{"id":3256,"date":"2022-02-17T13:42:17","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T13:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa"},"modified":"2022-02-17T16:20:48","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T16:20:48","slug":"swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa","title":{"rendered":"Swahili’s bid to become a language for all of Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Angola. <\/strong><\/span>With more than 200 million speakers, Swahili, which originated in East Africa, is one of the world’s 10 most widely spoken languages and, as Priya Sippy writes, there is a renewed push for it to become the continent’s lingua franca.<\/p>\n

“It’s high time we move from the coloniser’s language.”<\/b><\/p>\n

This is not part of a rousing speech by a pan-African idealist but rather the sentence is uttered quietly and calmly by Ghanaian Swahili student Annabel Naa Odarley Lankai.<\/p>\n

But her words echo declarations by the continent’s visionaries down the decades.<\/p>\n

Africa should “have something that is of us and for us”, the 23-year-old adds.<\/p>\n

In its heartland, Swahili and its dialects stretch from parts of Somalia down to Mozambique and across to the western parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n

But Ms Lankai’s classroom at the University of Ghana in the capital, Accra, is some 4,500km (2,800 miles) west of Swahili’s birthplace – coastal Kenya and Tanzania.<\/p>\n

The distance could be seen as a measure of the spread of the language and its growing appeal.<\/p>\n

And Swahili words and phrases, transmitted through the music of stars such as Tanzania’s Diamond Platnumz, are now being more widely heard in Ghana, Ms Lankai says.<\/p>\n

Despite the language’s higher profile she remembers that her “friends and family were confused when they heard I was studying Swahili”. But in addition to her idealism, Ms Lankai thinks that knowledge of the language will help her get a job following graduation.<\/p>\n

After the UN’s cultural organisation, Unesco, recently designated 7 July as a world day for the language, she may have a point.<\/p>\n

Swahili, which takes around 40% of its vocabulary directly from Arabic, was initially spread by Arab traders along East Africa’s coast.<\/p>\n

It was then formalised under the German and British colonial regimes in the region in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, as a language of administration and education.<\/p>\n

And though it has been spoken about before as an alternative on the continent to English, French or Portuguese as a lingua franca, or as a commonly understood language, there is now a renewed impetus.<\/p>\n

Cementing African identity<\/b><\/p>\n

At its recent heads of state meeting, the African Union (AU) adopted Swahili as an official working language.<\/p>\n

It is also the official language of the East African Community (EAC), which DR Congo is poised to join.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Swahili became the only African language to be recognised by the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Shortly after, it was introduced in classrooms across South Africa and Botswana.<\/p>\n

Most recently, Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa University announced it would start teaching Swahili.<\/p>\n

Some linguists predict that Swahili’s reach in Africa will continue to expand.<\/p>\n

Tom Jelpke, a researcher of Swahili at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, argues that as connections grow across the continent, people will want a common way to communicate.<\/p>\n

He believes that its closeness to other languages in east and central Africa will cement its position there. But beyond those regions there may also be an ideological element.<\/p>\n

“Swahili\u2026 comes [with] a sense of ownership,” says Ally Khalfan, a lecturer at the State University of Zanzibar, echoing the views of Ms Lankai. “It is about our property and our identity as Africans.”<\/p>\n

The idea of Swahili as a pan-African language was pushed in the 1960s by Tanzania’s first President Julius Nyerere, who used Swahili to unify his nation after independence.<\/p>\n

Despite this post-colonial vision and the current boosted status of Swahili there has to be a dose of realism.<\/p>\n

European languages are still dominant throughout the continent – and it will take a big effort to shift that.<\/p>\n

Currently, English is the official or second language in 27 out of the 54 countries in Africa, and French is the official language in 21 of them.<\/p>\n

“English is still the language of power,” says Chege Githiora, a linguistics professor in Kenya, in recognition of the political and economic reality.<\/p>\n

He advocates what he calls “fluent multilingualism” where people are comfortable speaking more than one trans-national language.<\/p>\n

But whereas Swahili has an appeal in east, central and southern Africa, it has more competition in the west and the north.<\/p>\n

Arabic is dominant in the north, but in the west there are African languages – such as Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba – which could vie for the status of lingua franca.<\/p>\n

If Swahili is to become truly pan-African it will take political will, an economic imperative and financial investment to reach all regions.<\/p>\n

“When Swahili was first taught in Ghana in 1964 it got significant support from the University of Dar es Salaam, but this was not sustained,” says Dr Josephine Dzahene-Quarshie, a Swahili professor at the University of Ghana.<\/p>\n

“If East Africa does more to promote the learning of Swahili in other regions we could get somewhere, but I don’t foresee it as a lingua franca for the whole continent.”<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, her students in Accra, such as Ms Lankai, will carry on dreaming and learning as it holds both an idealistic and practical appeal.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Angola<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Angola. With more than 200 million speakers, Swahili, which originated in East Africa, is one of the world’s 10 most widely spoken languages and, as Priya Sippy writes, there is a renewed push for it to become the continent’s lingua franca. “It’s high time we move from the coloniser’s language.” This is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":3255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,337,329],"class_list":["post-3256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-angola","tag-angola"],"yoast_head":"\nSwahili's bid to become a language for all of Africa - Angola<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With more than 200 million speakers, Swahili, which originated in East Africa, is one of the world's 10 most widely spok ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swahili's bid to become a language for all of Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With more than 200 million speakers, Swahili, which originated in East Africa, is one of the world's 10 most widely spok ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Angola\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-17T13:42:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-17T16:20:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/02\/img-620e75c9154f6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"976\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"549\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Swahili’s bid to become a language for all of Africa\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-17T13:42:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-17T16:20:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa\"},\"wordCount\":869,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/02\/img-620e75c9154f6.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Angola\",\"Angola\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa\",\"name\":\"Swahili's bid to become a language for all of Africa - Angola\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/02\/img-620e75c9154f6.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-17T13:42:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-17T16:20:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"With more than 200 million speakers, Swahili, which originated in East Africa, is one of the world's 10 most widely spok ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/02\/img-620e75c9154f6.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/02\/img-620e75c9154f6.jpg\",\"width\":976,\"height\":549,\"caption\":\"Swahili's bid to become a language for all of Africa\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Swahili’s bid to become a language for all of Africa\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/\",\"name\":\"Angola\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Swahili's bid to become a language for all of Africa - Angola","description":"With more than 200 million speakers, Swahili, which originated in East Africa, is one of the world's 10 most widely spok ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Swahili's bid to become a language for all of Africa","og_description":"With more than 200 million speakers, Swahili, which originated in East Africa, is one of the world's 10 most widely spok ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa","og_site_name":"Angola","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-02-17T13:42:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-02-17T16:20:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":976,"height":549,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/02\/img-620e75c9154f6.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Swahili’s bid to become a language for all of Africa","datePublished":"2022-02-17T13:42:17+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-17T16:20:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa"},"wordCount":869,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/02\/img-620e75c9154f6.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Angola","Angola"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","miscellaneous","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa","name":"Swahili's bid to become a language for all of Africa - Angola","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/02\/img-620e75c9154f6.jpg","datePublished":"2022-02-17T13:42:17+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-17T16:20:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"With more than 200 million speakers, Swahili, which originated in East Africa, is one of the world's 10 most widely spok ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/02\/img-620e75c9154f6.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/02\/img-620e75c9154f6.jpg","width":976,"height":549,"caption":"Swahili's bid to become a language for all of Africa"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/swahilis-bid-to-become-a-language-for-all-of-africa#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Swahili’s bid to become a language for all of Africa"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/","name":"Angola","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}