Swahili Poetry in the New Millennium: Established and Emerging Trends

In this contribution, the authors outline the development of Swahili poetry in the 21st century. The aim is to provide an overview of contemporary trends and (both renowned and emerging) authors. Although the focus is on written poetry, a comprehensive outline of Swahili oral and sung poetry being beyond the scope of this paper, the backdrop of this study is awareness of the relationship between oral composition and the different modes of writing, to which we refer in some cases. We have chosen, inasmuch as possible, to illustrate some peculiarities of these compositions, rather than provide a summary of biographies and works; we therefore include texts with their translation and analysis.