Taking a closer look at Tanzanian prose in the early 90s, it can be said that it has preserved the main structural features which had taken shape within the previous two decades of its development. One of these features is a more or less rich system of genres (short story, novelette, novel). Another is a traditional division into `popular` and `elite` literature. This division had already been noted by many researchers in the 70s and the 80s, although they used different terms for it; e.g , popular and serious literature (Bertoncini 1989), popular and standard literature (Ohly 1990), riwaya-pendwa and riwaya-dhati (Mlacha and Madumulla 1991), and others.