Swahili
KISWAHILI
As a student at WSSU, studying Swahili allows you to fulfill your foreign language requirement and prepares you to serve your country at the international level. You can fulfill your language requirement by taking up to four semesters of Swahili beginning at the elementary level to Intermediate level. Your chance to transform the world begins with Swahili.
Kiswahili or Swahili is a major African language that serves as an official, national and a lingua franca in several countries in east and central Africa. As a language of wider communication, Kiswahili allows its speakers to interact with other people both at the national and regional level. Swahili is spoken by more than 100 million people as a first, second, or even third language. In education, Swahili is the most important and widely studied indigenous language of Africa. It is studied in Asia, Latin America, Europe, and America because of its pivotal role in research, commerce, and interpersonal communication. The rich cultural information embedded in Swahili allows you as a student of the language to learn and understand how Swahili speakers from different countries conduct their social, political, and economic lives. The study of Swahili also provides interesting issues regarding language policies and language planning. Whatever the area of research one is in, be it linguistics, anthropology, engineering, archaeology or even medicine, knowledge of Swahili and its many varieties is essential if one is working in the eastern part of Africa.
