Bukavu Swahili
Tense, Aspect and Blurry History
Goyvaerts, Didier
University of Antwerp (UA) and University of Brussels (VUB)
This article contains a fairly exhaustive presentation of the verb forms of Bukavu Swahili, an important Central African koine spoken in and around the city of Bukavu and about which hardly any information is available. For comparative purposes reference is made to the equivalents of these verb forms in Standard Swahili. In conclusion, an attempt is made to put Bukavu Swahili in its proper historical perspective. To that extent the notions ‘Lubumbashi Swahili’ and ‘Kingwana’ are also discussed.