In the early 1980s, my mom’s husband John took a 3-week trip to Kenya on an outward-bound style trip. He absolutely fell in love with the place. Though many of you who are reading might have been a little envious about my experience, none more so than John. I have no doubt that he and my mother will one day make the trip back to East Africa. So for the benefit of those two, and for any of you that are interested, I present a short crash course in Swahili.
Vowel rules: A’s are pronounced as “ah” almost exclusively. E’s make the “eh” sound at the beginning of the word and “ay” if they are at the end. I’s make the “ee” sound usually and in some cases the short i sound in the middle. O’s and U’s are basically the same as they are in English.
Greetings and Manners: The East African culture is very greeting-based. You are more or less expected to greet people. There are two greetings used here, and both are pretty different.
You have Hujambo (usually shortened to Jambo) which means “hello”. Your response would generally be Sijambo—I am well. However, this greeting is not used with most Tanzanians under 40 and is oftentimes considered a word for tourists. There are older Tanzanians that use Jambo more often, but the most common among the locals is actually Mambo, which is more formal, ie “What’s up.” The response to that is Poa—I’m cool.
You can add any number of things to the greetings or responses, such as:
Jambo/Mambo… bwana=sir mama=an older woman (shown as a sign of respect, literally “mother”) rafiki=friend dada=sister kaka=brother
And rather than Sijambo/Poa, you can say: safi=I’m fresh/clean salama=things are peaceful safi kabisa=I’m totally fresh/clean
People in Tanzania are always interested in what’s going on with you. The basic way to ask “how are you?”is Habari Yako. But Habari actually translates to “what’s the news?” You can ask:
Habari…
Yako= What’s news with you? Za kazi= What’s the news at work? Za nyumbani=What’s the news at home? Za safari= What was the news with your vacation? Za asubuhi=What’s the news of the morning? Za mchana= What’s the news of the afternoon? Za usiku= What’s the news of the evening?
9 times out of ten the response is Nzuri, which means “things are good.” An important word to know as a qualifier is sana, which means “very”, thus a lot of times people will respond with nzuri sana-things are very good. If you ask a habari question, you can also get salama or safi as a response.
Politeness is big here as well:
Asante (ah-sahn-tay) = thank you Asante Sana=thank you very much Karibu=You’re welcome Karibuni=You’re all welcome Karibu Sana=You’re very welcome Samahani=Sorry/Excuse me Tafadhali=Please Naomba=I would like…(when ordering at a restaurant, etc.) Pole (poh-lay)=I’m sorry (sympathy) Pole Sana=I’m very sorry Apana Asante=No thank you
Yes is Ndiyo, No is Apana, And is Na.
Here is how you count:
Moja=1 Mbili=2 Tatu=3 Nne=4 Tanu=5 Sita=6 Saba=7 Nani=8 Kisa=9 Kumi=10
And if you want to do 11-19, it’s just Kumi na (ten and) ______. i.e., kumi na mbili=12.
Elfu means thousand, so to say “5,000 shillings” is Shillingi elfu tanu. To ask for change is changi.
And some other odds and ends:
Kidogu=Small, a little Kubwa=Big, large Mzungu=Tourist (usually derogatory) Moto= Hot Baridi=Cold Chakula=Food/Meal Magi=Water
Jina Lako Nani=What’s your name? Una Itwa Nani=What are you called (colloquial)? Jina Langu ni ______=My name is… Nina Itwa______=I am called… Badai (bah-dye)=See you later (today) Tuta onana kesho or just kesho=see you tomorrow
You’ll hear people say Ham Nashida here, which translates to no problem. If people tell you they say Hakuna Matata here, that’s B.S. It’s what people say to tourists; locals almost never say it to each other.
Most importantly: Naomba Coca-Cola Moja=I would like a coke Naomba Kuku na Chipsi= I would like chicken and fries
I hope that this is helpful, in case any of you find yourselves in East Africa, or befriending someone
who speaks Swahili. You never know.
The other reason that this blog post is entitled “Swahili Crash Course” is because on my last day in Tanzania, I had to drive a vehicle.
Jann, the 2nd/3rd grade teacher and her retired husband Bob, from New Zealand via Zimbabwe, asked me to drop them at the airport shuttle and then use their truck for whatever errands I needed before dropping it back at their house at ISM. Bob drove the ten minutes to the shuttle station and I waved goodbye to them. I then began to get myself used to the various differences—driving on the left side, shifting with the left hand, sitting on the right side. All of this would probably be easy to negotiate on, say, the Autobahn, but I was in downtown Moshi.
No, it’s not like martial law exists in Moshi or anything like that, but there are a few factors that make driving in Tanzania a little bit like the video game Grand Theft Auto. First of all—and I may have mentioned this previously—people are allowed to purchase drivers licenses without actually taking a driver’s test in Tanzania. As you can imagine, this rule allows for many persons who have no business behind the wheel to operate unsafe and often enormous vehicles. Secondly, there is a culture here in which people often just walk in the middle of the street. Oftentimes, these are merchants taking their products between locations. For example, as I was driving along on the busiest street, a gentleman with a cart of pineapples came out in front of my truck, so I slowed myself down in the name of commerce. And though Moshi has three large roundabouts surrounding the downtown, there are no stoplights. I guess the easiest way to describe it is that every intersection is sort of an assumed four-way stop. That does not necessarily mean everyone is assuming the same thing.
Errand 1: Nakumatt. Nakumatt is a Kenya-based superstore that arrived in Moshi on December 1st and had been quite a big to-do. It is still working on getting some items up on the shelves, but for the most part it has a lot of what you need and thus has been a godsend to some of the teachers and their families. I pulled into the parking spot without incident, and after a 3 point turn and avoiding a couple of pedestrians, I was on my way.
The next stop was Union Café’, a coffeehouse in the middle of town that many of us frequented for its excellent coffee, decent food and wood-fired pizzas. I ended up talking with an expat named Patrick who was living in Dar es Salaam and visiting Moshi for a couple of weeks as I ate breakfast and drank coffee. So far so good.
Then I stopped to change 100,000 shillings to 41 Euros at the change bureau. I got back into the car and started through the gravel lot. A car pulled out in front of me; I swerved slightly to avoid it and ended up clipping the mirror of a station wagon. The alarm went off and the owner came out of the bank. She was displeased at first, but after surveying the damage, realized that there was nothing to worry about. I gave her about 10 pole sana’s before hopping back into the truck.
Then it was off to the post office to drop off a postcard to my aunt and uncle in Milwaukee. I parked and ran in and out—at most 45 seconds—and a woman was on her way to writing a parking ticket on the dash. “No,” I said, “Leaving.” She looked at me, befuddled and I started the car and backed away. The only problem was that due to the lack of any real turnaround spot, I had to execute one of those Austin Powers turns where you get about 5 feet forward, have to back up, etc. And when I finally got to moving forward, I went into the right lane for a second before I realized I was still in Africa, not on highway 94.
Gripping the steering wheel in the classic “10 and 2” position, I focused solely on getting home. It was only ten minutes to ISM. Would it be possible without further incident? The answer was no. As I was nearing the roundabout on one of the narrow side streets, a Dala-dala came barreling towards me, packed with people. The street was too narrow to hold us both, and I didn’t have enough time to pull over. My left two wheels went onto the gravel on the side of the road and I drove on a tilt for a few seconds before righting myself.
I’m sure that with more practice and less tensing up of my body, I could probably drive in Africa just fine. Having never driven in Tanzania, I was unprepared for the unique idiosyncrasies of good ‘ol Moshi town. It really would make for a decent video game.
I will have the re-cap of my Kilimanjaro climb in a few days, which will be my last post about the strangeness and the beauty that is Tanzania.
Safi kabisa.
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