Reading Mudimbe, applying ‘Mudimbe', turning an insider out: problems with the presentation of a Swahili poet

Author: Kresse, Kai

Source: Journal of African Cultural Studies, Volume 17, Number 1, June 2005 , pp. 103-129(27)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

This article discusses the application of ‘Mudimbe' – here shorthand for an influential body of scholarship (just like ‘Foucault' or ‘Kant') produced by Mudimbe – within research on postcolonial African language literatures. This is done with regard to a particular case study from the Swahili context, namely Nicholas Brown's discussion of a didactic poem by Ahmed Sheikh Nabhany, on the social functions and values of the coconut-tree. Following ‘Mudimbe', Brown based his discussion on the assumption that Nabhany's poetry depended upon a ‘Western episteme' and was addressing a Western audience in its representation of Swahili culture. However, this interpretation seems in fundamental opposition to Nabhany's own understanding of this poem, which is linked to a wider project of the preservation of knowledge about Swahili culture, language and history. Brown's claims are discussed critically, against the background of my own research experience with Nabhany during fieldwork on Swahili intellectual discourse. Notably, while the discussion of African texts and discourses should take any available internal voices seriously (just as much as their social and historical dynamics), Brown leaves aside internal commentaries and obstructs a view to the social relevance that the Swahili author had in mind. Is this an outcome of applying ‘Mudimbe'?

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0090988052000344675

Affiliations: 1: University of St Andrews

Publication date: 2005-06-01

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