Lesson Plan - Background Information Background Information Swahili is the most widely spoken language in Africa.
Scholars claim that Swahili is a combination of a number of languages.
Swahili includes words borrowed from Arabic as well as many European languages. Although the Swahili language is widely spoken in East Africa, the concentration is in towns scattered along the coastline. Swahili is spoken in many countries and it is the national language of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Tanzania, however, through the efforts of its first President, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, was the one that took Swahili more seriously and made deliberate efforts for all the citizens to speak the language. Now in Tanzania everyone speaks Swahili unlike other countries.