Dear Editor:
I was delighted to read your article on the Royal City Gogos (re: City grannies are changing the world, The Record, Oct. 19).
I'm in favor of any organization which invests time and money in Africa, and supporting grandmothers who are raising AIDS-orphaned children is a wonderful cause. However, I was surprised by the statement in the article that "Gogo means grandmother in Swahili."
Having recently visited friends in the Dodoma area of Tanzania, I know of the Gogo tribe as people of central Tanzania, where both Gogo and Kiswahili are spoken. However, Kiswahili for grandmother is "Bibi", not "Gogo". A bit of online digging revealed that "Gogo" actually means grandmother in Zulu, which is a language spoken in Southern Africa, some distance from the region in East Africa where Kiswahili is spoken.
Not a big deal unless you're in East Africa, where they might think you're referring to a group of people, rather than someone's grandmother!
Asante sana.
Peter Anderson, New Westminster
