Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Siku Ya Mwaka: New Year's Day in Swahili-Land (With Special Reference To Mombasa)

Siku Ya Mwaka: New Year's Day in Swahili-Land (With Special Reference To Mombasa) SIKU YA MWAKA: NEW YEAR'S DAY IN SWAHILI-LAND (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MOMBASA)* BY P. J. L. FRANKL IN CONSULTATION WITH YAHYA ALI OMAR (London) Introduction The concept of mwaka 'a solar year' is found throughout the Bantu family of languages (Guthrie 1970: iv, 143); where the Swahili people of the East African coast differ in their perception of mwaka from all other Bantu speakers is in their association thereof with Islam. However, it should be made plain at the outset that in the 1990s most inhabitants of Mombasa, whatever their ethnic origins, observe January the first as the effectual New Year's s Day-only a few dozen, mainly elderly, Swahili observing Siku ya Mwaka 'the Swahili New Year'. Part I Early References and Origins , Siku ya Mwaka is (or was) observed throughout all Swahili-land. The earliest recorded comment, in connection with central Swahili- land, was made in 1844 (Krapf 1856: i, 218); the first printed reference to southern Swahili-land relates to the years 1847 and 1848 (Guillain 1856-57: ii, 107). What is puzzling-puzzling, that is, to those familiar with the work of W. E. Taylor, England's greatest Swahili scholar-is that, with the exception of SOAS MS 47752, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Religion in Africa Brill

Siku Ya Mwaka: New Year's Day in Swahili-Land (With Special Reference To Mombasa)

Journal of Religion in Africa , Volume 23 (1-4): 125 – Jan 1, 1993

Loading next page...
 
/lp/brill/siku-ya-mwaka-new-year-s-day-in-swahili-land-with-special-reference-to-kTJwzdQ0yy

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1993 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0022-4200
eISSN
1570-0666
DOI
10.1163/157006693X00076
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

SIKU YA MWAKA: NEW YEAR'S DAY IN SWAHILI-LAND (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MOMBASA)* BY P. J. L. FRANKL IN CONSULTATION WITH YAHYA ALI OMAR (London) Introduction The concept of mwaka 'a solar year' is found throughout the Bantu family of languages (Guthrie 1970: iv, 143); where the Swahili people of the East African coast differ in their perception of mwaka from all other Bantu speakers is in their association thereof with Islam. However, it should be made plain at the outset that in the 1990s most inhabitants of Mombasa, whatever their ethnic origins, observe January the first as the effectual New Year's s Day-only a few dozen, mainly elderly, Swahili observing Siku ya Mwaka 'the Swahili New Year'. Part I Early References and Origins , Siku ya Mwaka is (or was) observed throughout all Swahili-land. The earliest recorded comment, in connection with central Swahili- land, was made in 1844 (Krapf 1856: i, 218); the first printed reference to southern Swahili-land relates to the years 1847 and 1848 (Guillain 1856-57: ii, 107). What is puzzling-puzzling, that is, to those familiar with the work of W. E. Taylor, England's greatest Swahili scholar-is that, with the exception of SOAS MS 47752,

Journal

Journal of Religion in AfricaBrill

Published: Jan 1, 1993

There are no references for this article.