Emerging Trends in Eastern African Literatures and Cultures

This book volume engages the emergent ways and exercises of world-making in eastern African literatures and cultures. It also includes how the world comes to eastern Africa as well as how eastern Africa speaks to the world. Writers within the region have come up with novel commentaries on diverse social issues. Artists and other users have invented new forms of expression through digitalization. The structure and content of this literature and cultural conversations, in line with modernity, has exhibited a fluidity that calls for the critical appraisal carried out in this book. Therefore, this book volume centralises the emergence of new patterns of engagement in the literatures and cultures of the region. Taking cue from the cultural transformations, technological advancements and political influences, the volume raises questions on politics, conflict and war, and the evolving genres and canon. The book crosses language barriers beyond English and includes critical attention to texts written in the Swahili and French languages. The chapters aim to give a broad overview of the writings and cultural expressions in the eastern African region, including novels, films, short stories, theatre, poetry, oral, and digital performances. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: An Overview of Trends in Eastern African Literatures and Cultures Oduor Obura Part One: The Evolving Literary Canon Literary Disruptions of the Ugandan Canon in Selected Ugandan Short Stories Edgar Nabutanyi A Discipline under Siege: Interrogating the Place of Literature in English in the Secondary School Curriculum in Tanzania Obala Musumba Cartographies of Killing: Transnational Drones in Eye in the Sky Jana Fedtke Performing in the Cyber Space: The Online Mchongoano Battles Kimingichi Wabende Mobile Phones in the Public Space: Communication as Contextual Cultural Practice in Kenya James Ogone Part Two: Conflict, Politics, and War Narrating Violence in Burundian Genocide and Civil War Literature: Pacifique Irankunda’s “Playing at Violence” Jodi Mikalachki Violence and the Multivocality of Silence in Roland Rugero’s Novels Giuseppe Sofo Conflicts in Memories, History and National Identity in Burundian Literature Pierre Boizette ? The Aporia in Eastern African War Narratives as Reflected in Uwem Akpan’s “My Parents’ Bedroom” and Misago Aloys’ La Descente aux enfers Marie-Thérèse Toyi Ethiopian Dissident Fiction: Countering Despotism in Hama Tuma’s Short Stories George Otieno Odhiambo Agony on Stage: The Intrigues of Building Houses in The Rubble Rouser, performed at the 58th Edition of the Kenya Schools and Colleges Drama Festival (KSCDF) Pepetual Mforbe Chiangong Part Three: Recent Interventions in Swahili Writing UWARIDI Initiative: The Innovative Transformation of a Self-help Project by Tanzanian Novelists into a Powerful Literary Space Uta Reuster-Jahn Swahili Poetry in the New Millennium: Established and Emerging Trends Flavia Aiello, Roberto Gaudioso and Emiliano Minerba Linking the Centuries: The ‘Big Four’ of Kenyan Swahili Writing Mikhail D. Gromov