ABOUT THIS BOOK

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.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Muyaka bin Haji al-Ghassaniy (1776–1840) was the earliest secular Swahili poet whose identity is known. He has been credited with bringing Swahili verse “out of the mosque and into the marketplace” 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 Prize–winning 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.

REVIEWS

“How refreshing to see one of the major Kiswahili poets of the nineteenth century being given a new breath of life and being ‘resurrected’ for the English reading public! By beautifully translating some of Muyaka’s poems, with introductory notes for each of the three sections, Richard Prins has done a great service to the better understanding of Muyaka’s verse and further popularization of Kiswahili poetry in general. I very much enjoyed reading the volume.”
—Abdilatif Abdalla, author of Voice of Agony

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A Note on Muyaka and his Poetry

A Note on the Translation

Part I: I Swipe Their String of Fish—Poems of Mombasan Society

Part II: Take Your Misery With You—Poems of Love and Marriage

Part III: We Are Still in the Fort—Poems of War and State

Sources Cited