Postmodernism as seen through the Swahili novel: a reading of Babu alipofufuka and Dunia yao by Said Ahmed Mohamed

Abstract

In this article the interpretation of two Swahili novels by the Zanzibari writer Said Ahmed Mohamed, Babu alipofufuka (Grandpa's Resurrection) and Dunia yao (Their World), will be related to the current critical debates around the interrelationships between postmodernism and African literatures. In the African context, postmodernism, a broad category which refers to a wide range of literary discourses and practices that disrupt rationality, unity, and exclusivity, can be linked to the writer's aspiration to dismantle the realistic trend and its implicit optimistic view of national development, which characterized the emergence of modern African literatures after independence. The aim of the article is to focus on the Afrophone novel, by exploring some of the new literary techniques employed by Said Ahmed Mohamed and relating them to the writer's changing perspectives on East African society.