Kingwana: DRC’s Kiswahili

 

Kingwana is a word derived from the Kiswahili word “uungwana”. Uungwana means the status of a person being freeborn, civilized or cultured; being well-bred. The word is personalized as “muungwana” (a-wa class, plural - wangwana) meaning freeborn person.

Moreover, "Ungwana" (Liberty), also known as "Comor Masiwa Mane" ("Four Comorian Islands"), was the national anthem of Comoros from 1975 until 1978, when a coup by Ahmed Abdallah (a former French senator) and Bob Denard (a French mercenary) took place, and it was replaced by the current anthem, "Udzima wa ya Masiwa". The first line of the first verse of the original anthem reads “’Ungwana ngazi nuo” meaning “we have freedom”.

Kiswahili spread as a trade language in the interior of central Africa "thanks" to marauding Arab slave caravans during the 18th and the 19th centuries. It reached the current area of Democratic Republic of the Congo as far as the river Congo and to the southeast. There, the arab slave raiders met a highly civilized people ready to defend their freedom, including the famous BaLuba and BaKuba. Their dialect of Kiswahili became known as that of the free people - Kingwana. The Kiswahili area in DRC comprises the current Oriental province, Maniema, South Kivu, North Kivu, Katanga, Western Kasai and Eastern Kasai.

The Kiswahili of DRC can further be sub-categorized into:

·       Kingwana ya Ituri

·       Kingwana ya Lualaba

·       Kiswahíli ya Katanga

·       Kiswahíli ya Kivu

Standardized Kiswahili	Kingwana	Lingala
Watoto wote	Batoto bote	Bǎna bánsɔ