Why Did A Lot Of Black Gangs/Prison Gangs Adopt Swahili? | Why Did We Adopt Swahili?

[96Blue]

Damu means Blood in Swahili.

The Black Guerrilla Family adopted the Swahili teachings/language.

Kumi415 (Kumi meaning 10 in Swahili) adopted Swahili teachings/language.

Kwanzaa means Sacrifice in Swahili and we (ADOS) have adopted it as a holiday.

Is there a connection between us and Swahili?

Out of all the other African languages to choose from, why did we adopt Swahili?

 

[BigSteppa]

Most spoken indigenous language in Africa

 

[mykey]

Most spoken indigenous language in Africa

Nope. That would be Hausa / Fulani, a West African language.

 

[96Blue]

Most spoken indigenous language in Africa

It is?

 

[BigSteppa]

Nope. That would be Hausa / Fulani, a West African language.

That's interesting my apologies.

 

[NZA]

Nope. That would be Hausa / Fulani, a West African language.

learn something new everyday. i too had heard it was swahili

 

[get these nets]

Damu means Blood in Swahili.

The Black Guerrilla Family adopted the Swahili teachings/language.

Kumi415 (Kumi meaning 10 in Swahili) adopted Swahili teachings/language.

Kwanzaa means Sacrifice in Swahili and we (ADOS) have adopted it as a holiday.

Is there a connection between us and Swahili?

Out of all the other African languages to choose from, why did we adopt Swahili?

Good question. Here are two pages from the book. GJ seems to answer it in the 2nd page.

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The radicals of that era had an international viewpoint, and viewed the plight of Black people here as part of a worldwide issue of colonization by Euro powers.

keep the questions, and commentary coming.
this is my favorite section of the board

 

[Tommy Knocks]

I also heard swahili is the most spoken.

It stretches through a lot of countries

 

[Ol’Otis]

learn something new everyday. i too had heard it was swahili

I think Swahili is the easiest to learn

 

[96Blue]

Good question. Here are two pages from the book. GJ seems to answer it in the 2nd page.

​

The radicals of that era had an international viewpoint, and viewed the plight of Black people here as part of a worldwide issue of colonization by Euro powers.

keep the questions, and commentary coming.
this is my favorite section of the board

Yea, I was just interested to know, because as Black Americans, we're a mix of African tribes, but we're made up of majority West African tribes.

Swahili comes from East Africa.

Why not Yoruba or something like that?

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Damu means Blood in Swahili.

The Black Guerrilla Family adopted the Swahili teachings/language.

Kumi415 (Kumi meaning 10 in Swahili) adopted Swahili teachings/language.

Kwanzaa means Sacrifice in Swahili and we (ADOS) have adopted it as a holiday.

all that swahili stuff with aframs really comes from

Is there a connection between us and Swahili?

No...and yes. No ADOS actually is directly connected to the Swahili people BUT they do have an indirect connection from Bantu input. Swahili is bantu rooted with other outside influences

Out of all the other African languages to choose from, why did we adopt Swahili?

Swahili had/has a more pan-african nature

and

 

[Secure Da Bag]

Why not Yoruba or something like that?

I heard Yoruba is tonal like Mandarin. In other words, it's not an easy language to learn.

 

[get these nets]

Yea, I was just interested to know, because as Black Americans, we're a mix of African tribes, but we're made up of majority West African tribes.

Swahili comes from East Africa.

Why not Yoruba or something like that?

How familiar are you with the colonization of Africa?

I thought the answer he gave in the second letter was pretty straight forward.

He said that by learning Spanish,Swahili, Arabic, and Chinese(Mandarin)....and already knowing English......he would be able to communicate with 3/4 of the people on the planet.

The implication is that English would enable him to speak to many of the West Africans (modern day Ghanaians & Nigerians) from where many AAs descend.

I also think that freedom fighters here developed respect and admiration for the Mau Mau rebels in Kenya and their fight against colonization. This had to have played a role in them studying the history of that region and adopting Swahili.

 

[get these nets]

@Amestafuu (Emeritus) , what is your take on this topic?

I say that American radicals and freedom fighters adopted Swahili after admiring and studying the Mau Mau rebellion. Much the same way that Rastafarianism in JA was based on the admiration of Emp. Sellasie & Ethiopia's resistance against colonization.

 

[Amestafuu (Emeritus)]

@Amestafuu (Emeritus) , what is your take on this topic?

I say that American radicals and freedom fighters adopted Swahili after admiring and studying the Mau Mau rebellion. Much the same way that Rastafarianism in JA was based on the admiration of Emp. Sellasie & Ethiopia's resistance against colonization.

Swahili was and is seen as a unifying language as it does not belong to any one tribe and it's also very phonetic so naturally it became the language common in pan African movements. This bled into it being adopted by movements that came after including the bloods. During the mau mau era a lot of country folk did not actually speak it. Those that did would be the ones who traveled outside their native provinces or went to school. Do how it branched out is not really clear. I can only speculate as well.

Most people know a handful of Swahili words without knowing it

Damu - blood
Jenga - build
Harambee - Crowdfunding
Safari - Travel
Rafiki - friend
Kwaanza - start or to start
Etc