Tanzanian literature

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Up to the second half of the 20th century, Tanzanian literature was primarily oral.

Shaaban Robert, Muhammed Said Abdulla, Aniceti Kitereza, Ebrahim Hussein, Abdulrazak Gurnah and Penina Muhando.[1]

Literature in Swahili and other languages

One of the most prominent Swahili writers in Tanzania was

Shaaban Robert (1909-1962), a poet, novelist and essayist. His works include Maisha yangu (My Life) and the poem Utenzi wa Vita vya Uhuru (An Epic in the War for Freedom). Muhammed Said Abdulla (1918-1991) was a prominent novelist, who particularly wrote detective stories. Other Swahili-language authors from Tanzania include Aniceti Kitereza (1896–1981), whose novel Myombekere na Bugonoka na Ntulanalwo na Bulihwali was written in his native language Kikerewe and later translated to Swahili, German, English and French, poets Mathias E. Mnyampala (1917–1969) and Euphrase Kezilahabi (1944–2020), novelists Shafi Adam Shafi,[2] Fadhy Mtanga, Hussein Issa Tuwa, Maundu Mwingizi, Changas Mwangalela, Joseph Mbele, as well as playwrights Ebrahim Hussein,[3] Penina Muhando[4] or Amandina Lihamba.[5]

An important genre of Swahili poetry are the lyrics of Taarab songs. These lyrics, that cross the genre boundaries between oral literature and Swahili music, are called wimbo, referring to poetry composed to be sung.[6]

Swahili by natural scientists Cassian Magori and Charles Saanane, with illustrations by the German graphic artist Thomas Thiemeyer
.

Literature in English

Some Tanzanian authors write in English rather than in Swahili. The first Tanzanian novel to appear in English was

African writing from this period.[7]

The following year, novelist and academic

Village in Uhuru.[8] Other English-language writers include short-story writer Marti Mollel.[3]

In 2021, British writer

Paradise (1994), Desertion (2005) and Afterlives
(2020).

In Tanzania, however, his work was largely unknown before he became a Nobel laureate.[10] The first Swahili translation of his novel Paradise, titled Peponi, was done by Ida Hadjivayanis, an academic at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London in 2022 and published by Mkuki na Nyota in Tanzania.[11]

Authors like Elieshi Lema (born 1949) have published works both in Swahili and English. Lema began writing poetry and then children's books in Swahili, before writing her first novel Parched Earth in English in 2001. This novel has been translated into Swedish and French and received an honourable mention for the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.[12]

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Literature of Tanzania.
  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-313-08708-0
    .
  2. ^ Traoré, Dr Flavia Aiello (2012-08-13). "Investigating topics and style in Vuta N'Kuvute by Shafi Adam Shafi" (in German). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-1-74104-555-0
    .
  4. ^ "Penina O. Muhando | African playwright". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  5. ISBN 978-0-521-80813-2
    .
  6. ^ Hulshof, Carolien. "Rusha Roho in Zanzibar | Cultural Musicology". Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  7. ^ Ilieva, Emilia V. (1994). Eugene Benson, L. W. Conolly (ed.). Peter Palangyo. London / New York: Routledge. pp. 1194 ff. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  8. ISBN 978-963-05-3834-3
    .
  9. ^ "Abdulrazak Gurnah wins the 2021 Nobel prize in literature". the Guardian. 2021-10-07. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  10. ^ "Why Tanzanian Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah is hardly known back home". BBC News. 2021-11-08. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  11. ^ "BARAZA: Swahili studies conference 2022". SOAS. Retrieved 2022-10-24.
  12. ^ "Elieshi Lema (Tanzania) - Centre for Creative Arts". 2017-06-24. Archived from the original on 2017-06-24. Retrieved 2020-11-22.

Further reading


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tanzanian_literature&oldid=1155799745"