World Rhymes›Kitendawili? Tega!
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Kitendawili? Tega!

“Riddle! Set the trap!”

SwahiliRiddle openingPublic domain

In the Swahili-speaking world a riddling game opens with a call and an answer: the riddler says "Kitendawili!" and everyone shouts "Tega!". Children and adults take turns, and the game has been played for well over a century.

The rhyme

Kitendawili!
Tega!
Nini maana yake?
Nipeni mji.
Twaa mji fulani.
Good to know

What it means

"Kitendawili" means a riddle. "Tega" means "set the trap": the listeners invite the riddler to try to catch them with it. Then: "What does it mean?" If nobody can answer: "Give me a town." The listeners reply by naming a town ("take such and such a town"), and the answer is revealed.

How to play

One player calls "Kitendawili!" and the others shout "Tega!". The player then tells a riddle and the group guesses. If nobody finds the answer, the riddler says "Nipeni mji" (give me a town), the group names a town, and the answer is revealed.
History

About this rhyme

Riddling is an old pastime among Swahili speakers, with children and adults taking turns. The riddler opens with "Kitendawili" and the group answers "Tega". The old books describe a second step: if nobody guesses, the riddler asks for a town as a prize and the group names one. Dictionaries and collections of 1884, 1903 and 1907 all record the opening in the same form, so it was well established by the 1880s. The towns that are named, and how the answer is revealed, differ from place to place. We show only the opening formula: each riddle has to be chosen with care.

Sources & rights

  • The formula is anonymous and traditional. It is printed in Edward Steere, A Handbook of the Swahili Language (1884 and 1894 editions), in A. C. Madan's Swahili-English Dictionary (1903) and in Carl Velten, Prosa und Poesie der Suaheli (1907).
  • The meaning, the game instructions and the background text are written by us in our own words. The Swahili text still needs a native-speaker check.
  • There is no recording or tune on this page: we do not claim any.

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