Uhusiano baina ya lugha na utamaduni, mila na mirathi ya jamii kwa jumla huenda ukafahamika angalau kwa wepesi, iwapo tutazingatia mambo mawili: kwanza, lugha na matumizi yake ni chombo cha kujieleleza thamani tafauti zilizofungamana na maumbile ya kimila, fikira, maarifa, imani, adabu na utamaduni wa jamii yenyewe kwa jumla. Pili, matumizi ya lugha aghlabu husadifu kuwa ndio msingi wa kuendeleza na kukuza, na hata pia kubuni, uzushi mpya katika mirathi ya utamaduni, mila na khulka za kijamii. Kwa hivyo si rahisi kwa lugha kutengamana na taswira za jamii: utu, utamaduni, mila, mitindo na mengineo. Tungependa kuandaa madhumuni yetu ya kuonesha athari na hatari zinazokabili hali ile ya kutumia lugha geni katika kuendeleza shughuli za jamii au taifa la kienyeji. Muhimu pia, tutashughulika na athari za mtindo huo katika fasihi za kienyeji, hasa tunapozingatia kuwa fasihi ya maandishi ni mfano wa kioo cha hakika ya jamii.

At times creative writing has been employed by Tanzanians in order to demonstrate the progress of African peoples and to reflect the changes, or lack of them, in this society. Popular songs are another continually vibrant medium of intellectual exchange which appeals to various sectors of the Tanzanian populace. Such oral and written works, directed as they are to local and intra-national audiences, are most often created in the Swahili language. The relatively young age of Tanzania’s population, with nearly 65 percent of the population under 25 years of age has brought about a situation in which this young and dynamic population is increasingly seeing their voice and interests represented in literary and aural/oral works. What are the themes and strategies utilized by such songwriters and literary artists and what are their trajectories of dissemination, consumption and activation within Tanzanian social contexts?

This paper illustrates the ways in which Kezilahabi’s 1985 dissertation makes its own daring contribution to the field of aesthetic criticism through the proposition of a new critical approach to African literature. Kezilahabi’s starting point for the elaboration this new critical approach is the realization of a prevailing tendency among literary critics to read African literature against formal and aesthetic paradigms deeply rooted in the Western literary and philosophical traditions. Opposed to the adoption of interpretative frames that do not acknowledge the philosophical implications involved in literary analysis, Kezilahabi affirms the importance of approaching literary production from within the artistic and philosophical tradition it stems from. Inspired by hermeneutic philosophy, especially in its “ontological turn” embodied by the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Kezilahabi’s focus is on literary interpretation as an ontological enterprise aimed at “situating” literature within a horizon of understanding where its proper universe of references can be disclosed.

Shaaban Robert wrote three autobiographical texts at different times in his life. The first, which is lost, covered his childhood and had been written when he was 27; the second, which corresponds to the first part of this work, was written at the age of 37, covering the period 1936-1946. The last was completed in 1960, but covers the period 1946-1959. It must be emphasised that the poet’s life cannot be compartmentalised into separate, successive stages. Over and above a chronological division of events, the two sections of the book can be differentiated by the different periods when they were written and thus the different viewpoints on what happened throughout his life. Philippe Lejeune´s definition of an autobiography as ´a retrospective prose narrative made by a real person about their own existence, emphasising their indi¬vidual life and in particular the development of their personality´ (Lejeune 1996: 14), is a familiar one. This definition fits Shaaban Robert´s text perfectly and yet, in the Swahili context, such an endeavour could have encountered many obstacles.

This article deals with deviation in Euphrase Kezilahabi´s novel Gamba la Nyoka (1979). We analyse four different types of deviation, namely grammatical, lexical, phonological, and semantic deviation. The objective of this study is to combine linguistic analysis with literary riticism, in order to show how these different types of deviation correspond with the overall message the author conveys in this novel, which is a political novel dealing with the era of establishing Ujamaa policies in rural Tanzania.

Makala haya yanachanganua ishara na uashiriaji kama mbinu ya kimtindo ya kuwasilisha maana na kukuza uhusika na maudhui katika riwaya ya Nyuso za Mwanamke (2010) ya Said Ahmed Mohamed. Nimechanganua aina tatu za ishara ambazo ni ishara bia, ishara za kaida na ishara za kifasihi kama zinavyoainishwa na Frye na wenzake (1985). Lengo kuu ni kuchanganua na kubainisha jinsi ishara zinavyowasilisha maana na itikadi za jamii katika matini husika. Ishara hizi pia husaidia kukuza maudhui, ploti na kuongeza ujumi katika matini za kifasihi. / This article analyses symbols and symbolism as stylistic devices of communicating meaning and as a technique of characterisation and theme development in Nyuso za Mwanamke (The Faces of a Woman, 2010) written by Said Ahmed Mohamed. I analysed three types of symbols which are natural symbols, conventional symbols and literary symbols following Frye et al. (1985). This study aims at showing how symbols are used in literary works to communicate meaning and the ideology of the society depicted in the text. Symbols also help to build the theme, the plot and adding aesthetic value in literary texts.

Je, kuna uhusiano gani kati ya Euphrase Kezilahabi wa Tanzania na Gabriel García Marquez wa Kolombia, au kati ya Kyallo Wadi Wamitila wa Kenya na Juan Rulfo wa Meksiko ama kati ya Günter Grass wa Ujerumani na Said Ahmed Mohamed wa Zanzibar? Waandishi hawa waliotengwa kitaifa na kilugha wanaunganishwa na uamuzi wao wa kuandika riwaya kwenye mtindo usiokuwa wa kawaida, mtindo wa uhalisiamazingaombwe. Kwa kulinganisha na kulinganua riwaya ya Mohamed na ile ya Grass ninakazia nadhari dayolojia ya kina iliyochipuka kati ya fasihi ya Kiswahili na fasihi ya ulimwenguni pote. Ni maoni yangu kwamba riwaya mbili hizi, zinakikabili kizungumkuti cha kuwepo kwa mwanadamu kwa kuutupilia mbali mfumo wa uwakilishi wenye uhalisia kama tunavyoujua. Badala yake riwaya hizi zimezingatia mtindo wa ujumi wa kisasabaadaye (postmodern aesthetics). Kazi hizi za sanaa zinatumia sifa bainifu za uhalisia mazingaombwe kama nyenzo za kuakisi na kuakisi kwa kubirua hali halisi ya udhaifu, kuyumbayumba na ukosefu wa uthabiti na udumifu katika maisha Afrika na Ulaya.

This paper looks at traditions and modernities in terms of a spectrum representation and thus challenges the previously accepted notion of tradition and modernity as an either/or matter where tradition is seen to hold obstacles assumed to block progression towards modernity. With this in mind, it considers Ebrahim Hussein´s title for his play Wakati Ukuta (Time is a Wall) and Euphrase Kezilahabi´s novel Gamba la Nyoka (The snake´s skin) to illustrate the idea of multiple modernities where the relationship between tradition and modernity is seen in terms of tension between cultural homogenisation and cultural heterogenisation where various ´scapes´ containing traditions are inflected by historical, linguistic and political situatedness of different actors. Key themes are discussed in this paper displaying the indigenised ethnoscape of East Africa with various modernities and the different tensions this can produce in view of long-standing traditions. Individualism is the prevailing theme in the emergence of modernity. With this in mind, extramarital relationships, foreign behaviours, education and age/generational differences are discussed with reference to the two literary texts. These themes exemplify the thematic trajectory of the spectrum representation of traditions and modernities in Swahili literature, showing belonging to the present but also awareness of the past. This paper concludes that modernities should no longer be seen as a foreign invasion aiming to eradicate tradition but as metropolises that can be indigenised and incorporated into existing traditions. The observations in this paper demonstrate that the link between traditions and modernities is not a direct transition from one to the other but one of more complex affiliation. This paper lays foundations for broader research into this relationship and gives new insight into the illustration and critique of various texts.

Book review of the collection titled ´East African literature: Essays on Written and Oral Tradition´ edited by J.K.S. Makokha, Egara Kabaji and Dominica Dipio