Sharifa Zawawi is a Professor Emeritus of Classical Languages. She has taught Linguistics, Arabic, Swahili and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at The City College of the City University of New York (CUNY), Columbia University and the New York University. She has worked as a language consultant and examiner for several universities in the U.S. She is the author of Kiswahili Kwa Kitendo, Say it in Swahili, Loan words and their Effect on the Classification of Swahili Nominals, and Fast-Track Swahili. With Africa World Press, she has published Kiswahili Kwa Kitendo Vol. I (1980), Learn our Kiswahili Vol. II; Jifunze Kiswahili Chelu (1993), Converse in Kiswahili: Ongea (1991), What's in a Name? Unaitwaje? A Swahili Book of Names (1993) and African Muslim Names: Images and Identities (1998).