I am an East-African and this article does not provide the key reasons why Swahili is an important part of East-Africa and which often requires understanding of its history. Tanzania only adopted swahili post-colonial, but the language has flourished along the east-african coast (Mogandishu in present day somalia to Mozambique) for millennia as the glue language of trade. Kenyan coast (Lamu and Mombasa) played an instrumental role in the adoption of the language. Swahili itself is a fusion of bantu,arabic and borrowed some of the works from portuguese (Pesa- peso, Meza- Mezzo) and many others. As a core bantu language, it can be easily understood and adopted across the bantu lands of East, Central and South-africa. These elements are what makes it such a great language for the region. Trying to cement Tanzania as the core reason for the language success is short-sighted.
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