Senior Lecturer in Swahili and researcher in Foreign Language Pedagogy & sociolinguistics.
AURELIA FERRARI
I’m a researcher in Foreign Language Pedagogy and sociolinguistics. I have been a Swahili language trainer at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2012. Phd holder, I have taught Swahili, French and linguistics at the University of Ghana for 3 years. I’m the author of several books : " Learn Swahili Through East African Music: Taarab, Bongo Flava & Kenyan Songs " (2016, Tafakari) , “Master Swahili through East African Media” (2016- Tafakari), “J’apprends le Swahili” (2012- Karthala), “Le Swahili de Lubumbashi"(Karthala) and “Emergence d’une langue urbaine : le sheng de Nairobi”(2012- Peeters).
Latest presentation, Yale University:
Swahili Online exercices
www.learn-swahili-online.com
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MY LATEST RESEARCH
The uses of Sheng in Political discourses
Sheng is now heard in the media and in political discourses especially during presidential campaigns because Sheng has an interethnic entity and it has the ability to attract votes of young people. During 2013 political campaign, some politicians chose a nickname or a slogan in Sheng (Rachel Shebesh chose the nickname Manzi wa Nai “ a woman from Nairobi” and Peter Kenneth’s slogan was “ tunawesmake”, we can make it.)
This paper will attempt to analyze the uses of Sheng in political discourses through different Medias in order to identify political strategies associated with Sheng.
Analysis of hip hop lyrics in Sheng, an emerging language for a new culture in urban Kenya.
This article focuses on the analysis of messages and poetic devices used in a hip hop song written in an urban mixed language largely spoken in Nairobi and other Kenyan urban areas. It demonstrates that Sheng, a language which emerged in the 1960s in the multicultural environment of Nairobi and which combines mainly Kiswahili and English is a complex language able to create multifaceted poetry with a large repertory of poetic devices and a strong message.
