- University of Dar es Salaam, TATAKI, Department Memberadd
- Literatures in African languages, Comparative Literature, African literature, oral literature and literary criticism, Theory of literature, Literary translation, Analogy, and 21 moreBantu Literature, African Poetry, Swahili Literature, Shona language, Textual Approach, African oral literature in contemporary contexts, COMPARATIVE LITERATURE AND AFRICAN ORAL LITERATURE, Aesthetics of Literature, Analytic Aesthetics, Stylistics and African Poetry, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Art, Philosophy and Literature, Aesthetics and Theory of Arts, Euphrase Kezilahabi, Poetry, The African Poet and His Meaning in Early and Modern African Poetry, Swahili Poetry, East African Poetry, Modern African Poetry, and South African poetryedit
- Post-doc in Swahili Verbal Arts of DR Congo. Double-degree PhD student Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale"... morePost-doc in Swahili Verbal Arts of DR Congo. Double-degree PhD student Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale" department "Asia, African and Mediterranean" and University of Bayreuth department "Literaturen in Afrikanischen Sprachen" (BIGSAS associated). Focus of PhD thesis: Poetics of contemporary Swahili writer Euphrase Kezilahabi.edit
Research Interests:
This article is a comparative study of the critiques of developments in Shona and Swahili poetry that began in 1970s Tanzania and 1980s Zimbabwe, after the introduction of regular patterns in Shona poetry (late 1950s) and of free verse in... more
This article is a comparative study of the critiques of developments in Shona and Swahili poetry that began in 1970s Tanzania and 1980s Zimbabwe, after the introduction of regular patterns in Shona poetry (late 1950s) and of free verse in Swahili literature (late 1960s). These verse forms became the object of heated debate about the nature of ‘tradition’ and of ‘colonial’ innovation among scholars, intellectuals and poets. These debates went beyond notions of stylistic canons; rather, they focused on identity, as closely connected with tradition and the need for decolonization. The problem recognized in this paper is that this criticism became prescriptive, implying the risk of limiting verbal-artistic expression in terms of style and content. This article shows a continuity between these different contexts in relation to critical opposition to stylistic innovation and freedom of (expressing) thought. By comparing the poetry and philosophy of the Tanzanian poet Euphrase Kezilahabi and Zimbabwean poet Chirikure Chirukure, this paper problematizes the terms of these debates and proposes an inductive and aesthetic approach to texts that avoids prescriptivism.
Research Interests: African Literature, East African literature, Southern African Literature, Zimbabwean and African Literature, Marechera, Zimbabwean Literature, Shona Orature, and 15 moreSwahili Literature, Modern African Literature, Popular music,literature and gender studies,contemporary Zimbabwean poetry, Literary Theory and Criticism in African Literature, Modern African Poetry, Swahili Poetry, African literary history, Comparative Africana literatures, Swahili modern literature, East, West and Southern African Literary and Cultural Studies, Shona poetry, Comparative Bantu Literatures, Afrophone Literatures, Shona Literature, and African literary aesthetics
This chapter outlines some aspects of the philosophy of the recently passed Swahili poet Euphrase Kezilahabi (Namagondo 13 April 1944 – Dar es Salaam 11 January 2020). It collects the result of my two fieldworks to Ukerewe (Kezilahabi’s... more
This chapter outlines some aspects of the philosophy of the recently passed Swahili poet Euphrase Kezilahabi (Namagondo 13 April 1944 – Dar es Salaam 11 January 2020). It collects the result of my two fieldworks to Ukerewe (Kezilahabi’s birthplace) and my interview with him in Gaborone (2015). The elements collected are analysed also in comparison with previous researches on Kezilahabi’s thought and verbal art. These fieldworks allowed me to collect different Kerewe songs, in particular by Muganga Gholita, the songwriter mentioned in a Kezilahabi poem, and to directly ask the author about his thoughts. This was decisive in confirming my interpretation of Kezilahabi’s thought, which comes out from a close reading and analysis of Kezilhabi’s poems and novels. I start from two of Kezilahabi’s poems (1974): Fasihi (Literature) - a meta-poem on literature and also a declaration of his poetics, in which I individuate the calabash as metaphor of oral literature –and Namagondo (the birth village of Kezilahabi), in which the mention of the popular dancer, singer and songwriter Muganga Gholita is more than a nostalgic element, but a reference for Kezilahabi’s poetics. Therefore, I read Kezilahabi, with his reform of free-verse in Swahili poetry, as an approximation to the orality, in continuity with Muganga Gholita. This element is not a mere stylistic choice, but it belongs to Kezilahabi’s aesthetics and philosophical thought. His aesthetic reform of Swahili literature engages the question of tradition, both the Swahili written tradition and Kezilahabi’s home Kerewe oral literature, but the Western philosophical tradition as well. Therefore, I analyse Kezilahabi’s philosophy also in comparison with German philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. The second section is on epistemology and essentialism. For Kezilahabi, understanding is an African cognitive faculty based on experience, on the senses and on aesthetics (as philosophy of art), which is opposed to Western epistemology based on knowing. I try to criticise this aspect as cultural essentialism, which is also inconsistent in Kezilahabi’s thought and artistic praxis. In order to demonstrate that the philosophers whom Kezilahabi uses are not an exception in Western philosophy, as he argues, I show how Nietzsche himself reformed philosophy on the basis of his reading of the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi. These inner dynamics of Western philosophy show that Heidegger and Nietzsche are not isolated figures, but rather that one part of Western philosophy was used to challenge and reform another part. However, in the last part, I read Kezilahabi’s aesthetic project (which involves ontology and epistemology) as a possibility to overcome essentialism. In this sense, the idea of African being as “Poetic Man” is an aestheticization, like Nietzsche’s “Overhuman”, and according to Kezilahabi’s poetics, this aestheticization of humanity can be interpreted as human re-connection to understanding faculty toward human emancipation and liberation.
Research Interests: Comparative Literature, Aesthetics, African Philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and 13 moreEssentialism, Emancipation, Giacomo Leopardi, Comparative Study, African art and aesthetics, Afrophone Philosophy African Languages Literatures Kezilahabi, Epystemology, Swahili Literature, African Epistemologies, Swahili Poetry, Euphrase Kezilahabi, Ukerewe, and Philosophical reception
This article focuses on the textual aesthetics of the Congolese-born (later Tanzanian naturalized) Swahili singer-songwriter Remmy Ongala. In the first part, I argue that a textual approach is also important for songs. The theoretical... more
This article focuses on the textual aesthetics of the Congolese-born (later Tanzanian naturalized) Swahili singer-songwriter Remmy Ongala. In the first part, I argue that a textual approach is also important for songs. The theoretical discussion is mainly based on the studies by Karin Barber (“Popular Arts in Africa.” African Studies Review 30, no. 3 (1987): 1–78, “African-Language Literature and Postcolonial Criticism.” Research in African Literatures 26, no. 4 (1995): 3–30, “Quotation in the Constitution of Yorùbá Oral Texts.” Research in African Literatures 30, no. 2 (1999): 17–41, The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), which offer a fundamental perspective on these issues. On this basis, I propose a more literary perspective, related to the ideas of the father of aesthetics Baumgarten (1714–1762), the American writer Susan Sontag (1933–2004) and the Swahili writer Euphrase Kezilahabi (1944–2020). Since Ongala belongs to different textual traditions, Congolese and Tanzanian, I use texts from these traditions for a comparative analysis of style and thought. On the Congolese side the comparison is based on elements of oral literature, like folk tale and song, both in relation to the proverb Kipendacho roho hula nyama bichi (A soul in love eats raw meat), while on the Tanzanian side the comparison is based on Swahili literature of that time.
Research Interests: African Music, East Africa, Congolese diaspora, Verbal arts, Popular Art, and 15 moreAfrican Poetry, Dr. Remmy Ongala, Music in Dar es Salaam, Swahili Literature, Middle Eastern and North African Studies, African Popular music, Songwriter, Congolese Music, Swahili Poetry, Euphrase Kezilahabi, African popular arts, Verbal Art, Music Democratic Republic of congo, Music DRC, and African songs
The aim of this paper is to make a contribution to the old but still vivid discussion on free verse Swahili poems and to suggest a textual approach that avoids culturalism. This approach is based on the ideas of Euphrase Kezilahabi and... more
The aim of this paper is to make a contribution to the old but still vivid
discussion on free verse Swahili poems and to suggest a textual approach that avoids culturalism. This approach is based on the ideas of Euphrase Kezilahabi and Ebrahim Hussein, who accuse critics of placing too much emphasis on cultural aspects or context. Kezilahabi and Hussein suggest a more holistic approach based on the aesthetics of the text. The dispute over free verse started in the late 1960s and still continues not only in academic writings, but also in harsh comments made by poets who write in a “traditional way” or scholars that I have had occasion to hear at conferences or during my fieldwork in Dar es Salaam.
discussion on free verse Swahili poems and to suggest a textual approach that avoids culturalism. This approach is based on the ideas of Euphrase Kezilahabi and Ebrahim Hussein, who accuse critics of placing too much emphasis on cultural aspects or context. Kezilahabi and Hussein suggest a more holistic approach based on the aesthetics of the text. The dispute over free verse started in the late 1960s and still continues not only in academic writings, but also in harsh comments made by poets who write in a “traditional way” or scholars that I have had occasion to hear at conferences or during my fieldwork in Dar es Salaam.
Research Interests:
It is well known that, in contemporary studies, the cultural and post-colonial critique mainly focuses on the context of art and literature. My paper highlights the importance of a new Werkimmanente Interpretation, which focuses on the... more
It is well known that, in contemporary studies, the cultural and post-colonial critique mainly focuses on the context of art and literature. My paper highlights the importance of a new Werkimmanente Interpretation, which focuses on the text qua aesthetic process. Thus, in other words, the text will be considered as a living event, meaning an experience of senses and knowledge. The text should be the centre of different her-meneutic approaches which involve translation and comparison, reader's reception, theories of knowledge, immanent interpretation of the text and literary language. Translation is not only a product, but a process of comprehension (incorporation) and restitution (incarnation) of a text through the constitution of an analogue. This paper intends to propose a multi-systematic mode of poetry analysis, related especially to the poetics of the Swahili writer Euphrase Kezilahabi.
Research Interests: Comparative Literature, Translation Studies, African Literature, Poetics, Performance, and 13 moreTranslation, Comparison, Literary translation, African Poetry, Analogy, Textual analysis, George Steiner, Close Reading, Aethetics, Swahili Literature, Swahili Poetry, Euphrase Kezilahabi, and Textual Approach
Concepts like materialism and secular thought have formed the basis of literary works of some of the most important authors of modern literature, such as Kezilahabi, Hussein, Mulokozi, and Topan. The value of such concepts has not always... more
Concepts like materialism and secular thought have formed the basis of literary works of some of the most important authors of modern literature, such as Kezilahabi, Hussein, Mulokozi, and Topan. The value of such concepts has not always been admitted by critics: all these authors, in fact, have faced various difficulties related to their works, from open refusal (in Kezilahabi's case) to a reluctant acceptance that neglected their critical points (in Topan's and Hussein's cases). The aim of this paper is to show to what extent secularism, materialism, and laicism are fundamental to these writers by selecting one case study, that of Topan's comedy Aliyeonja Pepo, and exploring its critique of religion, both independently and in comparison with the other aforementioned authors. Recognizing the presence of these concepts, in fact, would allow for a deeper analysis of the internal structures of these texts and mark an advance in their critical studies.
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This article focuses on the question of free verse from an inductive point of view, moving from the particular case of Kezilahabi’s texts (their structure and style) to the question of free verse in Swahili modern poetry and its... more
This article focuses on the question of free verse from an inductive point of view, moving from the particular case of Kezilahabi’s texts (their structure and style) to the question of free verse in Swahili modern poetry and its terminology. Thus, the article overcomes the fixed division between traditionalist and reformist ideas, which has characterized Swahili critics ever since Kezilahabi published his first collection of poems, Kichomi (1974). Through the analysis of a few poems (mostly from Kichomi and Dhifa, 2008), the hybrid, new forms of Kezilahabi’s poetry, aspects of his poetics, and his place in the history of Swahili poetry are shown.
Research Interests: Stylistics, Literary Stylistics, Hybridity, Contemporary Poetry, African Poetry, and 11 moreSwahili Literature, Stylistic Analysis, Modern African Poetry, Hybridized Literacy Practices, Poetry (African Poetry), East African Poetry, Swahili Poetry, Euphrase Kezilahabi, Aesthetics of Literature, Stylistics and African Poetry, and Aesthetics of text
The world of Swahili contemporary poetry, as remarked by M. M. Mulokozi and T. S. Y. Sengo (1995), is amazingly broad, given the progressive diffusion of the Swahili language in the course of the last two centuries, from the East African... more
The world of Swahili contemporary poetry, as remarked by M. M. Mulokozi and T. S. Y. Sengo (1995), is amazingly broad, given the progressive diffusion of the Swahili language in the course of the last two centuries, from the East African coast to the continental regions of Eastern and Central Africa. Accordingly, authors of Swahili poetic texts can also be found in the “periphery” of the Swahilophone area, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where this language has become the medium of modern songs and written poetry in many areas, although the latter is hardly visible in a context where creative writing is predominantly expressed in French. In the present contribution, after an introduction on Swahili poetry in the DRC and on the linguistic complexity of the Swahilophone environment of Katanga, and particularly of its main city, Lubumbashi, we will present some (so far unpublished) poems by Patrick Mudekereza, art curator and director of the cultural centre WAZA, together with a first analysis of his verses, whose poetics emerges from plurilingualism and corporality.
Research Interests: Swahili, Congo, Linguistica, Poesia, Trasgressione, and 13 moreLetterature comparate, Erotismo, Stilistica, Lubumbashi, Analisi Del Testo, Letteratura Africana, Poesia Africana, Poesia Swahili, Analisi stilistica, analisi del testo letterario, Repubblica Democratica del Congo, Dialetti swahili, Swahili congolese, and Swahili di Lubumbashi
In this article, I analyse some texts of the Congolese songwriter Remmy Ongala. I outline his biography and career from Kindu and Kisangani (Democratic Republic of Congo) to Songea and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). My analysis is focused on... more
In this article, I analyse some texts of the Congolese songwriter Remmy Ongala. I outline his biography and career from Kindu and Kisangani (Democratic Republic of Congo) to Songea and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). My analysis is focused on style of his texts: through a comparative approach between his textual traditions, I propose a reading of his poetic conception and its contextualization as verbal art, that means focussing on the aesthetics of text.
Research Interests: Swahili, Tanzania, Poesia, Dr. Remmy Ongala, Analisi Testuale, and 15 morePoetica, Cantautori, Filosofia Africana, Proverbi, Filosofia, Musica Popolare, Poesia Africana, Musica Popolare Congolese, Letteratura orale, canzone africana, canzone swahili, Repubblica Democratica del Congo, musica urbana africana, proverbi africani, and proverbi swahili
Euphrase Kezilahabi, outstanding Swahili writer, thinker and scholar who was born on 13 April, 1944, passed away on 9 January, 2020. In this obituary, Roberto Gaudioso pays homage to his path-breaking achievements in Swahili creative... more
Euphrase Kezilahabi, outstanding Swahili writer, thinker and scholar who was born on 13 April, 1944, passed away on 9 January, 2020. In this obituary, Roberto Gaudioso pays homage to his path-breaking achievements in Swahili creative literature by highlighting his poetry which Gaudioso has studied in depth. He emphasizes that the late Kezilahabi’s contribution as an intellectual and a poet goes beyond limits of space and time, as is shown by generations of researchers and translators who have been working on him.
Research Interests:
In this paper, I propose translation as a main tool for a sensualistic and hermeneutical approach to texts. In agreement with the writer and thinker Euphrase Kezilahabi, who claims that the text has to be considered as a living event, I... more
In this paper, I propose translation as a main tool for a sensualistic and hermeneutical approach to texts. In agreement with the writer and thinker Euphrase Kezilahabi, who claims that the text has to be considered as a living event, I propose to look at a text not as an object but as a living body. I ague that this approach reduces the distance between the body of the text and that of the reader. Perception can thus be used as a means to know and critique a literary text. I present a multifocal sensualistic analysis based on an analogical idea of knowledge, taking translation as a tool to push the critic to focus on the text word for word (not excluding the paratext or the context). The translations discussed here are poems by Kezilahabi and a proposal for a Swahili translation of the poem L’infinito by the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi.
Research Interests: Translation Studies, Translation theory, Hermeneutics, Poetics, Translation of Poetry, and 15 moreGiacomo Leopardi, Poetry and Poetics, Cognitive Poetics, Literary translation, Comparative Poetics, George Steiner, Swahili Literature, Critical Poetics, Nadharia Za Uhakiki, Swahili Poetry, Euphrase Kezilahabi, Uhakiki Wa Fasihi, Somatic Approach, Performing Arts and Somatic Approach, and Aesthetics of the Text
Makala hii inahusu mgogoro juu ya ushairi wa Kiswahili kati ya wanamapokeo na wanamabadiliko. Mwandishi analinganisha mashairi ya Kezilahabi na Mulokozi ili kuonyesha tofauti kati yao na kusisitiza kwamba kuna mikondo mbalimbali hata... more
Makala hii inahusu mgogoro juu ya ushairi wa Kiswahili kati ya wanamapokeo na wanamabadiliko. Mwandishi analinganisha mashairi ya Kezilahabi na Mulokozi ili kuonyesha tofauti kati yao na kusisitiza kwamba kuna mikondo mbalimbali hata ndani ya wanamabadiliko. Makala hii ipo ndani ya kitabu hiki: Shani Omari & Method Samwel (eds.) 2018. Fasihi, Lugha na Utamaduni wa Kiswahili na Kiafrika. Kwa Heshima ya Prof. M.M. Mulokozi
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Research Interests: Freedom of Speech, Secularism, Laicismo, Traduzione Poetica, Traduzione Letteraria, and 11 moreSwahili Poetry, Letteratura Africana, Euphrase Kezilahabi, Traduzione e interpretazione, Poesia Africana, Poesia Swahili, Letteratura Swahili, Ebrahim Hussein, Laicismo africano, African secularism, and Libertà di pensiero
This article stems from a field research carried out in Lubumbashi in September and October 2018, as part of a national project on contemporary RDC, with a focus on the swahilophone creative expressions. It aims at outlining the poetics... more
This article stems from a field research carried out in Lubumbashi in September
and October 2018, as part of a national project on contemporary RDC, with a
focus on the swahilophone creative expressions. It aims at outlining the poetics
of the sing-songwriter Sando Marteau as it springs from his texts in Swahili,
within the linguistic and cultural context of Lubumbashi.
and October 2018, as part of a national project on contemporary RDC, with a
focus on the swahilophone creative expressions. It aims at outlining the poetics
of the sing-songwriter Sando Marteau as it springs from his texts in Swahili,
within the linguistic and cultural context of Lubumbashi.
Research Interests:
This article stems from a field research carried out in Lubumbashi in September and October 2018, as part of a national project on contemporary RDC, with a focus on the swahilophone creative expressions. It aims at outlining the poetics... more
This article stems from a field research carried out in Lubumbashi in September and October 2018, as part of a national project on contemporary RDC, with a focus on the swahilophone creative expressions. It aims at outlining the poetics of the sing-songwriter Sando Marteau as it springs from his texts in Swahili, within the linguistic and cultural context of Lubumbashi.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Euphrase Kezilahabi, a Tanzanian poet, novelist and scholar, is an ontological and African interpreter of Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. He transfers and rewrites Western philosophy in an African way, transforming philosophical... more
Euphrase Kezilahabi, a Tanzanian poet, novelist and scholar, is an ontological and African interpreter of Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. He transfers and rewrites Western philosophy in an African way, transforming philosophical concepts into metaphors or oniric images. These elements emerge in his PhD thesis where he explicitly speaks about the importance of the concepts of Being in Heidegger and the concept of Time in Nietzsche. African Being for Kezilahabi is being a prisoner because of pride of ethnicity, pride of Africanness and ethnic morality. That imprisons African Being and makes African leaders profit from the manipulation of these elements. According to Kezilahabi, these elements tend to make Africans think in a Fascist way. One of the key features of Kezilahabi's philosophy is liberation. And so it is a philosophy of freedom, with very different meanings, which is the subject of this article. Kezilahabi's philosophy is concerned with liberation. He meditates on the concept of time, taking as his cue the ancient question of " Western " philosophy as to whether time is circular or linear. He uses African elements to resolve this question, and the result is not only African but universal. His philosophy is not a summary of the influences from Western philosophy, but an original deep philosophy by one of the greatest African writers. This article will show his rewriting of these concepts and their political, social and philosophical valence.
Research Interests: Comparative Literature, Translation Studies, African Philosophy, Poetry, African Literature, and 21 morePoetics, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Eternal Recurrence and Identity, Lyric poetry, Contemporary Poetry, Translation, Ethnophilosophy, Africana Studies, East African literature, Existentialism, Freedom, Rewriting, African Poetry, Nagona Mzingile, Swahili Literature, East African Poetry, Swahili Poetry, Euphrase Kezilahabi, Ukerewe, and Kerebe Culture
Research Interests:
This paper is a contribution to the 26th Swahili Colloquium in Bayreuth 2013. As the main theme of the conference was Tafsiri ‘Translations’, an analysis of Euphrase Kezilahabi’s poetry will be presented, with particular focus on the... more
This paper is a contribution to the 26th Swahili Colloquium in Bayreuth 2013. As the main theme of the conference was Tafsiri ‘Translations’, an analysis of Euphrase Kezilahabi’s poetry will be presented, with particular focus on the limits of both language and translation. Looking at the linguistic properties of Kezilahabi’s poetry these linguistic limits seem to represent the various stages of his philosophy; in this journey language is the means and the goal itself as it is an important unit of existence. Kezilahabi transfers many "African" and Swahili elements from past to present and he transfers foreign elements, from outside to inside, written anew and revived through the poet’s words. This analysis will consider the poetic word as a result of this comparison. The poetic of Euphrase Kezilahabi is also an original result of a comparison between his culture and literature and foreign literature.
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~afrika/swafo/index.php/archives/38-swahili-forum-21-2014
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~afrika/swafo/index.php/archives/38-swahili-forum-21-2014
Research Interests: Philosophy Of Language, African Philosophy, Swahili, African Philosophy Languages Literature Afrophone, Fasihi, and 9 moreSwahili Literary History, Ushairi Wa Kisasa, Ushairi Wa Kimapinduzi, Swahili Poetry, Euphrase Kezilahabi, Aestethics of Literature, Mtiririko (mashairi-huru), Fasihi ya Kiswahili, and Ujumi wa Fasihi
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Research Interests:
Questo volume è una pubblicazione postuma della prof.ssa Elena Bertoncini Zúbková di cui Roberto Gaudioso è curatore e co-autore. Si tratta di una grammatica introduttiva alla lingua shona, con elementi contrastivi rispetto alla lingua... more
Questo volume è una pubblicazione postuma della prof.ssa Elena Bertoncini Zúbková di cui Roberto Gaudioso è curatore e co-autore. Si tratta di una grammatica introduttiva alla lingua shona, con elementi contrastivi rispetto alla lingua swahili, appartenente alla medesima famiglia linguistica bantu. Il carattere contrastivo rende questo lavoro particolarmente adatto a studentesse e studenti di swahili. Il volume, con il contributo del co-autore, arricchisce la parte di grammatica contrastiva shona/swahili con un’introduzione storico-linguistica che ricostruisce contatti e scambi tra questi due mondi e situa le due lingue nell’ampia famiglia delle lingue bantu. Questa nutrita sezione introduttiva fa del libro un utile strumento per chi si accosta per la prima volta allo studio delle lingue bantu. Prima della descrizione morfologica della lingua shona, inoltre, il co-autore ha inserito un approfondimento sulle diverse riforme ortografiche shona, in modo da dare a chi legge gli strumenti per avvicinarsi ai testi stampati prima dell’ultima (terza) riforma ortografica del 1967. La descrizione grammaticale della lingua shona è basata soprattutto sugli aspetti morfologici della lingua, alcuni dei quali descritti nel dettaglio come il capitolo sulle classi nominali e quello sul verbo. La grammatica, infine, è arricchita da diverse tabelle riassuntive e da illustrazioni dello Zimbabwe antico e moderno, il principale paese in cui si parla la lingua shona.
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https://www.koeppe.de/titel_the-voice-of-the-text-and-its-body Minerba, Emiliano.2022. Coming back to text in literary analysis: A review of Roberto Gaudioso’s The Voice of the Text and its Body. The Continuous Reform of Euphrase... more
https://www.koeppe.de/titel_the-voice-of-the-text-and-its-body
Minerba, Emiliano.2022. Coming back to text in literary analysis: A review of Roberto Gaudioso’s The Voice of the Text and its Body. The Continuous Reform of Euphrase Kezilahabi’s Poetics: " Gaudioso here distinguishes himself by investigating this question from a literary rather than a cultural perspective, and by doing so he emancipates Kezilahabi’s free verse from the perception of it as a Western influence that poses a threat to Swahili poetry. Instead, he demonstrates clearly that free verse is functional in Kezilahabi’s conception of poetry as an ‘event lived’ — that is the precise expression employed by Kezilahabi (34) — that is able to go beyond its language and also the cultural environment it is born in, without rejecting it or betraying it (35). [...] Gaudioso explains the role of induction in literature mainly through analogy, referring above all to the extensive monograph by Enzo Melandri (2004). Analogy is the basis of the two main tools that allow us to experience the text as a body: comparison and translation.[...] Here, Gaudioso devotes his analysis first to the sound of the poems in this collection which is very elaborate and rich in musicality. This contributes to invalidating the idea that free verse has no rules, and it shows the close connection of Kezilahabi’s poetry with orality.[...] In all these three chapters, Gaudioso’s original analysis provides us with much more than just a better knowledge of Kezilahabi’s poetry. First, in all of them, comparison with poets and authors from different cultures is widely employed: not only Hussein and Topan, but also Heidegger and Nietzsche as philosophers, the Austrian poets Ingeborg Bachmann and Rainer Maria Rilke, the Italians Leopardi, Pasolini and Montale, the Tanzanian singer Remmy Ongala, and, coming back to Italy, the songwriter Fabrizio De Andrè. All these comparisons provide us with really interesting results and challenge several axioms — not to say taboos — of literary studies in Africa: comparison with Western authors outside the frame of the colonial experience proves to us that literature and art are not cultural, but universal phenomena, that go beyond the boundaries of different cultures, to use Kezilahabi’s words. Moreover, placing Kezilahabi alongside songwriters such as Remmy Ongala and Fabrizio De Andrè is a stimulation to overcome other literary classifications, such as oral vs. written and élitist vs. popular. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23277408.2022.2027085?src=&journalCode=real20
Rosenberg, Aaron ESTUDIOS DE ASIA Y ÁFRICA, VOL. 57, NÚM. 1 (177), 2022, PP. 201-204: "La amplia y profundamente informada serie de análisis de Gaudioso pasa de un posicionamiento cuasi histórico del trabajo de Kezilahabi dentro de —y en desacuerdo con— varias tradiciones poéticas swahili y de África Oriental a una discusión sobre la manera en la que su poesía, constantemente reformulada, debe entenderse en el contexto de la expresión poética como performance somática. Si bien no siempre hay un vínculo directo y obvio entre los elementos contextuales o las obras literarias específicas citadas, Gaudioso siempre se cuida de explicitar el uso particular que hace de estas partes y es muy claro acerca de la naturaleza aparente o implícita de tales asociaciones [...] El verdadero valor de estas intervenciones tan exitosas es que, invariablemente, ayudan al lector a comprender las sutilezas y las fortalezas de las obras expresivas de Kezilahabi y la forma en la que su creatividad dialoga de modo sostenido con el pensamiento profundo de varias comunidades, y Gaudioso debe ser elogiado por su atención al detalle y la adecuada realización de su obra en cada caso, ya que no elude la lectura profunda de las obras y la reunificación de cada caso con su tema central." https://estudiosdeasiayafrica.colmex.mx/index.php/eaa/article/view/2751/2674
Minerba, Emiliano.2022. Coming back to text in literary analysis: A review of Roberto Gaudioso’s The Voice of the Text and its Body. The Continuous Reform of Euphrase Kezilahabi’s Poetics: " Gaudioso here distinguishes himself by investigating this question from a literary rather than a cultural perspective, and by doing so he emancipates Kezilahabi’s free verse from the perception of it as a Western influence that poses a threat to Swahili poetry. Instead, he demonstrates clearly that free verse is functional in Kezilahabi’s conception of poetry as an ‘event lived’ — that is the precise expression employed by Kezilahabi (34) — that is able to go beyond its language and also the cultural environment it is born in, without rejecting it or betraying it (35). [...] Gaudioso explains the role of induction in literature mainly through analogy, referring above all to the extensive monograph by Enzo Melandri (2004). Analogy is the basis of the two main tools that allow us to experience the text as a body: comparison and translation.[...] Here, Gaudioso devotes his analysis first to the sound of the poems in this collection which is very elaborate and rich in musicality. This contributes to invalidating the idea that free verse has no rules, and it shows the close connection of Kezilahabi’s poetry with orality.[...] In all these three chapters, Gaudioso’s original analysis provides us with much more than just a better knowledge of Kezilahabi’s poetry. First, in all of them, comparison with poets and authors from different cultures is widely employed: not only Hussein and Topan, but also Heidegger and Nietzsche as philosophers, the Austrian poets Ingeborg Bachmann and Rainer Maria Rilke, the Italians Leopardi, Pasolini and Montale, the Tanzanian singer Remmy Ongala, and, coming back to Italy, the songwriter Fabrizio De Andrè. All these comparisons provide us with really interesting results and challenge several axioms — not to say taboos — of literary studies in Africa: comparison with Western authors outside the frame of the colonial experience proves to us that literature and art are not cultural, but universal phenomena, that go beyond the boundaries of different cultures, to use Kezilahabi’s words. Moreover, placing Kezilahabi alongside songwriters such as Remmy Ongala and Fabrizio De Andrè is a stimulation to overcome other literary classifications, such as oral vs. written and élitist vs. popular. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23277408.2022.2027085?src=&journalCode=real20
Rosenberg, Aaron ESTUDIOS DE ASIA Y ÁFRICA, VOL. 57, NÚM. 1 (177), 2022, PP. 201-204: "La amplia y profundamente informada serie de análisis de Gaudioso pasa de un posicionamiento cuasi histórico del trabajo de Kezilahabi dentro de —y en desacuerdo con— varias tradiciones poéticas swahili y de África Oriental a una discusión sobre la manera en la que su poesía, constantemente reformulada, debe entenderse en el contexto de la expresión poética como performance somática. Si bien no siempre hay un vínculo directo y obvio entre los elementos contextuales o las obras literarias específicas citadas, Gaudioso siempre se cuida de explicitar el uso particular que hace de estas partes y es muy claro acerca de la naturaleza aparente o implícita de tales asociaciones [...] El verdadero valor de estas intervenciones tan exitosas es que, invariablemente, ayudan al lector a comprender las sutilezas y las fortalezas de las obras expresivas de Kezilahabi y la forma en la que su creatividad dialoga de modo sostenido con el pensamiento profundo de varias comunidades, y Gaudioso debe ser elogiado por su atención al detalle y la adecuada realización de su obra en cada caso, ya que no elude la lectura profunda de las obras y la reunificación de cada caso con su tema central." https://estudiosdeasiayafrica.colmex.mx/index.php/eaa/article/view/2751/2674
Research Interests: African Studies, Comparative Literature, Aesthetics, Translation Studies, African Philosophy, and 15 morePoetics, Tanzanian Studies, Postcolonial Literature, Free Verse, African Poetry, Swahili Literature, Nietzsche reception, East African Poetry, Swahili Poetry, Euphrase Kezilahabi, Poesia Africana, Ukerewe, African reception of Nietzsche, African reception of Heidegger, and Heidegger reception
The Journal of African Languages and Literatures – JALaLit (ISSN 2723-9764) is an electronic, international, peer-reviewed academic journal created with the aim to build a scientific space to address and discuss the current research... more
The Journal of African Languages and Literatures – JALaLit (ISSN 2723-9764) is an electronic, international, peer-reviewed academic journal created with the aim to build a scientific space to address and discuss the current research trends in African linguistics and in modern and contemporary African literatures. JALaLit publishes one issue a year and is entirely open access.
JALaLit welcomes original research articles, fieldwork material, and discussion notes. The journal is interested in scholarship that draws from a broad variety of theoretical approaches and methodologies.
African linguistics: data-driven research contributions related to any aspect of African languages. A special focus is given to description, documentation and analysis of undocumented and under-described languages.
African literatures: studies on modern and contemporary literatures in African languages (also in comparison to other literatures) with a special focus on texts (both in oral or written form).
http://www.serena.unina.it/index.php/jalalit/index
JALaLit welcomes original research articles, fieldwork material, and discussion notes. The journal is interested in scholarship that draws from a broad variety of theoretical approaches and methodologies.
African linguistics: data-driven research contributions related to any aspect of African languages. A special focus is given to description, documentation and analysis of undocumented and under-described languages.
African literatures: studies on modern and contemporary literatures in African languages (also in comparison to other literatures) with a special focus on texts (both in oral or written form).
http://www.serena.unina.it/index.php/jalalit/index
Research Interests:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9kr2GnhShI&list=PLEH64_JkNziRzD_fOohwItvzLy4yIH5vX Mario Famularo: In questi versi di Gaudioso è possibile rinvenire una particolare tensione, volta a evidenziare la dissonanza stridente tra bello e... more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9kr2GnhShI&list=PLEH64_JkNziRzD_fOohwItvzLy4yIH5vX
Mario Famularo: In questi versi di Gaudioso è possibile rinvenire una particolare tensione, volta a evidenziare la dissonanza stridente tra bello e buono, quasi a rovesciare l’adagio classico in un monito, un invito a precipitare lo sguardo e a cambiarne la prospettiva dal basso; la bellezza (e la sua apparenza) assume così fattezze più affini al terribile, a un pericoloso agente della rovina, mentre, per converso, la bontà si lascia intuire come operazione di accoglimento, di umile auscultazione dell’altro da sé e del mondo, in un progressivo allontanarsi dal sé.
https://www.laboratoripoesia.it/le-tue-preghiere-immerse-in-valle-di-nulla-roberto-lumuli-gaudioso/
Serena Talento: Se a prima vista le compresenze, così come, e soprattutto, il pluralismo linguistico della poesia di Gaudioso sembrano esercitare un effetto straniante sul lettore, un’esperienza più ravvicinata rivela quanto queste rappresentino un vertice dell’accoglienza. Antoine Berman (1985/2004: 286) riteneva che il fine etico della traduzione consiste nel ricevere l’estraneo come tale, e lasciare che si dischiuda a noi nella sua assoluta estraneità. Allo stesso modo la poesia di Gaudioso, con le sue lingue, le sue geografie, e i suoi echi, ci spinge verso quell’albergo della lontananza (Berman 1999), che include e amplifica, moltiplica l’io e i suoi mondi permettendoci di vederci per intero.
https://poetarumsilva.com/2021/03/23/serena-talento-roberto-lumuli-gaudioso-squitii/
Andrea Galgano: Squittii di Roberto Lumuli Gaudioso, pubblicata da Oèdipus nel 2020, è espressione di vitale ricerca. Sia per una sorta di sincretismo linguistico che innerva sia la letteratura in lingue africane scritte e orali (con particolare attenzione per lo swahili) sia la trama delle letterature italiane, spagnole e tedesche in una immersione di patchwork e magma finale.
https://poesiainverso.com/2021/06/24/roberto-gaudioso-squittii/
Melania Panico: Giungiamo poi alla terza parte ovvero alla sezione Transcorrere: transito, trasformazione, movimento. È il luogo in cui l’autore rifiuta ogni origine, ogni essenzialismo in favore di quella che chiameremo esperienza di commistione, terra come carne viva, canto senza fine. È certamente la sezione in cui l’elemento/corpo si fa più presente e chiaro: “lamento è una lama/ al mento/ il pianto in gola/ diviene sangue/ l’urlo d’agnello/ non diviene/ e il pianto si rapprende/ sul viso”. Il canto non si ferma mai e noi ne diventiamo parte, senza paura perché kisichobadilika kimekufa, ciò che non cambia è morto.
https://www.rivistaclandestino.com/squittii-di-roberto-gaudioso/
Mario Famularo: In questi versi di Gaudioso è possibile rinvenire una particolare tensione, volta a evidenziare la dissonanza stridente tra bello e buono, quasi a rovesciare l’adagio classico in un monito, un invito a precipitare lo sguardo e a cambiarne la prospettiva dal basso; la bellezza (e la sua apparenza) assume così fattezze più affini al terribile, a un pericoloso agente della rovina, mentre, per converso, la bontà si lascia intuire come operazione di accoglimento, di umile auscultazione dell’altro da sé e del mondo, in un progressivo allontanarsi dal sé.
https://www.laboratoripoesia.it/le-tue-preghiere-immerse-in-valle-di-nulla-roberto-lumuli-gaudioso/
Serena Talento: Se a prima vista le compresenze, così come, e soprattutto, il pluralismo linguistico della poesia di Gaudioso sembrano esercitare un effetto straniante sul lettore, un’esperienza più ravvicinata rivela quanto queste rappresentino un vertice dell’accoglienza. Antoine Berman (1985/2004: 286) riteneva che il fine etico della traduzione consiste nel ricevere l’estraneo come tale, e lasciare che si dischiuda a noi nella sua assoluta estraneità. Allo stesso modo la poesia di Gaudioso, con le sue lingue, le sue geografie, e i suoi echi, ci spinge verso quell’albergo della lontananza (Berman 1999), che include e amplifica, moltiplica l’io e i suoi mondi permettendoci di vederci per intero.
https://poetarumsilva.com/2021/03/23/serena-talento-roberto-lumuli-gaudioso-squitii/
Andrea Galgano: Squittii di Roberto Lumuli Gaudioso, pubblicata da Oèdipus nel 2020, è espressione di vitale ricerca. Sia per una sorta di sincretismo linguistico che innerva sia la letteratura in lingue africane scritte e orali (con particolare attenzione per lo swahili) sia la trama delle letterature italiane, spagnole e tedesche in una immersione di patchwork e magma finale.
https://poesiainverso.com/2021/06/24/roberto-gaudioso-squittii/
Melania Panico: Giungiamo poi alla terza parte ovvero alla sezione Transcorrere: transito, trasformazione, movimento. È il luogo in cui l’autore rifiuta ogni origine, ogni essenzialismo in favore di quella che chiameremo esperienza di commistione, terra come carne viva, canto senza fine. È certamente la sezione in cui l’elemento/corpo si fa più presente e chiaro: “lamento è una lama/ al mento/ il pianto in gola/ diviene sangue/ l’urlo d’agnello/ non diviene/ e il pianto si rapprende/ sul viso”. Il canto non si ferma mai e noi ne diventiamo parte, senza paura perché kisichobadilika kimekufa, ciò che non cambia è morto.
https://www.rivistaclandestino.com/squittii-di-roberto-gaudioso/
Research Interests: Multilingualism, Poetry, Africa, Multilingual Writers, Plurilingualism, and 15 moreLingue, Contemporary Italian Poetry, Plurilinguisme, Literary Multilingualism, Poesia, Multilinguismo, Poesia italiana contemporanea, Plurilinguismo, Poesia Italiana, Lingue Straniere, Poesia Contemporânea, Bi/plurilingualism/literacy, Multilingual Writing), poesia multilingue, and poesia plurilingue
Research Interests:
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Considered as an approach, as an analytic tool, as a domain of study, comparison is a concept and a praxis that has gained more and more space in Swahili Studies (and in African Studies in general) in recent years. For this reason, we... more
Considered as an approach, as an analytic tool, as a domain of study, comparison is a concept and a praxis that has gained more and more space in Swahili Studies (and in African Studies in general) in recent years. For this reason, we believe exploring this field of study is essential and fruitful. It is our belief that the comparative approach, starting from the text (oral or written), by empirically and/or inductively comparing texts with each other, can bring out continuities and discontinuities within African verbal arts and between these and non-African ones; comparison is as well a heuristic tool that helps to explore and analyse works from new, unusual points of view, stimulating new observations, hypotheses and interpretations. Any work of art (including popular art), be it textual or not however immediately comprehensible it may seem to us (or to its local audience), disguises a potentiality of meanings that analysis cannot ignore. The context of a text is absolutely fundamental, but it would be a mistake to establish a direct relationship between art and context without considering the being art of the text; that is, the constitutive reasons for an artistic text. We intend to collect as many visions as possible on comparison as a textual approach; any presentation from any perspective, as far as it is centred on the text, is therefore welcome. The focus of this workshop is on theories and methodologies of comparison; papers based on case studies are especially welcome. We invite you to explore these comparisons: 1. between texts from different African languages (both local and national languages); 2. between texts in an African language and texts in a non-African language; 3. between verbal art in more Swahili varieties, including the ones of DRC, etc. Along these lines of comparative research, we encourage contributors to identify the textual aesthetics that shape the reception and interpretation of the works under study. It should be emphasized that comparative analysis around any genre of the verbal arts is welcome, whatever it is its medium, oral or written.
Research Interests:
Call for online Workshop 22 and 23 June Considered as an approach, as an analytic tool, as a domain of study, the comparison is a concept and a praxis that has gained more and more space in Swahili Studies (and in African Studies in... more
Call for online Workshop 22 and 23 June Considered as an approach, as an analytic tool, as a domain of study, the comparison is a concept and a praxis that has gained more and more space in Swahili Studies (and in African Studies in general) in recent years. For this reason, we believe exploring this field of study is essential and fruitful. It is our belief that the comparative approach, starting from the text (oral or written), by empirically and/or inductively comparing texts with each other, can bring out continuities and discontinuities within African verbal arts and between these ones and non-African ones. These differences and continuities will be grounded on the concreteness of the texts and not deductively from essentialist assertions or linked only to extra-textual elements. Any work of art even textual works, including popular art however immediately comprehensible it may seem to us (or to its local audience), disguises a potentiality of meanings that analysis cannot ignore. The context of a text is absolutely fundamental, but it would be a mistake to establish a direct relationship between art and context without considering the being art of the text; that is, the constitutive reasons for an artistic text. Why and how is it constructed to be verbal art?
Research Interests: African Studies, Wolof, African Literature, Literary Theory, African Literatures, and 12 moreAfrican oral literature in contemporary contexts, East African literature, African art and aesthetics, Swahili Ndebele Yoruba Bambara Shona Lingala, Swahili Literature, Yoruba Literature, Literary Theory and Criticism in African Literature, Somali Literature, COMPARATIVE LITERATURE AND AFRICAN ORAL LITERATURE, African literary history, Hausa Litereture, and Literatures in African languages
Speaking and Writing, Performing and Being: Discursive Trajectories in Eastern African Expressive Cultures Friday, February 11th, 1:30 pm (Mexico City/USA Central Standard Time) Panel organizers: Dr. Aaron Rosenberg... more
Speaking and Writing, Performing and Being:
Discursive Trajectories in Eastern African Expressive Cultures
Friday, February 11th, 1:30 pm (Mexico City/USA Central Standard Time)
Panel organizers:
Dr. Aaron Rosenberg (alrosenberg@colmex.mx), Dr. Roberto Gaudioso (roberto.lumuli.gaudioso@gmail.com)
This panel emphasizes the following topics:
1. The role of African languages in African cultural modernization
2. Language in African literature and performance 3. Language in African arts and media
In recognition of the diversity and intricacy of expressive cultures in Eastern African contexts this panel seeks to explore the crucial messages and contextual power of these works and their systems of deployment throughout all levels of discursive community within East African continental and diasporic spheres in the articulation of viable identities to carry African people through the complexities of their contemporary postcolonial circumstances. As a result of the constant interaction of members of these communities with multiple pasts, presents and future possibilities any static idea of their aspirations toward “modernity” in the conventional European humanistic mold are insufficient tools for shaping our understanding of Eastern African verbal and performative artistry.
In particular, the panel will confront the inconsistencies and shortcomings of the terms “modernity” and “modernization” when applied in Eastern African contexts. Due to the particularities of the experiences of Eastern African communities in the 19th and twentieth, and now into the twenty-first centuries, this panel proposes a different set of creative paradigms through which we can come to a better understanding of the ways in which Eastern African artists explore their relation to the world in historical and contemporary perspectives through verbal and performative works in a wide variety of media and genres.
The proceedings of the conference will be selectively collected in order to publish them in an edited volume in English (press to be determined) as well as Spanish (El Colegio de México).
The panel organizers invite proposals for 20 minute presentations in English, Spanish or Swahili to be carried out via zoom. These proposals will be accepted at the above email addresses in form of a formal proposal of between 200 and 250 words until the first of November, 2021.
Discursive Trajectories in Eastern African Expressive Cultures
Friday, February 11th, 1:30 pm (Mexico City/USA Central Standard Time)
Panel organizers:
Dr. Aaron Rosenberg (alrosenberg@colmex.mx), Dr. Roberto Gaudioso (roberto.lumuli.gaudioso@gmail.com)
This panel emphasizes the following topics:
1. The role of African languages in African cultural modernization
2. Language in African literature and performance 3. Language in African arts and media
In recognition of the diversity and intricacy of expressive cultures in Eastern African contexts this panel seeks to explore the crucial messages and contextual power of these works and their systems of deployment throughout all levels of discursive community within East African continental and diasporic spheres in the articulation of viable identities to carry African people through the complexities of their contemporary postcolonial circumstances. As a result of the constant interaction of members of these communities with multiple pasts, presents and future possibilities any static idea of their aspirations toward “modernity” in the conventional European humanistic mold are insufficient tools for shaping our understanding of Eastern African verbal and performative artistry.
In particular, the panel will confront the inconsistencies and shortcomings of the terms “modernity” and “modernization” when applied in Eastern African contexts. Due to the particularities of the experiences of Eastern African communities in the 19th and twentieth, and now into the twenty-first centuries, this panel proposes a different set of creative paradigms through which we can come to a better understanding of the ways in which Eastern African artists explore their relation to the world in historical and contemporary perspectives through verbal and performative works in a wide variety of media and genres.
The proceedings of the conference will be selectively collected in order to publish them in an edited volume in English (press to be determined) as well as Spanish (El Colegio de México).
The panel organizers invite proposals for 20 minute presentations in English, Spanish or Swahili to be carried out via zoom. These proposals will be accepted at the above email addresses in form of a formal proposal of between 200 and 250 words until the first of November, 2021.
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, African Studies, Comparative Literature, Anthropology, Ethnomusicology, and 15 moreCultural Heritage, Narrative, Popular Culture, African Literature, East Africa, Modernism, Narrative Theory, East African literature, Cultura Popular, Música Popular, World music-Ethnomusicology, Swahili Literature, Fasihi, Personal Narratives, and Fasihi ya Kiswahili
Nico Nassenstein's collection of sayings and proverbs presents four varieties of Congolese Swahili (DRC): Kivu, Bunia/Ituri Kingwana, Kisangani and Lubumbashi/Katanga. Besides the bibliography and a useful index of proverbs (classified... more
Nico Nassenstein's collection of sayings and proverbs presents four varieties of Congolese Swahili (DRC): Kivu, Bunia/Ituri Kingwana, Kisangani and Lubumbashi/Katanga. Besides the bibliography and a useful index of proverbs (classified for concepts), the book is divided into five parts, the first consists of the introduction and the collection of proverbs and the other four consist of the collection itself in the four Congolese regiolects. This volume follows logically Nassenstein's work on Congolese Swahili such as the 2015 monograph Kisangani Swahili: Choices and Variation in a Multilingual Urban Space or the 2016 monograph written with Paulin Baraka Bose Kivu Swahili Texts and Grammar Notes.