When you normally think of Swahili speakers, what comes to mind is Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. But it’s tentacles reach much farther than a few great lakes nations.
Yes, Oman is a country on the Arabian Peninsular and like its middle east neighbors Arabic is king. But many Arabs in that country are Swahili speakers.
There are nearly 300,000 Swahili speakers in Oman, and is known as a trade language on the east near the capital Muscat. Swahili Music and customs are popular in Oman, also.
The majority of speakers in Oman originate from the East African coast of what was Tanganyika and Zanzibar during the late 17th century. The territories merged into what is now called Tanzania and the official language is Swahili.
Yes, Swahili has grown in popularity not just in Oman where descendants of Yemeni and Omani Arabs moved to but also in Kenya, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo where Swahili is honored as a national language. It is spoken in both Mozambique and Somalia and to a lesser extent Rwanda and Burundi
Swahili is an Official Language of the African Union and recently introduced into South Africa Schools. There are about 18 million Native Swahili speakers and more than 150 million speakers overall.
Swahili is a Bantu Language (Black African) and is part of the Niger-Congo Language Family.
hubiejones.com 