The Story of Swahili by John M. Mugane

Author:John M. Mugane [Mugane, John M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, World
ISBN: 9780896804890
Google: zIwNCgAAQBAJ
Amazon: B012CM5DO6
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Published: 2015-07-14T22:00:00+00:00

Orality and Literacy

It is difficult to frame an oral literary tradition in historical terms, for it is a composite of elements—proverbs and songs—accumulated over centuries and elaborated in an infinite variety of ephemeral individual performances. What the Swahili perform and hear today may contain elements from the remote past, even from the origins of the Bantu language family, up to the late nineteenth century when writing Swahili in Arabic script reached its zenith. The history is thus told better in terms of its performers than in terms of the canon on which they build their performances. What we have are the works of the giants of the Swahili literary tradition as it is now written. I will begin with Muhamadi Kijumwa—a master, literally an embodiment, of the Swahili tradition I seek to illustrate. Kijumwa is by no means alone in his mastery, and toward the close of the chapter, I will mention other walking libraries of the Swahili literary tradition, artists steeped in the tradition who are extending it into contemporary written forms.

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