This intermediate-level textbook is designed to enable students to read and understand authentic texts in Swahili, the most widely spoken language in East and Central Africa. The book is unique among available Swahili readers in its use of contemporary passages, in its inclusion of texts on a range of topics from cooking and courtship manuals to politics and poetry, in the comprehensiveness of its grammatical and cultural notes, and in its emphasis on the development of communicative skills.

Each of the lessons begins with a reading, which is accompanied by glosses in Swahili that...