How to say "How are you" & "I'm fine" in 23 African languaguages

By MIghTy African - May 05, 2013

Courtesy calls that you greet someone when you meet them. African hospitality houses saying "How are you" and longer greetings than "Hello". So, let's learn how to say "How are you" and "I am fine" in a few African languages so we can indulge while we are in various countries hehe. Let me show you what I know;-)

Akan: Wo ho te sɛn? Me ho yɛ! If you pay close attention to the translations, you might learn how to say me and you in multiple African languages :-)
Ga: Te oyoo tɛɛɛ? Mi yo ojogbann! I learnt when I was pretty young. I love saying Ojogbannn!
Ewe: Efoa? Mefo! I will never forget the day I was addressing Keta Secondary School and shouted "Efoa" into the microphone. If you are addressing multiple people, say "Mefoa!"
Dagbani: Ka di bei wula? Alaafei. Thanks to Jemila for teaching me this one.
Hausa: Sannu? Sannu kade. After loving how D-Flex sang Hausa lines while featuring on K. K. Fosu and Ofori Amponsah songs, I had to learn to this one. From who? I don't remember.
Swahili: Habari yako? Nzuri! You can also respond Sijambo to Hujambo. Or in Kenya, you can say "Sema", which is slang (Sheng).
Zulu (& Siswati): Unjani? Ngiyaphila. Phelele Fakudze taught me this one. I can just hear it ringing in my mind right now.
Yoruba: Bawoni? Mo wapa. Countless Yoruba friends have taught me this because I always seem to forget. Not anymore.
Igbo: Kedu? Odinma. P-Square never taught me via their music. I never seemed to learn this or remember it until my friend Chioma taught me.
Luganda: Oli otya? Bulungi. Buluuuungi is more like it. I learnt this during my first trip to Kampala. Came in handy while partying in many places hehe.
Kinyarwanda: Amakuru? Nimeza cyane. I learnt this from my Rwandan bestie Matilda and I remember quite clearly, the facial expressions my Stanford friends from Rwanda gave me when I first greeted them as such.
Amharic: Tadias? Selam. Learnt this from some MIT friends who had returned from an AITI trip in Ethiopia. Had many opportunities to use it since as well.
Wolof: Na nga def? Ma nga fi. I learnt this from some Senegalese friends via Google work. It's sad I've still not had the chance to go to Senegal.
Setswana: Dumela/Le kae/Okae? Ke Teng. When I was learning this from my Motswana friend at Stanford, my friend Okai was right there. Isn't that cool? :-).
Fang: We ne voro? Me ne voro. After Leila couldn't tell me, I took to Twitter and Kevin did.
Myene: We re vovo? Aye me vovo. Kevin taught me this as well via Twitter. I met Kevin via Google work, he's planning to organize Barcamp Libreville/Gabon.
Moore: Laafi beme? Laafi bala. Next time you are in Ouagadougou, you know what to say.
San: N te kaka? Ma kaka. You can also say "N te siini?" and the response is "Ma siini". 2 ways to say it in Burkina Faso, aren't you cool? :-) Thanks Tatiana :-)
Shona: Wakadini zvako? Ndiripo. I learnt from my Zimbabwean friends. Never got to learn this via the music.
Xhosa: Unjani? Ndiphilie. Quite similar to what it is in Zulu too.
Lingala: Ozali malamu? Ee, nazali malamu. I met a Congolese guy at a house party in Oakland once and I just had to ask him.
Nyanja: Muli bwanji? Ndili bwino. I really want to visit Zambia and see places like Bongo Hive, etc. One of these days!
Idoma: Abayole? Obobi no. Abayole sounds like a statement everytime I say it. Learnt this from my friend Faith. 2Face Idibia is Idoma too :-)

This follows the "Thank You" And "I Love You" posts in this series. Share how to say "these" in other African languages via the comments. I could have said a few more in other languages, but we had to stop at 23. I don't need to tell you why. And if you think it's because Michael Jordan wore the jersey number 23, you lose your way for the wholewideworld inside. But welcome to the MIghTy African blog anyway. :-)