Book Review: Mirza, Sarah & Margaret Strobel (ed.) 1989. Three Swahili Women. Life Histories from Mombasa. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. and Mirza, Sarah & Margaret Strobel (ed.) 1989. Wanawake watatu wa Kiswahili hadithi za maisha kutoka Mombasa, Kenya. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

We shall investigate the use of Swahili slang in Freddy Macha`s tiny collection of short stories Twen `zetu Ulaya (DSM 1984), and especially in his short story Check-bob This is arguably the only epistolary short story in modern Swahili literature; in fact, epistolary novels are uncommon in anglophone Afiica as a whole. In this narrative two former lovers show abuses on each other and their four letters - two by each character - unfold the story of a selfish young woman who shamelessly exploited her boyfiiend and the manner in which he paid her back with her own coin. It is interesting to note how the same events are presented from two different perspectives and hence evaluated differently.

This paper presents an edited version of a hand written text in Shaba Swahili and French, accompanied by an English translation. The original text was written in ballpoint by a Shaba Zairean ex-houseboy, and sent to his former employer in Belgium It provides an account of his life, with special focus on the period after his Belgian employers left Zaire in 1973. It documents the conditions of hardship in the life of a semi-educated Zairean and provides a detailed account of the migrations he has to undertake in order to find means to support himself and his family. The author Wiote the `recit` at the request of the former employer`s wife, as a symbolic way to repay the debt he had incurred over the years in which he had received money and other goods from the Belgian lady. The text was sent to me by the former employer, who asked me to translate it into Dutch. The former employer granted me the permission to edit and publish the text in its totality. For reasons of privacy, we decided to alter the names of the people mentioned in the text. Thus, for instance, the employer is named Andni Deprins, his wife (who is the central addressee of the text) Helena Arens, and the author of the text is identified as Julien.

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.

An important editorial achievement has been the recent translation into Swahili of the first volume of the monumental work on the life of Jesus Christ in ten volumes, L`Evangelo come mi Stato rivelato (the title of the English version is The Poem of the Man-God) by the Italian mystic Maria Valtorta (1897-1961).

In Swahili Forum III Elena Bertoncini-Zubkova (1996) discussed some of the political criticisms, expressed in the form of literary motifs and imagery, that emerged in the works of the Tanzanian Swahili writer Euphrase Kezilahabi since 1978 onwards. She situates this emergent critique in the new political discoursive context where critical reviews of the Ujamaa policy could now be publicly voiced since President Nyerere himself admitted the failure of Ujamaa in his delivery Azimio la Arusha baada ya Miaka Kumi (The Arusha Declaration Ten Years Later, 1977). According to Bertoncini this admission `clear[ed] the way for critical literary works` of which Kezilahabi satirical play Kaputula la Marx (Marx`s Shorts, 1978) and his short story Mayai- Waziri wa maradhi (Eggs- Minister of Sickness, 1978) were among the first.

A book review of `Zanzibar: Kinyang`anyiro na utumwa´by Issa Nasser Issa AI-Ismaily (1999).

Sehemu muhimu ya fasihi andishi ya Kiswahili yachukuliwa na fasihi iliyotafsiriwa kutoka lugha za kigeni. Ingawa vitabu vingi vilikuwa vimetafsiriwa na wageni, Waswahili walio maarufu walishugulika vile vile na kazi hiyo ya kufasiri kama wale Shaaban Robert anayehesabika kuwa mwanzilishi wa fasihi ya kisasa ya Kiswahili pamoja na rais wa kwanza wa Tanzania, baba wa taifa Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. Aidha, vitabu vya fasihi ya Kirusi zilianza kutafsiriwa kuanzia miaka ya sabini karne iliyopita. Nia yangu ilikuwa ni kuvuta uangalifu wa watafsiri Waswahili, kuwasaidia waelewe zaidi matini ya Kirusi na kuizingatia kwa makini katika kuendeleza kazi yao ya ufasiri yenye maana kubwa.

Chachage Seithy L. Chachage amepata kuandika riwaya nyingine tatu: Sudi ya Yohana (1980), Kivuli (1984) na Almasi za Bandia (1990). Riwaya yake ya nne Makuadi wa Soko Huria (2002) ni ya kihistoria na yenye upekee wa maudhui, muundo na mtindo. Vipengele hivi vinadhihirisha ukomavu na upeo wa juu wa mwandishi ilimradi kwenda sambamba na changamoto ya utandawazi ya karne ya ishirini na moja ya milenia ya tatu. Mwandishi amekitabaruku kitabu hiki kwa kumbukumbu ya Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere (1922-1999).

The 6th National Book Fair in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2003 saw a new publication in the field of Swahili literary studies that should draw the attention of Swahili scholars in and outside of East Africa: the first comprehensive literary dictionary in Swahili language. Kyallo Wadi Wamitila, who is currently Senior Lecturer for Swahili Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Nairobi, has committed more than a decade of meticulous research to compile this major work. It comprises roughly 1.300 entries, arranged alphabetically, ranging from adhidadi (antonym) to muhakati (mimesis), tashtiti (satire) and zila (tragic flaw).