Paper long abstract:

The present paper aims to analyse the relationship between the language of oral speech (Ekoti) on that of the written text (Kiswahili) in the Swahili manuscript culture of Angoche. Angoche is currently the name of a coastal district in the province of Nampula in northern Mozambique. Its toponym is derived from the name of an ancient Swahili sultanate, Ngoji, which was founded by Swahili migrants from Kilwa, during the fifteenth century. Since then, a Swahili ruling elite was established in Ngoji (nowadays, the Islands of Angoche), which was surrounded by Makhuwa people with whom they interacted and intermarried creating a mixed society that became the Wangoji, now the Angocheans or Akoti (as by their current language, Ekoti).

Until the end of the pre-colonial period (1910) the Angocheans remained heavily influenced by the Swahili culture, religiously oriented towards Islamic belief. Through Islam the region benefited with the spread of Arabic script. As part of the Swahili cultural networks it also borrowed the Swahili Ajami literary culture which was later adapted to local patterns. With the advent of the de facto colonial administration in northern Mozambique (1910-12), Kiswahili as a spoken language was gradually abandoned in Angoche, however, it remains until today as the language of literary production. Thus, the Angocheans who are currently bilingual in orality (speaking Emakhuwa and Ekoti) they use a third language (Kiswahili) to produce their Ajami literature. An investigation on part of this literary production (Ajami correspondence and tenzi poetry) shows that there's a cyclic influence between oral and written language with impact on orthography, grammar and vocabulary. Based on historical and sociolinguistic approach this paper attempts to give answer on the why and how of the selected evidences of the above-mentioned relationship.

Keywords: orality; literacy; Ajami literature; Angoche.