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Swahili on the Internet

 African Language Resources

• Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere: Swahili Forum. (Online). -- Mainz, Germany: Universität Johannes Gutenburg.
  • The current issue in full text and tables of contents for previous issues.
  • "A bibliography of Swahili literature, linguistics, culture and history." Swahili forum ; 10 (2003). Edited by Rose Marie Beck, Lutz Diegner, Thomas Geider, Uta Reuster-Jahn. (PDF format)
  
  
• BBC World Service in Swahili (British Broadcasting Corporation, London, UK)
  
  
• Columbia University: Swahili acquisitions at Columbia University Libraries, 1979-2006
  
  
• Google Kiswahili
  Tafuta Google kwa Kiswahili!
  
  
• FSI Language Courses: Swahili : basic course. 2nd ed. (1968) By E.W. Stevick, J.G. Mlela, & F.N. Njenga. [Washington, DC: Foreign Service Institute, Department of State, 1968 ; 560 pages] (USA)
  --Accompanying Swahili audio lessons
  
  
• H-Swahili Discussion Network (H-Net, Humanities and Social Sciences Online, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan)
  A forum for scholars -- in English and in Swahili, with the archive of e-mail discussions and information on how to subscribe.
  
  
• Institute of Kiswahili Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania = Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili, Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)
  
  
• The Kamusi Project: Online English-Swahili/Swahili-English Dictionary and Swahili Learning Resources. (World Documentation Centre, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK)
  
  
• Kanga Writings -- Pictures -- History (Hassan Ali, Ottawa, Canada)
  A chart of Swahili sayings that often appear on the cotton cloth commonly worn by women in East Africa, especially in Tanzania or coastal Kenya. The chart also includes literal English translation and the deeper meanings.
  
  
• KIKO--Kiswahili kwa Komputa (African Studies Institute, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia)
  A multimedia conversation and grammar textbook. "... six units comprising a total of thirty six lessons covering a range of topics including "Meeting one another", "Knowing numbers", "Family", "Time", "Buying and Selling" and "Education". ...intended to provide the students an illustration of Kiswahili culture and language with a set of conversations between native speakers of Kiswahili."
  
  
• KiSwahili Web at UPenn (African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelpia, Pennsylvania)
  These web pages include online listening files and texts for beginners.
  
  
• klnX: The Open Swahili Localization Project = Mradi wa kuswahilisha programu huria (University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; IT+46, Sweden)
  The website about the joint effort to provide computer operating software in Kiswahili.
  
  
• LangMedia--Resources for World Languages: Swahili Resources (Five College Center for the Study of Languages, University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
  The site features Course Guides, Audio Files for Kiswahili Kwa Kitendo (Zawawi) -and-
  Kiswahili (Hinnebusch & Mirza); plus videos and texts for:
  -- Swahili in Kenya
  -- Swahili in Tanzania
  
  
• Mkuki na Nyota Publishers (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)
  A web site in English or Swahili: "Mkuki na Nyota Publishers (MnNP) ni kampuni ya uchapishaji vitabu ya Tanzania iliyoanzishwa mwaka 1991, Dar Es salaam, Tanzania. Baada ya kuongoza Kampuni ya Uchapishaji Vitabu ya Tanzania Publishing House kwa muda wa miaka 18, Bwana Walter Bgoya alianzisha kampuni hii kwa lengo la kuchapisha vitabu vya taaluma ya juu -- yaani kwa vyuo vikuu na taasisi nyingine za elimu ya juu. Katika kutilia mkazo zaidi uchapishaji wa vitabu vya aina hiyo, Mkuki na Nyota imeweza kuchapisha vitabu mbalimbali katika fani ya Sayansi ya Jamii, vikiwamo vitabu vya Sanaa, vitabu vya ziada kwa shule za msingi na sekondari na vitabu vya watoto wadogo."
  
  
• Nasaha. (Online) Archives -- Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: TAMPRO--Tanzania Muslim Professionals, 2000-2001. ISSN 0856-7042. via Islam in Tanzania.
  The small and partial archive of a ceased weekly Islamic news magazine in Swahili; the last issues were posted in January 2001.
  
  
• Noun Classification in Swahili (Dr. Ellen Contini-Morava, University of Virginia, Charlottesville)
  
  
• For Poetry, see below: Zanzinet Forum.
  
  
• Radio Deutsche Welle: Idhaa ya Kiswahili (Köln, Germany)
  This site offers world and East African news briefs and audio files from radio broadcasts.
  
  
• Swahili studies bibliography, compiled by Kelly M. Askew. Tanzania Studies Association (Tony Waters, California State University, Auburn, California)
  
  
• Swahili Text Collections on the Web
  • Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania -- Website ya Taifa (Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania)
    • Katiba ya Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania ya Mwaka 1977 (2000) PDF format
    
    
  • Journal of Language and Popular Culture in Africa: Archives in Popular Swahili [of the Eastern Congo] (Vincent A. de Rooij, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
    A set of online texts: Excerpts from Tshibumba Kanda Matulu's "History of Zaire" as told to Johannes Fabian in 1974, in KiSwahili and English translation, plus a few other parallel KiSwahili-English texts and a "Boloki" text from the late 19th century. The collection is in part a supplement to Johannes Fabian's Remembering the present: painting and popular history in Zaire (published by University of California Press, 1996). The online texts are part of a web site announcing an electronic journal.
    
    
  • Maelezo ya njia mpya za kupinga tohara kwa wanawake PDF format (Arnold Groh, Arbeitsstelle für Semiotik = Research Center for Semiotics, Technical University Berlin, Berlin, Germany)
    
    
  • Qur'ani Tukufu: Tarjuma ya Qur'ani Tukufu Kwa Kiswahili (1997) (Sheikh Ali Muhsin Al-Barwani, via GeoCities)
    
    
  • Shirika la Habari la Hirondelle, kwenye Mahakama ya Kimataifa inayoshughulukia kesi za mauaji ya Rwanda, Arusha, Tanzania (Fondation Hirondelle, Lausanne, Switzerland)
    
    
  • Tanzania bila umasikini: kijitabu kinachoelezea kwa lugha rahisi mkakati wa kupunguza umasikini.
    -- Arusha, Tanzania ; [United Kingdom] : Hakikazi Catalyst Ltd., 2001.
    "Uandishi kwa lugha nyepesi kwa kiingezeza umefanywa na George Clark ... tunawashuku pia Dr. Y.I. Rubanza na Prof. H. Mwansoko kwa kazi kubwa waliyoifanya kwa kufasiri kwa kiswahili ... na Hakikazi Catalyst inamshukuru sana Ally Masoud kwa mchango wake na uwezo wake wa pekee kwa kuchora"--Shukurani.
  • Umoja wa Mataifa Ofisi ya Idara ya Habari: Taarifa ya Ulimwengu Juu ya Haki za Binadamu (United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Dept. of Public Information, Switzerland)
    Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Swahili version: in HTML or downloadable PDF.
  
  
• Tuzungumze Kiswahili = Lets' Speak Swahili (Alwiya S. Omar, University of Pennsylvania)
  A collection of interactive lessons and exercises, associated with a 1998 local television Kiswahili course in the Philadelphia area.
  
  
• United Nations. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: Taarifa ya Ulimwengu juu yaa Haki za Binadamu Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Geneva, Switzerland)
  
  
• University of Helsinki Language Corpus Server: Swahili Computer Corpora -- Information (Helsinki, Finland)
  • NOTE: Only general information is available about the database and archive of Swahili language texts; none of the texts are accessible without research affiliation. See also:
  • Helsinki Corpus of Swahili -- Introduction
  
  
• University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies Library: Swahili Manuscripts Project (London, UK)
  • The website describes the on-going project and offers an online catalog of the collection. "The library of the School of Oriental and African Studies holds the largest public collection of Swahili manuscripts in Britain. The collection includes more than 250 manuscripts dating from the 1790s to the 1970s, contained in the papers of William Taylor, Alice Werner, William Hichens, Wilfred Whiteley, Jan Knappert and Yahya Ali Omar. The library also holds microfilms of the manuscripts that were deposited by JWT Allen at the University of Dar es Salaam."
  • Selected images from manuscripts and audio files
  
  
• The World Bank: Programu ya Maarifa ya Asili = Indigenous Knowledge Program (Washington, DC)
  
  
• Zanzinet Forum: Zanzinet Swahili Poems -- Tungozaneti (Canada)
  A library of online Swahili poetry from contributors to this Zanzibari community web site.