Zugl.: Siegen, Univ., Diss., 2006

Zugl.: Zürich, Univ., Diss., 2007

Universiẗat, Diss., 2009--Hamburg. / Literaturverz., S. 193-207.

The depiction of family ties is one of the core elements of Swahili novels in Tanzania, especially in the post-Independence, socialist period, conveying all the contradictions of that social and cultural context. On one hand the representation of family relationships in terms of tense and aggressive behaviour (Mlacha 1987: 82) reflects the clashes of those years, between town and countryside, between genders and between different generations. On the other hand, the image of a new family - like for instance Chonya, Masika and her baby in Ndyanao Balisidya’s novel Shida (1975) - stands as a commitment to an alternative society, a dream of a better life inspired by Ujamaa which marked the Swahili prose of the 1970’s (Mbughuni 1980: 92). Said A. Mohamed, after his first novels which dealt with the colonial and pre-revolutionary past, turned his attention to contemporary society, but has continued to develop the idea of the family as a symbolic space where relationships between the characters articulate the inequalities and the conflicts within Zanzibari society. His literary discourse, as will become clear in the following pages, brilliantly investigates the deep roots and the countless facets of authoritarianism in contemporary Zanzibari society, depicting a gallery of fathers - in a biological and in a metaphorical sense – who are despotic, immoral, hypocritical, and increasingly cynical.

The depiction of family ties is one of the core elements of Swahili novels in Tanzania, especially in the post-Independence, socialist period, conveying all the contradictions of that social and cultural context. On one hand the representation of family relationships in terms of tense and aggressive behaviour (Mlacha 1987: 82) reflects the clashes of those years, between town and countryside, between genders and between different generations. On the other hand, the image of a new family - like for instance Chonya, Masika and her baby in Ndyanao Balisidya’s novel Shida (1975) - stands as a commitment to an alternative society, a dream of a better life inspired by Ujamaa which marked the Swahili prose of the 1970’s (Mbughuni 1980: 92). Said A. Mohamed, after his first novels which dealt with the colonial and pre-revolutionary past, turned his attention to contemporary society, but has continued to develop the idea of the family as a symbolic space where relationships between the characters articulate the inequalities and the conflicts within Zanzibari society. His literary discourse, as will become clear in the following pages, brilliantly investigates the deep roots and the countless facets of authoritarianism in contemporary Zanzibari society, depicting a gallery of fathers - in a biological and in a metaphorical sense – who are despotic, immoral, hypocritical, and increasingly cynical.