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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Swahili children's literature in contemporary Tanzania |
Author: | Aiello Traore, Flavia |
Year: | 2010 |
Periodical: | Journal des africanistes (ISSN 1957-7850) |
Volume: | 80 |
Issue: | 1-2 |
Pages: | 176-191 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Tanzania |
Subjects: | youth literature Swahili |
Abstract: | This article explores the relationship between literature and education, between the oral and written genres, between nationalism, pluralism and internationalisation in Swahili children's literature produced in Tanzania since the 1990s. During the years of African socialism ('Ujamaa'), Swahili literature was meant to promote the language and to disseminate socialist and nationalist ideas in Tanzanian society; however, the literature was fundamentally aimed at adults or young skilled readers. Since the end of 'Ujamaa', writers have explored the potential of literature in the field of education, producing original works in which they experiment with manipulation and contamination of modes, styles, narrative genres. These implicitly redefined national identity both in terms of cultural pluralism and of enhanced international relations. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |