Learn Hardcore Swahili: Kwao hakuna umeme mara nyingi, kwa hiyo wanatumia mishumaa usiku. - At their place there is often no electricity, so they use candles at night.

In the sentence Kwao hakuna umeme mara nyingi, kwa hiyo wanatumia mishumaa usiku, what does kwao mean exactly, and how is it different from nyumbani kwao?

Kwao literally combines kwa (at/to/with) + -o (their/them, referring to wao = they/them).
In context, kwao usually means “at their place / in their area / where they live.”

Kwao hakuna umeme
→ There is no electricity where they live / at their place.

Nyumbani kwao is a bit more specific and literally means “at their home/house.”

Nyumbani kwao hakuna umeme
→ There is no electricity in their home (house).

Both can sometimes translate as “at their place,” but:

kwao can be broader: their village, their region, their country, etc.
nyumbani kwao focuses on their actual home/house.

Why is hakuna used instead of something like hana or hamna?

Hakuna is an existential form meaning “there is no / there isn’t.”

kuna = there is / there are
hakuna = there is not / there are not

So:

Kwao hakuna umeme
→ At their place, there is no electricity.

By contrast:

hana umeme would mean “he/she doesn’t have electricity.”
- ha- (he/she not) + -na (have)
hamna umeme is colloquial in many areas for “there is no electricity / you (pl) don’t have electricity”, but hakuna is the standard neutral form for “there isn’t.”

In this sentence we talk about the situation in a place, not about one person “having” or “not having” something, so hakuna is the most natural.

What exactly is umeme here? Is it countable, and what noun class is it?

Umeme means electricity. It can also mean lightning or electric power depending on context.

Grammatically:

It is in noun class 14 (the u- class for abstract or mass nouns).
It is generally treated as uncountable, like “electricity” in English.

You can say things like:

Umeme umekatika. – The electricity has gone off.
Hawana umeme wa uhakika. – They don’t have reliable electricity.
Umeme mwingi – a lot of electricity (literally “much electricity”).

You would not normally say a plural like *meme for “electricities” in everyday Swahili.

What does mara nyingi literally mean, and how does it work grammatically?

Literally:

mara = time(s), occasion(s)
nyingi = many, a lot (agreeing in plural with mara)

So mara nyingi literally means “many times”, and idiomatically means “often / frequently.”

Grammatically:

mara is a noun (class 10 in plural sense), and nyingi is an adjective that agrees with class 10.
Together, mara nyingi functions as an adverb of frequency.

In the sentence:

Kwao hakuna umeme mara nyingi
→ There is no electricity many times / often where they live.

Can mara nyingi go in a different position, like Mara nyingi kwao hakuna umeme? Does the meaning change?

Yes, mara nyingi is quite flexible in position, and the basic meaning “often” stays the same. Possible options:

Kwao hakuna umeme mara nyingi.
– At their place there isn’t electricity often.
Kwao mara nyingi hakuna umeme.
– At their place, often there is no electricity.
Mara nyingi, kwao hakuna umeme.
– Often, at their place there is no electricity.

The difference is mainly emphasis:

At the end (… umeme mara nyingi) sounds a bit like “there isn’t electricity very often.”
Near the beginning (Mara nyingi, kwao…) strongly foregrounds the frequency: “Often, (the situation is that) they have no electricity.”

All are grammatically fine and natural.

What does kwa hiyo mean here, and how is it different from kwa hivyo or kwa sababu hiyo?

In this sentence, kwa hiyo means “so / therefore / because of that.”

Kwao hakuna umeme mara nyingi, kwa hiyo wanatumia mishumaa usiku.
→ They often don’t have electricity where they live, so they use candles at night.

Comparisons:

kwa hiyo – very common in spoken and written Swahili for “so, therefore, for that reason.”
kwa hivyo – also “so / thus / in that way.” In many contexts it’s interchangeable with kwa hiyo, though kwa hivyo can sound slightly more like “thus / in that manner.”
kwa sababu hiyo – more literally “because of that reason,” a bit more formal/explicit.

In everyday speech, kwa hiyo is probably the most common way to say “so / therefore.”

What tense or aspect is used in wanatumia, and how would it differ from hutumia?

Wanatumia is:

wa- = they (subject prefix, class for people)
-na- = present tense marker (also used for present habitual)
-tumia = base verb “use”

So wanatumia means “they use / they are using.”
In context, it is habitual: they (normally) use candles at night.

Hutumia uses hu-, which often expresses general or habitual actions:

Hutumia mishumaa usiku.
→ He/she usually uses candles at night. (general habit)

Difference:

wanatumia = present/habitual, but also feels more like a current, specific situation, especially if linked to a specific cause just mentioned.
hutumia = often a bit more timeless/general, like a habit that is characteristic of someone/something.

In this sentence, wanatumia fits well because it is directly the result of the situation just described (lack of electricity).

What is the singular of mishumaa, and why is it spelled with a long aa?

The singular is mshumaa (candle), and the plural is mishumaa (candles).

mshumaa – class 3
mishumaa – class 4 plural

The double aa represents a long vowel. Many words in Swahili keep a long vowel in both singular and plural:

mwalimu → walimu (no long vowel)
mto → mito (no long vowel)
mshumaa → mishumaa (long aa)

Spelling with aa is the standard way to show that the vowel is long, and it’s part of the accepted standard for this word.

Does mishumaa have to be plural here? Could you use the singular mshumaa instead?

In this context, the plural is much more natural:

wanatumia mishumaa usiku
→ They use candles at night.

Since we are talking about a typical situation “at their place” and at night, it strongly suggests more than one candle over time (and probably at the same time), so mishumaa fits best.

You could use the singular mshumaa if you meant specifically one candle:

Kwao hakuna umeme, kwa hiyo wanatumia mshumaa usiku.
→ At their place there is no electricity, so they use one candle at night.

But without extra context, listeners will assume mishumaa (plural) makes more sense.

Why is there no preposition like kwa or katika before usiku? How does usiku mean “at night” by itself?

In Swahili, many time words are used without a preposition when they indicate when something happens:

asubuhi – in the morning
mchana – in the daytime / afternoon
jioni – in the evening
usiku – at night

So:

Wanatumia mishumaa usiku.
→ They use candles at night.

This is normal and correct. You could add a preposition for emphasis/nuance, but it’s not required:

katika usiku – in the night (more literal, less common in this general sense)
usiku wa manane – in the middle of the night (literally “night of midnight”)

For everyday “at night,” just usiku is standard.

Who does kwao refer to exactly? Does it mean “to them” or “their place,” and how is it related to wao?

Kwao is built from:

kwa – at/with/to (depending on context)
-o – referring back to wao (they/them)

So kwao can mean:

at their place / where they live
with them
to them

Context decides the exact translation.

In this sentence:

Kwao hakuna umeme…
→ It’s clearly “where they live / at their place” (because of the noun umeme, electricity, which is a thing you talk about “in/at a place”).

Related forms:

wao – they/them
kwao – at/with/to them (or their place)
nyumbani kwao – at their home
rafiki yao – their friend

Could this sentence also be translated more literally as “Many times there is no electricity at their place, so they use candles at night”? Is that a good sense of the Swahili?

Yes, that is a very good literal sense of the Swahili:

Kwao hakuna umeme mara nyingi
→ At their place there is no electricity many times (i.e., often).
kwa hiyo wanatumia mishumaa usiku
→ so they use candles at night.

A natural-sounding English version would be:

They often don’t have electricity where they live, so they use candles at night.

So your literal idea “Many times there is no electricity at their place…” matches the Swahili structure very closely, even though in smoother English we usually just say “often” instead of “many times.”