Safari has a vocabulary of its own, borrowed from Swahili, from Afrikaans, from Maa and from a century of camp life. Most of it is never explained, because the people using it forgot they ever had to learn it.
Here is the whole working language of a Kenyan safari, in the order you will meet it.
What does safari actually mean?
Journey. That is all. Safari is the ordinary Swahili word for a trip, and Kenyans use it for a bus ride to Kisumu as readily as for a week in the Mara.
It comes into Swahili from the Arabic root for travel, and it entered English in the late nineteenth century carrying rather more romance than it has at home. When a Kenyan wishes you safari njema, they are saying safe travels, not enjoy the leopards.
Where you sleep
Camp And Lodge Vocabulary
| Banda | A simple hut or cottage, usually thatched, with solid walls. Swahili. |
|---|---|
| Boma | An enclosure. Traditionally a thorn corral protecting livestock at night, now also used for the fire circle at camp where guests gather after dark. |
| Tented camp | Canvas suites on permanent platforms, with plumbing, proper beds and often a private deck. Not camping in any sense you would recognise. |
| Mobile camp | A camp that is struck and rebuilt as the seasons and the herds move. The oldest form of safari, and still the most romantic. |
| Lodge | A permanent building with rooms, walls and a roof. Usually larger than a camp. |
| Exclusive use | You take the whole property, so no other guests share it. Also called a private house or villa. |
| Mess tent | The main communal tent, where meals are served. From military usage. |
| Bush shower | A canvas bucket hoisted by staff and filled with hot water on request. Rarer than it was, and better than it sounds. |
| Long drop | A pit latrine. You will not meet one at the properties we book, but the phrase survives in camp humour. |
Park, reserve or conservancy?
Three different legal structures, with three different sets of rules, and the difference changes your safari more than the choice of camp.
This is the single most useful distinction in Kenyan safari language, and the one most often blurred in brochures.
Protected Areas In Kenya
| National park | Owned and run by the state through Kenya Wildlife Service. No human settlement, no livestock. Amboseli and Tsavo are parks. |
|---|---|
| National reserve | Run by the county government rather than the state. The Maasai Mara National Reserve is a reserve, not a park, which is why its fees and rules differ from Amboseli. |
| Conservancy | Community owned land leased to a small number of camps, with strict limits on vehicle numbers. Walking, night drives and off road driving are usually permitted, none of which is allowed in the reserve. |
| Concession | A private lease within a larger protected area, giving one operator exclusive access. |
| Group ranch | The communal Maasai landholding structure from which most Mara conservancies were formed. |
If someone tells you they stayed in the Maasai Mara, ask whether they mean the reserve or one of the conservancies around it. The wildlife is the same. The experience is not.
The people who look after you
Who Is Who At Camp
| Askari | A guard or soldier. At camp, the person who walks you back to your tent after dark, because buffalo and hippo move through at night. |
|---|---|
| Driver guide | One person who both drives and guides. The Kenyan standard, and the reason a good one is worth insisting on. |
| Spotter | A second pair of eyes, often riding on the vehicle, who finds what the guide is driving past. |
| Tracker | Reads spoor and follows animals on foot. More common in southern Africa than in Kenya. |
| Silver, Bronze, Gold | The grades of the Kenya Professional Safari Guides Association examination. Gold is rare and worth asking for by name. |
| Mzee | A term of respect for an older man. Elder, roughly. |
| Rafiki | Friend. You will hear it often, and it is meant. |
Out on the drive
Field Vocabulary
| Game drive | A drive to look for wildlife. Usually dawn and late afternoon, when the animals are active and the light is best. |
|---|---|
| Sundowner | A drink taken in the field at dusk. Colonial in origin, and now the fixed punctuation mark at the end of the day. |
| Bush breakfast | Breakfast laid out in the open, usually after the dawn drive. |
| Spoor | Tracks and signs. Afrikaans, and universal across African guiding. |
| Kopje | A rocky outcrop rising from the plain. Afrikaans, pronounced copy. Leopards like them. |
| Murram | The red gravel road surface used across Kenya. You will be on a lot of it. |
| Luggah | A dry seasonal watercourse. Also spelled lugga. |
| Pole pole | Slowly, slowly. Pronounced poh-lay. The correct pace for a safari and, most Kenyans would say, for life. |
| Twiga, simba, tembo, chui, kiboko | Giraffe, lion, elephant, leopard, hippo. Learn these five and your guide will smile. |
One word to use carefully. Jambo is the greeting tourists are taught, and Kenyans will answer it warmly, but it marks you instantly as a visitor. Habari, meaning what is the news, is what people actually say to each other. The reply is nzuri, good.
The lists
The Big Five is a hunting list, not a beauty contest, which is why the leopard is on it and the cheetah is not.
The five are lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino, and they were grouped together by big game hunters as the animals most dangerous to pursue on foot. Nothing about the list was ever meant to describe what is worth seeing.
Guides have since invented better ones. The Little Five are the elephant shrew, ant lion, rhinoceros beetle, buffalo weaver and leopard tortoise. The Ugly Five are usually given as the hyena, wildebeest, warthog, marabou stork and vulture, all of which are considerably more interesting than the list implies.
Words for the seasons
Timing Vocabulary
| Long rains | Roughly late March to May. The main wet season. |
|---|---|
| Short rains | Roughly November into December. Lighter, briefer, and often barely disruptive. |
| Green season | The polite trade term for the rains. Fewer visitors, lower rates, dramatic skies and excellent birding. |
| The Migration | The year round movement of wildebeest and zebra through the Serengeti and Mara ecosystem. It is not an event with a date. |
| The crossings | The river crossings in the Maasai Mara, usually possible between July and October. Never guaranteed, whatever anyone tells you. |
| Shoulder season | The quieter months either side of peak. Often the best value of the year. |
Two phrases worth knowing before you land
Hakuna matata is real Swahili and does mean no worries, though a film has made it slightly self conscious. Kenyans still say it, usually with a smile at the tourist who recognises it.
Asante sana means thank you very much, and it will be the most useful thing you learn. Karibu, meaning welcome, is what you will hear in reply, several times a day, everywhere you go.
Compiled September 2026 by Ongeri Expeditions, Karen, Nairobi. Swahili spellings follow standard usage; regional variation exists, and your guide may use different terms in Maa or in local dialect.