In This Fragile World

Annachiara Raia, Ph.D. (2018), is assistant professor in African Literature at Leiden University (The Netherlands). Specialised in Swahili Muslim textual traditions and interested in the question of archive and collection, she is currently researching on vernacular print networks in the 20th-century Indian Ocean. Clarissa Vierke, Ph.D. (2010), is professor of Literatures in African Languages at Bayreuth University (Germany). She is an expert of Swahili poetry, manuscript cultures and has been working on travelling texts in East Africa and literary entanglements with the Indian Ocean.

Foreword

List of Figures

Abbreviations

Notes on Contributors



Introduction

 Annachiara Raia and Clarissa Vierke



Part 1 Poetry as Intellectual Practice



Ustadh Mahmoud Mau, Mtu wa watu (“A Man of the People”): Poet, Imam, and Engaged Local Intellectual

 Kai Kresse and Kadara Swaleh



Shaping and Being Shaped by Lamu Society: Ustadh Mau’s Poetry in the Context of Swahili Poetic Practice

 Jasmin Mahazi



“Born on the Island”: Situating Ustadh Mau’s Poetic Practice in Context

 Clarissa Vierke



Seeking ʿilm on Lamu: Ustadh Mau’s Library and Services for the Benefit of His Community

 Annachiara Raia



How Ought We to Live? The Ethical and the Poetic in Ustadh Mahmoud Mau’s Poetry

 Clarissa Vierke



Mabanati in Search of an Author: Portable Reform Texts and Multimodal Narrative Media among Swahili Muslim Communities

 Annachiara Raia



Part 2 Poems by Ustadh Mau



Introduction to Part 2



Jamii: Topical Issues on Lamu

 1 Amu (“Lamu”)

 2 Bandari ina mawimbi (“The Port Makes Waves”)

 3 Jahazi (“The Dhow”)

 4 Tupijeni makamama (“Let Us Embrace”)



Ilimu: The Importance of Education

 1 Mwalimu (“Teacher”)

 2 Kilio huliya mwenye (“Change Begins at Home”)

 3 Kiswahili (“Swahili”)

 4 Za Washirazi athari (“The Influence of the Persians”)



Huruma: Social Roles and Responsibility

 1 Mama msimlaumu (“Don’t Blame My Mother”)

 2 Jilbabu (“Veil”)

 3 Mchezo Wa Kuigiza (“Play”)

 4 Haki za watoto (“Children’s Rights”)

 5 Wasiya wa mabanati (“Advice to Young Women”)



Matukio: Biographical Poems

 1 Hafi asiye timiwa (“No One Dies Before His Time Is Up”)

 2 Mlango “The Door”



Maombi: Personal Poems of Supplication

 1 Hapo zamani za yana (“Once Upon A Time”)

 2 Tunda (“Fruit”)

 3 Kipande cha ini (“Piece of My Liver”)

 4 Mola zidisha baraka (“God Increase Your Blessings”)

 5 Yasome na kukumbuka (“Read and Remember”)



References of Part 2

Index