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.

It is heartening to note that the number of contemporary Swahili scholars whose work is receiving attention in books and university theses is steadily on the increase. This volume adds Abdilatif Abdalla to the list containing, so far as I know, the names of Muhammed Said Abdulla, Ebrahim Hussein and Euphrase Kezilahabi It is a volume on the poetry of Abdalla which Nyaigotti-Chacha writes with wrumth, understanding and a desire to place in perspective the poet`s works, in particular, Utenzi wa maisha ya Adamu na Hawaa (1971) and Sauti ya dhiki (1973) For this reason, perhaps, it tends to be less critical and more informative Nyaigotti--Chacha divides his work into four chapters. The first chapter introduces the reader to the author`s reasons for undertaking to Wiite it, originally his M A thesis at the University of Nairobi (1980) A bdefbut useful biography of Abdilatif Abdalla (ppJ-9), and a theoretical orientation to the author`s analysis of the works (pp 9--11) - socialistic in the Marxian mould - furnishes the reader with the background required fm a better understanding of what follows in the next two chapters which examine Utenzi and Sauti .. respectively The final chapter investigates the skills of Abdalla as a poet

The paper describes a computer system for testing the coherence and adequacy of dictionaries. The system suits also well for retiieving lexical material in context from computerized text archives Results are presented from a series of tests made with Kamusi ya Kiswahlli Sanifu (KKS), a monolingual Swahili dictionary.. The test of the intemal coherence of KKS shows that the text itself contains several hundreds of such words, for which there is no entry in the dictionary. Examples and frequency numbers of the most often occurring words are given The adequacy of KKS was also tested with a corpus of nearly one million words, and it was found out that 1.32% of words in book texts were not recognized by KKS, and with newspaper texts the amount was 2.24% The higher number in newspaper texts is partly due to numerous names occurring in news articles Some statistical results are given on frequencies of wordforms not recognized by KKS The tests shows that although KKS covers the modern vocabulary quite well, there are several ru·eas where the dictionary should be improved The internal coherence is far from satisfactory, and there are more than a thousand such rather common words in prose text which rue not included into KKS The system described in this article is au effective tool for `detecting problems and for retrieving lexical data in context for missing words.

Book Review of: Johannes Fabian (ed.), History from below. The vocabulary of Elisabethville. By Andre Yav. Text, Translations and interpretive essay (Creole Language Library, Vol.7). Edited, translated and commented by Johannes Fabian with assistance from Kalundi Mango. With linguistic notes by W. Schicho. Amsterdam- Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1990. 236 pp. Review of Noel-Jacques Gueunier (ed.), La chroniques Swahilie du Cad/Umari de Mayotte. Edition critique. (Recherches et Documents, 2).(Madagascar\''): Etablissement d\''Enseignement Superieur des Lettres (CEDRATOM),1989.

Watu wa pwani ya Afrika Mashariki wanaojumuisha vikundi vingi wana historia ndefu ya mitagusano na makundi mengine yakiwemo ya bara na wageni kutoka sehemu mbalimbali za ulimwengu. Mitagusano hiyo ya wapwani na wengine pamoja na athari zake ni mojawapo ya maudhui makuu ambayo Rocha Chimerah anashughulikia katika kazi zake zote. Makala hii inachanganua maudhui na vipengele vya fani vya kazi za mwandishi huyu ili kubainisha jinsi anavyoshughulikia suala lililotajwa hapo juu. Katika kufanya hivyo, makala inatathmini uhalisi wa kijamii na kihistoria unavyowakilishwa na kazi za Chimerah. Japo kazi zote za Chimerah zitarejelewa, zile za karibuni zaidi zitapewa kipaumbele.

No description available.

This article compares two cases of poetic self-translation in two different periods in the development of modern Swahili literature – Euphrase Kezilahabi in Tanzania of the 1970s and Kithaka wa Mberia in Kenya of the 2000s. These writers represent two different literary situations and two different statuses that Swahili literature had achieved in the respective periods. The main argument in the article is that the two writers in their works seem to have a similar aim – to familiarise wider audiences on the national level with elitist poetic forms. The differences in both cases are determined by the specific socio-cultural context.

This article shows how changing ideologies and evolving market forces have combined to lessen German publishers’ enthusiasm for Swahili literature – and how, surprisingly, translators of Swahili are now taking the initiative to ensure that Swahili literature still gets published. After outlining preceding periods of translation and showing how they are determined by ideologies and market forces, I take a close and partially personal look at the development and role of the translator-publishers: how digital technology and new formats have enabled them to take over classical publishers’ tasks. Still, even if translators manage to publish their translated works, they are confronted with the challenge of reaching an audience and creating a space for Swahili literature in German-speaking countries. These translators could possibly join forces to reach a critical mass for translations, thus paving the way for Swahili translated literature to be recognized and appreciated by German-speaking readers.

No description available.

Obituary in memory of Mu''Allim Yahya Ali Omar, a Swahili scholar