3. Greetings / Salamu

In Swahili culture, greeting etiquette is tremendously important .The key thing for a beautifully polite greeting is to spend some time asking about the person – how their health is, how their parents are, the health of their family and how business is going. Social relationships are very important in Tanzania and sometimes life-saving, so it’s important to take the time to understand their situation and their well-being. Ask at least three different types of questions about their well-being and that of their family.

There are basically five ways to say hello in Swahili:

Hujambo or jambo (how are you?) – Sijambo (I am fine / no worries)
Habari? or habari gani? (any news?) – nzuri (fine)
U hali gani? (how are you) – njema (fine)
Shikamoo (a young person to an elder) – marahaba
For casual interactions: mambo? Or Vipi? Or Sema? (scroll down to street language section for explanations).

Other replies to the above greetings that might be used in place of nzuri:

njema – fine
salama– peaceful / all’s well
sawa – okay
vyema - well

Asking about other persons

Hajambo (how are he/she? ) – Hajambo (he/she is fine).
hawajambo? ( How are they?) - Hawajambo ( they are fine)
Hamjambo (how are you? – to two or more people) – Hatujambo (We are fine).

Variants to Habari According to Time of Day

Habari za asubuhi (good morning) – nzuri (fine)
Habari za mchana (good afternoon)
Habari za jioni (good evening)
Habari za kutwa? ( how has your day been?)

Other variants to habari:

Habari za kazi? literally how is work?

Habari za hapa? literally how is here?

Habari za nyumbani? literally how is at home?

The answers can vary:

nzuri: fine

nzuri sana: very fine

nzuri tu: just fine ( if your are not doing well, you cannot use mbaya " bad", but only nzuri tu)

To ask permission to enter somewhere, Swahili people say:

Hodi! Can I enter?

The answer is : karibuni welcome ( singular)

or Karibuni welcome ( plural)

Peers Greeting Each Other / Street Language

Young people everywhere like to make language sound cool. Swahili speakers are no exception.

While walking the streets of a Kenyan or Tanzanian town, you might hear some of these Swahili greetings. Most of them are informal and should not be used in formal writing.

Mambo – What’s up?
Vipi? ( or mambo vipi?)– how?
Sema? – speak?

The replies to these greetings can be:

Safi – Clean
Poa – Cool
Freshi – fresh (it is a swahilized slang version of the English word fresh)

Shikamoo? – Marahaba This greeting is used when a young person is greeting a significantly older person. It is used to show respect.

Shikamoo literally translates to ‘touching your leg’. The greeting therefore works one way and only a young person can initiate the conversation by saying “shikamoo?”

Goodbye in Swahili

Kwaheri (Goodbye) kwaherini ( Goodnight plural)
Tutaonana we will meet
Baadaye see you later
Tuonane kesho ( (see you tomorrow) – Inshallah ( God willing)
Uende salama (go with peace) – Tuonane inshallah (we will see each other God willing).