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Paper short abstract:

My presentation provides reflections on the relations between the Swahili coast and the wider Muslim world, looking at the case of a Swahili poem and its author, Ustadh Mahmoud Mau, who was inspired by the Arabic pamphlet of a globally influential Islamic scholar, Sh. Ali al-Tantawi (d.1999).

Paper long abstract:

My presentation seeks to provide some conceptual reflections on the relations between the Swahili coast and the wider Muslim world, illustrating aspects of intellectual stimulation as well creative self-reliance. I focus on the case of a Swahili poem and its author, Ustadh Mahmoud Mau (whom I first encountered in 1999), in relation to the Arabic pamphlet of a globally influential Islamic scholar, Sh. Ali al-Tantawi (d.1999), known for his anti-colonial and Salafi leanings. The poem ‚Wasiya wa mabanati' (Advice to the girls), composed in 1974, was inspired by al-Tantawi's booklet 'Ya binti!' (Oh daughter!, from the 1950s). The 'Wasiya…' poem was popular on the Kenyan coast in the 1990s because of the beauty of its new recording, and because its narrative drove home points of critique of the deterioration of proper norms and etiquettes in society, linked to growing foreign influences and local carelessness. Tantawi's pamphlet warned young Muslim women not to succumb to the dangers of westernization, to be steadfast against all temptations and uphold respectability. Mau's Swahili poem picks up and embeds this theme in a tragic narrative about a young woman whose life becomes destroyed, and concludes with general existential reflections on life. Based on readings, recent fieldwork, and conversations with Ustadh Mau, I discuss aspects and dimensions of translocal and transregional relations (particularly intra-Muslim ones) that are relevant here, relating contemporary life in Lamu to its bigger historical rival, Mombasa, as well as larger centres in the wider world.