Word.ws English Dictionary

sambaza

sambaza noun: the Lake Tanganyika sardine, Limnothrissa miodon.

Noun

sambaza (countable and uncountable, plural sambazas)

  1. (Africa, East) The Lake Tanganyika sardine, Limnothrissa miodon.
    • A kilogramme of Tanganyika sardines (sambaza) that used to cost Rwf4,000 mid this year has shot to Rwf6,000. Sambaza is widely consumed fish species in Rwanda both by low-income earners and upper classes.2013 November 1, “Rwandans dig deeper into their pockets to eat dear fish”, in The EastAfrican, archived from the original on 17 Dec 2022
    • Sambaza are thought to have been introduced to Kivu (the 2,700 sq km lake on Rwanda's eastern border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in the 1950s from Lake Tanganyika further south, and, despite their reputation as a delicacy, stocks have remained mostly consistent ever since.2017 July 16, Emma Love, “Snap up a silvery delicacy from Lake Kivu, Rwanda”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2020

Verb

sambaza (third-person singular simple present sambazas, present participle sambazaing, simple past and past participle sambazaed)

  1. (Africa, East, slang) To send credit using the Sambaza system; (generally) to send or share something.
    • They say that sharing is caring, and Safaricom users have wondered how to sambaza Safaricom bundles from one device to another.2021 October 5, Grace Waruguru, “How to sambaza Safaricom bundles easily: Step-by-step guide”, in Tuko, archived from the original on 03 Jul 2022
    • What would you do if you were able to share Kenya Power tokens with friends or family, just in the same manner you Sambaza data bundles or airtime?2022 July 8, Kenn Abuya, “Kenya Power Set to Introduce Sambaza Tokens”, in Techweez, archived from the original on 24 Oct 2022

Forms of sambaza

Noun
pluralsambazas
Verb
third-person singular presentsambazas
present participlesambazaing
past participlesambazaed
pastsambazaed

Origin of sambaza

Borrowed from Swahili sambaza (“to disperse, scatter”), popularized by Sambaza, a credit sharing service developed by Kenyan mobile network operator Safaricom in 2005.

Questions about sambaza

What does sambaza mean?
Sambaza means the Lake Tanganyika sardine, Limnothrissa miodon.
What part of speech is sambaza?
Sambaza can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of sambaza?
The plural of sambaza is sambazas.

Words near sambaza in the dictionary

  1. sambaqui
  2. sambaquis
  3. sambar
  4. sambars
  5. sambas
  6. sambaza
  7. sambazaed
  8. sambazaing
  9. sambazas
  10. Sambel
  11. Sambells

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sambaza (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “sambaza.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sambaza. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.