During my many years in Tanzania the local people have
always had trouble pronouncing my Irish American name: “Healey.” It would come
out in many creative versions. Of course, I had similar trouble with long
African names such as those of the Haya people in Kagera Region. In any case one
day I hit upon what I thought was a brilliant idea: My name is pronounced the
same as the second half of Tanzania’s national language “Swahili.” The two
syllables of “Hea-ley” are pronounced the same as the two pure vowel sounds of
“hi-li.”

    So I tried this out in visiting a distant outstation in
Iramba Parish. I carefully explained to the elderly catechist the similarity in
pronouncing my name and Tanzania’s national language. I even acted it out for
him saying: “Take the name of our language ‘Swahili:’ Take off the first
syllable ‘Swa’ and you are left with ‘hili.’ My name. “Great,” I thought to
myself. I was “reasonably” confident he understood, but there was a speck of
doubt so I explained again how easy it is to pronounce my name. “Just think of
the national language “Swahili.” Skip the initial “Swa” part. The rest is my
name.”

    A few minutes later he introduced me to the Outstation
Council saying: “Please welcome Father Swahili.”