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African History 3: Swahili Language 60 Views


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Description:

Hakunamatata may be a wonderful phrase, but did you know it's actually a real word in Swahili? And since Swahili is the official language of four countries in Africa, you could certainly say it "aint no passin' craze."

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

What do you get when you mix traditional African Bantu languages with Arabic? [Boy mixing languages into jug]

00:10

A brand new language called Kiswahili…or Swahili for short.

00:16

See, East Africa had a ton of stuff the Arabs were interested in…

00:20

Ivory, spices, slaves… [Lots of ivory, spices and slaves]

00:23

And Africans were happy to do business… with a lot of people getting rich in the process.

00:28

So Arab and Muslim traders would sail in ships down the coast, spreading their language and [Ships sailing down the coast of Africa]

00:33

religion.

00:34

And creating a new language in the process.

00:36

At first, Swahili was mostly confined to cities on the coast like Mombasa or Zanzibar City.

00:43

It makes sense when you think about it.

00:44

Say you were a trader from Baghdad who wanted to buy some ivory for an awesome musical instrument [Trader dancing]

00:50

you're making.

00:51

Oh, come on…just use your imagination.

00:55

Sure, you could sail inland up the rivers and try to buy some ivory directly from an [Trader stood by an elephant]

01:00

elephant hunter.

01:01

Or, for the low price of a middleman fee, you could swing by a city conveniently located

01:07

on the sea.

01:08

It was a dream.

01:09

The local lords were Muslim like you, everybody knew the Arabic word for ivory, and you weren’t

01:15

as likely to get gouged.

01:18

Why not save yourself the hassle?

01:20

For a while, inland East Africa remained largely rural, noncommercial, and non-Muslim. [African people in groups]

01:26

But the Swahili language penetrated even deeper into Africa as time went on.

01:31

During the 19th Century, trade and migration from the Swahili Coast started spreading the

01:35

language into the interior.

01:38

Somewhat ironically, Christian missionaries even helped spread the Muslim-inspired language, [Christian man preaching muslim language]

01:42

since Swahili is a language they used to spread the Gospel in Africa.

01:46

Eventually, the language reached a ton of areas, including the modern countries of Uganda,

01:51

Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Central African Republic, and Mozambique.

01:57

Today, Swahili is the official language of Kenya.

02:00

Although, thanks to English colonization, official correspondence is still done in English. [Man completing correspondence]

02:06

The English—once they come in, they don’t go out…

02:12

Swahili is also the official language of Tanzania, Kenya’s neighbor to the South. [Finger points to Tanzania]

02:18

It was declared so by Julius Nyerere, Tanzania’s first leader after British rule.

02:24

Nyerere actually encouraged newly liberated Tanzanians to speak Swahili as a way to unify [Nyerere giving a speech[

02:31

them and give them a national identity.

02:33

In a lot of ways, it totally worked.

02:35

Though higher education is still in English…

02:37

…which sucks for a lot of people struggling for an education…. [African students studying in English]

02:40

…Swahili is the biggest language on the block.

02:43

And almost all Tanzanians speak it, along with their own tribal languages.

02:47

Swahili has even found its way into American pop culture.

02:51

Popping up in Michael Jackson songs and Disney movies.

02:54

If you've seen The Lion King, you know some Swahili already.

02:58

"Simba" means "lion." [Simba on stage]

02:59

"Rafiki" means "friend."

03:01

And "hakuna matata" means "no worries,"

03:04

But…you probably already knew that.

03:06

Unless you…just kinda block out any information told to you by talking animals… [Man shrugs shoulders at two horses]

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