Spazi e luoghi urbani nella narrativa swahili: il caso di Dar es Salaam

  • Graziella Acquaviva University of Turin
Keywords: city, experience, Dar es Salaam, space, place

Abstract

Very often, literature provides visions of the city that are typical of both common sense and collective imagination. Therefore, investigating literature we can sometimes better understand some unexplored ‘territories’. In the case of Dar es Salaam, novels and short stories show two different interpretation of the city, concerned as they are with different places and aesthetics, and suggesting an interesting analogy between the city structure and the narrative text.  Reading Swahili fiction published at the end of the 20th century, we get a survey of both urban texture and a picture of the urban space: poverty, migration and illegal activities drive the reader to a fictionalised, yet very real, Dar es Salaam.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Graziella Acquaviva, University of Turin
Graziella Acquaviva holds a PhD in African Studies from the  University of Naples “L’Orientale”. She has done extensive research in Tanzania and Kenya on Swahili popular literature and has produced many publications in the field of African literature. She further translated  Collodi’s Le avventure di Pinocchio: Storia di un burattino (1883) and Carofiglio’s Testimone inconsapevole (2002) from Italian into Swahili (Hekaya za Pinokio and Shahidi asiyekusudiwa). She teaches Swahili Language, Culture and Literature at the University of Turin.

References

Acquaviva, Graziella. 1997. “Passaggio dall’Est: il fenomeno droga in Tanzania”. Africa e Mediterraneo 3/4: 42-43.

Akwilombe, Rashidi. 1988. Dar Imenihadaa. Dar es Salaam: Akajase Enterprises.

Ashcroft, Bill. 1995. The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. London, New York: Routledge.

Barker, Chris. 2000. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. London: SAGE Publications.

Benjamin, Walter. 1984. Angelus Novus. Torino: Einaudi.

Bertoncini Zúbková, Elena. 1994. “Image de la Femme dans la Littérature Swahili”. Afrikanische Arbeitspapiere 37: 13-27.

Banyikwa, William F. 1988. “The Effects of Insensitivity in Planning Land for Urban Development in Tanzania: The Case of Dar es Salaam”. The African Review: Journal of African Politics, Development and International Affairs 15: 35-43.

Brennan, James R. and Andrew Burton A. 2007. “The Emerging Metropolis: A History of Dar Es Salaam, Circa 1862-2000”. In Dar Es Salaam: Histories from an Emerging African Metropolis, James R. Brennan, Andrew Burton, and Yusuf Lawi (eds.). Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota: 1-11.

Crema, Egidio. 1987. Wahehe: un popolo bantu. Bologna: EMI.

Fabian, Steven. 2007. “Curing the Cancer of the Colony: Bagamoyo, Dar es Salaam, and Socioeconomic Struggle in German East Africa”. The International Journal of African Historical Studies 40.3: 441-469.

Greimas, Algirdas Julien, Fontanille, Jacques. 1996. Semiotica delle Passioni. Dagli stati di cose agli stati d'animo. Milano: Bompiani. Tit. or. Sémiotique des Passions. Des états de choses aux états d'âme. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1991.

Heise, Lori. 1991. “Trouble Brewing: Alcohol in the Third World”. World Watch 4, 4: 11-18.

Lewinson, Anne. 2006. Love in the City: Navigating Multiple Relationships in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania”. City & Society 18.1: 90-115.

Lugalla, Joe L. P. and Jessie Kazeni Mbwambo. 1999. “Street Children and Street Life in Urban Tanzania: The Culture of Surviving and its Implications for Children's Health”. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research: 329-344.

Mbogo, Emmanuel. 2002. Watoto wa Mama Ntilie. Dar es Salaam: Heko Publishers.

Mbogo, Emmanuel. 1996. V ipuli vya Figo. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers.

Mesaki, Simeon. 1995. “Alcoholisation in Third World Countries”. Utafiti 2: 132-143.

Mfaume, Baker. 1992. Tufani. Dar es Salaam: Heko Publishers.

Mhando, H. S. 1995. Corruption and Drug Trafficking in Tanzania: A Socio-Economic Analysis. Dar es Salaam: Popular Publications.

Mloka, Dan. 1989. Baharia bila Meli. Stockholm: Forfattares Bokmaskin.

Msokile, Mbunda. 1990. Usiku utakapokwisha.... Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press.

Mtobwa, Ben Rashidi. 1990. Dar es Salaam Usiku. Dar es Salaam: Heko Publishers.

Nyerere, Julius Kambarage. 1977. The Arusha Declaration Ten Years After. Dar es Salaam: The Government Printer.

Nyerere, Julius Kambarage. 1974. Binadamu na Maendeleo. Nairobi: East African Publishing House.

Nyerere, Julius Kambarage. 1968. Freedom and Socialism. Arusha: Oxford University Press.

Nyerere, Julius Kambarage. 1966. Freedom and Unity. Arusha: Oxford University Press.

Obudho, Robert A., Mhlanga Constance C. (eds.). 1988. Slum and Squatter Settlements in Sub-Saharian Africa: Towards a Planning Strategy. New York: Praeger.

Possi, Mwajabu. 1996. “Effects of Drug Abuse on Cognitive and Social Behaviours: A potential problem among youths in Tanzania”. Utafiti 3-1: 111-128.

Raimbault, Frank. 2006. “The Evolution of Dar Es Salaam's Per-Urban Space During the Period of German Colonisation (1890-1914)”. In From Dar Es Salaam to Bongoland. Urban Mutations in Tanzania, Bernard Calas (ed.), Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota: 25-97.

Sutton, John Edward Giles. 1970. “Dar es Salaam. A Sketch of a Hundred Years”. Tanzania Notes and Records 71: 1-20.

Tripp, Aili Mari. 1997. Changing the Rules: The Politics of Liberalization and the Urban Informal Economy in Tanzania. Berkeley: California of University Press.

Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1979. “Space and Place: Humanistic Perspective”. In Philosophy in Geography, Stephen Gale and Gunnar Olsson (eds.). Dordrecht, Boston, London: D. Reidel Publishing Company.

United Nations. 1996. Informal Sector Development in Africa. New York: United Nations Development Programme.

Published
2018-11-19
Section
Miscellanea