We thought it would be fun to post an informational blog for our readers about the many ways to say “mask” in some of the African tribal languages from where our masks originate. While we know a few of our own from traveling and through colleagues, we set out to research just how to say “mask” in several West African languages.
The result? A bit disappointing, we’ll admit. Why? We’ll speculate: Unfortunately, the passion for writing down and sharing African languages on the web is still a growing area of study. So, we weren’t able to find as many direct translations as we hoped, but perhaps this blog post will inspire our readers to take up more of an interest in learning about African languages, and maybe even learning to casually speak one.
Do you speak an African language already? If so, post your comments and let us know the word for “mask!” or any other interesting words you may know. Don’t forget to include the name of the language and country/tribe where it is spoken. Also, if you want to help our readers out with clearer pronunciation of our mini-lesson in African words, please feel free to help out! At Lotus Masks, we’re all about the spirit of learning about African masks, culture, and languages.
Here are some of the [few] translations we found online for words like African masks, statues, carvings or art. We’ve also included a brief statement about each language to help differentiate the words and from where they originate.
How to say “mask” in Yoruba
ìbojú ìparadà (pronounce it: EE-bo-JOO EE-para-DAA)
How to say “statue” in Yoruba
ère àwòrán (pronounce it: EH-reh ah-WOR-AN)
How to say “carvings” in Hausa
sassa ̊e¥ (pronounce it: Sa-Ssah ea-yah)
How to say “art” in Akan
nsaanodwuma (pronounce it: Saa-No-DWOO-mah)
3 ways to say “mask” in Swahili
kinyago (pronounce it: kin-YAH-go)
barakoa (pronounce it: bar-AH-koh-a)
maskhara (pronounce it: mask-HAR-ah)
About these languages:
Yoruba – Spoken mostly in Nigeria, Togo, and Benin, an estimated 25-50 million speakers of Yoruba live Western Africa. Yoruba is a tonal language, similar to other languages such as African Bantu or Mandarin Chinese.
Hausa - Hausa is the most widely spoken Chadic language, spoken by nearly 50 million people in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cameroon, Niger, Sudan, Togo, and Nigeria.
Swahili - Also called Kiswahili, this Bantu language is the official language of four nations: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Akan – Akan is the general name of a group of dialects spoken by related tribes in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Dialects include Twi, Fante, Brong, Baule, Nzema and Anyi.
Special thanks to some cool websites we hope you’ll check out after you’re done browsing our African Masks at Lotus Masks! Those websites include: yorubadictionary.com and dictionary.kasahorow.com. We really appreciate their expertise and willingness to post African online dictionaries for free so those of us with a passion for all things African can learn!
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