many think rafiki refers just to the monkey in The Jungle Book
Lots of words get passed around the lands bordering the Indian Ocean, as people move around--traders, migrants, and so on. I once met a Sikh guy in Tanzania, who spoke of Zanzibar in the old way, the Land of Zanj. (I was in my early 20's, and it sounded impossibly exotic.) "Rafiki" in Zambia sometimes was shortened to "Rafik", just the singular as it were. Travellers carry words and phrases back, sometimes, to places like Ottawa: I've used the word "katundu" unthinkingly, to refer to a burdensome bundle of stuff that someone's carrying, and as you might expect, they look at me blankly--no fault of theirs. My daughter does the same: things come to a halt for no apparent reason, no-one knows why, and nothing can be done, it seems. (Happens often enough.) Meg might say, "Well, the man with the key has gone to town." Our friends in the Madawaska Hills NW of Ottawa lived for many years in Tanzania. Their house cat is named "Chui" -- maybe to scare off the wildlife.
