From slang to sleek: Changing language attitudes of urban youths in Tanzania
Issued Date: 4 Jun 2016
Abstract
Urban language in Tanzania is based on Swahili. It is a complex linguistic phenomenon which, depending on contexts, can be used as a sociolect, a register, or a speech style. As its creators and users are predominantly male urban youths, it shares many features with other urban youth languages in Africa. This urban language, in Swahili called lugha ya mitaani, has been described linguistically by Reuster-Jahn and Kießling (2006), who focused on its creative strategies of manipulation as well as on its semantic domains characterised by overlexicalization. This article examines the interplay between youth culture, in particular music, and urban youth language in Tanzania. It argues that the rapid development of youth language after the socialist era in Tanzania, which ended in the late 1980s, was closely connected to the rise of Bongo Flava, a hip-hop movement in the country which spread lexical creations and imbued youth language with prestige. Moreover, the article suggests a correlation between the transformation of Bongo Flava into commercial pop music since approximately 2010 and the decreased prestige of youth language. It is based on a preliminary survey among Tanzanian youths in Dar es Salaam.
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References
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Reuster-Jahn, U. and Kiessling, R. (2006) Lugha ya Mitaani in Tanzania. The poetics and sociology of a young urban style of speaking. With a dictionary comprising 1100 words and phrases. Swahili Forum 13: 1--196.
Reynolds, F.A. (1962) Lavu huzungusha dunia. Tanganyika Notes and Records 58/59: 203-- 204.
Beck, R.M. (2010) Urban languages in Africa. Africa Spectrum 45,3: 11--41.
Blommaert, J. (1990) Standardization and diversification in Kiswahili. Kiswahili 57: 22--32.
Gower, R.H. (1958) Swahili slang. Tanganyika Notes and Records 52: 250--254.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1976) Anti-Languages. American Anthropologist 78,3: 570--584.
Hurst, E. (2009) Tsotsitaal, global culture and local style: identity and recontextualisation in twenty-first century South African townships. Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Studies 35,2: 244-257.
Hurst, E. (2008) Style, structure and function in Cape Town Tsotsitaal. PhD thesis, University of Cape Town.
Hurst, E. and Buthelezi, M. (2014) A visual and linguistic comparison of Durban and Cape Town tsotsitaal. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 32, 2: 185-197.
Khaemba, M. (2002) Bongo's new ghetto narrators
http://www.africanhiphop.com/archive/index.php?module=subjectsandfunc=viewpageandpageid=132 (last visit 14.6.2012)
Kihore, Y. M. (2004) Masuala ya kisarufi katika magazeti ya mitaani ya Kiswahili - Tanzania. Swahili Forum 11: 107--119.
Kiessling, R. and Mous, M. (2006) Vous nous avez donné le français, mais nous sommes pas obligés de l’utiliser comme vous le voulez. Youth languages in Africa. In Dürscheid, C. and Spitzmüller, J. (eds.) Trends and Developments in Youth Language Research 353--401. Frankfurt et al.: Peter Lang.
Kiessling, R. and Mous, M. (2004) Urban youth languages in Africa. Anthropological Linguistics 46: 303--341.
Legère, K. (2006) Formal and informal development of the Swahili language: Focus on Tanzania. In Arasanyin, O.F. and Pemberton, M.A. (eds.) Selected Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on African Linguistics 176--184. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Madunia Foundation (1999) Hali Halisi. Rap as an alternative medium in Tanzania. http://www.africanhiphop.com/projects/documentary-hali-halisi/ (last access 29/05/2015)..
Mbaabu, I. and Nzuga, K. (2003) Sheng-English Dictionary: Deciphering East Africa's Underworld Language. Dar es Salaam: Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili.
McLaughlin, Fiona (2008) On the origins of urban Wolof: evidence from Louis Descemet’s 1864 phrasebook. Language in Society 37: 713-735.
Mesthrie, R. and Hurst, E. (2013) Slang registers, code-switching and restructured urban varieties in South Africa. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 28,1: 103-130.
Ohly, R. (1987) Swahili-English Slang Pocket-Dictionary. Vienna: Afro-Pub.
Perullo, A. (2007) “Here's a little something local”: An early history of Hip Hop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 1984-1997. In Burton, A., Brennan, J. and Lawi, Y. (eds.) Dar es Salaam: The History of an Emerging East African Metropolis 250--272. London: British Institute and Mkuki na Nyota.
Raab, K. (2004) Bongo Flava: Swahili Rap from Tanzania. Booklet of the CD Bongo Flava: Swahili Rap from Tanzania. OH3. Munich.
Raab, K. (2006) Rapping the Nation. Die Aneignung von HipHop in Tanzania. (Musikethnologie 6). Berlin: LIT.
Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. (1965) On joking-relationship. In Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. (ed.) Structures and Functions in Primitive Society 90--104. New York et al.: Free Press.
Remes, P. (1999) Global popular musics and changing awareness of urban Tanzanian youth. Yearbook for Traditional Music 31: 1--26.
Remes, P. (1998) Karibu ghetto langu – Welcome in my ghetto: Urban Youth, Language and Culture in 1990s Tanzania. Ph.D. Dissertation, Northwestern University, Chicago.
Reuster-Jahn, U. (2015) English versus Swahili: Language choice in Bongo Flava as expression of cultural and economic changes in Tanzania. Swahili Forum 21: 1--25.
Reuster-Jahn, U. (2014) Antivirus: The revolt of Bongo Flava artists against a media-and-entertainment empire in Tanzania. In Krings, M. and Reuster-Jahn, U. (eds.) Bongo Media Worlds. Producing and Consuming Popular Culture in Dar es Salaam 43--78. Köln: Köppe.
Reuster-Jahn, U. and Kiessling, R. (2006) Lugha ya Mitaani in Tanzania. The poetics and sociology of a young urban style of speaking. With a dictionary comprising 1100 words and phrases. Swahili Forum 13: 1--196.
Reynolds, F.A. (1962) Lavu huzungusha dunia. Tanganyika Notes and Records 58/59: 203-- 204.
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