Muhamadi Kijuma

Muhamadi Kijuma

Texts from the Dammann Papers and other Collections

Author: Gudrun Miehe, Clarissa Vierke. In collaboration with: Sauda A. Barwani, Ahmed Nabahany. Series edited by: Gudrun Miehe, Hilke Meyer-Bahlburg.

Series: Archiv afrikanistischer Manuskripte Volume 9

The aim of this volume can be considered to be twofold. On the one hand, it makes accessible a number of hitherto unpublished texts by Muhamadi Kijuma (1855–1945), a multitalented artist, musician and poet from Lamu, Kenya, which are part of Swahili literature and history. The comments by Ernst Dammann (6th May 1904 – 12th July 2003) and by Muhamadi Kijuma (in the notes and letters), as well as by the editors, provide information on linguistic, cultural and historical issues. On the other hand, this volume documents and discusses research history: firstly, it provides information on the editorial history of Swahili classical poetry, tracing its lines of tradition. Secondly, the account of relations between Kijuma and various European scholars of Swahili language and literature is an important topic in this volume.

The introductory part – besides general remarks – presents the papers read by the editors during the Kijuma Workshop on Lamu in November 2006. While Part I contains the collection as it was planned by Dammann, Part II presents additional findings. If available, Kijuma’s manuscripts in Arabic script are given directly after each text. Concerning the contents, Part I and II are structured along the same lines: they start with the letters, followed firstly by prose texts and secondly by poems, and end with the word lists. An appendix also presents three drawings by Kijuma that he gave to Dammann, as well as an index of the word lists found in Part I and II.

Following these links you will find further Swahili text editions of our programme, as well as biographical accounts on African and non-African authors:

Accompanying material:

• Framing Texts – Framing Social Spaces (ISBN 978-3-89645-742-4)
• Kala Shairi (ISBN 978-3-89645-171-2)
• Life and Poems of Bi Zainab Himid (1920–2002) / Maisha na Tungo za Bi Zainab Himid (1920–2002) (ISBN 978-3-89645-286-3)
• Liyongo Songs (ISBN 978-3-89645-172-9)
• The Voice of the Text and its Body (ISBN 978-3-89645-739-4)
• Vamps and Victims (ISBN 978-3-927620-74-2)

Cross-reference:

• Chanter l’existence (ISBN 978-3-89645-287-0)
• Der Junge aus Duala (ISBN 978-3-89645-182-8)
• Heimkehr aus Babylon (ISBN 978-3-89645-913-8)
• Hendrik Witbooi – ein Leben für die Freiheit (ISBN 978-3-89645-315-0)
• Manasse Tjiseseta, Chief of Omaruru, 1884–1898, Namibia (ISBN 978-3-89645-055-5)
• Religion und Heilkunst der Toba-Batak auf Sumatra (ISBN 978-3-89645-445-4)
• Shizu (ISBN 978-3-89645-232-0)
• Sie kamen als Forscher und Ärzte ... (ISBN 978-3-89645-228-3)
• Trommeln in der Kirche (ISBN 978-3-89645-917-6)
• Unser Leben vor der Revolution und danach – Maisha yetu kabla ya mapinduzi na baadaye (ISBN 978-3-89645-274-0)
• Ushaka (ISBN 978-3-927620-81-0)

© 2023 by Rüdiger Köppe Verlag – www.koeppe.de

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