 I think it is very important to know Africa through African languages and also to know Africa through people who live Africa. One should learn both the language and culture because you cannot do without one or the other. Swahili is a very important language in my view. It is one of the most widely spoken languages of Africa not just in terms of numbers but actually in the spread of it. It has also a long written history, an important body of literature which will become available to anybody who studies language. After students have done two years of Swahili they go to Zanzibar for three months and then they go to either Nairobi or Mombasa. They would go there and be immersed in the culture. They would live with the Swahili, they would become Swahili themselves. Learning about things like social anthropology and African philosophy and history and through language that we offer here is a unique opportunity to really get a great grasp on the way that things work. It has had a profound effect on the way I perceive myself and the way I perceive the world. Thievio and Thievio and Thievio.