The Waswahili Community Trust UK
(Wadhamini wa jumuiya ya Waswahili)

Poetry

Bajunis as poets

The Swahilis have left one of the richest legacies of poetry among all the African peoples. One of the reasons for this extraordinary heritage is again the geography of the Indian Ocean. Swahililand provided a relatively stable environment - an environment in which they could indulge in poetry.

Poetry is unquestionably the most popular and the most developed form of literature with the Waswahili. Nabhany (personal communication) itemizes the following 13 forms of Swahili poetry :

1. Shairi
2. Wimbo
3. Utendi
4. Duramandhuma/Inkishafi
5. Ukawafi
6. Wajiwaji
7. Tiyani Fatiha
8. Hamziya
9. Utumbuizo
10. Wawe
11. Kimai
12. Zivindo
13. Sema/Mahadhi/Sauti

Nabhany has given a detailed explanation of the differences between these diverse forms of Swahili poetry.

As we had mentioned above, the sanctuary that the Indian Ocean islands provided for the Waswahili also gave them social stability - a necessary factor in the development of any refined arts and culture such as poetry.

One other factor that almost certainly contributed to the flourishing of Swahili poetry was the presence of a script. The availability of the Arabic script combined with its Urdu and Iranian modifications meant the availability of recording human sounds in an easily accessible form. Of itself the Arabic script did not provide enough range of rich Swahili sounds.

But it provided a strong enough basis which combined with the Iranian and Urdu modifications of the same script to satisfy the Swahili variants. Swahili poets span the entire eastern seaboard. They range from Fumo Liyongo of Pate, Muyaka of Mombasa, Shaaban Roberts of Tanga to Abdalla Swaleh Farsy of Zanzibar.