Revisiting conquest in classical Swahili war epics

IF 1.3 Q2 ANTHROPOLOGY
Wafula Yenjela
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This article reads two 18th Century classical Swahili epics of war as coded critiques of empire. Here, Empire refers not only to Europe but also the Arab world's conquest histories on the Indian Ocean seaboard. The epics: Mwengo bin Athumani's Chuo cha Tambuka (1728), ‘The Epic of Tabuk’, and Mgeni bin Faqihi's Utenzi wa Rasi’lGhuli (1855), ‘The Epic of Rasi’lGhuli’, are typically read in terms of their religious content and have been deemed apolitical; that they are merely concerned with translating Arabic tales for Islamic spiritual purposes. Through a critical approach, the article asserts that the epics deeply reflect on East African conquests as they are written in the era of Swahili coast conquests by the Portuguese and the Omani Arabs. They portray the oppressed, whose imagined piety is emphasized, appropriating religious authority to launch revolutions against their conquerors. The article demonstrates that the epics are political strategies of liberation from militarily powerful empires bent on consolidation of territory and exploitation. The poetic craft of winding tales of war not only nurtured and sustained the revolutionary spirit, but also reveals the warring atmosphere that defined the Swahili in their efforts to imagine a community in the years of imperial incursions.
重温经典斯瓦希里战争史诗中的征服
这篇文章读了两篇18世纪斯瓦希里经典的战争史诗,作为对帝国的编码批评。在这里,帝国不仅指欧洲,也指阿拉伯世界在印度洋沿岸的征服历史。史诗:Mwengo bin Athumani的《Chuo cha Tambuka》(1728),《Tabuk的史诗》,以及Mgeni bin Faqihi的《Utenzi wa Rasi’lghuli》(1855),《Rasi’lghuli的史诗》,通常是根据其宗教内容来阅读的,被认为是非政治的;他们只是为了伊斯兰教的精神目的而翻译阿拉伯故事。通过批判的方法,文章断言,史诗深刻反映了东非的征服,因为它们是在葡萄牙人和阿曼阿拉伯人征服斯瓦希里海岸的时代写成的。他们描绘被压迫者,强调他们想象中的虔诚,利用宗教权威发动反对征服者的革命。这篇文章论证了史诗是一种政治策略,目的是从军事强大的帝国中解放出来,巩固领土和剥削。史诗般的战争故事不仅滋养和维持了革命精神,而且揭示了战争氛围,这种氛围定义了斯瓦希里人在帝国入侵年代努力想象一个社区的过程。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Critical African Studies
Critical African Studies Arts and Humanities-Arts and Humanities (all)
CiteScore
3.00
自引率
0.00%
发文量
19
期刊介绍: Critical African Studies seeks to return Africanist scholarship to the heart of theoretical innovation within each of its constituent disciplines, including Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, History, Law and Economics. We offer authors a more flexible publishing platform than other journals, allowing them greater space to develop empirical discussions alongside theoretical and conceptual engagements. We aim to publish scholarly articles that offer both innovative empirical contributions, grounded in original fieldwork, and also innovative theoretical engagements. This speaks to our broader intention to promote the deployment of thorough empirical work for the purposes of sophisticated theoretical innovation. We invite contributions that meet the aims of the journal, including special issue proposals that offer fresh empirical and theoretical insights into African Studies debates.
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