Linah Makembu charts her journey from flight attendant to language business owner, and how the church inspired her to serve her local community.
I grew up in central Kenya and,from an early age, I performed well in languages. I would also pick up local dialects when I travelled in the region. In my first career as a flight attendant, I had to make announcements in several languages, as well as interacting with different people,languages and cultures.
This opened up a curiosity in understanding people, especially in cities where we had to lay over for a couple of days. However,my official linguistic journey didn’t start until 2019, when I relocated to the UK as a volunteer in a local church. Interpreted sermons for the Swahili congregation, mainly from East Africa – a service I still render today.
After seeing my church community struggle to get interpretation services in hospitals and other public amenities, I enrolled in a Level 3 Community Interpreting course. This gave me an opportunity to work for community members with confidence and professionalism.I interpret and translate from English to Kiswahili (also known as Swahili) and Kikuyu, and vice versa.
The most widely spoken language in Africa, Kiswahili is spoken by around 150 million people across 15 countries and islands. The official language of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, it has different dialects,including Bajuni, Congo Swahili and Bravanese. Although it is structurally a Bantu language,some aspects of its grammar have been influenced by Arabic.
I have a keen interest in advocacy work and the development of Africa’s rare languages to ensure equitable access to resources. Kiswahili Faces a number of challenges,including an absence of language policies to actively support it, inadequate representation on the internet,limited research written in Kiswahili and negative attitudes towards African languages.
I recently enrolled for a Diploma in Public Service Interpreting (DPSI) with the aim of joining the National Register of Public Service Interpreters(NRPSI). I run Jambo Linguists Ltd in the North of England and plan to grow the company bringing in qualified and vetted linguists, while collaborating with like minded business partners providing assorted services in Kiswahili around the world.
Chartered Institute of Linguists/SPRING 2025/The Linguist/ciol.org.uk/thelinguist
