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WATCH: Did Russian soldiers speak swahili?


A group of Russian soldiers have been captured in a video speaking Swahili.

The soldiers who had sat in the woods are heard exchanging greetings in the language which is predominantly African.

“Jambo jambo,” the soldiers are heard ululating to their ability of using the language while integrating it with the Slavic language in a TikTok video.

One of the soldiers appears to be from Africa.

Russian soldiers have hit the news in recent times following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, a move that attracted criticism from other countries including the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

The Bantu language is comprised in East African Community countries as the official language.

With its prevalence in more than 14 countries, Kiswahili is among the 10 most widely spoken languages in the world, with more than 200 million speakers.

In 2020, South Africa became the first southern African country to offer Kiswahili as an optional subject in schools, raising hopes for the growth of the language.

Kiswahili would be taught along French, German and Mandarin with South Africans hoping that the language would promote cohesion and help address xenophobia which had resulted in over 600 attacks since 1994, leading to more than 300 deaths.

In order to increase Kiswahili’s popularity in the world, the United Nations designated 7th July as the World Kiswahili language Day- the official day to celebrate the Swahili language.

The 14 countries include; Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Somalia, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Comoros, and as far as Oman and Yemen in the Middle East.

Southern African countries such as South Africa and Botswana have introduced it in schools, while Namibia and others are considering doing so.

Among the 14, Tanzania has the highest percentage of Swahili speakers due to it being their national language.