hakuna matata

hakuna matata is one of the very famous kiswahili phrases. Hakuna matata means 'no problem'. It probably was made famous by the Lion King movie..... read more about the phrase on wikipedia.

But, atleast in Tanzania, people rarely use that phrase. Actually if you come to Dar es Salaam and tell someone 'hakuna matata', they will definately know you are not from around here.

The normal way to say no problem is to say hakuna tabu, or hakuna shida, or hamna shida.

The word hakuna is related to the words hapana and hamna. They all negate the presence of something.

Hakuna is normally used to negate something that is far (kule).... kule hakuna nyumba (there are no houses over there).

Hapana is for something nearby (hapa).....hapa hapana maembe (there are no mangoes here)

Hamna is normally for things inside something (humu) humu ndani hamna maji (there is no water inside this place).

Siku njema kila mtu!

JAMBO

Jambo is not greetings as most people think, actually, in kiswahili jambo is more like an event, a circumstance or something.

If you want to say hi to someone, you would say hujambo, which means "how are you" or more literary "is everything (events, circumstances etc) ok with you".

Kiswahili Language

Did you know kibibi means both a young lady and rice doughnut? mmmh...... Tunahitaji kuidiscuss hii...

Did you know, kibonge means both surname (yes, family name) and a fat person?

Spreading the word....

Well, I have created a free online swahili dictionary then started a forum on swahili discussion and now I have decided to start this blog, all towards my aim of spreading the awareness of my mother tongue, the Kiswahili language. Watch this space for more interesting kiswahili stuff.

My future goal is to create a swahili phrase translator, but I have to finish the dictionary first.