This paper applies a post-structuralist literary framework when looking at the philosophical implications of William’s Mkufya’s novel Ziraili na Zirani. The analysis focuses on a free-verse poem per-formed by a black bird in hell. Moreover, there is a focus on the different genre forms at play, such as free-verse poetry and the novel, and an acknowledgement that an understanding of the text relies upon a consideration of these different genre conventions. Ultimately the paper shows how a reading of the text as it is presented in the novel, as a performance, demonstrates a realisation of the different genre conventions at play, thus taking their significance onto a different plain of analysis. Furthermore, attention is drawn to the application of a post-structuralist framework and the various contributions this theoretical model can make to a reading of the poem, notably an emphasis on the resistance to fixed meaning in favour of instability. This results in an exposition of the relevance of a post-structuralist literary framework to Mkufya’s critical reflection upon epistemology as it is portrayed in the black bird’s enigmatic performance, and the novel as a whole
