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.
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("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.
