Special Programs

 

Swahili • language workshops

On April, May and June, the Museum of African Art organizes the Swahili Spring Language Workshops for adults (16+), guided by Marija Panić, PhD, Rose Muthoni Thumbi and Ivana Vojt.

Spring workshops last from April 12th to June 14th 2025.

The workshops are intended for beginners and people who already speak Serbian.

Eventually, each student will be qualified for basic communication in Swahili.

There is a Swahili proverb: MTU NI WATU, which means A PERSON IS PEOPLE.

Swahili is constantly being changed by its speakers who continually develop the language by including words borrowed from other languages. Arabic, Hindi, Gujarati, Persian and, more recently, English are the most noted contributors. However, there are traces of Portuguese and German, not to mention the contributions made by local languages. In a way, Swahili is a reflection of all the connections that have, in a long historical period, been created among different peoples!

As a language, Swahili presents no serious difficulties for Serbian speakers: the language is more or less written as it is spoken and uses the same ‘continental’ vowel sound system found in Serbian. For those who are interested in learning this language for personal development, travelling or communication with business partners in Africa, Swahili is the right choice! Swahili-language workshops will enable participants to learn basic words and phrases in an engaging and interactive way.

The Spring Swahili Workshop 2025 will be led by:

Marija Panić, PhD

Works as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Philology and Arts (University of Kragujevac), where she teaches French literature and culture.

As a linguist she has always been interested in Swahili and it is with great enthusiasm that she started learning it in 2015 at Swahili Language Workshops at the Museum of African Arts in Belgrade. She is very interested in African arts and literature and in the mutual influence of African and European cultures.

As a language teacher Marija has taught French, Italian and English at language courses, at grammar school, at British international school and at the faculty.

She has been teaching Swahili at the MAA from 2018.

 

Rose Muthoni Thumbi

Student at the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade.

Born in Nakuru in Kenya, a country in which 55 million people live, 42 ethnical groups who have their native languages, but Swahili is the language spoken by more than 80% of the population. After independence, the Kenyan government adopted the Swahili as a national language to unite different ethnical groups.

She speaks English, Swahili, Serbian, Chinese, French and local Kenyan language - Kikuyu. Rose loves sports and plays table tennis. She also likes to read novels.

As a native speaker and lecturer in Swahili language workshops at the Museum of African Art, she has been participating since 2020.

 

Ivana Vojt

Curator of the Museum of African Art since 2010.

She graduated in art history from the Faculty of Philosophy and theatre and radio directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.

Together with Galina Tudyk and Amosi Rwangaria, the first lecturers of Swahili language workshops, she created a foreign language learning program at the museum, which she has been implementing since 2015.

Swahili culture is an important part of her interest.

 

 

For more information about the workshop contact:

Ivana Vojt, MAA curator
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
phone: 011/ 2651 654

 

Previous teachers at the Swahili workshops:

Galina Tudyk (2015 – 2017)

Amosi Peter Rwangaria (2015 – 2018)

Benjamin Towett Chemarum (2019)

 

 

 

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