Editing Swahili language (section)

==Religious and political identity==
===Religion===
Swahili played a major role in spreading both [[history of Christianity|Christianity]] and [[history of Islam|Islam]] in [[East Africa]]. From their arrival in East Africa, [[Arabs]] brought Islam and set up [[madrasa]]s, where they used Swahili to teach Islam to the natives. As the Arab population and influence expanded, a growing number of indigenous people converted to Islam and began receiving religious and cultural instruction in Swahili, which increasingly absorbed Arabic vocabulary.<ref name="Mukuthuria"> {{cite journal| last=Mukuthuria| first=Mwenda| title=Islam and the Development of Kiswahili| journal=The Journal of Pan African Studies| volume=2| issue=8| pages=36–45| date=March 2009| url=https://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol2no8/2.8_IslamAndTheDevelopmentOfKiswahili.pdf| access-date=April 3, 2025}}</ref>

With the arrival of [[rape of Africa|Europeans]] in East Africa, Christianity was introduced to the region, profoundly shaping the development of Swahili. While Arab influence remained concentrated along the coastal areas, European missionaries ventured further inland, establishing missions and promoting Christian teachings.<ref name="whiteley1956">{{cite journal| last=Whiteley| first=Wilfred H.| title=The Changing Position of Swahili in East Africa| journal= Africa: Journal of the International African Institute| volume=26| issue=4| pages=323–331| date=October 1956| publisher=Cambridge University Press| jstor=1156672| doi=10.2307/1156672| url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1156672| access-date=April 3, 2025}}</ref><ref name="Heugh1">{{cite encyclopedia| last=Heugh| first=Kathleen| title=Language Education Policies in Africa| encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics| edition=2nd| volume=6| pages=414–422| publisher=Elsevier| year=2006| doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00664-7| isbn=978-0-08-044854-1}}</ref> Early outposts were located along the coast, where they encountered Swahili as a widely spoken [[lingua franca]]. Recognizing its utility and structural similarities to other indigenous languages, the Europeans adopted Swahili as a medium for evangelization, religious and general educational instruction, and, eventually, colonization.<ref name="Simpson">{{cite journal| last=Simpson| first=Andrew| title=German Colonial Administrators, Swahili Lecturers and the Promotion of Swahili at the Seminar für Orientalische Sprachen in Berlin| journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society| volume=19| issue=1| pages=53–66| year=2009| publisher=Cambridge University Press| jstor=25653412| doi=10.1017/S1356186308008815| doi-broken-date=14 April 2025| url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25653412| access-date=April 3, 2025}}</ref><ref name="Viera1">{{cite journal| last=Pawliková-Vilhanová| first=Viera| title=Biblical Translations of Early Missionaries in East and Central Africa| journal=Asian and African Studies| volume=15| issue=1| pages=80–89| year=2006| url=https://www.sav.sk/journals/uploads/021015317_Vilhanov%C3%A1.pdf| access-date=April 3, 2025}}</ref><ref name="Dzahene1">{{cite book |last=Dzahene-Quarshie |first=Josephine |chapter=The Development of Kiswahili as an Academic Discipline |title=Journeys through the Modern Languages at the University of Ghana |pages=63–72 |publisher=Ayebia Clarke Publishing Ltd |year=2014 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368632572 |access-date=April 3, 2025}}</ref>

===Politics===
During the struggle for Tanganyika independence, the [[Tanganyika African National Union]] used Swahili as a language of mass organisation and political movement. This included publishing pamphlets and radio broadcasts to rally the people to fight for independence. After gaining independence, Swahili was adopted as the national language. To this day, Tanzanians carry a sense of pride when it comes to Swahili, especially when it is used to unite over 120 tribes across Tanzania. Swahili was used to strengthen solidarity within the nation, and remains to be a key identity of the Tanzanian people.