Johnny Carson Learned to Speak Swahili After ‘Tonight Show’ Retirement

After late-night host Johnny Carson retired from The Tonight Show in 1992, he stayed busy traveling the world by plane and yacht. And while he all but disappeared from the public eye, he was seemingly still a communicator and an entertainer at heart. To prepare for a trip to Africa, the television icon learned to speak Swahili. But was he able to impress the locals?

Johnny Carson on Swahili: ‘It flows and it’s relatively easy.’

An Esquire writer wrote in 2002: “Herewith, I will attest, to behold Johnny Carson speak Swahili is a remarkable thing. He has regaled me with dizzying waves of it and clearly swells with glee while doing so.”

According to the story, the beloved host — who was born in Iowa and raised in Nebraska — taught himself before traveling to Africa. “It’s a sweet language,” Carson said of Swahili. “It flows and it’s relatively easy.”

“I had a lot of fun with it in Africa, learning just enough to communicate with people,” he went on.

Carson said that he knew enough to entertain natives, but wasn’t skilled enough to read a newspaper — though the tour crew brought him a copy of the Nairobi Times.

“They thought I was that proficient, but I wasn’t, of course. I had to con my way through it, like I’m enjoying my newspaper,” he shared. “But it was a nice experience.”

Johnny Carson learned Swahili in 4 months, according to Jim Fowler

Wildlife expert and longtime Carson friend, Jim Fowler, shared some memories of taking a trip to Africa with the host after his retirement from The Tonight Show. He told Esquire that Carson said the three-week pilgrimage — on which they were joined by Carson’s wife, Alexis, and his two sons — changed his life.

“Did you know that he learned Swahili in a matter of four months before the trip?” he asked, per WALB News. “He was speaking to the staff in Swahili when we got to Africa.”

Fowler said Carson had “more of a knowledge and appreciation for the natural world” than most would have guessed. “We had some real adventures — plenty of lions, leopards, hyenas, wildebeests. Elephants coming right into the camp,” he shared.

Johnny Carson could entertain in Swahili

Bob Wright, Carson’s former boss at NBC, told Today that he also traveled the world with Carson following his retirement. “We traveled to Russia, and he learned to speak Russian in about five months before we went there,” Wright disclosed. “We went to Africa on safari, he learned to speak Swahili.”

Wright said that the host “could really speak” Swahili and recalled seeing him entertaining locals on their trip to Africa.

“One night we were out in the Serengeti, not near anything, and after dinner, Johnny’s talking to all the people in this caravan we were in, all of whom were natives, speaking Swahili only,” Wright recalled. “He was good enough to keep them laughing for about 25 or 30 minutes, explaining what we did in America and what he did.”   

According to Wright, he remained close with Carson until his death and tried to talk him into coming back to TV. But it seems there was one calling that might have brought the host back to the small screen, and that was solidified by those visits to Africa.

Fowler said Carson would have had a wildlife show if he ever returned to television as a host. Unfortunately, he never did.