"Mama hajambo?"

Translation: How is mom?

[MunirMbaro]

"Is mom/mother fine?" should also be an answer.

[MortenMumo]

It's better

[Fetterly]

Why is it not... "How are you mom?" ... how do you know if it's directed at the person, or they are not present?

[juryrigging]

It's hajambo, so you are referring to a third party.

[oliver266108]

Uncommon form of a question. But really common as an answer to "habari za Mama?" -> "Mama hajamabo!"

[mira.ivoslav]

It clearly says "mom"

[el_gatto]

Can we use it to ask the mother how is she?

[Catriona28475]

To address her directly, you would use "hujambo" (how are you?) instead of "hajambo" (how is she?)

[benjohnarcher]

So would "how is your mother?" be... "mama lako hajambo?"?

[Catriona28475]

It would be "mama yako hajambo?"

Why? Because, confusingly, although people ("mtu/watu") are in class M/W, relatives (mother, brother, ...) are in class N/N, and their possessive pronouns take y- in the singular and z- in the plural, just like other nouns in the N/N class:

"mama/baba/dada/kompyuta yako"
= your mother/father/sister/computer

"mama/baba/dada/computer zako"
= your mothers/fathers/sisters/computers