28/08/2026
Afrobeats is teaching us more African languages than school ever did.
Think about how many African words you’ve picked up simply by listening to music — words from Kiswahili, Yoruba, Igbo, Zulu, Nigerian Pidgin and more. You might not speak the language, but you already recognise the words, know how they sound and sometimes even know when to use them. Music has quietly become one of the biggest ways African languages travel across borders.
So, what African words or phrases have you learned from a song without ever being taught them in school? And did you know what they meant when you first heard them?