Swahili and Its Popularity

Considered a beautiful language, Swahili is used by native speakers that live on the Eastern coast of Africa. The interesting part is Swahili is very popular in western countries, and made referenced to in plenty of movies and songs.

For instance, there are some Swahili references in Disney's cartoon The Lion King. "Simba", the main hero in the animation film, means lion, and is related to the word for "lion" in the Sanskrit language. "Rafiki", another word in Swahili, means "friend", whereas the famous song "Hakuna Matata" means "No worries for the rest of our days". In the sequel of Lion King, most characters have Swahili names, like for example Simba's adopted son, which is named "Kovu", meaning "scar" in the Swahili language. Still in Lion King, there is this very beautiful and happy song, called "Baba Yetu", which means "Our Father", and is, in fact, the Lord's Prayer translated in Swahili. And here are the words: "Baba yetu yetu uliye (Our Father, Jesus, who art)/mbinguni yetu, Amina! (in the heavens, amin!)/baba yetu yetu uliye/Jina lako milele litukuzwe (Hallowed be thy name)/Utupe leo chakula chetu tunachohitaji (Give us our daily bread)/Utusuhamele (forgive us of)/makosa yetu, hey! (our trespasses)/kana nasi tunavy owasamele (as we forgive others)/waliotukoseo (who trespass us)/Usitutie katika majaribu lakini (Lead us not into temptation)/ Utuokoe (But)/ na yule (deliver us from evil)/milele na yule (and you are forever and ever)".This song also stands for the menu theme music of a popular computer game called Sid Meier's Civilization IV.

And yet there are some more references to Swahili. Michael Jackson's single called "Liberian Girl", for instance, has an intro in Swahili: "Nakupenda pia, nakutaka pia, mpenzi wee!" meaning "I love you too, and I want you too, you my love!"

The actor Gene Roddenberry played the character "Lieutenant Uhura" in Star Trek, and this name translated from Swahili means "freedom".

Again, another TV series referring to the Swahili is "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", where, in season 7, the first watchers would speak the Swahili language.

The character from The Simpsons animated series named Smithers can speak Swahili. And Marge also once bluffs on her resume, saying she speaks this exotic tongue.

The quite popular game 'Jenga' has its name from the Swahili word "kujenga", which translates "to build". This game is based on testing one's handiness, as it involves de-constructing a tower made of very well balanced blocks of wood. And "Jenga!" is the Swahili verb in its imperative form.

The funny Weird Al makes yet another reference to Swahili "Virus Alert!", a song about a virus that "will translate your documents into Swahili."

There is another SF movie by James L. Conway's, called "Hangar 18", in which the automatic system of speech used on an alien ship is nothing but some Swahili words and phrases which had been processed with a sort of vocoder.

But where in the world is it actually spoken these days? It is generally spoken on the Africa's Indian Ocean coast, but also in Tanzania, Kenya, Congo, where it stands for an official or even the national language. Also, in Uganda, Swahili was declared a required subject for primary school children, and also became an official language in 2005. And there are some smaller groups in Mozambique, Somalia, Zambia, Rwanda and Burundi that speak the language. As for the population of the Comoros archipelago near Madagascar, it almost entirely speaks Swahili.

Apart from its musicality and exoticism, there are certainly good reasons for which Swahili has grown so popular. And reasons for which such a language is learned by people from the "civilized world". Westerners haven't yet lost their fascination for Africa, for its "heart of darkness" that they want to get familiar with, to thus "enlighten" it a bit. Typically enough, they want to decipher the great mysterious of these yet untamed peoples. Maybe it's the fear of the unknown.

As the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said, "Only the unknown frightens people. But for he who faces the unknown, it isn't the unknown anymore." Perhaps this explains people's enthusiasm for learning this strange language, even if they are not very likely to use it in real-life situations. Who knows, maybe you’ll want to know it too someday!