The following news release was seen on the ANBA (Brazil-Arab News
Agency) site at http://www.anba.com.br/ingles/noticia.php?id=15202
(thanks to a Google alert) Don
PEOPLE & CULTURE
[07/04/2007 - 10:45]
University of São Paulo to offer innovative African language course
The University of São Paulo (USP) is going to be the first in South
America to teach Swahili, a language spoken in East Africa and also in
some Arab countries. The classes should begin next week and will be
open to the public in general.
Marina Sarruf*
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
São Paulo The University of São Paulo (USP) is going to be the first
in South America to offer a course of Swahili, a language spoken in
most of East Africa, in the central region of the continent and in
some Arab countries. The lessons, scheduled to begin on Tuesday (10),
will be promoted by the Language Centre at the College of Letters at
USP, and enrolment is open to the general public. "The course is a way
of further promoting the Arab and African Culture in Brazil," stated
the Swahili professor, Juliana França Macek.
According to her, Swahili courses are already taught in around 100
universities in the United States, England, Germany, South Korea and
Japan. "Large universities have been offering the course for a long
time. Brazil is behind schedule," she said. The course, to take place
on Tuesday and Thursday for two months, will have two-hour lessons and
the objective is to teach the student to identify and understand
Swahili within the African context. "It will be a basic course on
comprehension of the language," she added.
Swahili is the name of the culture of the people who live in the
eastern and central region of Africa, and is also attributed to the
language they speak. However, Juliana states that the original name of
the language was Kiswahili and that 30% of the vocabulary came from
Arabic. Swahili, for example, comes from the Arab word sahil, which
means coast, shore, bank and that becomes sawâhil when pluralized.
According to Juliana, the pronunciation of Swahili is very similar to
Portuguese, as you speak how you read. "Swahili is a non-tonal
language with no accents, making it easier for Brazilians to learn,"
she said. Some examples given by the professor are words "tembo",
which means elephant and "karibuni", which means welcome.
Swahili is spoken as a first language in the coastal region that
stretches from Somalia, which is an Arab country, covering the whole
coastal region of Kenya and Tanzania, and reaching the Northern region
of Mozambique, including several islands on the extreme west of the
Indian Ocean, like the Comoros, also an Arab country. Other countries
that also speak Swahili are Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Rwanda, Zambia, Burundi and Djibouti, another Arab country. On
the Arabian Peninsula, around one quarter of the population of Oman
speaks Swahili as a first language, according to the professor, and
part of the Yemeni population also speaks it.
"It was due to the trade between the Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula
and the Africans of the East that Swahili was born," explained
Juliana. According to studies by the teacher, trade between both
regions is a story that began even before Christ. "The Arabs travelled
the African coast with the help of the monsoon winds to swap ceramic
products, fabrics and metal instruments for African slaves, ivory,
gold, wood, shells and perfume, returning to their ports of origin
when the monsoon winds changed their direction," she explained.
According to Juliana, this contact between Arabs and Africans made
them live a process of miscegenation. "The Arabs had families in East
Africa, which caused a mixed culture. All the literature of the region
was written in Arabic up to the 16th century," she said. The professor
also recalled the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta, who already
travelled the East African coast regularly in 1331. However, the
greatest Arab influence that the East coast of Africa received was
when Oman dominated the region of Zanzibar, an archipelago off the
coast of Tanzania.
The Sultanate of Zanzibar started in around 1850 and lasted until
1964, and the first sultan was Said Bin Sultan, who transferred the
capital of Oman to the region. "Trade there was very profitable. Said
also established an enormous clove plantation in the region, further
expanding trade," said Juliana. After over 100 years of Arab dominion,
the Omanis left Zanzibar, returning to their country of origin taking
back the Arab and African culture.
Studies in Zanzibar
Juliana graduated in Letters and Geography from USP and has always
been interested in East African culture. "My interest in the history
of East Africa brought me in contact with Swahili. I sought courses to
study the language, but I could not find any, so I started studying
alone," she stated.
In 2005, the teacher went to Zanzibar, where she spent three months
studying the language at the University of Zanzibar. Juliana also
visited Kenya and Tanzania. After her experience, Juliana took a
master's course in Linguistic Politeness at USP and is currently part
of the Study Group of African Languages at the university, where she
is doing her doctor's degree.
Last year, Juliana started teaching at USP and at the University of
Campinas (Unicamp), but they were extension courses. In 2006, the
professor returned to Kenya, where she studied Sheng, a language spoke
by street children in Nairobi, the capital of the country. In
September this year, Juliana should return to Zanzibar University to
continue her studies. According to her, there is no Swahili teaching
material written in Portuguese, so all the lessons of her course were
developed based on books she brought from Kenya and Tanzania.
Service
USP Language Centre
Tel: (+55 11) 3091-4851
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*Translated by Mark Ament
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