Swahili Master Classes
Where is Swahili spoken?
Kiswahili is a Bantu language of the Niger-Congo family of languages. Native Swahili speakers call their language Kiswahili and call themselves ‘waswahili’. Swahili was originally spoken along the coast of East Africa but due to its rapid growth it is now spoken in East and Central Africa. Swahili is spoken in the following countries: Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Southern Somalia, Northern Zambia, Northern Mozambique, Northern Malawi, and Southern Sudan and Djibouti. Other than Zanzibar Island, Swahili is also spoken by nearly the entire population of the Comorians (Comoro), and Mayotte Islands. According to Wikipedia Swahili was still understood in the southern ports of the Red Sea and along the coasts of southern Arabia and the Persian Gulf in the twentieth century.
A number of factors have led to the rapid growth of Swahili language in the above-mentioned countries. Some factors include, but not limited to, the media, commerce, education systems, the armies, and its role as a regional lingua franca. Swahili is a language of instruction (LOI) in Primary school in Tanzania, and a subject of study in higher education. Swahili is a compulsory school subject in primary and secondary education in Kenya. It is taught as a discipline in six out of the seven public universities. Swahili is also taught at the University of Makerere (Uganda), University of Kigali (Rwanda) and University of Bujumbura (Burundi). Swahili serves as a national or official language of five nations, namely, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Comoro, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The yellow color shows countries and areas where Swahili is spoken in East and Central Africa.