Haji Gora Haji, born in 1933 on the island of Tumbatu, Zanzibar, represents a living archive of poetic and philosophical knowledge, which is transformed into verses with a characteristic voice enriched by dialectal features (from Tumbatu and Unguja). As a recognition of his life-long commitment to Swahili language and literature, the editors, Flavia Aiello and Irene Brunotti, with Nathalie Arnold Koenings for translation, decided to work hard on conceiving a publishing project of Shuwari, his poetical anthology or diwani, fashioned as a bilingual Swahili-English edition which, along with the poems, could offer some analytical insights into Haji Gora Haji's artistry.
Haji Gora Haji, born in 1933 on the island of Tumbatu, Zanzibar, represents a living archive of poetic and philosophical knowledge, which is transformed into verses with a characteristic voice enriched by dialectal features (from Tumbatu and Unguja). As a recognition of his life-long commitment to Swahili language and literature, the editors, Flavia Aiello and Irene Brunotti, with Nathalie Arnold Koenings for translation, decided to work hard on conceiving a publishing project of Shuwari, his poetical anthology or diwani, fashioned as a bilingual Swahili-English edition which, along with the poems, could offer some analytical insights into Haji Gora Haji's artistry.
