What Is There In My Speaking”: Re-Explorations of Language in Abdilatif Abdalla’s Anthology of Prison Poetry, Sauti Ya Dhiki

This paper undertakes an aesthetic reading of Abdilatif Abdalla’s anthology of his prison poetry, Sauti ya Dhiki [Voice of Agony]. While his poetry has been repeatedly analyzed as a form of critical discourse, its poetic angle has so far been rather neglected. Instead of presenting a catalogue of stylistic features, this article aims to show that in his poetry “meaning” emerges not beyond but out of poetic form. Concentrating on the centrality of language, the prosodic pattern, as well as the use of topoi in his poetry, it questions the concept of poetry as giving form to an underlying idea. Poetry does not merely “translate” political ideas or prison experience into poetic form; rather, poetic form and language shape the production of thoughts, if not the whole experience of prison. Conceptually, I refer to notions like “cultural figuration” as well as Michael Taussig’s concept of mimesis that seek to go beyond a dichotomy of form and content to highlight the thought-inspiring force of language that has taken form.