Swahili Made Easy: A Beginner's Complete Course

LESSON 2. SWAHILI GREETINGS AND MANNERS

4 SWAHILI MADE EASY LESSON 2 SWAHILI GREETINGS AND MANNERS Jambo is the commonest form of greeting used in East Africa. It is used from morning till evening to greet friends, relatives, visitors and strangers. It is a corruption of Hujambo? “How are you?” and Sijambo “I am well”. It also means “Hello”,“good morning”,“good day”, etc. The answer to Jambo is Jambo, and to Hujambo? is Sijambo. Habari gani? “what is the news?”“How are you?” is also used after Jambo, or even instead of it. Swahili-speaking people, like all other Africans, have a long litany of greetings as follows: Amina Hujambo, Tatu? Tatu Sijambo, habari gani? Amina Nzuri tu, habari za nyumbani? Tatu Nzuri, habari za watoto? Amina Nzuri, habari za bibi na shangazi? Tatu Nzuri. The meaning of the above greetings is as follows: Amina starts by saying Hujambo? “How are you?” and Tatu says Sijambo, “I am well”, and then they ask each other about their relatives at home, and each answers, as usual, Nzuri. “well”. Social change, especially in towns, is affecting this custom. Many people cut short the greetings because of work,and other duties. PART ONE 5 Hodi is another form of greeting. It is used by visitors (before they enter the house) to announce their arrival to their hosts inside the house. It is not used in the streets except when one wants to push one’s way through a crowd. Hodi may be compared to the European custom of knocking at the door. As Swahili doors are always open when people are around, it was necessary to invent a way of announcing one’s arrival to the inmates of a house. The answer to hodi is karibu, “you are welcome.” To make sure that you are really welcome to the house, wait for another karibu or karibu ndani “come in”. If there are two or more visitors, the answer will be karibuni. While inside the house, you may hear: Karibu kiti, “Won’t you sit down?” To which you answer, Asante. “Thank you.”Some people say starehe, “I am comfortable”, instead of asante. You are free to use either form. You may also be told Karibu chai, “Welcome to a cup of tea”. It is good manners not to refuse to partake of anything offered. Total refusal may be regarded as an insult, especially if you belong to a different ethnic group or social class. Take a little as a token of good will and appreciation of their hospitality. Shikamoo is yet another form of greeting which is widely used to greet those higher in social status or older in age. The answer is marahaba. No English equivalent is known to the author. It is a greeting as well as an expression of respect due to old men/women and rulers in the traditional Swahili communities. When greeting a person who is afflicted by some disaster, such as death of a near relative, disease or loss of property, say pole “sorry,” “take it easy”, after jambo or habari gani? The answer to pole is asante,“thank you”, or nimekwisha poa,“that’s how things are with me.”Don’t confuse it with polepole, “slowly”.After greeting people, we sometimes wish to congratulate them on any happy event, e.g. 6 SWAHILI MADE EASY marriage,birth of a child,etc.,so we say,hongera, “congratulations”. The answer to hongera is asante. When leaving you say: Kwa heri, “good bye”. If you are taking leave of more than one person say: Kwa herini. “good bye”. The answer to kwa heri is kwa heri. If two or more persons are leaving, you say to them: Kwa herini, “good bye”, or “may you fare well.” Some people like to say: Tutaonana, “I will be seeing you again.” Literally, however, the phrase means: “we shall meet”, or “we shall see each other again.” Many Swahili speakers say tutaonana after kwa heri, while some simply say tutaonana instead of kwa heri. Yet others say kwa heri ya kuonana, “good bye, see you again”. EXERCISE 1 1. What is the answer to Hodi? 2. What is the answer to Hujambo? 3. What is the answer to Habari gani? 4. What does Karibu kiti mean? How do you respond? 5. When is Shikamoo used and what is the answer to it? 6. What is the plural of Karibu? 7. When leaving...