Why Did A Lot Of Black Gangs/Prison Gangs Adopt Swahili? | Why Did We Adopt Swahili?

[get these nets]

Swahili was and is seen as a unifying language as it does not belong to any one tribe and it's also very phonetic so naturally it became the language common in pan African movements. This bled into it being adopted by movements that came after including the bloods. During the mau mau era a lot of country folk did not actually speak it. Those that did would be the ones who traveled outside their native provinces or went to school. Do how it branched out is not really clear. I can only speculate as well.

Most people know a handful of Swahili words without knowing it

Damu - blood
Jenga - build
Harambee - Crowdfunding
Safari - Travel
Rafiki - friend
Kwaanza - start or to start
Etc

thanks.
But wasn't Mau Mau comprised of people from different ethnic groups? What language would they have used to communicate with each other during rebellion other than Swahili ?

 

[Amestafuu (Emeritus)]

learn something new everyday. i too had heard it was swahili

Swa is a b*stard language that's prob why it doesn't get that title. There's some Arabic (numbers) and even minor Portuguese influence

 

[Amestafuu (Emeritus)]

thanks.
But wasn't Mau Mau comprised of people from different ethnic groups? What language would they have used to communicate with each other during rebellion other than Swahili ?

They were mainly Kikuyu tribe so those folks from my grandparents era were not very familiar with Swahili compared to their kids.

 

[get these nets]

I also think that freedom fighters here developed respect and admiration for the Mau Mau rebels in Kenya and their fight against colonization. This had to have played a role in them studying the history of that region and adopting Swahili.

Pretty much how I remembered it. Kenya and the Mau Mau rebellion resonated with Blacks here as early as the 1950s, setting the stage for interest in East African culture and Swahili language.

Spoiler: JET magazine 1958

alluded to in the book excerpt

another excerpt from the book from above

" Yet Kenya, cognizant of its ties over the years to Black America, went further down the road of Pan-Africanism than most, with a bill introduced in
the legislature in 1968 which, if enacted, would have granted automatic citizenship to Africans in the diaspora, not to mention the creation of a Ministry
of Pan-African Affairs, led by Koinange, which had a similar portfolio.

Yet, he could not stall a remarkable rise in
interest among African Americans in all things East African, which has puzzled many contemporary commentators who thought they should have been
intrigued instead by West Africa but these critics failed to grasp the impact of
“Mau Mau.” Thus, the use of Swahili became de rigueur, terms such as Uhuru
and Harambee, names such as Malaika (the adopted name of my sister), and
Tamu became popular. There were demands to teach Swahili in schools and
universities and the leading Black Panther, Raymond Hewitt, took the name
“Masai.”79 The embodiment of the cultural nationalist trend embodied by this
turn to East Africa—Maulana Karenga of Southern California—accelerated
this tendency when he formed the “Simba Wachanga” or Young Lions, youth
trained in martial arts and weaponry; this adherence to Swahili was also
reflected in the continuing adoption of the late December holiday known as
Kwanzaa.8"

 

[The Wall Is Undefeated!]

I think Swahili is the easiest to learn

indeed. One of the very few Niger-Congo/Kordofanian languages that ain't tonal.

all that swahili stuff with aframs really comes from

No...and yes. No ADOS actually is directly connected to the Swahili people BUT they do have an indirect connection from Bantu input. Swahili is bantu rooted with other outside influences

Swahili had/has a more pan-african nature

and

All of this.

I heard Yoruba is tonal like Mandarin. In other words, it's not an easy language to learn.

True. Most Niger-Congo/Kordofanian languages are tonal.

 

[Ake1725]

It was qn easier language to learn because it didn't have stuff like clicks and tones. Plus the pronunciation was easier for english speakers.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Yea, I was just interested to know, because as Black Americans, we're a mix of African tribes, but we're made up of majority West African tribes.

Swahili comes from East Africa.

Why not Yoruba or something like that?

all about the pan-africanist outlook

 

[CopiousX]

Most spoken indigenous language in Africa

Nope. That would be Hausa / Fulani, a West African language.

I think he meant most widely spoken. Not the number of speakers. It is spoken in a region that is equal to the size of the continental United States.


Hausa is much too centralized in one area to gain import abroad. It'd be like comparing manadarin-chinese to English. Yes, there are more speakers of Chinese (2bil), than of English, but the wide reach of English is incomparable to Manadrin.

 

[get these nets]

Swahili speakers.

This is probably the best time and place to ask this question. A cult film favorite, Blood In Blood Out, is loosely based on the prison gangs in 1970s Cali, including the BGF.

This clip is cued to the scene where the leader of the BGA(changed for the film) greets another member who is being interrogated. They greet each other in Swahili. What exactly do they say?

 

[get these nets]

I agree with the excerpts that you posted here. Members of the diaspora are from composite cultures..and those cultures aren't exactly static. For example, you posted story of a large group of African Americans moving to D.R. (in think in the 19th century). If they formed an enclave out there, they had to have influenced the local culture in that section of The Dominican Republic.*
Besides migration, adopting elements of continental culture adds to that composite culture as well. The geographical and time distance allows people to pick and chose the elements......be it Egyptology, Swahili from the East, or Kente cloth from modern day Ghana.

*Disagreements we've had in past discussions have been over that exact topic. Cultures, especially Western Hemisphere cultures are dynamic, internally and from external sources. Modern American culture was greatly shaped by the Great Migration, not just AA culture but the overall American culture. Me pointing out any influence on American culture from an external group isn't disparaging or undermining AA culture, but a statement of fact.

I have never understood the point of denying the fluidity and dynamic nature of culture.

 

[mykey]

I think he meant most widely spoken. Not the number of speakers. It is spoken in a region that is equal to the size of the continental United States.


Hausa is much too centralized in one area to gain import abroad. It'd be like comparing manadarin-chinese to English. Yes, there are more speakers of Chinese (2bil), than of English, but the wide reach of English is incomparable to Manadrin.

Swahili is only spoken mostly in Kenya and Tanzania. The variant spoken in parts of Congo and Uganda is unintelligible to fluent speakers of the language. Hausa / Fulani is spoken throughout West Africa, particularly in Northern regions.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

I agree with the excerpts that you posted here. Members of the diaspora are from composite cultures..and those cultures aren't exactly static. For example, you posted story of a large group of African Americans moving to D.R. (in think in the 19th century). If they formed an enclave out there, they had to have influenced the local culture in that section of The Dominican Republic.*
Besides migration, adopting elements of continental culture adds to that composite culture as well. The geographical and time distance allows people to pick and chose the elements......be it Egyptology, Swahili from the East, or Kente cloth from modern day Ghana.

*Disagreements we've had in past discussions have been over that exact topic. Cultures, especially Western Hemisphere cultures are dynamic, internally and from external sources. Modern American culture was greatly shaped by the Great Migration, not just AA culture but the overall American culture. Me pointing out any influence on American culture from an external group isn't disparaging or undermining AA culture, but a statement of fact.

I have never understood the point of denying the fluidity and dynamic nature of culture.

Im not sure what you're specifically referring to but I've never denied the bolded. What I tried to clarify is when people try to distort reality and run with all types of misinformation and half/partial truths

 

[Bushmaster69]

Swahili is only spoken mostly in Kenya and Tanzania. The variant spoken in parts of Congo and Uganda is unintelligible to fluent speakers of the language. Hausa / Fulani is spoken throughout West Africa, particularly in Northern regions.

Why it's good news that Swahili is coming to South African schools

Some might beg to differ. I, and many African brothers, are picking up this language because it is the easiest African language to learn. I'm too old to devote anymore time to tonal African languages

 

[Premeditated]

Nope. That would be Hausa / Fulani, a West African language.

is it
there are 55 million Hausas and 7 million Fulanis in Nigeria and then you have half of Chad that speaks it, so I'll say all together, that around 75 million speakers in Africa.

but Swahili is spoken in Tanzania(65 million), Kenya(55 million), eastern congo. Don't forget ki-swahili is also spoken is is being taught in schools in South Africa, Rwanda, and other eastern African countries

 

[Swahili P'Bitek]

Swahili speakers.

This is probably the best time and place to ask this question. A cult film favorite, Blood In Blood Out, is loosely based on the prison gangs in 1970s Cali, including the BGF.

This clip is cued to the scene where the leader of the BGA(changed for the film) greets another member who is being interrogated. They greet each other in Swahili. What exactly do they say?

"Vipi sasa ndugu?"- How are you, brother?
"Sawa tu, brother."- "Just fine, brother"