From auto/biography to a historiography of post-colonial Tanzania in Swahili popular literature

Authors

  • Graziella Acquaviva University of Turin

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/1825-263X/11899

Abstract

This article will present two Swahili popular works: the popular novel Mpenzi I-II (‘Lover I-II’,1984; 1985) by Kajubi D. Mukajanga and the collection of short stories Mpe Maneno Yake (‘Give him his words,’ 2006) by Freddy Macha.

Mukajanga started writing the novel in 1982 but the first volume was published in 1984 by his own publishing house, Grand Arts Promotions. The environment he describes is that of J.K.T (Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa /National Service) of Makutupora where the writer describes daily life as he lived it and according to the law in force in 1977.

The second volume of Mpenzi, published in 1985, recounts historically verifiable events as the outbreak of the Second World War; the founding of T.A.N.U (Tanganyika African National Union) with the veiled description of Nyerere; the 1964 uprising that is narrated through the perspective of Mzee Potee’s character, and the failure of the Ujamaa’s policy. The episodes narrated were really lived by him or by people very close to him.

In Macha’s Mpe Maneno Yake the autobiographical elements are prominent, and the short stories reflect the author’s personal perspective and the narrated events are a representation of how they were experienced by the author.

Although the two works were written and published at different times, the first in the mid-1980s and the second in 2006, both authors utilise autobiographical elements and contribute to the biographical representation of post-colonial Tanzania.

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Author Biography

Graziella Acquaviva, University of Turin

Graziella Acquaviva is Associate Professor of Swahili Language and Literature at the University of Turin. She has been doing extensive field research in East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) on Swahili oral and written literature and has authored many publications in the field of African literature. Her research interests range from Swahili theatre to poetry, lexicography and translations. In collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she translated from Italian into Swahili Collodi’s Le avventure di Pinocchio: Storia di un burattino, 1883 (Hekaya za Pinokio, 2000) and Carofiglio’s Testimone inconsapevole, 2002 (Shahidi asiyekusudiwa, 2013), and alongside Centro Internazionale di Studi Primo Levi, Levi’s Se questo è un uomo (Ikiwa Huyo ni Mtu, 2024). She is currently a member of InALC—Investigating African Languages and Cultures, a project funded by the European Union—Next Generation EU—Research Unit at the University of Turin.

Graziella can be contacted at: graziella.acquaviva@unito.it

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Published

2025-05-18

Issue

Vol. 29 No. 2 (2025): Investigating intellectual biographies in African studies

Section

Auto/biography and historiography

License

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