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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Biography Writing in Swahili |
Author: | Topan, Farouk |
Year: | 1997 |
Periodical: | History in Africa |
Volume: | 24 |
Pages: | 299-307 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | East Africa |
Subjects: | Swahili biographies (form) History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3172032 |
Abstract: | Any meaningful assessment of biography and autobiography writing among the Swahili as a historical source needs to take at least three factors into account. The first is the influence of Arab literary traditions on the emergence of the genre on the coast of East Africa. The second is the relationship between literacy and orality, and its implication for writing and narration in an African context. The third factor is the role of colonialism and the introduction of the Western 'mode' of biography and autobiography writing. Two other dimensions of biography writing in Swahili, which cut across these three factors, are the relationship between biography and religion, and the relationship between biography and literature. This paper surveys these factors as part of a general discussion of the notion and status of the genre in the Swahili context. Notes, ref. |