I've started reading A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (available here), and it contains quite a few of what I assume are Kenyan dialect words. Not enough to make it unreadable for me - most of them are roughly guessable from context - but I feel like knowing their precise meanings might increase my understanding or appreciation of the text. For example:
- jembe and panga - some kind of agricultural tools?
- shamba - a piece of land, perhaps?
- Uhuru na Kazi - Google tells me that this phrase means "freedom and work", but in the book it seems to have a deeper cultural meaning which I feel is important but don't understand.
- micege, mikengeria, bangi - some kind of plants?
All of these and more just from the first two chapters of the book. I'd like to find a comprehensive list of the dialect words used in the book with their meanings. Does such a list exist anywhere already? If not, I would award a bounty to any answerer who compiles one themselves from the book.
Partial answers are acceptable - I'd be grateful for help with any of these words, especially "Uhuru na Kazi", which seems to have some significance in the story.