Dear Friends,

I would like to say that as much as the word Harambee may sound the same as the Hindu word Hare Ambe or the like I object in the strongest terms that it means the same with what the Kiswahili word means. The word is a Bantu word from one of the Miji Kenda dialect Halumbe Which meant pull or push together. The word is a kin to another word Kulumba which means make or prepare like in the composing of a poem hence a poet known as Mlumbi.
The word has resemblance with a Luhya word khulumba which can be translated to push. When all is said and done, it is not fare to give a meaning to a word because it sounds like another word in a another language. For example we have words in our Kenyans languages which mean something else in another language. Some can not be uttered by the speakers of those languages. For Example Kipchoge’s Second name or Surname Keino can not be uttered in a church in Kitui or among the Kikuyu. Does the same sound of the word make the word have the same meaning in both languages?

Second, it is in History that Mzee Jom Kenyatta is the one who used this name Harambee when he found the Mijikenda people using it to urge the people to work together. It means to pull together so if our National team and the technical bench with the support of the goverment pull together, we can win games.

If we think that since the word harambee may sound the same as hare ambe hare rama hare krishna etc, and therefore making our harambee satanic, then why cann’t we go ahead and remove all the names of the days of the week; Monday, Tuseday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Satuday and Sunday from our calendar because each of them was a day dedicated to Roman gods?

In applied lingustics and sociolinguistics, when a word is taken from language A and used to mean something else in language B, the original meaning becomes absolete as far as the speakers of language B are concerned. For example the Kiswahili word Meli which mean a ship, came from the English word Mail meaning letter. To us kiswahili speakers we know that meli is that ship that sails on the in ocean. The word as it exists meli has no meaning in English whatsoever.

Another word related to this is the Word Man of War which was translated into Kiswahili as manowari , to us manowari is an Armored boat, in oher places it is defined as a venomous dangerous sea organism. Does this change the way we use the word in Kiswahili? There are other many words like Keya a name used by many Communities in Kenya which actually is the abreviation of The Kings African Rifle ( KAR) Panyako,- Pioneer Corps, Girimiti agirimiti, jirimiti, chilimiti – Agreement, Kandarasi- contract, Aluvanze- advance salary, and other names like Perpetua- Pelepetua( especially among the Luhyas- Scholarstica- Sikolo, Bartholomeus- maturumayo, etc

Harambee is not a Hindu god and can be a hindu word it is a Swahili word and Kenyan, it is only used in Kenya. Tanzanians do not use it.

I know the person who wrote a book on this issue of Harambee from Eldoret and when I asked him to talk about what I have raised here he couldn’t speak.