Wema wa bibi hutufanya tujisikie salama.

Wema is a noun meaning kindness, goodness, or benevolence. It is an abstract noun: it names a quality rather than a person or a concrete object.

In this sentence, wema wa bibi is the subject, so it is the thing that is doing the action of making us feel safe.

wa is the connector that often corresponds to English of or an apostrophe-s construction.

So:

• wema wa bibi = the kindness of the grandmother / lady
• in natural English, that is often the grandmother’s kindness or the lady’s kindness

A useful point: wa agrees with wema, not with bibi. That is why the connector is wa here.

Yes. Bibi can mean different things depending on context, including:

• grandmother
• old woman
• lady
• sometimes wife

So the exact English word depends on the context and the translation you were given. The grammar of the sentence stays the same either way.

hutufanya can be broken down like this:

• hu- = habitual or general present marker
• -tu- = us
• -fanya = do / make / cause

So hutufanya means it makes us or it usually makes us.

Here, the thing doing the making is wema wa bibi.

That is because hu- is a special habitual marker. In this kind of form, Swahili does not use the usual subject prefix on the verb.

So instead of something like a normal present-tense subject-marked verb, you get:

• wema wa bibi hutufanya

The subject is already stated as the noun phrase wema wa bibi, so the sentence is still perfectly clear.

hu- often gives a habitual, general, or characteristic meaning.

So the sentence is not necessarily talking about one single moment. It can mean something like:

• this kindness generally makes us feel safe
• this kindness tends to make us feel safe
• this kindness characteristically makes us feel safe

In English, we often just use the simple present: makes us feel safe.

After fanya when it means make/cause someone to do something, Swahili commonly uses a following verb in the subjunctive.

So:

• hutufanya tujisikie salama

literally works like:

• it makes us [that we feel safe]

That is why you see tujisikie rather than tunajisikia.

Very roughly:

• tunajisikia = we feel / we are feeling
• tujisikie = that we feel / for us to feel in this caused-result kind of structure

ji is the reflexive marker, meaning self.

So:

• kusikia = to hear / feel / perceive
• kujisikia = to feel oneself

That is the normal way Swahili expresses feel in the sense of an internal state. So tujisikie salama means we feel safe.

The -e ending is a common sign of the subjunctive in Swahili.

So in tujisikie:

• tu- = we
• -ji- = self
• -siki- = feel/perceive
• -e = subjunctive ending

This fits the pattern used after hutufanya.

Swahili often does not need a separate word for to be in places where English does.

So:

• tujisikie salama = we feel safe

The word salama directly gives the state or quality: safe. Nothing extra is needed between tujisikie and salama.

A very literal breakdown is:

• Wema wa bibi = the kindness of the grandmother/lady
• hu-tu-fanya = habitually/general-present us makes
• tu-ji-siki-e = that we feel ourselves
• salama = safe

So the full idea is:

• The grandmother’s/lady’s kindness makes us feel safe

That is a natural English translation of the Swahili structure.