Kiswahili Video Messaging on COVID-19 Awareness in Kenya: The Peaks and Valleys

Awareness On Prevention Of Covid-19

Awareness of Covid-19 prevention was done using audio-visual materials. In CAVP1 there is a Kiswahili dissemination which is delivered in a form of drama. A well-known Kenyan medical doctor who was common in the media as a regular campaigner against the spread of the coronavirus is holding a dialogue with children who are seated outside a house. In the excerpt below, D stands for Doctor while C stands for Child as follows:

• D: Sasa? Mjanua Corona ni nini? Do you know what Corona is?

• C1: Mtu asichukue kitu ambacho kimekuwa kwa mdomo wa mtu mwingine. Let

• nobody eat anything that has been another person’s mouth

• C2: Usisalimiane kwa mguu. Do not ‘greet’ people by the leg (laughter from Doctor

• as Child 3 refuses leg contact from him)

• D: Ni nini nyingine unajua kuhusu Corona? What else do you know about Corona?

• C3: Usikule uchafu. Do not ingest dirt.

• D: Ehe .. usikule uchafu? Nini nyingine? Ehe, don’t ingest dirt, what else do you

• know?

• C2: Ukishika mchanga, usinyonye mkono. If you touch the soil, don’t suck the hand [finger]

• D: Ukishika mchanga, usiyonye mkono, si ndiyo? Hii ugonjwa ndiyo iko kwa watu. Inaweza kukushika kwa kuambukizana … unaweza kuambukizwa na mtu mwingine, na kama mtu anataka kukushake mkono unafanya nini? If you touch the soil, don’t suck the hand, isn’t it? This is the disease that has affected people. You can contract it … you can contract it from another person, and if a person wants to shake your hand what do you do?

• C2: Ninamwambia hapana. I tell him/her no.

• D Unamwambia hapana. Unamsalimia hivi [igizo]. Ama unampatia mguu ee hivyo … You tell him/her no. You greet him/her like this [a demo] or you give him/her the leg, ee that way …

The Covid-19 awareness appearing on CAVP1 is based on a conversation which is rendered in Kiswahili. Some words are nevertheless grammatically incorrect, but this does not distort the message at hand. There is also use of Sheng in the verb kukushake, to shake your hand. Sheng is a popular argot in Kenya deriving from Swahili and English, and based on Kiswahili and Bantu languages morphosyntactic structure (Ogechi 2005; Nabea 2009). The choice of Kiswahili in this awareness video is important considering the children paint a humble background, a matter that may also suggest that they may not be very comfortable to use English, which they might have just started learning in school. However, in many households especially in urban centres, Kiswahili could be the first language for the children, hence the ease with which to use it.

There are English translation chyrons on the lower side of the video. The foregoing begs the question as to who the audience should be for such English translation. In view of the Kenyan audience, it follows that a large number of people who understand English also understand Kiswahili, but the same cannot be said about users of Kiswahili, the national language. In this case, the choice to translate Kiswahili conversation into English is dumbfounding since it does not have a lot of import to the audience. However, if English was translated into Kiswahili, one would be sure of a higher viewership. The scenario suggests that the crafters of the Covid-19 awareness videos in Kenya might not have been very clear regarding the linguistic landscape in the country, and therefore their objective of translating Kiswahili conversation to English, was somewhat warped. Translation has a variety of benefits chief among them to transfer source language to target language so that those who do not understand source language can understand through the translated version (Mwansoko 2006).