Habari Yako?

Over this past week, I had the opportunity to visit some friends who were called by God two years ago to share Jesus with the Zanzibari people. My initial experience of the Zanzibari people was that they see “wazungu” (white people) or “watlii” (tourists) as $$. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been harassed to look at this or to buy that or beckoned to come over here or there. Now I fully understand that from their perspective that’s why the “wazungu” come to Zanzibar, for tourism. I found it interesting to watch the Zanzibaris interact with my friends who are fluent in Swahili. They would walk up to them just as they did me and say a greeting in Swahili, but whenever my friends greeted them back or asked them questions in return in Swahili, they would simply walk away. Hence, I couldn’t help but feel like most of the time, they were simply sizing people up. The saying on the island is that there is the “wazungu” price and then the “Zanzibari” or “real” price. Now, if that’s all the interaction I had with Zanzibaris, my conclusion would be that they are no different than the locals in any other touristy city I’ve ever been too.

But, because my friends have been living on Zanzibar for two years, they have made some “rafiki” (friends) in which they are in genuine fellowship with. It is through seeing their interaction that I’ve come to see the heart and beauty of the Zanzibari people. Relationships are so very important to Zanzibaris and knowing the “news” (habari) of one another’s life is crucial. Whenever I was walking with my friend around their home, it was imperative that she greet everyone and ask of the news of their life. At any given encounter these and many more questions would be asked: “Habari yako? (what’s your news?) Habari nyumbani? (what’s the news of your household?) Habari mama? (what’s the news of your mother?) Habari baba? (what’s the news of your father?) Habari Dar? (what’s the news in Dar?)” and so on and so forth. Granted though the answer to these questions was almost exclusively “nzuri” (good), what stuck me was the importance in asking about the “news” of one another’s lives. So let me ask you: Habari yako?