

Standard response:  Marahaba

12.  Salaam Alaikum

The Swahili-speaking world is religiously diverse, and especially if you are in a predominantly Muslim area such as Zanzibar you will not want to miss using  Salaam Alaikum .

Literally meaning “Peace be upon you,” this is a  common greeting across the Islamic world , and you may find it spelled a few different ways in Swahili (such as  salam aleikum  or  a-salamu alaykum ).

Even if you are in a predominantly Christian area, if you know the listener is Muslim, feel free to use this phrase.

Standard response:  Walaikum assalam

Other Greetings

We’ve covered the most universally applicable phrases, but there are still a handful of greetings for specific situations we haven’t gotten to yet.

Check them out below!

13.  Hodi

Use  hodi  when you are entering someone’s home or room. It’s the English equivalent of saying, “knock knock,” or “Hello, anyone home?” You can also repeat the word twice with no change in meaning, so you can also say  hodi hodi .

If you are the listener, respond with “welcome”:  karibu  (to one person) or  karibuni  (to two or more people).

14.  Habari za Siku Nyingi?

Habari za Siku Nyingi?  is a Swahili version of “long time, no see,” and literally means, “What’s the news of many days?” The response would be the same as the other  habari  expressions in the first part of this article.

You may also be greeted with  siku nyingi sijakuona,  (“Many days I have not seen you.”). If you’re very close with the other person, you can almost jokingly accuse them with  Mbona huonekani?  (“Why don’t you appear?”).

There’s no standard response, and you can just greet the person back however you like.

15.  Pole na Kazi

Pole  is a quintessential Swahili word. It can mean anything from “sorry” to “slow,” and as we saw above,  kazi  means “work.”

This expression can be used when greeting someone who has been exerting effort at work or who has returned from their workplace, for example. It shows you appreciate that someone has worked hard– almost identical to  otsukaresama  in Japanese .

If you want to show your appreciation to the listener that they have also been working hard, you can respond with  pole na wewe  (“You too”) or otherwise simply  asante  (“Thank you”).

Sample Conversation

As I mentioned at the beginning, greetings in Swahili are so important that they can go on for several lines of dialogue. It’s actually quite rude to jump straight to the point without asking someone how they (and possibly their entire family) are doing first!

Here are two examples of dialogues showing how people may actually greet each other in Swahili (and in fact, may go on for much longer!)

Note that the second person uses a different greeting from the first.

A:  Upo? B:  Nipo. Mambo poa? A:  Mambo poa kabisa. Habari za familia? B:  Nzuri sana. Za kwako? A:  Salama tu.

A:  Shikamoo. B:  Marahaba. Hujambo? A:  Sijambo, asante. Habari za mchana? B:  Safi sana. Habari za kazi? A:  Habari za kazi nzuri.

There you have it! 15 greetings to use in Swahili.

Don’t worry if you can’t remember all of these phrases right now. If you are just starting out on your Swahili language journey, I recommend you choose just a couple of phrases. Use them until you get the hang of them.

If you are more experienced, try testing out a new greeting every now and then.

Tanzanians, Kenyans, and others from the Swahili-speaking world are incredibly welcoming people and will happily greet you in their language, so you’ll become a greeting master in no time!

Kelsey Lechner

Translator, teacher, interpreter

Kelsey is a writer, translator, and educator. She is an avid lover of dance, dogs, and tea. LinkedIn | Contently

Speaks: English, Japanese, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Swahili, Bengali

Have a 15-minute conversation in your new language after 90 days

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9.9: The Swahili City-States (East Africa)

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• Page ID 11745

• Charlotte Miller
• Middle Georgia State University via University System of Georgia via GALILEO Open Learning Materials

In the tenth century CE, a grand Persian sultan, Sultan Ali ibn Sulaiman al-Shirazi sailed to Kilwa Kisiwani, an island off the East African coast. When he arrived, he was generous and people liked him, which enabled him to marry the daughter of Mrimba, the local headman. The newlyweds were set up to live more or less happily ever after. However, Sultan Ali and Mrimba made a deal, brokered by Mrimba’s daughter. The deal gave Sultan Ali control of the island in exchange for enough cloth for Mrimba to “walk on it from the island to his new abode on the mainland.” 15 The deal went through and Mrimba moved to the mainland, but then Mrimba regretted relinguishing his position and plotted to militarily retake the island from his son-in-law. In response, Sultan Ali used magic from the Qur’an to stop Mrimba’s plot. By reading the Qur’an in a special way, Sultan Ali kept the sea levels high, which confined Mrimba to the mainland, where he gave up and retired. Upon Mrimba’s death, his mainland territory passed to the son of Sultan Ali who also ruled Kilwa Kisiwani. In this oral tradition, the union of Mrimba’s daughter and Sultan Ali forged a new Muslim family, with Persian and African ancestry, that ruled Kilwa Kisiwani and the mainland coast.

The above version is just one account of Kilwa Kisiwani’s origins; nevertheless, it conveys some very important elements of Swahili identity. Starting at least by the thirteenth century CE, in response to resident Arab merchants who scorned non-Muslims and some African practices, African elites in East Africa claimed descent from Shirazis (Persians) and to have been early converts to Islam. In some cases, the connections may have been exaggerated or inaccurate from a historical standpoint. However, regardless of their accuracy, these stories demonstrate some of the defining features of Swahili identity.

As it controlled gold coming from Great Zimbabwe, Kilwa Kisiwani became one of the most prosperous of the Swahili city-states . From 1000 to 1500 CE, Swahili city-states were wealthy urban areas connected both to the African interior and the larger Indian Ocean World. Dozens of Swahili city-states running down the East African coast from Mogadishu to Sofala, and including islands off the coast, were commercial centers, tied together by a shared identity, not an overarching political structure. In addition to Islam and claims to Persian ancestry, Swahili identity also became associated with Indian Ocean trade, an urban style, and a shared language (Swahili).

Historians of Africa trace the origins of the Swahili city-states to the Bantu expansions, explaining that by the first century CE, Bantu farmers had built communities along the East African coast. They traded with southern Arabia, southeast Asia, and occasionally Greece and Rome. Although trade contracted after the fall of the Roman Empire, it rebounded several hundred years later. At that time, residents of the Swahili city-states played a pivotal role as middlemen, selling gold, timber, ivory, resins, coconut oil, and slaves from the interior regions of Africa to traders arriving from throughout the Indian Ocean World. In return, Swahili elites bought imported glass, porcelain, silk, spices, and cloth. The seasonal monsoon winds that allowed trade between the Swahili coast and southern Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and southeast Asia also facilitated cultural exchange. Blowing towards the East African coast three to four months of the year and reversing several months later, the monsoon winds stranded traders for months at a time, encouraging intermarriage and cultural exchange. Furthermore, the wealth of the Swahili coast attracted Persian and Arab immigrants. With African, Arabian, and southeast Asian influences, Swahili culture became a blended culture as, for example, the Swahili language incorporated loan words from Arabic and Hindi.

One of the quintisessential features of the Swahili city-states from 1000 to 1500 CE was their urban style. A few families made up the elite, ruling classes, while most people in the cities were less wealthy, working as craftsmen, artisans, clerks, and sailors. People in villages along the coast could also identify as Swahili. Claimants of Swahili identity spoke the Swahili language and were Muslim. Archaeology shows that emerging Swahili cities had mosques and Muslim burial grounds starting in the eighth century CE. By their height, the Swahili city-states were distinctly Muslim; they had large mosques built of local coral stone. The Swahili, regardless of their economic status, drew a distinction between themselves as Muslims and the “uncultured,” non-Muslim Africans of the interior.

The elite families played a role in fashioning Swahili urban style. In addition to tracing their descent back to some of the earliest Muslim settlers from Persia, they embraced Islam, financing mosques, practicing purdah (the seclusion of women), and hosting large religious celebrations. Their Muslim identity stimulated trade, as visiting Muslim merchants felt comfortable extending credit to them and living with their Swahili host families while waiting for the winds to turn. By 1350 CE, the urban style of Swahili city-states exhibited a distinguishing architecture. Many of the cities became “stone towns” with wealthy Swahili families constructing multi-level homes out of the coarse coral. The Swahili elite used their stone houses to establish themselves as prominent, creditworthy citizens. They wore imported silk and cotton and ate off imported porcelain to further display their status. Like other Swahili, the ruling classes distinguished themselves from non-Muslims of the interior. They may have been partially moved to draw this distinction by their desire to sell as slaves people captured in the neighboring, non-Muslim communities.

Slavery within the Indian Ocean World , the zone of contact and interaction connecting people living adjacent to the Indian Ocean, began well before the spread of Islam in the seventh century CE. During the high point of the Swahili city-states, Muslim traders controlled the slave trade within the Indian Ocean World. Slaves tended to be captives of war sold to the Arabian Peninsula and regions near the Persian Gulf. Slaves were put to work as sailors, agricultural laborers, pearl divers, domestic workers, concubines, and musicians. Our information about the everyday lives of slaves in this region is very limited.

In one famous revolt, slaves from East Africa (the Zanj), who were forced to work on sugar plantations and salt flats near Basra (in present-day Iraq), seriously challenged the power of the Abbasid Caliphate. Led by Ali ibn Muhammad, the Zanj rose up in the Zanj Rebellion , a guerrilla war against the Abbasids. For fourteen years, the Zanj and their supporters, altogether an estimated 15,000 people, raided towns, seized weapons and food, and freed slaves. They captured Basra and came within seventy miles of Baghdad, the Abbasid capital. The rebels created their own state with fortresses, a navy, tax collection, and their own coinage. At enormous cost, the Abbasids finally put down the revolt in 883 CE using a large army and by offering amnesty to the rebels. Scholars have used the Zanj Rebellion to examine the scope of the Indian Ocean trade in East African slaves, the conditions of slavery in the Indian Ocean World, and the agency (the ability to exert their own will) of slaves. Some of these scholars suggest that the Zanj Rebellion led Muslims in Arabia to largely abandon the practice of using East African slaves as plantation laborers. The rebellion helps them explain why the Indian Ocean slave trade developed differently than the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

While there were some similarities between the trans-Atlantic trade that brought slaves to the Americas and the slave trade within the Indian Ocean World, there were important differences. Both slave trades took Africans, contributing to an African diaspora , or a dispersal of African peoples and their descendants, all over the world. The trans-Atlantic slave trade, which lasted approximately 300 years and reached its peak in the eighteenth century CE, forced approximately 12 million people, mostly from West Africa, into the Americas. The slave trade within the Indian Ocean lasted much longer, about 2000 years, and was generally smaller in scale. Scholars suggest that African slaves in the Indian Ocean World had more social mobility, especially since many of them were skilled soldiers. Also, according to Islamic precepts, slaves had some basic rights and could be incorporated into the households that they served. Theoretically, a freeborn Muslim could not be enslaved. Unlike slavery in the Americas, slavery within the Indian Ocean World was not racially codified, so freed slaves did not automatically face racial discrimination. And due to their reproductive capacities, women were more sought after as slaves within the Indian Ocean World, while the trans-Atlantic slave trade had the highest demand for young men. Despite these general trends, there was great individual variation within the slave experience.

Moving up the East African coast in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the Portuguese sacked some Swahili cities and tried to tax trade. In 1498, when they happened upon the Swahili coast, the Portuguese were trying to establish a direct sea route to the riches of India and China. After using an East African guide to reach India, the Portuguese began to set up a Trading Post Empire , which intended to tax trade within the Indian Ocean. The Trading Post Empire consisted of a series of forts along the Indian Ocean coast where Portuguese administrators collected taxes and issued trade permits. In the early 1500s, the Portuguese returned to the Swahili city-states to enforce their will. As the Swahili city-states did not have a unified political structure or large armies, the Portuguese successfully looted and destroyed some Swahili cities. However, the Portuguese cultural influence and their ability to enforce tax collection was very limited north of Mozambique. The Portuguese did not move inland beyond the coastal cities and, by and large, trade within the Indian Ocean continued without a great deal of Portuguese interference. However, the Portuguese presence encouraged Swahili leaders to ally with the Omanis from southern Arabia. In 1699, the Omanis, working with some Swahili rulers, seized Mombasa from the Portuguese, and began an era of Omani dominance of the Swahili coast.

15 John Middleton, The World of the Swahili: An African Mercantile Civilization, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994): 31-32