Lusajo Mwaikenda Israel Author

Fatma Shafii Kiswahili writer from the Kenyan Coast. Her short fiction and poems have appeared in Lolwe, JaladaAfrica, and SHIWAKI: an organization she founded that aims to increase institutional support for Kiswahili writing and writers. Other published works include a short story in the anthology Waterbirds on the Lakeshore, a Goethe-Institut anthology of Afro young adult fiction which has been published in French, English, and Kiswahili. Lusajo Mwaikenda Israel is a Tanzanian writer who received his degree in fine and performing arts from the University of Dar es Salaam. He further pursued his Master’s in Community Development (MCED) at Open University of Tanzania and a postgraduate diploma in education at Teofilo Kisanji University. In the 1990s, he was a founding member of Daz Nundaz, a pioneering group of the Bongo Flava and Swahili hip-hop musical genres. Mwas Mahugu is a Sheng writer and an Afro-hip hop artist who, when not singing, writes, coordinates music events, and manages artists. His Sheng writing was first published by Kwani? in 2005. Later 'Kwani?' featured his work in three more publications. Mwas is also a founding member of Jalada Africa, a pan-African writers collective based in Kenya. As a pioneer Sheng writer, he cofounded Tribe 43—a one-page Sheng magazine featured on People Daily and now in its fifth year. Mwas writes to discover and loves to capture real life street experiences in his writing. Clara Momanyi is a Kenyan academic, creative writer, and translator who has been teaching Kiswahili literature in Kenyan universities for many years. Her creative works include novels such as Tumaini (Hope), Nakuruto, and Nguu za Jadi (Old summits). Some of her children’s books include Ushindi wa Nakate (Nakate’s Victory), which won the 2015 Text Book Centre Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature; Siku ya Wajinga (Fools’ day); and Pendo Katika Shari (Love in adversity). She has also written several Kiswahili short stories, which have appeared in various Kiswahili short story anthologies. Professor Momanyi has also published numerous academic papers in peer-reviewed journals in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Fadhy Mtanga, from Tanzania, has published five novels, a poetry collection, and various uncollected short stories. His narratives, featuring people from various walks of life and socioeconomic classes, reflect on and weave together relationship issues, family issues, and matters related to work, power, and authority. Through his use of staccato sentences, introduction of new vocabulary, and subtle incorporation of English words and phrases, Fadhy Mtanga’s writing has contributed significantly to the development of modern Swahili. Katama G. C. Mkangi (1944–2004) was a novelist, activist, and sociologist born in southeast Kenya, best known for his three novels, Ukiwa (1975), Mafuta (1984), and Walenisi (1995). He came by his interest in political satire honestly; under the regime of President Daniel arap Moi, Mkangi was held as a political prisoner from 1986–1988 for his association with the underground Mwakenya Movement that agitated for multiparty democracy. Lilian Mbaga, born 1991, addresses gender inequality in Tanzania in her writing. Her first book, Tabasamu la Uchungu (Smile of bitterness, 2014), recounts a girl’s trauma from rape. Her second novel Hatinafsi (Selfishness, 2018) deals with a widow’s harassment and dispossession by her in-laws. Given the difficult Tanzanian publishing environment, Mbaga has self-published her books. Hatinafsi came to prominence by promotion through the new writers’ association UWARIDI of which Mbaga is a member. In 2021, she also participated in a very successful collaborative online novel about sextortion by five writers of the association. Euphrase Kezilahabi (1944–2020) was a Tanzanian novelist, poet, playwright, and philosopher. Kezilahabi wrote in an everyday Swahili for the masses while simultaneously conveying complex ideas about societal alienation and liberation. Despite not always being accepted by his contemporaries, especially regarding his controversial free verse poetry, today, as Annmarie Drury states in the foreword to her translation of his poetry, he’s accepted as “a key figure of modernization and democratization, a renovator of the Swahili literary tradition.” Hassan Kassim is a Kenyan writer and Kiswahili literary translator living in Mombasa. In 2020, he was longlisted for the Toyin Falola prize for African short fiction. His work is published or forthcoming in Lolwe, Sahifa Journal, Writers Space Africa’s Twaweza anthology, Lunaris’s In The Sands of Time anthology, among others. Richard Prins is a New Yorker who has lived, worked, studied, and recorded music in Dar es Salaam. He received his MFA degree in poetry from New York University, and he is currently completing an MFA in literary translation at Queens College. His poems, essays, and translations of Swahili poetry have appeared in publications such as Gulf Coast, jubilat, and Ploughshares, and received “Notable” mentions in Best American Essays and Best American Travel Writing. Idza Luhumyo is a writer from Kenya and winner of the 2022 Caine Prize for African Writing. Enock Matundura teaches Kiswahili literature at Chuka University, Kenya. He is a translator and creative writer, mostly of Kiswahili children’s literature and short stories. His book Sitaki Iwe Siri [It shouldn’t be a secret, Longhorn, 2008] was a runner-up for the 2009 Text Book Centre Jomo Kenyatta Literature Pize. He translated the Moses Series by renowned young adult literature writer Barbrara Kimenye into Kiswahili, all published by Oxford University Press. Matundura also runs a weekly column in Taifa Leo, the only Kiswahili newspaper in Kenya, and has contributed articles to the Saturday Nation and Sunday Nation. Jay Boss Rubin studied Swahili at the University of Dar es Salaam and has an MFA in literary translation from Queens College. In 2021, he was awarded a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant to enable the completion of his translation of the classic Swahili novel Rosa Mistika by Euphrase Kezilahabi. He’s held a wide variety of teaching, translating, and interpreting positions, and he also writes fiction of his own, in English. Uta Reuster-Jahn is a lecturer in Swahili language and literature at the University of Hamburg, Germany. She obtained her certificate of Higher Swahili in Tanzania in 1987 while living in the country. She has translated the novel Titi la Mkwe (1972) by Tanzanian author Alex Banzi (1945–2021) into German (Versuchung, 2016). In addition, she has widely published on the topics of translation of Swahili literature and Swahili popular culture. Duncan Ian Tarrant spent the first five years of his life in the DR Congo, before his family moved back to the UK. As such, he has always loved cultural exchange, which led him to study at SOAS, London, and the University of Bayreuth, Germany, where he is now doing his PhD in Swahili Literature. Aside from his passion for literature, Duncan also plays ultimate frisbee, enjoys live music, and loves hiking with his girlfriend.