Browse Items (8 total)

Utendi wa Mwana Kupona [Mwana Kupona’s Poem] is one of the most popular poems in Swahili literature. It was written around 1858 by Mwana Kupona binti Mshamu (c. 1810-1860) for her daughter, Mwana Hashima binti Sheikh (1841-1933). Didactic in purpose,…

With the conquest of East African peoples by Germany in Tanganyika and by the British in Kenya, the realities of colonial politics led to further secularization and, along with it, indigenization of thematic material in utenzi poetry. Utenzi wa…

The nineteenth century saw the rise of a written poetic tradition that moved toward the secular, with everyday issues of social and political interest captured in verse. Perhaps the most notable poet whose works exemplified this trend was Muyaka wa…

Utendi wa kutawafu Nabii, a characteristic example of the utenzi tradition in its early expression, commemorates the life of the prophet and includes his final message to the faithful before being visited by the angel of death. The poem exemplifies…

Utenzi wa zinduko la ujamaa is one of several political poems written in the 1970’s following the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar under one government to form the Republic of Tanzania. The author describes the establishment of the socialist system…

Shaaban Robert was, above all, a poet. As noted on the back cover of this volume, “. . . the poems appearing here cover the entire spectrum of human existence: youth and old age, morality and religion, politics, the beauty and signification of…

A praise poem commemorating the life and accomplishments of the Zanzibari Taarab musician, Siti binti Saad.

Also included in the exhibit from this series are Insha na mashairi v. 5; Utubora mkulima v.8; Siku ya watenzi wote v. 9.

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Newspapers served as an important literary forum for the publication of both Swahili poetry and works of prose. During the 1930’s and 1940’s, the Swahili newspaper, "Mambo Leo" [Current Affairs], served this purpose for many aspiring young Swahili…