Swahili Proverb of the Day

"Ungeenda juu, kiboko, makazi yako ni pwani"

("Even though you go up-country hippopotamus, your real habitation is the coast")

This proverb has a connotation of reminding coastal people of their true identity. Lyndon Harries cites it in "The Arabs and Swahili Culture" in relation to a discussion of Swahili language and its transistion from being the language of Islam and coastal culture to being a national lingua franca.