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We Are Still in the Fort
Poems
Brief Description
We Are Still in the Fort is a curated selection of about seventy poems by Muyaka bin Haji al-Ghassaniy, divided into three sections spanning the quotidian, the amorous, and the political. The first part, I Swipe Their String of Fish: Poems of Mombasan Society, features his...
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See moreAn essential collection of the nineteenth-centuryβs most popular Swahili poet working in his foundational mashairi form
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Description
We Are Still in the Fort is a curated selection of about seventy poems by Muyaka bin Haji al-Ghassaniy, divided into three sections spanning the quotidian, the amorous, and the political.
The first part, I Swipe Their String of Fish: Poems of Mombasan Society, features his often satirical commentary on daily life in Mombasa. The second part, Take Your Misery With You: Poems of Love and Marriage, focuses on his psychologically sensitive observations on the volatility of love, marriage, and illicit affairs. The last part, We Are Still in the Fort: Poems of War and State, includes epigrammatic critiques of local political leaders and a series of anti-imperialist poems defending Mombasa's independence against the invading Omani Empire.
The volume also features contextual materials on Muyaka and the context of Swahili poetry, a translator's note, and introductions for each of the three sections.
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We Are Still in the Fort
We Are Still in the Fort is a curated selection of about seventy poems by Muyaka bin Haji al-Ghassaniy, divided into three sections spanning the quotidian, the amorous, and the political. The first part, I Swipe Their String of Fish: Poems of Mombasan Society, features his often satirical commentary on daily life in Mombasa. The second part, Take Your Misery...Paperback$5299Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780826500007
Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 15 April 2026
Country: United States
Imprint: Vanderbilt University Press
Contributors:
- Translated by Richard Prins
Audience: General / adult, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 13.0mm
Width: 140.0mm
Height: 216.0mm
Weight: 200g
Pages: 212
About the Author
Muyaka bin Haji al-Ghassaniy (1776β1840) was the earliest secular Swahili poet whose identity is known. He has been credited with bringing Swahili verse βout of the mosque and into the marketplaceβ with his commentary on daily life in Mombasa and its frequent battles defending its independence against the Omani Empire. He also popularized the mashairi quatrain form that serves to this day as the predominant form of Swahili verse.
Richard Prins is a lifelong New Yorker who has lived, worked, studied, and recorded music in Dar es Salaam. He currently teaches creative and expository writing at Queens College. His own poetry has appeared in dozens of publications such as Gulf Coast, jubilat, and Ploughshares, and his creative nonfiction was selected for inclusion in The Best American Essays 2024. He is the author of the Birdhouse Prizeβwinning chapbook We May Eat Fruit and Brain Flavor: A Lyric History of Swahili Hip Hop, as well as the translator of the Africanfuturist novel They Are Us, for which he received a 2023 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant and a 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship.
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