Swahili Day in Lexington affirms ‘cultural capital that we bring to the community’
Swahili is the third most-spoken language in Lexington, behind English and Spanish, and Lexington’s Swahili-speaking community gathered Saturday to celebrate their language and the cultures it represents.
Elisha Mutayongwa, who leads Lexington’s Marafiki Center, which organized the event, said Saturday was “a dream come true.”
“This has been a long time coming,” he said.
Swahili Day, held on the campus of Bluegrass Community and Technical College on Newtown Pike, offered a lineup of music, dancing, fashion and more.
Vendors representing 10 nations sold food, clothing and other wares. Some, Mutayongwa said, operate small businesses out of their garages or the trunks of their cars.
Like its sponsor, the Marafiki Center, Mutayongwa said Swahili Day was a space where “everybody can feel that they belong.”
The Marafiki Center seeks to represent and support the growing Swahili-speaking community in Fayette County.
The center offers Swahili language classes for children and adults, a camp for children whose parents have immigrated from Africa, a youth conference for young immigrants trying to navigate a new culture and other outreach programs.
“Swahili is not simply about language,” Pablo George Emedi told those gathered. “Swahili’s about people.”
He said Saturday’s event was an opportunity to get “back to our roots.”
Emedi said the visibility offered by Swahili Day, which he said was the largest public event of its kind in Lexington so far, is important.
“Promoting Swahili as such has not really been done,” he said. “Through the Swahili-speaking community, we’re promoting the larger African community, ... affirming our contribution to the cultural diversity, affirming the cultural capital that we bring to the community.”
Vice Mayor Dan Wu presented a proclamation at the event marking June 3 as Swahili Day in Lexington.
“Swahili is just one of almost 200 languages spoken in Lexington,” he said, “and this diversity is our greatest strength.”
Many of the Swahili speakers at Saturday’s celebration said they came to Lexington from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
From 2017 to 2021, 5,649 people from the Democratic Republic of the Congo resettled in Kentucky, including 1,114 in Lexington, according to the Kentucky Office for Refugees. Among Kentucky arrivals, more people were resettled from the DRC than any other nation during that time period, according to the office.
During that same four-year span, 611 Swahili-speakers arrived in Lexington, according to the office, which coordinates services for refugees.
Pacific Mutayongwa, one of Elisha Mutayongwa’s six brothers, came to Lexington in 2012 after their family left the DRC.
He remembers a time when he owned just one shirt. Saturday, he had set up a table of the dapper men’s accessories he sells through his online business, MutaMensWear.com, which he said offers a “classic” look at more affordable prices.
“I just love dressing,” he said. “When I came here, I had the opportunity to afford more.”
He said Swahili Day was a special time.
“Seeing something like this is very beautiful,” Pacific Mutayongwa said. He gestured to a nearby table laden with African masks and antique ceremonial figures.
“Some of the things, we haven’t seen for years,” he said. “It’s really nice.”
The masks and sculptures Mutayongwa referred to were brought by Dieudonne Makonga, who is also from the DRC.
Makonga said through a translator, his daughter Aisha Makonga, that he had brought the artifacts to Swahili Day not necessarily to sell, but because he wanted people to learn from them about the cultures they represent.
There were carved figures from Sudan, DRC, Mozambique and Tanzania in his collection.
“Everything that’s here is a story,” he said.
