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The Word for 'God' in Swahili: Further Considerations

The Word for 'God' in Swahili: Further Considerations THE WORD FOR 'GOD' IN SWAHILI: FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS BY P.J.L. FRANKL (London) In consultation with YAHYA ALI OMAR (London) Five years ago this Journal published 'The Word for "God" in Swahili' (Frankl 1990), while a subsequent contribution discussed 'Swahili as a religious language' (Topan 1992). The time now seems ripe to reconsider the former, while bearing in mind the notion of Swahili as 'a religious language'. The word 'Swahili' in the title needs some measure of explana- tion. By 'Swahili' is meant kiSwahili cha wenyewe 'the Swahili speech of the Swahili people themselves', and so it follows that the primary concern of this article is with the word for 'God' as employed by the autochthonous inhabitants of Swahili-land (the East African coast, including the islands, from southern Somali-land to Mozam- bique), who are one in language, in culture and in religion. At the turn of the century A.C. Madan, a Christian missionary in Zanzibar (southern Swahili-land) compiled a Swahili-English lexicon in which he defined the meaning of 'Mngu' as: (1) God, (2) providence, luck, accident (Madan, 1903: 258). The second defini- tion, reproduced verbatim in A S'tandard Swahili-English Dictionary (Johnson, 1939: 315), is wrong since the word 'Mngu' http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Religion in Africa Brill

The Word for 'God' in Swahili: Further Considerations

YAHYA ALI OMAR; Frankl, P.J.L.
Journal of Religion in Africa , Volume 25 (2): 202 – Jan 1, 1995
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References (12)

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1995 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0022-4200
eISSN
1570-0666
DOI
10.1163/157006695X00209
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

THE WORD FOR 'GOD' IN SWAHILI: FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS BY P.J.L. FRANKL (London) In consultation with YAHYA ALI OMAR (London) Five years ago this Journal published 'The Word for "God" in Swahili' (Frankl 1990), while a subsequent contribution discussed 'Swahili as a religious language' (Topan 1992). The time now seems ripe to reconsider the former, while bearing in mind the notion of Swahili as 'a religious language'. The word 'Swahili' in the title needs some measure of explana- tion. By 'Swahili' is meant kiSwahili cha wenyewe 'the Swahili speech of the Swahili people themselves', and so it follows that the primary concern of this article is with the word for 'God' as employed by the autochthonous inhabitants of Swahili-land (the East African coast, including the islands, from southern Somali-land to Mozam- bique), who are one in language, in culture and in religion. At the turn of the century A.C. Madan, a Christian missionary in Zanzibar (southern Swahili-land) compiled a Swahili-English lexicon in which he defined the meaning of 'Mngu' as: (1) God, (2) providence, luck, accident (Madan, 1903: 258). The second defini- tion, reproduced verbatim in A S'tandard Swahili-English Dictionary (Johnson, 1939: 315), is wrong since the word 'Mngu'

Journal

Journal of Religion in Africa – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1995

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