`The Rosetta Stone Language Library` is a language learning software developed by the American company Fairfield Language Technologies which allows users to learn a foreign language with their computer without the aid of an instructor. The program promises its users they can learn a language faster and with more ease than ever before, without having to learn vocabulary or grammatical rules. Once having completed Levels I and II, learners should be able to make themselves understood in the new language using a basic vocabulary of roughly 3000 words. Both these levels are to be completed within a time frame of one to two years, and the results should be the equivalent of five years of conventional school instruction. Since 1993, a Swahili language course has been featured in The Rosetta Stone for which only Level I is currently available. With regard to the Swahili course, it must be asked if this design can work with a class language just as it does with an Indo-European gender language. The second question addresses the cultural adequacy of the contexts, or more specifically, of cultural knowledge, which must not be excluded from modern language instruction.

Until the Eighties the regional character of Kenyan prose writing was far less marked than that of Zanzibari novels. Different was the situation in poetry; in fact, Kimvita and Kiamu have been used even in modern times (see, e.g., Ahmad Nassir Juma Bhalo, Abdilatif Abdalla and Ahmed Sheikh Nabhany; the last one is well-known for his endeavour in enriching and modernizing Swahili terminology, and a few of his proposed terms, e. g. runinga for `television`, have been accepted). Kenyan prose fiction, on the other hand, used to be much alike to the up-country Tanzanian literary production, written as it was in standard Swahili, sometimes with many colloquial features.

As a subject of scientific interest `Western` comics (i.e. the European, American, Japanese comics) have after all achieved some recognition. From its beginnings in the 1890s the comic has been an economic success, and gradually gained importance in the contemporary cultural production of `Western´ societies. However, only with a development that finally met the tastes of a `Western´ intellectual readership, scientific treatment of comics became academically acceptable. Compared to the Western market, the production of comics in Africa is negligeable, and therefore its scientific reception almost nonexistent. This article, however preliminary, for the first time takes interest in an African comic, specifically the comics in Swahili, as a subject of its own right. Under the guise of discussing the question given in the title on two levels, I intend to present as much material as possible (without stretching copyrights too far), to give a short introduction to the theory of the comic, and to raise the reader´s interest for the Swahili comic. The first level of discussion focuses on a global perspective. Here I take a more theoretical stance, concentrating on the comic as a narrative medium, reflecting its inventory of representation and questions of reading. My main question is: What does the Swahili comic do that other comics do as well? The second level focuses on the local perspective. I look at the setting in which the comic occurs, i.e. Swahili- speaking, urban East Africa, and take into consideration the cultural embedding of the medium: What can the comic do in East Africa that other media or gemes of cultural expression (music, tv, literature, painting, theatre, etc.) do not or can not do? What is new about the comic in East Africa?

Indian Influence in Swahili architecture. The goal of this article is to establish a synthesis of current knowledge on the contribution of the Indian world in Swahili architecture, from the islamisation to the sultanate of Zanzibar. By Indian world, we designate Pakistan and modern India, more precisely coastal regions of Sind, Gujerat and Deccan. Indians have participated at the creation of Swahili urbanism since the eighth century and have acted on the evolution of this architecture. To apprehend the role of India in the Swahili architecture, we will divide our comment in three areas: religious, civilian and military. With an historical introduction to the relationships between Africa and India.

For the past 150 years studies on Kiswahili language, literature and culture have engaged the scholarly attention of many researchers (Hauner 1979. In their analyses of Kiswahili literary works, however, most critical studies have, generally, tended to neglect the aspect of artistic design. Instead, the central focus has primarily been on two interlocking aspects of these works: (1) their content, values or thematic messages and (2) their cultural and socio-historical contexts (Dorsey 1988). This widespread tendency to undervalue the importance of artistic design in Kiswahili literary works is not surprising as it was largely promoted by some of the earlier European authorities who popularised the idea that Kiswahili literature `is not of literary interest´ and `that social, cultural, and historical commentary by anthologists are more relevant to this literature than literary study´ (Biersteker and Plane 1989:451). It is encouraging to see, however, that in recent years more and more scholars, like Mlamali (1980), Fiedel and Shariff (1986), Biersteker (1991) and Mbele (1996), to mention but a few, address issues of artistic design in their critical appraisals of Kiswahili literary works. This article is a modest attempt to follow their example by looking at Utenzi wa Shujaka as an object of design; how the poet has used the technical instruments of verbal craftsmanshjp in his bid to elicit an aesthetic response from his audience.

This article discusses one particular issue of Swahili standardization. which is, in Kiswahili Sanifu, the correct concordial agreement to be applied to the lexeme -ingine (‘other’)? Should it be treated like an adjective, as ‘classical’ works in Swahili grammar claim as well as current educational books do? How can efforts in favour of standardization comply with the appearance of different variants of concordial agreement?

Sign language in Tanzania is a relatively new field of linguistics that is yet to attract many researchers and linguists in particular Tanzanian Sign Language (TSL) functions as a unifying tool for the deaf in the country and, probably, beyond. This language, which is still at its early stage of development, is used in the same linguistic environment with Kiswahili, the national language, which is more established. The situation leaves TSL disadvantaged and is thus likely to cause a one-way linguistic influence, from Kiswahili to TSL. This paper, therefore, examines the nature and impact of the situation. Firstly, it focuses on the question of whether or not TSL is an independent language that has developed as a seperate language, quite distinct from the spoken languages of the communities that surround it, especially Kiswahili. Secondly, it examines the extent to which Kiswahili has influenced TSL and thus the role that the former plays in learning and developing the latter. The results of the study show that Kiswahili has had some influence on TSL but the influence is marginal at lexical level. Of all the signs studied, only 13% were directly related to Kiswahili. The majority of the signs studied were found to be iconic in nature, but only 12% of all signs were semantically transparent. Even in these cases where the signs are transparent, the transparency of the signs is not based on one`s knowledge of Kiswahili. Most of the transparent signs are common gestures that any person of any ethnic origin can interpret. The study has thus established that TSL is more of a sign language than signed language. It is an indigenous African sign language, unrelated to the Western Sign Languages, except for the manual alphabet. Finally, the study predicts that much of the transperancy and iconicity in TSL will gradually fade away as the language develops across time, space, and generations.

We shall investigate the use of Swahili slang in Freddy Macha`s tiny collection of short stories Twen `zetu Ulaya (DSM 1984), and especially in his short story Check-bob This is arguably the only epistolary short story in modern Swahili literature; in fact, epistolary novels are uncommon in anglophone Afiica as a whole. In this narrative two former lovers show abuses on each other and their four letters - two by each character - unfold the story of a selfish young woman who shamelessly exploited her boyfiiend and the manner in which he paid her back with her own coin. It is interesting to note how the same events are presented from two different perspectives and hence evaluated differently.

Women in East Africa appear to be in a unique position worldwide: their everyday dresses are not only significant in their habitual textile codes, but also as textures exhibiting meaningful verbal elements in complex density and seemingly endless variety These textual elements are proverbs or proverbial phrases written in Swahili, which seem to interact with the colour and design of the cloth (termed kanga), being either abstract or figurative in ornament, which the female wearer may choose according to cunent personal and interpersonal dispositions The paremiologist will find a traesury of signs, texts and contexts, which extend the conventional notions of literature and the verbal arts It appears rather curious to the reviewer that the Swahili proverb cloths have only recently come into scholarly focus, perhaps because of the meanwhile more advanced studies in gender relations and popular culture (though, for instance, truck slogans as another medium of proverb-like sentences were already recorded some 30 years ago)

As a system that deals with social ordering, the law is very much a function of words, i. e. of language. Language is one of the most effective ways of communicating. One of the most cardinal principles of the common law criminal system is constituted in the maxim ignorantia juris non excusat (ignorance of the law is no excuse). In conformity with this principle, Tanzania`s Penal Code, the basic criminal law statute, assumes that everybody knows the law. Knowledge of the law presupposes `legal literacy`, which in turn means that the citizemy (or at least a reasonable portion of it) is capable of understanding what the law says. Hence, the law must speak in a language the people understand. Only then can they reasonably be expected to generally conduct themselves in accordance with the law.