Jasmine: The Woman’s Flower
Jasmine, the delicate but powerful flower, has long been part of everyday life and ritual. It carries with it the scent of womanhood and intimacy. In Swahili, we call it…
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The Mysterious Kilua
The kilua or kiluwa (pl. Vilua/viluwa) is a small fragrant magnolia-like flower found on the East African coast. The flower’s tree is known as mlua, mkiluwa or muuwa by the…
Was there ever a Kiswahili word for ‘Holy’?
‘The available evidence suggests that in the mid-nineteenth century, at the second coming of European-Christians to the East African coast, there was no lexical equivalent for ‘holy’ or its near-synonym…
Mwana Darini’s Siwa
A story on the Swahili royal horns that graced the East African coast for centuries.