Kiswahili

Swahili voice-over

Native Swahili voice actors, cast for your audience and directed by our team. You hear a shortlist and approve a written quote before recording.

Tell us about your project

Samples

We send Swahili samples chosen for your script.

Request Swahili samples

Human
Real human voices
Every voice is a professional actor in a booth. No synthetic voices.
Native
Their first language
Cast from speakers who grew up with the language your audience speaks.
Directed
A director on every line
We listen for meaning, pace and pronunciation in the session, not after it.

Swahili voices

No public Swahili demos yet. We record samples on your own lines instead.

Samples on your own lines

Send a few lines of your script and we come back with Swahili voices reading them.

Tell us about your project

What Swahili voice-over is hired for

Tanzania
The reference for standard Swahili.
Kenya
Swahili is national and official, with local urban speech.
East and Central Africa
A second language for many people in the region.

Typical projects

Telecoms and mobile money
NGOs and health agencies
Banks and consumer brands
Media producers

Swahili in a voice-over brief

Swahili is a Bantu language that became a lingua franca across East Africa. Standard Swahili, taught in schools in Tanzania and Kenya, differs from the street varieties of Nairobi, known as Sheng, which mix in English and other languages. Written in Latin letters, it is relatively easy to read aloud but benefits from native review for noun-class agreement. A brief states the country, the register and how English terms are treated.

Accent and direction notes

What our director listens for in a Swahili session.

Standard and urban Swahili
Nairobi street speech differs from standard Swahili.
Noun classes
Agreement across the sentence.
English mixing
Urban speakers mix English.

What casting decides in Swahili

Tanzanian or Kenyan
References and vocabulary differ.
Standard or street
The audience decides.

How we work

Casting
We shortlist voices for your language, audience and tone, and explain the difference between them. You choose, and approve a written quote.
Direction
A director runs the session against your brief: meaning, pace and every agreed pronunciation. You can listen in remotely.
Delivery
Every file is checked against the script word by word and technically, then delivered in your format and naming.

What decides the price

No price list: every quote is written for your project and states usage and the delivery date.

Length: Word count or running time of the finished audio.
Use and territory: Internal, online or broadcast; where it runs and for how long.
Voice: Some languages and voice profiles are scarcer than others.
Picture and files: Recording to timecode, splitting and naming add work.