You probably have always wondered what language is the word “safari”! This is a word that comes from the East African Swahili language and it simply means “voyage”, “travel” or “journey”. This word however has got an Arab origin as is most of the other Kiswahilli words.  From the earlier times around the 14th and 15th centuries when the Arab traders, ivory hunters and slave traders would travel extensively in the eastern and central parts of Africa, an expedition could sometimes be up to around 4200 people strong. In those days such an expedition was refered to as a “Safariya” and this was a major undertaking.
Then came the Europeans in the heart of Africa for similar reasons; search of trade goods and colonisation. Am sure you’ve all heard of the Scottish traveller and missionary Dr. David Livingstone who, later in the 1800’s, explored the African interior for more than 30 years, unlocking its mysteries and and the natural  secrets. Then later came Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who was a journalist and writer. He was sent by their home newspaper called The herald in the year 1869 purposely to look for Dr. Livingstone who was missing and was assumed to have been  lost. Sir Henry Stanley is said to have found Dr.Livingstone in a small village of Ujiji, just on the side of Lake Tanganyika in the year 1871.
This gives a brief history of safaris and how the word developed and became to be used.