KISWAHILI STUDY NOTES Kiswahili is a Bantu language and the native language of the Swahili people. It is the official language in Tanzania and Kenya. It is a lingua franca of the African Great Lakes region and other parts of East and Southern Africa, including Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya. Kiswahili notes for form one to six can be found below: KiSwahili is spoken by an estimated 80 million people in East and Central Africa. The vast majority of speakers of KiSwahili are native speakers of other African languages and use KiSwahili as a lingua franca.