Kenya Culture & Language

Kenyan culture runs along two axes: the many inland ethnic traditions, and the Swahili coast, which has been part of the Indian Ocean world for far longer than it has been part of Kenya.

Swahili civilisation

The coastal city-states — Lamu, Malindi, Mombasa, Pate — grew from the eighth century on trade with Arabia, Persia, India and China. The result is genuinely a fusion rather than an import: a Bantu language with Arabic vocabulary, coral-stone houses with carved doors, and a cuisine built on coconut, tamarind and spice. Lamu Old Town is UNESCO-listed and still has no cars.

The Maasai, and the rest

The Maasai are the group outsiders picture, with the red shuka, the beadwork and the cattle economy — but they are a small minority. The Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, Kamba and Kalenjin are all larger, and each has its own language, music and food.

Music

Benga, a guitar-driven style that came out of Luo music in the 1960s, influenced popular music across the continent. Genge and Kenyan hip hop dominate now, rapped in Sheng — a Nairobi street mixture of Swahili, English and everything else, which changes fast enough that older people cannot follow it.

Food

Nyama choma, grilled goat or beef eaten communally, is the social meal. Ugali, a stiff maize porridge, is the staple with sukuma wiki greens. On the coast, biryani, pilau and coconut fish curries show the other inheritance.

Craft and writing

Kisii soapstone, Maasai and Samburu beadwork, and a literary tradition anchored by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who stopped writing novels in English and wrote in Gikuyu instead.

Swahili and English are both official, and English is the language of government, business, higher education and most signage — which makes Kenya straightforward for English-speaking visitors.

Swahili is the national lingua franca and is spoken by almost everyone as a first or second language, alongside more than forty ethnic languages. In Nairobi, Sheng — a rapidly evolving street mix of Swahili, English and local languages — is what young people actually speak.

Swahili is easy to make a start in: phonetic, no tones, regular grammar. Jambo or habari for hello, asante for thank you, karibu for welcome — which you will hear constantly — pole for sorry, and hakuna matata, which really is an ordinary phrase.

Using a few words is noticed and warmly received, and greeting before asking anything is the local convention.