NAIROBI, Kenya \u2014\u00a0When Chinese national Lin Xiao, 30, applied in 2015 for a public relations officer job at a Chinese-owned project in Eldoret, 164 miles west of Kenya\u2019s capital, Nairobi, she thought it wise to learn Swahili.<\/p>\n
Then, she worked in Tanzania, where she enrolled in ten-week Swahili classes at the\u00a0Confucius Institute<\/u><\/a>, University of Dar es Salaam, to prepare for her Kenyan job.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir Swahili culture also made it much easier for me to grasp the language\u2019s basics. My Swahili is improving every day because of the daily interactions with the workers here in Eldoret. It makes my work much easier.\u201d<\/p>\n In the\u00a0pre-colonial era,<\/a>\u00a0it emerged as a\u00a0lingua franca<\/a>, a language used for communication between groups of people who speak different languages.<\/p>\n Besides East African countries, other states of Africa, such as Malawi, Somalia, Zambia, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and part of the Comoros Islands, speak Swahili.<\/p>\n Julius Sello Malema<\/u><\/a>, the South African opposition leader, has rallied\u00a0Africans<\/u><\/a>\u00a0to adopt Swahili as the continent\u2019s lingua franca, saying African leaders who have introduced Mandarin at the expense of African languages have \u201cmisplaced priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n For Africa to unite and develop, leaders should encourage Swahili and not colonial languages, especially English and French, widely spoken across the continent, Malema said.<\/p>\n The United Nations has\u00a0six officially<\/u><\/a>\u00a0recognized languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.<\/p>\n Wallah Bin Wallah, a Kenyan Swahili author, said neocolonialism is \u201ckilling\u201d African culture, including native languages.<\/p>\n \u201cOur indigenous languages are slowly fading away,\u201d he told Zenger News.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a Swahili advocate, I feel proud because some Africa countries such as South Africa are now\u00a0offering Swahili as an optional subject<\/u><\/a>\u00a0in schools. We are on the right track.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Wallah said the dream of an African continent united by a single language might never materialize due to foreign influences.<\/p>\n \u201cCurrently, Africa is relying so much on China for financial support. In return, China is taking advantage by introducing Mandarin in most African countries, such as\u00a0Kenya<\/u><\/a>. That\u2019s some Africans speak fluently Mandarin than native languages.\u201d<\/p>\n The author, whose\u00a0books<\/u><\/a>\u00a0are used in schools across East Africa, said African leaders have the biggest role in uniting the continent through Swahili.<\/p>\n \u201cOur leaders should implement good policies that favor Swahili across the continent. If Chinese, Americans, and the rest of the world are learning it, why should we not embrace it? This is our native language. All schools in Africa should have it as an optional subject,\u201d Wallah said.<\/p>\n In March 2021, the\u00a016-member<\/a>\u00a0Southern African Development Community\u00a0endorsed it\u00a0<\/a>as a working language during a council of ministers meeting.<\/p>\n The African Union is pushing for Swahili usage across Africa through the\u00a0African Academy of Languages<\/a>, an African Union institution that promotes African languages.<\/p>\n The continental organization has played a vital role in adopting Swahili across Africa, said Peter Mutuku Mathuki, the East African Community secretary-general.<\/p>\n \u201cFollowing our\u00a0partnership<\/a>\u00a0with the African Union in 2019, the language has gained momentum in many countries,\u201d Mathuki told Zenger News.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have seen South Africa introduce it in schools, and this is a good gesture. So far, southern African leaders have shown goodwill towards the language. By so doing, other parts of Africa will also join the [Swahili] bandwagon.\u201d<\/p>\n There is an ongoing project by African language experts under the African Academy of Languages to produce a Swahili course in schools across the continent.<\/p>\n \u201cThe course is at its final stages, and we will distribute it in African countries interested in using Swahili as an optional language,\u201d Mathuki told Zenger News.<\/p>\n However, Africa\u2019s geopolitical differences could work against Swahili becoming the continent\u2019s lingua franca, according to Peter Githinji, who teaches Mandarin at the\u00a0Confucius Institute<\/a>\u00a0at the Nairobi University.<\/p>\n \u201cIn politics and academia, North African countries\u00a0associate\u00a0themselves with the\u00a0Middle East<\/a>\u00a0than the rest of Africa,\u201d Githinji\u00a0told Zenger News.<\/p>\n \u201cTake, for instance,\u00a0Morocco<\/a>. It\u00a0benefits\u00a0a lot economically and politically from its proximity to Europe. Although the African Union recognizes Swahili\u2014which has some Arabic words\u2014as one of the continent\u2019s official languages, it will be hard for Morocco to adopt it over Arabic or European languages they use for trade and communication.\u201d<\/p>\n If Africa does not pride itself in Swahili, foreign countries will speak the language, said Shisia Wasilwa, a Germany-based Swahili author and researcher.<\/p>\n \u201cI have been privileged to live and work with Germans and Chinese,\u201d he told Zenger News.<\/p>\n \u201cA good number of them who want to come to Africa to learn the language. Some non-Africans speak fluent Swahili than native speakers.\u00a0Nick Reynolds<\/a>, alias\u00a0Bongo Zozo,\u00a0is a Briton who speaks better Swahili than most East Africans. We have Chinese journalists specializing in the language and are giving local reporters a run for their money.\u201d<\/p>\n Swahili is\u00a0taught widely<\/a>\u00a0in the United States, Asia, and Europe, said Carol Nafuna, a Swahili scholar based in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my research, I found that a good number of Americans who want to visit or invest in Africa enroll for Swahili classes first,\u201d she told Zenger News.<\/p>\n \u201cA Swahili phrase such as\u00a0Hakuna Matata<\/a>\u2014meaning there is no problem\u2014is commonly used by foreigners. They are learning Swahili words, which shows how the language has gone international.\u201d<\/p>\n The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary recently added\u00a0nyama choma<\/a>, a popular Swahili term for grilled meat, especially among Kenyans, to the English dictionary.<\/p>\n Before this, the word\u00a0safari<\/a>, meaning a journey in Swahili, entered the English language long ago, popularized by foreign tourists coming to Africa to travel or hunt wild animals.<\/p>\n