BARAZA: Swahili Studies Conference 2023

BARAZA is SOAS annual 1-day conference addressing any aspect of the language, literature, translation, culture, philosophy or diaspora of the Swahili speaking peoples of the world.

The aim of the conference is to foster academic interaction and exchange about new or emerging research, developing ideas and interests for mutual benefit among Swahili scholars and students. The SOAS BARAZA Swahili Studies Conference addressing any aspect of the language, literature, translation, culture, philosophy or diaspora of the Swahili speaking peoples of the world.

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Programme

• 9.30am-10:00am - Registration in Brunei gallery lecture theatre
• 10:00am-10.10am - Welcome Remarks by Dr Wayne Dooling, Chair, Centre of African studies

Panel 1 - Indian Ocean networks - Chaired by Hannah Gibson

• 10.10am-10.30am - Dispatched and Displaced: Reconstructing a Material and Social Archive through the early photographic postcards of Zanzibar by Jonathan Jackson.
• 10.30am-10.50am  - Sanaa ya Kisasa: Two examples of contemporary installation art from Moshi and Nairobi by Elsbeth Court & Angelica Baschiera
• 10.50am-11.10am - A lived experience from the Indian Ocean : Life history of Salama binti Rubeya by Ida Hadjivayanis
• 11.10am-11.20am -  The making of Muhali, a film from Zanzibar by Mariam Hamdani
• 11.20am-11.40am - Q&A session
• 11.40am-12.00pm - Tea/Coffee break 

Panel 2 - Language and Linguistics - chaired by Angelica Baschiera

• 12.00 - 12.20pm - Coastal vs mainland Swahili, perceptions and variation: the case of Kilifi, Kenya by Hannah Gibson, Lutz Marten, Fridah Kanana, Teresa Poeta, Tom Jelpke, Annah Kariuki, Merceline Ochieng
• 12.20pm - 12.40pm - Missionary interventions in the first half of the 20^th Century at Takusu station : early Swahili sources and the development of ‘Union (ki)ngwana’ in the Congo by Nico Nassenstein
• 12.40pm - 1:00pm -  Teaching Swahili in higher education using the communicative method - specific examples, challenges and conclusions by Adam Rodgers Johns & Mohamed Omar Juma
• 1.00pm - 1.10pm - Mkataa mila ni mtumwa by Nuru Lyra (NuruLyra)
• 1.10pm - 1.30pm - Q& A session
• Lunch
• 1.30pm - 2.45pm - Lunch - Swahili food
• 2.45pm - 3.00pm - Performance by Maalim Nash from Tanzania, with Adam Rodgers Johns and Tom Jelpke.

Panel 3: Literature, Culture, Translation - chaired by Ida Hadjivayanis

• 3.00pm - 3.20pm - Perceptions of Governance in Shaaban Robert’s twin works by Farouk Topan
• 3.20pm - 3.40pm - Translations of British Literature into Kiswahili and the Paradox of 'Literary Modernity' in the Colonial Context by Ding Ruilin
• 3.40pm - 4.00pm - Memorialisation or absence of it in the history of slavery in East Africa: questions paused to standard 'truth and reconciliation' approaches to dealing with past injustice by Felicitas Becker.
• 4.00pm - 4.20pm - How to get in touch with un/racializing words by Laura Krause & Irene Brunotti 
• 4.20pm - 4.40pm - Intertwining a Pandemic, an Epidemic and New Healthcare Challenges: Exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HIV care services in the United Republic of Tanzania  by Tom Mario Franco
• 4.40pm-5pm - Mchango wa Hip Hop katika Fasihi Tanzania by Maalin Nash
• 5pm - 5.20pm - Q& A session
• 5.20pm - 5.30pm - Closing Remarks by Ida Hadjivayanis

The whole day conference will provide lunch, refreshment and registration is required.

Join the conference

• Join the conference via Zoom. 

Contact 

• cas@soas.ac.uk 
• Convenors: Dr Ida Hadjivayanis (ih11@soas.ac.uk) & Angelica Baschiera (ab17@soas.ac.uk)