Hakuna Matata lounge

[Geza Ulole]

Hakuna Matata in the streets of Germany


By Mwaura Samora msamora@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Thursday, October 27 2011 at 20:29

In Summary

Ties that bind: It is not by coincidence that learning Kiswahili is relatively easy to Germans compared to other Europeans. The drafting of the language’s first grammar was heavily influenced by the called “First German Ambassador” to East Africa, Dr Johannes Ludwig Krapf

Long before the phrase hakuna matata was made popular by the Hollywood animation blockbuster Lion King, Kiswahili had already started making inroads into the West through the East African Diaspora and tourism.

This ignited curiosity and interest among Western academics, which then led to the rapid rise of the language’s popularity in the northern hemisphere.

Germany, a country with a strong historical connection to Tanzania, is one of the fastest growing Kiswahili hotspots in Europe.

“Mambo vipi?” a group of young women exclaimed, to my amazement, after realising I’m Kenyan at an outdoor event in the streets of Berlin during a recent visit. “Hamna noma eh?”, they went on in a mixture of Kiswahili and Sheng phrases that, until then, I only expected to hear in the streets of Nairobi.

A few questions later, while still nursing my shock, I discovered that the two were sisters who spent their childhood in Tanzania during their father’s tour of duty in the late ’80s. Although Nina, the eldest, had to re-orient herself with the language when she travelled to Dar-es-Salaam last year, her passion for Kiswahili is evident

“I love the language and the journey back to Tanzania was very exciting for me since it was an opportunity to practice my Kiswahili,” she explained. “Besides, being able to speak the language was very instrumental in my understanding of the local way of life”.

The 30-year-old who occasionally works in a Berlin kindergarten says she teaches children some Kiswahili phrases.

“One of my motivations for taking up Kiswahili is the fact that the language has very nice sounds, the grammar is understandable and I can pronounce it easily because it has the same letters and sounds as German,” Nina says.

It’s not by coincidence that learning Kiswahili is relatively easy to Germans compared to other Europeans. The drafting of the early Kiswahili grammar and linguistics was heavily influenced by the so-called “First German Ambassador” to East Africa, Dr Johannes Ludwig Krapf.

In a quest to build a communication bridge between sub-Saharan Africa and Europe, Dr Krapf also adopted the Roman script in written Kiswahili, which until then was using the Arabic alphabet.

The ambitious scholar also wrote the first comprehensive Kiswahili dictionary that laid the basis for later editions. For these milestone contributions towards the development of the language, Dr Krapf has been considered by many as the father of modern Kiswahili linguistics.

But German colonial masters embraced a philosophy of learning local languages in fear that, if Tanzanians were to learn German, they would develop revolutionary ideas and overthrow the colonisers. This, according to scholars, greatly hampered any further linguistic interactions between Kiswahili and German.

While shule and hela are the only German words in today’s Kiswahili, the Portuguese contributed pesa, meza and leso, while the English have shilingi, redio, and televisheni, among many others.

Despite these earlier hitches, the relationship between Tanzania and her former colonial master has been one of the forces behind the rise of the Kiswahili movement in Europe. Many foreign Kiswahili lecturers in German universities are Tanzanians.

However, these East African teachers play a peripheral role since most scholars behind the popularity of the language in this European country are natives.

“Many students in Europe and America prefer Kiswahili because it’s less intimidating. It is the only African language with the largest readership in the continent,” explains Dr Kristina Riedel, who worked as a linguist in Berlin before moving to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she teaches Kiswahili.

Although more than 15 universities, the highest number in the West, teach Kiswahili in Germany, the University of Humboldt in Berlin has the best programme that entails advanced grammar, linguistics and literature.

Strangely, just like in Kenya, the “disruptive” Sheng, the slang commonly spoken by Kenyan and Tanzanian urban youth, has started influencing the tongues of young German Swahili learners, most of whom are mesmerised by its dynamism and related music genres like Genge and Bongo Flavour.

“Sheng is a very popular topic among German Kiswahili scholars today, most of whom have been amazed by the interest it has stirred among their students,” Dr Riedel explains. “Students are usually very excited to discuss Sheng and it’s related music genres.”

Many Kiswahili experts in Kenya frown at the slightest mention of Sheng, which they blame for killing the competency of their beloved language among students. But this is not the case in Germany, where some respected scholars have published serious academic work investigating the origin and tenets of Sheng.

Dr Riedel, who concurs no language — sheng or otherwise — is linguistically inferior to another, says she stumbled upon Kiswahili as a teenager and developed a desire to learn it more.

“As I went through the academic ladder, I found it more interesting and important to my development studies,” she explains. “Although I encountered some difficulties in pronouncing some intonations, the language was generally easy for me to learn because most of the sounds are similar to those in German”.

Dr Riedel recalls the amazement in the faces of many locals when she conversed in flawless Kiswahili during her visit to Mombasa in 2000.

The relative ease and fluency with which she speaks the language is reminiscent of a Tanzania resident. Her Bongo accent is no surprise, given that after her doctoral thesis on syntax and morphology of African languages, the 31-year-old scholar spent a year as a tutorial fellow at the University of Dar-es-Salaam.

It is ironical that, while interest in Kiswahili is growing by the day in universities across Germany and other western countries, locally, the language is still struggling to penetrate the scholarly field.

In Kenya, the Ministry of Education has even contemplated making the language optional in the school curriculum.

On this issue Dr Riedel says Kenyans, and indeed the whole of Africa, should borrow a leaf from Germans, who are generally proud of speaking their language more than any other.

“Although English remains important for globalisation, in my opinion, Kiswahili should be maintained as a mandatory and integral part of the school curriculum,” she opines. “Besides being a medium of day-to-day interaction between citizens, the language is also important for the advancement of issues like democracy and development because it’s spoken by the entire population”.

While many Kenyans strive to speak English with a foreign accent, majority of Germans have an elementary grasp of the language, and they are not sorry about it.

Unlike Dr Riedel, who encountered the language from an academic platform, Hans-Juergen Boesel interacted with Kiswahili while in Tanzania, where he worked for eight years. Although it was not a basic requirement of his work, he teamed up with fellow expatriates and hired a tutor.

“Apart from the desire to communicate with local people, most of whom could not speak English, I was also curious to understand the language,” Hans-Juergen says in grammatically refined Kiswahili. “But I eventually came to love the language, which perhaps explains why I can still hold a conversation in it, more than 20 years since I left Tanzania”.

One of the most prominent figures in the German Kiswahili movement is Dr Kai Kresse, renowned scholar and the head of Center of Modern Oriental Studies (ZMO) in Berlin. Through its panel of experts from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, ZMO gathers data on histories and cultures and acts as a resource base for universities in Germany and across the world.

Apart form being a historical expert of the East African coast, Dr Kresse has a keen interest in Kiswahili, a language that he speaks with better proficiency and precision than most ordinary Kenyans.

“I developed an interest in the language after a trip to the Kenyan coast. Then I opted for Kiswahili and African studies as my minor when I later enrolled at the University of Hamburg,” the Berlin-based scholar explains. “I later on travelled to Zanzibar, where I acquired a lot of experience and understanding of the tenets of this language”.

After the completion of his masters studies in London, Dr Kresse travelled to Mombasa in 1998, where he stayed in Kibokoni for a year working on his PhD thesis. While there, he not only interacted with local Swahili people but also met renowned linguistic experts from the region who further polished his grasp of the language.

Besides being a student of Sauda Barwani Sheikh, one of the most respected Kiswahili scholars in Germany, Dr Kresse has also worked with other linguistic heavyweights from East Africa like Ustadh Ahmad Nassir, Sheikh Abdullahi Nassir and Ahmed Sheikh Nabahani.

“The Importance of Kiswahili in the Western academic circles can never be over-emphasised,” he says. “Most students of African studies choose it because it has a high number of speakers, not only in Africa, but also abroad. I overheard it being spoken numerous times while travelling in the London underground system.”

Like Dr Riedel, Dr Kresse says that the toughest chapter in his mission to learn the language was the one that dealt with ngeli (verb conjugation).

“Pronunciations are not quiet hard because many sounds are similar to those in German, but the grammar bit was quite tricky,” the scholar explains. “But this effort was rewarded by the fact that I am now able to speak to people freely when I visit East Africa, besides using the language for my academic endeavours”.

Dr Kresse says the ability to speak and write fluent Kiswahili is one of his greatest achievements in life, and laments the fact that many Europeans don’t try to learn the language despite being frequent visitors to East Africa.

“For instance, Britain, despite having close historical ties with the East African region, has only one major Kiswahili teaching programme at the SOAS Language Centre in London,” the scholar observes.
http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/DN2...z/-/index.html

[Geza Ulole]

This two guys should really read the history of Swahili well, they don't understand anything. Swahili was derived from the Ngozi people who used to live in Shungwaya, the region on the Kenyan coast near the Somalia border. The Ngozi interacted with the Arabs and thus Swahili was born. The Sultan of Zanzibar then made Swahili the state language of Zanzibar. Right now, there are more people in Kenya of the Swahili ethnicity than in Tanzania so am wondering how foreign Swahili is to Kenya.
__________________

huyu aliyesema haya hapa juu ni mpuuzi wa mwisho! historia ya baadhi ya watu wa Somalia kuongea kiswahili inajulikana! Na ni kwa sababu ya utumwa kuna watumwa toka pwani ya Afrika mashariki walitelekezwa Pwani ya Aden baada ya Muingereza kupiga marufuku utumwa! Na Mwarabu kuogopa meli yake kuzamishwa akawatelekeza Waswahili Pwani ya Aden! Kiswahili asili yake inajulikana ni pwani ya Tanzania Zanzibar na hata Kilwa (Masoko na hata visiwani) maana hapa kulikuwa na ule mji unaitwa Raphta uliokuwa wakibiashara mpaka Bulawayo na pwani yoote! ukifanya biashara na Waajemi, Wachina, Wahindi na Waarabu kabla ya Wareno kuja kuingilia biashara! na kiswahili kilikuwapo hata kabla ya Wamishionari au serikali ya Ujerumani kuja! Walichofanya hawa watu ni kukiandika kiswahili (toka kiarabu kwenda roman letters) ikiwa ni jitihada za Wamishionari! Kiswahili kilikuwa kishasambaa mpaka Kongo ya Mashariki kikifuata njia za biashara ya Pembe na Utumwa (Ujiji na Kivu provinces)!

[Baron Shani]

I was flicking through some channels a couple a weeks ago and I managed to come across 'Tinga Tinga Tales' on one of the Disney channels (I think), I thought to myself "wow Tanzanians decided to make a cartoon out of the TingaTinga paintings". Upon further research I found out that "Tinga Tinga Tales is a Kenyan/British 78 episodes children's series based on African folk tales and aimed at 4- to 6-year olds", I may be late, but I was surprised when I read that.

So, lets re-evaluate what copyright infringment really looks like and move on.

[Mintali]

Originally Posted by Geza Ulole

This two guys should really read the history of Swahili well, they don't understand anything. Swahili was derived from the Ngozi people who used to live in Shungwaya, the region on the Kenyan coast near the Somalia border. The Ngozi interacted with the Arabs and thus Swahili was born. The Sultan of Zanzibar then made Swahili the state language of Zanzibar. Right now, there are more people in Kenya of the Swahili ethnicity than in Tanzania so am wondering how foreign Swahili is to Kenya.
__________________

huyu aliyesema haya hapa juu ni mpuuzi wa mwisho! historia ya baadhi ya watu wa Somalia kuongea kiswahili inajulikana! Na ni kwa sababu ya utumwa kuna watumwa toka pwani ya Afrika mashariki walitelekezwa Pwani ya Aden baada ya Muingereza kupiga marufuku utumwa! Na Mwarabu kuogopa meli yake kuzamishwa akawatelekeza Waswahili Pwani ya Aden! Kiswahili asili yake inajulikana ni pwani ya Tanzania Zanzibar na hata Kilwa (Masoko na hata visiwani) maana hapa kulikuwa na ule mji unaitwa Raphta uliokuwa wakibiashara mpaka Bulawayo na pwani yoote!

Dude my article is not about the reason why some Somali's speak Swahili; its about the origin of Swahili which I clearly stated to be Shungwaya - an ancient town on present days Kenyan coast in Lamu county. This is contrary to your continous claims ever since you joined SSC that Swahili is foreign to Kenya and native to Tanzania. Your continued insults are evidence enough that I gave you ten nil by teaching you the correct history that you never knew, gave you a link to an article that says so and even referred you to a book on the history of Kiswahili. So dude get your lazy ass off your brains and understand that we are not fools to guzzle everything any retard tells us, stop your insults and give proof to whatever you say.

[Geza Ulole]

Originally Posted by Mintali

Dude my article is not about the reason why some Somali's speak Swahili; its about the origin of Swahili which I clearly stated to be Shungwaya - an ancient town on present days Kenyan coast in Lamu county. This is contrary to your continous claims ever since you joined SSC that Swahili is foreign to Kenya and native to Tanzania. Your continued insults are evidence enough that I gave you ten nil by teaching you the correct history that you never knew, gave you a link to an article that says so and even referred you to a book on the history of Kiswahili. So dude get your lazy ass off your brains and understand that we are not fools to guzzle everything any retard tells us, stop your insults and give proof to whatever you say.

Can u try to translate that into Kiswahili to prove that the language originated in Kenya? never heard that! and probably that will distinguish between a lazy ass and a smart chap! pls i have not started a thread to be derailed Hakuna matata is not Kenyan go and perish!

[Mintali]

Originally Posted by Geza Ulole

Can u try to translate that into Kiswahili to prove that the language originated in Kenya? never heard that! and probably that will distinguish between a lazy ass and a smart chap! pls i have not started a thread to be derailed Hakuna matata is not Kenyan go and perish!

Stop exposing your retard head and give yourself a break, writing an article in a language doesn't prove where the language orignated. I already gave you proof and you haven't given me yours. And FYI, am not doing this to boast, I don't have shallow thinking like you and your equally retarded friend, am doing this to mark a stop to your foolish yelling that Kenya is unorignal, that we stole your language. Dude why is the mere fact that we asked you to name your lounge with something Tanzanian giving you sleepless nights and days spent chewing up badly written paragraphs over nothing? If this is all you have for the 'smart chap' you always claim you are, then I advise you to remain the dumb version of yourself.

[Geza Ulole]

Originally Posted by Mintali

Stop exposing your retard had and give yourself a break, writing an article in a language doesn't prove where the language orignated. I already gave you proof and you haven't given me yours. And FYI, am not doing this to boast, I don't have shallow thinking like you and your equally retarded friend, am doing this to mark a stop to your foolish yelling that Kenya is unorignal, that we stole your language. Dude why is the mere fact that we asked you to name your lounge with something Tanzanian giving you sleepless nights?

Hakuna Matata is not kenyan, go and perish even the movie Lion King was shot in South Africa here u just claim everything u see typical of Kenyans! U can't claim origin of a language if u can't even speak it! The two are inseparable! Most of we Tanzanians are trilingual we speak a local (tribal) dialect, Swahili and English whereas u Kenyans r bilingual! English and tribal language! End of story...

[mwanamwiwa]

Originally Posted by Geza Ulole

Can u try to translate that into Kiswahili to prove that the language originated in Kenya? never heard that! and probably that will distinguish between a lazy ass and a smart chap! pls i have not started a thread to be derailed Hakuna matata is not Kenyan go and perish!

Why bother?The evidence is their for all,what you need to do is have some respect for yourself and stop stealing Kenya slogans like Nyama choma.You mean there was nothing Tanzanian you could use?You guys are pathetic!

[mwanamwiwa]

Originally Posted by Geza Ulole

Hakuna Matata is not kenyan, go and perish even the movie Lion King was shot in South Africa here u just claim everything u see typical of Kenyans! U can't claim origin of a language if u can't even speak it! The two are inseparable! Most of we Tanzanians are trilingual we speak a local (tribal) dialect, Swahili and English whereas u Kenyans r bilingual! English and tribal language! End of story...

Who claimed the lion king dear?

[Mintali]

Originally Posted by Geza Ulole

Hakuna Matata is not kenyan, go and perish even the movie Lion King was shot in South Africa here u just claim everything u see typical of Kenyans! U can't claim origin of a language if u can't even speak it! The two are inseparable! Most of we Tanzanians are trilingual we speak a local (tribal) dialect, Swahili and English whereas u Kenyans r bilingual! English and tribal language! End of story...

The orignal Hakuna Matata phrase was done by the Safari Sound Band in their song 'Jambo, Kenya Hakuna Matata'. For the next time stop exposing your retardness, the disney movie 'The Lion King' is an animation so I wonder how an American animation would be done in SA. Btw, what do you mean by go and perish?The last time I checked, 'perish' is enough to pass the insult you are trying pass. As of your claim that Kenya is bilingual, suit yourself asshole.

[lady gaga]

U can't believe you guys fighting because of the name

[Geza Ulole]

Originally Posted by lady gaga

U can't believe you guys fighting because of the name

Their intention is to derail the thread and i know Xusein will grant their will instead of banning them! How unfair is this forum! People argue on things like Hakuna Matata or Nyama Choma while no intellectual/copy rights exist on those since they derive from Swahili of which Tanzania has played a great role to make the language what it is! Believe me none of this dudes here can construct a five sentence page in grammatical correct Swahili! I challenge them to translate into swahili what i have just wrote to prove me wrong

[Uhuru na Umoja]

Originally Posted by mwanamwiwa

Nyama choma

unbelievable! so tell us what is "meat" and what is "roast" in swahili??

"MEAT" in swahili is "nyama" and "ROAST" in swahili is "choma" so how do swahili words become Kenyan's? a language that you cant even speak? so swahili is Kenyan???

Kenyans used to claim that, mountain Kilimanjaro is in Kenya.

[lady gaga]

Guy's chill it's just a fucking name jeez you Tanzanians and Kenyans are brother you have the same language and that's enough for me to be cool

[Uhuru na Umoja]

Originally Posted by Geza Ulole

Their intention is to derail the thread and i know Xusein will grant their will instead of banning them! How unfair is this forum! People argue on things like Hakuna Matata or Nyama Choma while no intellectual/copy rights exist on those since they derive from Swahili of which Tanzania has played a great role to make the language what it is! Believe me none of this dudes here can construct a five sentence page in grammatical correct Swahili! I challenge them to translate into swahili what i have just wrote to prove me wrong

"Xusein will grant their wil"

you are right, lets just watch and see, better still, "Xusein" or "SE9"" will close this thread. THEY WANT TO SPOIL EVERYTHING. As a forumer, I'm considering to quite on here, THE FORUM AND THE MODERATORS ARE BIAS

[bantugbro]

Kiswahili lugha ya taifaa, ya taifaah!
Na mikoani oooh kimeenea kiswahili
Na vijijini ooh kimeenea kishwahili

rudia x2

Kiswahili lugha ya taifaaa ya taifaaa...

[xJamaax]

Originally Posted by bantugbro

Kiswahili lugha ya taifaa, ya taifaah!
Na mikoani oooh kimeenea kiswahili
Na vijijini ooh kimeenea kishwahili

rudia x2

Kiswahili lugha ya taifaaa ya taifaaa...

[mwanamwiwa]

Originally Posted by Geza Ulole

Their intention is to derail the thread and i know Xusein will grant their will instead of banning them! How unfair is this forum! People argue on things like Hakuna Matata or Nyama Choma while no intellectual/copy rights exist on those since they derive from Swahili of which Tanzania has played a great role to make the language what it is! Believe me none of this dudes here can construct a five sentence page in grammatical correct Swahili! I challenge them to translate into swahili what i have just wrote to prove me wrong

You need to stop your pathetic thieving ways.Hakuna matata is Kenyan and that will remain forever.You could have used Bongo or the Ujamaa lounge and nobody would have had an issue but instead you have to steal(claim) what isnt yours.Its obsessive and sad,have some respect and pride for yourselves Tanzanians and stop crying to the Mods.

[xJamaax]

Originally Posted by Uhuru na Umoja

"Xusein will grant their wil"

you are right, lets just watch and see, better still, "Xusein" or "SE9"" will close this thread. THEY WANT TO SPOIL EVERYTHING. As a forumer, I'm considering to quite on here, THE FORUM AND THE MODERATORS ARE BIAS

I think we need to stop arguing about these insignificant issues. Let's embrace the EAC spirit and move on bro.

[Geza Ulole]

@ Baron, don't worry i wrote a letter of complains to the Minister of sports and culture and they managed to stop the project! that lady wanted to make a lot of money on art that is Tanzanian!