"Change" in Swahili

A friend recently emailed me and asked how I would translate the word "Change" into Swahili. I assumed she meant it in the same sense that was frequently attached to President Obama. Here's the email that I sent in response (with minor changes):

Translations are funny. Is "change" a noun or a verb? Is it passive or active? Is it the result or is it the process?

Kenyans tend to use the verb "kubadilisha" as "to change" something. To change clothes, to change your mind, to replace something. "Kubadilika" is to have been changed. "Kugeuza" is more like transforming, turning, or altering. "Kugeuka" means to have been transformed, altered. Though the words' meanings ("kugeuza" vs "kubadilisha"; "kugeuka" vs. "kubadilika") frequently overlap.

But those are verbs.

For nouns, we have "badilisho" and "mabadilisho", which mean "a change" and "changes", respectively. The emphasis being on the process. "badiliko" and "mabadilko" which mean the same thing, but emphasizing the results.

There's also "mageuzo" and "mageuko", which is more like "revolution"--the first one being more about the process and the second, more like the result. The word itself again has the ma- pluralizer, but, to me, it seems to suggest something larger than "mabadiliko" or "mabadilisho".

During the campaign, commentators and critics loved to point out that the word "change" was very generic. I don't know if they thought about it this much, but from a linguistic point of view, it really is.

But, let's put it in the context of a frequently repeated slogan, "Change we can believe in". Well, that makes it a noun, not a verb. I'm not a big fan of using "badilisho"/"badiliko" here because that seems to be too "small" for what that statement implies. It is not about "a change" or even "changes". It suggests systemic change. So I'm inclined toward "mageuzo" and "mageuko".

During the campaign it felt more like "mageuko" (i.e. the immediate result of the act of voting), and now it's more like "mageuzo" (i.e. an ongoing process).

Neither of these words are frequently used in the Kenyan (Nairobi) dialect of Swahili, but it's easily understood. The familiar words ("badilisho"/"badiliko" and their plural forms) don't seem to cut it.