Baba alisema kisiwa hicho kiko mbali na bandari.

In Swahili, demonstratives like this/that usually come after the noun, not before it.

So:

• kisiwa hicho = that island
• not normally hicho kisiwa

This is a very common word order pattern in Swahili:

• mtu huyu = this person
• kitabu hicho = that book

The demonstrative has to agree with the noun class of the noun it describes.

Hicho is a demonstrative, meaning that for a noun in the same class as kisiwa.

Kisiwa belongs to noun class 7, so its demonstratives also use class-7 forms. That is why you get hicho, not something like huyu or hii.

Very roughly:

• kisiwa hiki = this island
• kisiwa hicho = that island
• kisiwa kile = that island over there / that yonder island

The exact distance contrast can vary by context, but hicho often points to something near the listener or something already mentioned.

Kiko is being used for location or position. It comes from the locative verb stem -ko, together with the subject marker for kisiwa.

Breakdown:

• ki- = subject marker for noun class 7
• -ko = a locative form meaning roughly be situated / be present

So:

• kiko mbali = it is located far away

This is more natural in Swahili than using ni here.

Compare:

• ni kubwa = it is big
• kiko mbali = it is far away / it is located far away

Kisiwa is in noun class 7. Its plural is visiwa, which is class 8.

This matters because words connected to the noun must agree with its class. In this sentence, two words show that agreement:

• hicho agrees with kisiwa
• kiko also agrees with kisiwa

So the sentence is a good example of noun-class agreement:

• kisiwa hicho = noun + matching demonstrative
• kiko = matching subject marker + locative verb form

If the noun changed, the agreement would also change.

Alisema means he/she said.

It breaks down like this:

• a- = he/she
• -li- = past tense
• -sem- = verb root say/speak
• -a = final vowel

So alisema literally builds as:

a-li-sem-a = he/she said

Since Baba is the subject, the full phrase is:

• Baba alisema = Father said or The father said

Swahili does not use articles like English a, an, the.

That means a noun can often be translated in different ways depending on context:

• baba = father, the father, or sometimes dad
• kisiwa = island or the island
• bandari = harbor, the harbor, port, or the port

The word hicho already helps specify the noun as that island, so Swahili does not need a separate word for the.

Mbali means far or far away, and na here means from in the expression mbali na.

So:

• mbali na bandari = far from the harbor

Even though na very often means and or with, in this expression it is part of the fixed pattern mbali na = far from.

Other examples:

• shule iko mbali na nyumba = the school is far from the house
• mji uko mbali na hapa = the town is far from here

So this is something worth learning as a set phrase.

In Swahili, after verbs like said, the connector kwamba meaning that can be used, but it is often omitted.

So both of these are possible:

• Baba alisema kisiwa hicho kiko mbali na bandari.
• Baba alisema kwamba kisiwa hicho kiko mbali na bandari.

Both are natural. The version without kwamba is very common.

Yes. Because Swahili has no articles, Baba can mean:

• father
• the father
• sometimes dad, depending on context

Also, kinship terms are often used a bit like names or titles in real speech, so Baba alisema could sound like Father said or Dad said, depending on the situation.

Here, bandari is singular in meaning: the harbor or the port.

However, bandari is one of those nouns whose form often does not change between singular and plural. Context tells you whether it means one harbor or more than one.

In this sentence, because the meaning is already known and the context is about one place, it is understood as singular.

The given order is normal and clear:

• Baba alisema kisiwa hicho kiko mbali na bandari.

You could also insert kwamba:

• Baba alisema kwamba kisiwa hicho kiko mbali na bandari.

But you would not normally move hicho in front of kisiwa, and you would not usually split up kiko mbali na bandari in a random way.

So the sentence is already in a very natural Swahili order:

1. subject: Baba
2. verb: alisema
3. reported clause: kisiwa hicho kiko mbali na bandari

It is mainly expressing location/situation, not just a simple quality.

• mbali by itself means far
• kiko gives the idea of is situated / is located

So kisiwa hicho kiko mbali na bandari is not just saying the island has a quality called far-ness. It is saying that its position is far from the harbor.

That is why kiko works so well here.