JAPANESE tennis ace Naomi Osaka’s new venture Hana Kuma has raised eyebrows in Africa – as the name has a lewd meaning in Swahili.

The former world number one this week announced she is launching a media platform in partnership with NBA star LeBron James.

Hana Kuma means “flower bear” in Japanese. But it has an explicit meaning in Swahili – that a woman has no vagina.

The use of the phrase has triggered an online brouhaha in Kenya, with many users calling on Osaka, whose father was born in Haiti and whose mother is Japanese, to reconsider.

“If you keep the name #hanakuma, it will override the news and the stories you wish to share,” said one user on Twitter.

“East Africans cannot say this even in whispers,” added another.

It has dominated trending topics since Wednesday, with Citizen TV, the most watched news outlet in Kenya, tweeting that Kenyans are “losing their heads” over the phrase.

Osaka said the media platform launched with James’ SpringHill company aims to produce content “focused on stories that are culturally specific but universal”.

Swahili – a bantu language – is widely used in sub-Saharan Africa and is among the 10 most spoken languages in the world, with more than 200 million speakers.

Osaka, now ranked 43 in the world, tweeted a veiled rejoinder to the controversy on Wednesday, saying: “Prayers for all my over-thinkers. We be going through it.”

Her tweet, although not specifically mentioning the Hana Kuma controversy, was accompanied by an emoji of a pensive face.

The 24-year-old became the highest-earning sportswoman in the world last year, with a fortune of US$57 million (RM270 million), according to Forbes.

She pulled out of Wimbledon for the second successive year on Saturday, blaming an Achilles injury. – AFP, June 24, 2022.