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12 Kenyan Slang Terms Obama Should Know When In Nairobi

12 Kenyan Slang Terms Obama Should Know When In Nairobi

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There are 42 languages spoken in Kenya. Swahili and English are the two official languages, but Sheng — a term coined from combining elements of both — is  bypassing all of them as the language of the urban youth.

As U.S. President Barack Obama heads to Nairobi this week, he’ll be expected to speak a few words of the language of the locals. Sheng increasingly fits the bill.

Sheng is a Swahili-based slang with English thrown in as well as other Kenyan and non-Kenyan languages, and although it began in Nairobi’s slums, it has spread to all segments of society and beyond — into Tanzania and Uganda.

The language evolves fast. Words move in and out of Sheng use. You can leave Kenya for a few months and find, on your return, that you no longer speak the language you thought you did. Hip hop artists use Sheng. Some teachers dislike it — even forbid its use.

Today it’s common to see Sheng almost anywhere — on billboards, the radio, in political campaign ads, and public service announcements, Laura Dean wrote in Slate. “It has become the lingua franca of Nairobi’s youth…Politicians, advertisers, and schoolteachers are taking notice.”

Each neighborhood speaks its own variety of Sheng, and the language itself changes almost weekly, Dean said.

Here’s what a Swahili student Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein said about Kenyan street slang in an article in Matador Network:

I thought I knew Kiswahili.

I’d earned an advanced certificate at the State University of Zanzibar. The program prides itself on teaching a kind of Swahili described as sanifu (standard) or fasaha (clean).

It was rigorous and foundational, but it left me speechless (more like a beginner) every time I left the classroom and headed down Stone Town’s boisterous streets, where social greetings happen at every corner and turn. You really can’t walk from point A to point B in Stone Town without getting involved in greeting loops with friends and strangers alike.

Perhaps the gatekeepers of standard Swahili do not want to accept that Stone Town youth have been and continue to be deeply influenced by Sheng – a kind of Swahili patois that developed by urban youth in Eastern Nairobi in the 1970s and spread, overtime, into all realms of East African life as a legitimate form of expression.

Here are 12  Kenyan slang terms Obama should know when in Nairobi.

Sources: Matador NetworkSlateKenya Updateswiki,

Nairobi national Park, fairwaysafaris.com
Nairobi national Park, fairwaysafaris.com

Nini

Very widely used by Kenyans, “nini” acts as a filler in conversations. Normally it refers to something whose name you do not know or cannot immediately remember, for example, “There are lions on that nini at Nairobi National Park.”

Kenya Updates

Kenya flag youtube
youtube

Bomba

Bomba means “awesome!” It could also mean “beautiful” or “nice.” Some say it was first used by Italian sailors (“bomb”) and then transformed over time. It literally means “pipe,” which possibly refers to an older Swahili slang drug reference used in Nairobi. In Stone Town, it’s another way to say, “Life’s awesome, fantastic.”

Matador Network

tvcnews.tv Kenyan classroom
tvcnews.tv

Barbie

A barbie is person who doesn’t speak Sheng, usually referring to someone from a wealthy background or who pretends to be wealthy and looks down upon the commoners.

wiki

Kenyan walking safari. Photo:  andbeyond.com
Kenyan walking safari. Photo: andbeyond.com

Mlami

Mlami is a white person and refers to anyone who is white regardless of where
they come from.

Kenya Updates

Youtube
Youtube

Safi

To say things are safi is to say life’s good, there’s no dirty business going on in your life and you have a clean heart. It literally means “clean,” “clear” or “pure.” It also might be used to say that things are correct or in order.

Matador Network

Shutterstock
Shutterstock

Bonga mbaya

Bonga mbaya means to talk smack

wiki

Kenyan students head home in the Kibera slum. Photo: Paula Bronstein/Getty
Kenyan students head home in the Kibera slum. Photo: Paula Bronstein/Getty

mabaya

Mabaya means “bad” as in, truly, things are not going well, or playfully, things are going so bad, they’re good. In a culture that doesn’t permit the expression of negative feelings in public, this slang is a playful chance to vent without being taken too seriously

Matador Network

reddit giraffe fat 1-e1319725895904
reddit

Oposh

Oposh refers to a fat person

wiki

Wizkid. Photo: naijaloaded.com.ng
Wizkid. Photo: naijaloaded.com.ng

Fegi

Cigarette

wiki

Obama takes questions from Kenyans, Ugandans and Nigerians via live link during a town hall meeting in Soweto June 29, 2013. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Obama takes questions from Kenyans, Ugandans and Nigerians via live link during a town hall meeting in Soweto June 29, 2013. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Tuko pamoja

Tuko pamoja means “We’re (in this) together. This timeless phrase is the most popular end phrase in a greeting loop on the island of Zanzibar. It’s a heart-felt sentiment, echoed back and forth between greeters at the end of any Stone Town street-and-greet.

Matador Network

Boxgirls train with professional male boxers from Kariobangi Slum in Warm up exercises in the Kariobangi community centre. Photo by Mia Collis/PBS.org
Boxgirls train with professional male boxers from Kariobangi Slum. Photo: Mia Collis/PBS.org.

 

Fiti

“Fiti” literally comes from the English word “fit” as in physically healthy, but is used to mean that life itself is fit and strong and ok.

Matador Network

Youtube/BBC
Youtube/BBC

Raruka

Laugh

wiki