Speaking Swahili


I moved to the swamps, just outside of Tampa, to live in a "jungle" house and raise a variety of wildlife about 30 years ago. My life was perfect. A friend told me one day, "Did you know that your phone number spells out Yum Life?" I didn't, but I thought it was pretty cool. I mentioned it to my neighbor and good friend, Panky Snow. Years before, she and I had worked at The Tampa Tribune newspaper together. I, as a staff news artist, and she was a reporter. Panky said, "Oh, my number must be Yum Bobo." The last four digits were actually 2020. There were no letters corresponding with zero, so she just made them the letter O.

I had since left the Tribune and was working in the Zoo Graphics Department at Busch Gardens. My wonderful partner was a young woman named Margo. She and I were zoo graphics artists for many years together. Even though she was a beauty, her father's nickname for her was Magoo. I called her Magoomba because she had been to Africa so many times. Almost yearly.

On my fourth or fifth trip to Kenya, it was night when we landed in Nairobi. Margo and I weren't together on this trip. I was with a group of other friends who had never been to Africa before.

Our guide picked us up at the Nairobi Airport. When we reached the lodge our group was standing at the front door, waiting to go in. I was with our guide at the rear of the Land Rover because the bearer was coming to collect our luggage. Mumimbu was our luggage and gun bearer. I could see the excitement and wonderment of Africa on the faces of my friends. That, and the backdrop of the straw roof and African designs painted across the front wall of the lodge created an atmosphere of anticipation.

Our tall, slender bearer appeared, wearing a cream-colored safari jacket and wraparound "skirt." He looked close to seven feet tall, including his red Fez hat with the black tassel. He nodded, and with a wide friendly smile, greeted me loudly, with, "Jambo, Bwana!" In Swahili, Jambo is a greeting. Can be hello or goodbye. And Bwana means Sir. Out of the corner of my eye I could see my friends craning their necks to one side to get a better view of this encounter. They were soaking it in. Having forgotten almost all of my Swahili, except those two words, I said back to him, for the benefit of my friends, and not caring at the time how it sounded to the natives, "Jambo, Bwana, Magoomba Yumbobo." I could see them all smiling and nodding to each other and nudging each other with their elbows. I have no idea what the guide and the bearer thought. Whatever it was, they played along.

Lash Out Loud

Point of Interest: in 1860 a baby African elephant was captured in East Africa by Arabian hunters. He was sold to an animal compound where his caretakers named him Jambo, the Swahili word for hello, or good morning. Jambo was sold to a zoo in London where he was greatly loved by everyone. As an adult, he grew to be physically the largest elephant in captivity. He was then purchased by P.T. Barnum of The Barnum and Bailey Circus and was brought to America. His name was either misspelled or mispronounced, but at this point it became Jumbo. Jumbo was the star of the circus, "The Greatest Show On Earth." Because of his extraordinary size, the word jumbo became synonymous with large or the largest. I bet you'll remember that little elephant the next time you hear somebody order a bag of jumbo peanuts or a jumbo coke.