Mapitio: Swahili Muslim Publics and Postcolonial Experience. Kai Kresse. 2018. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 237 pp. ISBN 9780253037541 & 2019. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota. k. 256. SKU: 987998708329911.

Katika mapitio hayo, Irene Brunotti aliye Mhadhiri wa Lugha na Taaluma za Kiswahili na Mtafiti wa Chuo Kikuu cha Leipzig anausifu umakinifu wa uchambuzi wa hadhara za Kiislamu za Waswahili uliofanywa na Kai Kresse katika kitabu chake. Anatoa hoja mbalimbali za kusisitiza kwamba kazi hiyo ni mchango wenye thamani kubwa sana katika Taaluma za Kiswahili, Anthropolojia, Falsafa, Ubaadaukoloni na nyingi nyinginezo.In this review of Kai Kresse’s book, Irene Brunotti, Lecturer in Kiswahili and Swahili Studies and Researcher at the University of Leipzig, highlights the humble attentiveness with which Kresse analyses Swahili Muslim Publics. She advances a variety of arguments which emphasize that Kresse’s is an excellent contribution to Swahili Studies, Anthropology, Philosophy, Postcolonial Studies, and a number of other disciplines

Ngoma ni uhuni?: Ngoma za kisasa mjini Zanzibar

This paper is a brief exploration of Zinzibar soceity in contemporary times, of how it can be read through the ngoma perfromances, music events which take place during the focal moments of the social life in the Swahili communities. It is a study of their identity constructions, referring both to ethnic identities and gender ones, which are given meaning through the ngoma performances and can be also discussed or confirmed through them in the social context of the Zanzibari daily life. It mainly analyses the crucial dichotomy culture/religion from the point of view of women perfromers, who are deeply related to the domestic area (and not the public one, usually related to men) in which they can find a way to speak to the community through the perfromance and consequently to get an active role despite their social status. It is also a brief summary of the contemporary socio-political situation of the islands, in which ngoma performances become a way to participate to the social processes and to decode political tensions which characterize Zanzibar today

Swahili-Forum

At the core of this special issue lies an apparently simple question: What is Swahili Studies? The “critical” perspective entails a question about both epistemological foundations and different versions or notions of “Swahili Studies” – also mirrored in the many institutions teaching Swahili all over the globe. In the same vein, this special issue shows Swahili Studies not as a fixed discipline delimited by geographical, historical, and disciplinary boundaries, and defined canons, but as a subject of an ongoing conversation. The twelve contributions of this special issue deliberately take different perspectives on Swahili Studies: 1. Swahili Studies as mirrored in a variety of different global histories of institutionalization; 2. Critically reflecting upon the notion of “Swahili”, its problematic geographical and linguistic fixations; and 3. Considering the specifically critical role of Uswahili/Mswahili. The aim of this special issue is to hint at the dynamic notions of Swahili – difficult to delimit in clear-cut terms of geography, culture or linguistic parameters. The issue does not give fixed answers or definitions, rather it opens up the multiple possibilities that are of, and from within, Swahili Studies

Siku Moja Ofisini – Nafasi ya Upapasi Mjini Zanzibar

Tukizingatia kona maalum mjini Zanzibar, yaani ofisini, mtaani Shangani Posta, leo hii mimi na mwenzangu Muchi tunataka kuwahadithia kuhusu kikundi cha vijana wanaoitwa mapapasi ambao wamekuwa wanafanya kazi katika sekta ya utalii tangu miaka ya Themanini, japo nafasi yao haijawahi kutambuliwa wala kurasimishwa na serikali. Badala yake, mara nyingi vijana hao wamekuwa wanaudhiwa, kupuuzwa na kuadhibiwa kwa vile wanapwaya kwenye dira ya kiserikali ya kuigeuza Zanzibar kuwa mahali pa kutalii (kwa maana ya touristic destination) pakiingizwa kwenye mikondo mikali ya kiliberali mamboleo. Muchi na mimi tunajadiliana na kusimulia (hi)stori(a) yenye pande zaidi ya mbili. Tutawafafanulia kazi ya upapasi kama ilivyokuwa zamani na sasa hivi. Pia, tutatafakari juu ya nafasi ya upapasi (na uwenyeji) mjini Zanzibar, tukichambua maana, athari na uwezo wake. Hivyo, tutazingatia nafasi kama kielelezo cha au methodolojia ya kuchambua maneno ya Kiswahili kama vile yalivyo, lile linaloliwezesha, pamoja na maana yao. Umbo lenyewe la mazungumzo linasisitiza kuwa fikra zinazotokea kwenye mahusiano yanazaliwa konani, pale ambapo hakuna anayetiliwa (na kinachotiliwa) maanani kabla hajapewa (na hakijapewa) nafasi huko huko, nafasi ambayo hatimaye ndiyo ya Muchi na yangu pia.By exploring the microcosmos of a junction (kona) in the neighbourhood of Shangani Posta, in the city of Zanzibar, today Muchi and I will tell you the (hi)story of a unique segment of Zanzibari male urban youth, known as mapapasi, working in tourism since the 80s. While been neglected and denied an official, formal and legal recognition by the government, they have been continuously harassed, intimidated and shamed because perceived as not belonging, not fitting the governmental project of turning Zanzibar into a touristic destination. The following conversation aims at disclosing the complexity hidden behind the mainstream one-sided picture of them. Looking at the past and contemporary practices of upapasi, Muchi and I reflect on the nafasi of upapasi in urban Zanzibar and matter-forth upapasi (and uwenyeji as an instance of spatial il/legalization), their meaning and their doing. In this way, we are attentive to the wor(l)d nafasi, as analytical lens to get a sense – kusikia, kuona, kuwa na – urban Zanzibar. The very form of conversation is meant to think thoughts as they are co-constituted by and within the relationalites of the kona, whereas no-body is predetermined, rather every-body is co-constituted in the very situatedness in which also Muchi and I (be)come-with

Critical Swahili Studies: a Collective Exercise in ‘Concepting’ Uswahili

This contribution, enriched by Kai Kresse’s dibaji, is a collective Exercise – a mazungumzo – in ‘Concepting’ Uswahili that, rather than pointing to answers, conclusions or definitions, opens up to further debates on Swahili Studies. ‘Critical Swahili Studies’ cannot simply be the study of Swahili language and literature (only); nor the study of Swahili culture and society (only). It is to be qualified by a critical way of engagement, and a concern for the study of ‘human social life’, exploring different levels of meaningfulness for people on the Swahili coast, and within the wider Swahili context, with a view to the parameters of its validity. It includes perspectives on ‘thinking society’ and ‘understanding life’ from within, how it is lived, grounded upon, and seen and expressed through the lens of Swahili language-and-beyond-language. Critical Swahili Studies, then, will be about sensitive and engaged research on issues that are at the heart of society in Swahili contexts and with a focus on human experience, through the lens of a Swahili conceptual framework

Mapitio: Swahili Muslim Publics and Postcolonial Experience. Kai Kresse. 2018. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 237 pp. ISBN 9780253037541 & 2019. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota. k. 256. SKU: 987998708329911.

Katika mapitio hayo, Irene Brunotti aliye Mhadhiri wa Lugha na Taaluma za Kiswahili na Mtafiti wa Chuo Kikuu cha Leipzig anausifu umakinifu wa uchambuzi wa hadhara za Kiislamu za Waswahili uliofanywa na Kai Kresse katika kitabu chake. Anatoa hoja mbalimbali za kusisitiza kwamba kazi hiyo ni mchango wenye thamani kubwa sana katika Taaluma za Kiswahili, Anthropolojia, Falsafa, Ubaadaukoloni na nyingi nyinginezo.In this review of Kai Kresse’s book, Irene Brunotti, Lecturer in Kiswahili and Swahili Studies and Researcher at the University of Leipzig, highlights the humble attentiveness with which Kresse analyses Swahili Muslim Publics. She advances a variety of arguments which emphasize that Kresse’s is an excellent contribution to Swahili Studies, Anthropology, Philosophy, Postcolonial Studies, and a number of other disciplines

Ngoma ni uhuni?: Ngoma za kisasa mjini Zanzibar

This paper is a brief exploration of Zinzibar soceity in contemporary times, of how it can be read through the ngoma perfromances, music events which take place during the focal moments of the social life in the Swahili communities. It is a study of their identity constructions, referring both to ethnic identities and gender ones, which are given meaning through the ngoma performances and can be also discussed or confirmed through them in the social context of the Zanzibari daily life. It mainly analyses the crucial dichotomy culture/religion from the point of view of women perfromers, who are deeply related to the domestic area (and not the public one, usually related to men) in which they can find a way to speak to the community through the perfromance and consequently to get an active role despite their social status. It is also a brief summary of the contemporary socio-political situation of the islands, in which ngoma performances become a way to participate to the social processes and to decode political tensions which characterize Zanzibar today

Ngoma ni uhuni?: Ngoma za kisasa mjini Zanzibar

This paper is a brief exploration of Zinzibar soceity in contemporary times, of how it can be read through the ngoma perfromances, music events which take place during the focal moments of the social life in the Swahili communities. It is a study of their identity constructions, referring both to ethnic identities and gender ones, which are given meaning through the ngoma performances and can be also discussed or confirmed through them in the social context of the Zanzibari daily life. It mainly analyses the crucial dichotomy culture/religion from the point of view of women perfromers, who are deeply related to the domestic area (and not the public one, usually related to men) in which they can find a way to speak to the community through the perfromance and consequently to get an active role despite their social status. It is also a brief summary of the contemporary socio-political situation of the islands, in which ngoma performances become a way to participate to the social processes and to decode political tensions which characterize Zanzibar today

Mapitio: Swahili Muslim Publics and Postcolonial Experience. Kai Kresse. 2018. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 237 pp. ISBN 9780253037541 & 2019. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota. k. 256. SKU: 987998708329911.

Katika mapitio hayo, Irene Brunotti aliye Mhadhiri wa Lugha na Taaluma za Kiswahili na Mtafiti wa Chuo Kikuu cha Leipzig anausifu umakinifu wa uchambuzi wa hadhara za Kiislamu za Waswahili uliofanywa na Kai Kresse katika kitabu chake. Anatoa hoja mbalimbali za kusisitiza kwamba kazi hiyo ni mchango wenye thamani kubwa sana katika Taaluma za Kiswahili, Anthropolojia, Falsafa, Ubaadaukoloni na nyingi nyinginezo.In this review of Kai Kresse’s book, Irene Brunotti, Lecturer in Kiswahili and Swahili Studies and Researcher at the University of Leipzig, highlights the humble attentiveness with which Kresse analyses Swahili Muslim Publics. She advances a variety of arguments which emphasize that Kresse’s is an excellent contribution to Swahili Studies, Anthropology, Philosophy, Postcolonial Studies, and a number of other disciplines