ChiChewa (ChiNyanja)?

If not, certainly a southeastern Bantu language from the area around Malawi, perhaps ChiYao, ChiTumbuka or Emakhuwa or Shimakhonde in Mozambique…

Right language family, but it isn’t any of those languages.

I have no idea what the language is, but I hear echoes of Portuguese in there, so I would hazard a guess that it is spoken in one of the former Portuguese colonies – Mozambique and Angola being the two where Bantu languages are spoken. If it is *Southeastern* Bantu, then perhaps Mozambique is more likely.

There again, any phonetic similarities with Portuguese might be purely coincidental or even a figment of my imagination.

Oh — could it be one of the regional dialects of Shona? It has to be something from that general area of central southern Africa. The /dz/, /r/ and the ‘chete’ are very reminiscent of Shona but also (first time I listened) to ChiChewa.

Perhaps this is one of the Shona dialects where consonants followed by /w/ don’t have an intrusive velar with or instead of the /w/ (like the last name of Edison Zvobgo).

The answer is Shona (chiShona), a Bantu language spoken mainly in Zimbabwe.

The recording comes from the the GRN (the story of Noah)