Saad Yahya, born in Zanzibar in 1939, studied architecture and town planning in Great Britain and in Canada; since 1968 he has lectured at the University of Nairobi. He portrays everyday life of typical inhabitants of Zanzibar and Nairobi, displaying a penetrating understanding of their problems and of their state of mind, linked with a remarkable stylistic ability. He is an acute observer who presents his characters with humour and irony, but also with a profound insight. Furthermore, in his stories, under the surface of everyday activities there is always some hidden antagonism or passion, never spelled out, but only alluded to. Several years ago Yahya sent me the manuscript of two other stories which I hoped to translate and publish in Italy, but ultimately it was not possible. I have included one of them, called Nyoko-nyoko and consisting in five typewritten pages, in the syllabus of my literary courses in Naples and in Paris. It is a rare - if not unique - Swahili story in which the main character is a Mzungu, a white man: the British governor of an imaginary East-Aftican country called Nyalia, who has to abandon his post suddenly for unspecified reasons. He regrets to must leave the country he has learned to know and to like; however, behind the mask of liberality and tolerance is hidden a self-conceited racist. The story describes his last day in Africa after a long stay.

I his paper examines the music and career of Siti binti Saadi, a famous taarab musician who performed in Zanzibar during the 1920s and 1930s. Relying on four distinctive types of evidence: her recorded music, written documentation produced in East Africa, interviews with men and women who heard her perform and records of company executives I compare perspectives regarding the source of power and authority attributed to her voice as well as the meaning of her music. Siti binti Saadi was the first East African to have her voice captured and reproduced on 78 rpm gramophone disks. The production of these records enhanced her status and imbued her voice with a sense of authority that it otherwise may never have attained. Written histories of taarab, particularly those authored in the 1950s and 1960s, often memorialize her as literally, `giving voice to the voiceless,´ allowing the voice of East Afiica to be heard internationally.

This paper is a brief exploration of Zinzibar soceity in contemporary times, of how it can be read through the ngoma perfromances, music events which take place during the focal moments of the social life in the Swahili communities. It is a study of their identity constructions, referring both to ethnic identities and gender ones, which are given meaning through the ngoma performances and can be also discussed or confirmed through them in the social context of the Zanzibari daily life. It mainly analyses the crucial dichotomy culture/religion from the point of view of women perfromers, who are deeply related to the domestic area (and not the public one, usually related to men) in which they can find a way to speak to the community through the perfromance and consequently to get an active role despite their social status. It is also a brief summary of the contemporary socio-political situation of the islands, in which ngoma performances become a way to participate to the social processes and to decode political tensions which characterize Zanzibar today.

Different labels have been used for marking the reciprocity in Swahili dialogue poetry, varying between the more neutral `malumbano´ or `kujibizana´ and the more marked `ukinzani´ or `mashindano´. By showing a sample from the Zanzibari newspaper Mwongozi (1956) of a poetic dialogue on wife-husband relationships, the paper argues that the poetical form and the strong language used are not a mere expression of what has been called `rivalry´, but instruments in expressing views and opinions that have been observed in other literary devices (mithali, misemo, vijembe) and their usage. At the same time it is demonstrated that different types of poems (tenzi, mashairi, nyimbo) and different styles (plain, metaphoric, riddle) are used side by side. The ambiguity, incompleteness and strength of the language that is used in this poetry, make it all possible to express views on sensitive issues in the society.

Adam Shafi aliyezaliwa mwaka 1940 kisiwani Unguja ni mmojawapo wa waandishi mashuhuri wa riwaya ya Kiswahili. Hivi sasa mwandishi yumo mbioni kukamilisha muswada wa riwaya yake ya sita iitwayo Mtoto wa Mama. Mbali na uandishi, Adam Shafi aliwahi kufanya kazi mbalimbali za uandishi wa habari na kazi za ushirika wa kimataifa. Ni furaha yetu kubwa kuwa hatimaye tunaweza kutoa mazungumzo hayo baada ya kuyapitia na kuyahariri kidogo tu, kwa vile tunaamini utamu wa lugha inavyozungumzwa katika hali halisi ya maisha una nguvu ya kiujumi inayoweza kumvutia msomaji zaidi.

In a paper which appeared two years ago, I outlined some of the main features of the contemporary taarab world in Zanzibar, which is undergoing great changes due to economic, social and cultural factors (Aiello Traoré 2004a). A recent development that I highlighted is the vanishing of women\'s taarab clubs. The greater participation of women within the groups of taarab asilia has strated, in my view, an interesting confrontation between the tendency of conversation of the codes which are identified as \"traditional\" and the innovations proposed by female members in music and performance, as well as in the production of lyrics, an area where many women are now regularly involved. I will concentrate my analysis on the taarab lyrics being composed by Zanzibari women, which are of great interest because of the variety of cultural and social backgrounds, themes, techniques and poetical sensitivities.

Mabaraza na vyombo wenza vya kuendeleza lugha ya Kiswahili kwa upande wa Tanzania Bara na yale ya Tanzania Zanzibar hivi karibuni yameidhinisha kamusi za Kiswahili zinazopelekea kuwa na vielelezo anuwai vya usanifu wa lugha ya Kiswahili. Kamusi ya Kiswahili Sanifu (KKS) ya TUKI (sasa TATAKI) ya 2004 na ile ya Kamusi la Kiswahili Fasaha (KKF) ya BAKIZA ya 2010 ni ushahidi kuwa launi za Kiswahili Sanifu dhidi ya Kiswahili Fasaha zinarasimishwa. Kwa kutumia vigezo vya nadharia ya usanifishaji lugha ya Haugen (1966, 1987), makala haya yanajenga hoja kuwa tayari tumeshapata launi rasmi mbili za Kiswahili. Mapitio ya maandiko rasmi kinzani ya wasomi wa Tanzania bara na yale ya wasomi wa Zanzibar yanathibitisha kukubalika kwa launi hizo. Tahadhari kwa wahariri, walimu wa Kiswahili kama lugha ya kigeni, wanasheria, waandishi wa habari, wafasiri na watumiaji wa kawaida inatolewa juu ya kubainisha waziwazi launi hizo rasmi katika kazi zao za kila siku.

In a paper which appeared two years ago, I outlined some of the main features of the contemporary taarab world in Zanzibar, which is undergoing great changes due to economic, social and cultural factors (Aiello Traoré 2004a). A recent development that I highlighted is the vanishing of women\''s taarab clubs. The greater participation of women within the groups of taarab asilia has strated, in my view, an interesting confrontation between the tendency of conversation of the codes which are identified as \"traditional\" and the innovations proposed by female members in music and performance, as well as in the production of lyrics, an area where many women are now regularly involved. I will concentrate my analysis on the taarab lyrics being composed by Zanzibari women, which are of great interest because of the variety of cultural and social backgrounds, themes, techniques and poetical sensitivities.

In the last decades many literary critics have appraised the works of Zanzibarian writers; referring to the prose of Mohamed Suleiman Mohamed, Said Ahmed Mohamed and Shafi Adam Shafi, M M. Mulokozi wrote in 1985: \"The most significant, and certainly most spectacular, development in the Swahili fiction of the Seventies and Eighties has been the emergence of Zanzibar as the producer of the best Swahili fiction to date, and the apparent torch bearer for the Kiswahili novel of the near future\" (Arnold 1985: 174). The same enthusiasm was shared by R. Ohly who, confronting the novels written by Zanzibarian writers and those by Tanzanian and Kenyan writers in a time span going from 1975 to 1981, has defined the Zanzibarian prose a challenge to the artistic competence of other Swahili writers (cf. Ohly 1990). Although I found the comparative pattern used by Ohly debatable, having concentrated for the up-country literary production only on popular short novels - to be better evaluated not following negative, contrastive cliches but within the context of that particular trend -, obscuring moreover other talented writers like Euphrase Kezilahabi or Claude Mung`ong`o, his criticism has nevertheless the merit of having highlighted the main qualities of Zanzibarian novels, namely a deep interest for historical and social matters, along with an extremely rich and colourful language and a serious concern for stylistic features. These attributes of Zanzibarian literary style fit very well to the last novel by Shafi Adam Shafi, Vuta n`kuvute, published in 1999; in the following pages my aim is to explore the way the author of this work artistically manipulates themes, literary suggestions and stylistic devices, re-elaborating thus the experience of Kiswahili and Zanzibarian prose in a creative way.

German text / In dieser Forschungsarbeit wird qualitativ das missionarische Engagement der sansibarischen Christen den einheimischen muslimischen Sansibaris gegenüber auf förderliche und hinderliche Faktoren untersucht. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, diese Faktoren aufzuzeigen und dadurch ein Bewusstsein für die Problematik der fehlenden Ganzheitlichkeit zu schaffen, damit hier gegengesteuert werden kann. Dazu wird zunächst der ethnologische und religionsgeschichtliche Hintergrund über Sansibar vorgestellt. Danach wird die geschichtliche Entwicklung und das heutige Bild der sansibarischen Gemeinden und Kirchen skizziert, um anschließend anhand des empirischtheologischen Praxiszyklus die Planung, die Durchführung und die Ergebnisse qualitativer Interviews mit jeweils drei Pastoren und leitenden Mitarbeiterinnen sansibarischer Gemeinden und Kirchen darzustellen. Mit Hilfe der Grounded Theory lassen sich zwei Tendenzen von kaum bis bedingt gelebter ganzheitlicher Missionspraxis der Gemeinden und Kirchen und ihr jenseitsorientiertes Evangeliumsverständnis als Ursache dessen identifizieren. Abschließend wird der Ist-Zustand der Missionspraxis der Gemeinden und Kirchen beschrieben, indem basierend auf den Forschungsergebnissen Thesen formuliert werden. / This research work qualitatively examines the beneficial and hindering factors of the missionary commitment of the Zanzibari Christians to the native population. The aim is to describe these factors and to create an awareness for the lack of holistic mission so that countermeasures can be taken. Firstly, background information about Zanzibar is presented. Next, the historical development and current church landscape are described. Based on the empirical-theological practice cycle, the planning and execution as well as the results of qualitative interviews carried out with six church workers are then presented. Furthermore, based on the Grounded Theory, two tendencies of their mission practice ranging from negligible to minimal are identified, caused by a kingdom-come orientation concerning the understanding of the Gospel. Last but not least, based on the research results, the actual state of the mission practice of the Zanzibari churches is presented in three theses.