Kiswahili challenges the static notions of identity, citizenship
Swahili enthusiasts during the flag off of a march in Nairobi, Kenya, aimed at creating awareness of Kiswahili being the first officially recognised African language by Unesco on July 7, 2022.
I attended the third annual Mwalimu Nyerere National Creative Writing Award a couple of Saturdays ago. Celebrating Kiswahili literature and through it celebrating Tanzanian creatives is great fun and, every year, I come out with an evening’s worth of things to think about that revolve around language.
Kiswahili emerged from cultural encounters between various people over time. I usually phrase this differently, but there is a surprising number of Tanzanians who get super sensitive about what is said about our national language.
