Kimondo, or ''Kimwondo'', derives from the Bontu component of the

Kiswahili Swahili, also known by its local name , is the native language of the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent litoral islands). It is a Bantu language, though Swahili ...

vocabulary, meaning “shooting star” or “meteor” and was later given the additional definition “Devil’s Torch.” This definition of the word became popular in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries through the introduction of the

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic religion during the migration of

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...

and

Persians The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...

in Africa. The philosophy behind Kimondo's meaning roots from the belief that shooting stars, or Devil's Torches, are “thrown across the sky by the good faithful angels in heaven in an attempt to prevent

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

Lucifer Lucifer is one of various figures in folklore associated with the planet Venus. The entity's name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passage ...

and his lieutenants from getting in and out of heaven”. It was believed that the devils were trying to obtain “vital information about Allah’s plans for the world”, to carry out mischief to the children of God. This, combined with the major shift of political and administrative structures at the end of the nineteenth century by European settlement, allowed the Kiswahili people to take part in their own electoral process within their present system of government.

References

{{Reflist Poetry about spirituality