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Serving
Students at
Santa Ana
College and
Santiago
Canyon College
KENYA
Language
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Languages
Both English
and Kiswahili are official languages in Kenya. English is more widely
used in business and commerce. Business correspondence, catalogs,
and advertising material prepared in English are readily understood by
most potential business persons. There are also numerous indigenous
languages.
Languages:
English
(official), Swahili (national), and several other languages spoken by 25
ethnic groups
Kenya
has more than 100 different ethnic groups. This poses a potential
problem of communication. English is the official language while
Kiswahili is the national language. That means that government and
education are in English, while everything else tends to be in Swahili.
In actuality, most of government is in Swahili also.
English
and Swahili are the languages taught throughout the country, but there
are many other tribal languages. These include Kikuyu, Luhia, Luo
and Kikamba as well as a plethora of minor tribal tongues. It's extremely
useful for the traveler to have a working knowledge of Swahili, especially
outside the urban areas and in remote parts of the country. Another
language, spoken almost exclusively by the younger members of society is
Sheng. A fairly recent development, Sheng is a mixture of Swahili
and English along with a fair sprinkling of other languages. While
an increasing number of city-dwellers are growing up speaking English,
most rural people still speak their tribal languages when they go home.
Linguistic
Groups
Kenya's
African population is divided on three linguistic groups.
Bantu
is concentrated in three main geographical regions: Western Kenya
and Lake Victoria region (Luhya, Kisii), east of Rift Valley (Kikuyu, Embu,
Kamba), and Coastal belt (Mijikenda).
Nilotic
is represented by the Luo, Kalenjin, Maasai and related groups. The
Kalenjin linguistic group is concentrated in the area north to south and
west of the central highlands, while the Luos are concentrated in the Lake
Victoria Basin.
Cushitic
is represented by a Somali speaking group occupying eastern portions of
the arid and semi-arid north eastern Kenya. Rendille and Orma speaking
groups occupying the north western part.
Over 30
distinct languages or dialects are spoken in Kenya.
Ethnic
Tribes
The first
of many footprints to be stamped on Kenyan soil were left way back in 2000
BC by
nomadic
tribes from Ethiopia. A second group followed around 1000 BC and
occupied much
of central
Kenya. The rest of the ancestors of the country's medley of tribes
arrived from all over the continent between 500 BC and 500 AD. The Bantu-speaking
people (such as the Gusii, Kikuyu, Akamba and Meru) arrived from West Africa
while the Nilotic speakers (Maasai, Luo, Samburu and Turkana) came from
the Nile Valley in southern Sudan.
Arabian
and Portuguese Influence
As tribes
migrated throughout the interior, Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula and
Shirazis from Persia (now Iran) settled along the East African coast from
the 8th century AD onwards. The Arabians established a monopoly of
Indian Ocean trade.
Drawn
by the whiff of spices and money, the Portuguese started sniffing around
in the 15th century. After venturing further and further down the western
coast of Africa, Vasco da Gama finally rounded the Cape of Good Hope and
headed up the continent's eastern coast in 1498.
Seven
years later, the Portuguese onslaught on the region began. By the
16th century, most of the indigenous Swahili trading towns, including Mombasa,
had been either sacked or occupied by the Portuguese--marking the end of
the Arab monopoly of Indian Ocean trade. The Portuguese settled in
for a long period of harsh colonial rule, playing one sultan off against
another. But their grip on the coast was always tenuous because their
outposts had to be supplied from Goa in India. Control of the coast
was won back by the Arabs in 1720.
The remainder
of the 18th century saw the Omani dynasties from the Persian Gulf dug in
along the East African coast. The depredations of the Portuguese
era and constant quarrels among the Arab governors caused a decline in
trade and prosperity.
European
Influences
Economic
powerhouses such as Britain and Germany weren't interested in grabbing
a slice of East Africa until about the mid-19th century. Until the
1880s, the Rift Valley and the Aberdare highlands remained the heartland
of the proud warrior tribe, the Maasai. By the late 19th century,
years of civil war between the Maasai's two opposing factions had weakened
the tribe; disease and famine had also taken their toll. This opened
the way for the English to negotiate a treaty with the Maasai laibon (chief,
or spiritual leader) and begin work on the Mombasa-Uganda railway, which
cut straight through the Maasai grazing lands. The halfway point
of this railway is roughly where Nairobi stands today.
Independence
Opposition
to colonial rule grew and the Kenya African Union (KAU) emerged.
As it became strident in its demands, other such societies soon added their
voices to the cry for freedom, including the Mau Mau, whose members (mainly
Kikuyu) vowed to drive white settlers out of Kenya. The ensuing Mau
Mau Rebellion ended in 1956 with the defeat of the Mau Mau. Kenyatta.
who had spent years in jail or under house arrest but was freed in 1961,
became leader of the reincarnated KAU, the Kenya African National Union
(KANU). He ushered in independence on December 12, 1963, and under
his presidency the country developed into one of Africa's most stable and
prosperous nations. With Kenyatta's death in 1978 came Daniel Arap
Moi, a member of the Tugen tribe. Moi's rule was characterised by
rifts and dissension.
Literacy:
definition:
age 15 and over can read and write
total
population: 78.1%
male:
86.3%
female:
70% (1995 est.)
Links
for More Information
Kenya
Language
Useful
Swahili Words
Five
College Foreign Language Resource Center
.
Sources:
Central
Intelligence Agency |
