In her article, Daniela Waldburger argued for the inclusion of varieties from the Greater Swahili Area in Swahili lessons. She discussed what it means to be a Mswahili and argued that while identification as a Mswahili can be linked to various aspects, competence in Swahili remains unquestioned as a necessary condition for identification as a Mswahili. In this paper, I would like to go a step further and question the relationship between competence in the Swahili language and the relevance of the notion of Swahili nature or Swahilité to a person. More specifically, I would like to reflect on the relevance of the notion of Swahilité in a diasporic space, more precisely the Franco-Comorian community in France, drawing on data from fieldwork in Bordeaux (2010 and 2011) and Marseille (2012).

The frame for this critical interpretation of the Kiswahili popular love song “Pili Mswahili” by Moreno Batamba et L’Orchestre Moja One (1981) is the discussion on African contributions to the making of modern Africa. The argument is that “Pili Mswahili” is an instance of the mwananchi’s, common person’s, agentive contribution to the establishment of Kiswahili as a national language in Kenya. The song is read as an urging of non-Swahili Kenyans to accept Kiswahili – which, in spite of its being an important lingua franca in Kenya, was, after all, the language of one ethnic group in a multi-ethnic state where “tribalism” is a major political factor – as their national language. It is shown that “Pili Mswahili” complemented the efforts of the makers and executors of government policy that had nation formation as the ultimate objective. Nation formation is understood to be a key strategy in the African appropriation of the African nation-state that started life as a colonial invention.

Tukizingatia kona maalum mjini Zanzibar, yaani ofisini, mtaani Shangani Posta, leo hii mimi na mwenzangu Muchi tunataka kuwahadithia kuhusu kikundi cha vijana wanaoitwa mapapasi ambao wamekuwa wanafanya kazi katika sekta ya utalii tangu miaka ya Themanini, japo nafasi yao haijawahi kutambuliwa wala kurasimishwa na serikali. Badala yake, mara nyingi vijana hao wamekuwa wanaudhiwa, kupuuzwa na kuadhibiwa kwa vile wanapwaya kwenye dira ya kiserikali ya kuigeuza Zanzibar kuwa mahali pa kutalii (kwa maana ya touristic destination) pakiingizwa kwenye mikondo mikali ya kiliberali mamboleo. Muchi na mimi tunajadiliana na kusimulia (hi)stori(a) yenye pande zaidi ya mbili. Tutawafafanulia kazi ya upapasi kama ilivyokuwa zamani na sasa hivi. Pia, tutatafakari juu ya nafasi ya upapasi (na uwenyeji) mjini Zanzibar, tukichambua maana, athari na uwezo wake. Hivyo, tutazingatia nafasi kama kielelezo cha au methodolojia ya kuchambua maneno ya Kiswahili kama vile yalivyo, lile linaloliwezesha, pamoja na maana yao. Umbo lenyewe la mazungumzo linasisitiza kuwa fikra zinazotokea kwenye mahusiano yanazaliwa konani, pale ambapo hakuna anayetiliwa (na kinachotiliwa) maanani kabla hajapewa (na hakijapewa) nafasi huko huko, nafasi ambayo hatimaye ndiyo ya Muchi na yangu pia. / By exploring the microcosmos of a junction (kona) in the neighbourhood of Shangani Posta, in the city of Zanzibar, today Muchi and I will tell you the (hi)story of a unique segment of Zanzibari male urban youth, known as mapapasi, working in tourism since the 80s. While been neglected and denied an official, formal and legal recognition by the government, they have been continuously harassed, intimidated and shamed because perceived as not belonging, not fitting the governmental project of turning Zanzibar into a touristic destination. The following conversation aims at disclosing the complexity hidden behind the mainstream one-sided picture of them. Looking at the past and contemporary practices of upapasi, Muchi and I reflect on the nafasi of upapasi in urban Zanzibar and matter-forth upapasi (and uwenyeji as an instance of spatial il/legalization), their meaning and their doing. In this way, we are attentive to the wor(l)d nafasi, as analytical lens to get a sense – kusikia, kuona, kuwa na – urban Zanzibar. The very form of conversation is meant to think thoughts as they are co-constituted by and within the relationalites of the kona, whereas no-body is predetermined, rather every-body is co-constituted in the very situatedness in which also Muchi and I (be)come-with.