Euphrase Kezilahabi Biography – Background, Works, Influences and More
Background and Education
Euphrase Kezilahabi a Tanzanian author, poet, and academic who wrote in Swahili, was born on April 13, 1944, in Ukerewe, Tanganyika [now Tanzania] and died on January 9, 2020, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Kezilahabi graduated with a B.A. from the Institution of Dar es Salaam in 1970, taught at a variety of schools around Tanzania, and then went back to the university to pursue doctoral studies and teach in the Swahili department. He went on to the University of Wisconsin in the USA to finish his graduate studies.
Famous Euphrase Kezilahabi Books
Rosa Mistika (1971 and 1981), Euphrase Kezilahabi’s debut novel, which dealt with the mistreatment of schoolgirls by their instructors, was a great hit and was eventually accepted as a standard text for secondary schools in Tanzania and Kenya, despite being first forbidden for classroom use. Waterhead (“Kichwamaji” -1974), The World Is a Chaotic Place (“Dunia uwanja wa fujo” -1975), and The Snake’s Skin (“Gamba la nyoka” -1979) were among later Euphrase Kezilahabi books. The difficulties of an individual’s absorption into a society that is enduring the strains brought on not just by growth and urbanization, but also by Tanzania’s experiment with African socialism (ujamaa), which began in the late 1960s, is a recurring issue in Kezilahabi’s literature.
The difficulties of an individual’s absorption into a society that is enduring the strains brought on not just by growth and urbanization, but also by Tanzania’s experiment with African socialism (ujamaa), which began in the late 1960s, is a recurring issue in Kezilahabi’s literature.
Setting Up of Standards
On the Swahili literary landscape, Euphrase Kezilahabi’s poetry, such as those in Kichomi (1974; “Stabbing Pain”), sparked significant debate. He defied Swahili poetry’s formal norms by arguing for and demonstrating the propriety of using blank verse in the language, making him the first Swahili writer to do so.
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