"Mtoto wa kwanza"

Translation: The first child

[DiegoJaviUnlam]

Verb

kwanza (verbal noun of the ku class)

1) Infinitive of -anza

Usage notes

The form -a kwanza, which literally means "of the beginning" is used for first. See Appendix:Swahili numbers for more.

Ordinal numbers

Ordinals are formed by using -a ‎(“of”), which must agree using the verb prefixes with the class of the noun preceding it, followed by the number in question. The two exceptions are -a kwenda ‎(“first”) (kwenda is the infinitive/gerund of -enda ‎(“to begin”)) and -a pili ‎(“second”), which uses the counting form.

From Wiktionary:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kwanza

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Swahili_numbers

[Theo_Bromin]

What does the "wa" indicate in this sentence? Could I also just say "Mtoto kwanza"?

[ArturoGmez10]

I see that Swahili has a similar logic to that of the Romance languages,
Wanafunzi wa Mexico
Estudiantes de México

while in english it would just be mexican students

[Joanne394981]

Can this phrase be used to also mean the first (born) child in a family?

[_nmordaunt]

Based on my knowledge of other Bantu languages (I'm South African), I would say yes. They use this logic when describing the first child, wife etc.