Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, there has been a growing population of first-generation immigrants from Africa living in the Americas Many of these professionals became residents of the U.S.A. and with this, there’s increasing need to preserve their culture from their home-countries. With this, their young and growing children continue to face the prospect of totally neglecting their parents’ lingua-franca, heritage and culture. In addition, a lot of African stories are left untold because some of the original content cannot be translated, which leaves unique insights in limbo.

It is from this impetus that a group of six New York professionals came together in January 2020 with the aim of having a resource that could enable their children and other interested parties learn Swahili and promote its use and the wider African languages and culture. That is how Swahili Cultural Institute was created.