Postrealist, Postmodernist, Postnation? The Swahili Novel 1987–2010

This essay interrogates the “postnation” in contemporary Swahili novel writing by involving a discussion of two other post-isms, namely postrealism and postmodernism. It starts out by arguing for a classification and periodization of post-independence Swahili writing according to three different paradigms of writing, i.e., a realist, a postrealist, and a nascent synthetic paradigm. Subsequently, it takes a look at postmodernism in Swahili novels and discusses whether it is possible to neatly differentiate between postrealism and postmodernism. The core part of the essay scrutinizes postnation writing in Swahili novels by relating it to its supposed predecessor of nation writing and asks whether and how postrealism and postmodernism are linked to postnation writing. It looks into different features of postnation writing and discusses to what extent they influence a novel text on the whole. Against the backdrop of this survey with a few brief case studies and examples, this essay relates the contemporary Swahili novel to Habila’s reflections on “postnationalist” writing and proposes a broader theorization of postnation writing. It ends by deliberating on whether there is a “Swahili specific” and on further prospects of postnation writing in the Swahili novel.