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Haji Gora Haji
Haji Gora Haji (1933 – 11 June 2021) was a Swahili-language poet, lyricist, and writer from the Zanzibar archipelago. He channeled his expansive knowledge of the culture and society of the Swahili coast, especially his homeland of Tumbatu, into his works. For his work inspired by the seascape of his home, he has been called "The Old Typhoon". He worked in a multitude of forms, from songs, stories, and epics to a full-length novel. His compositions and verse were frequently on Tanzanian radio. Early life Haji Gora began composing works in the 1950s, before Zanzibar gained independence and unified with Tanganyika to form present-day Tanzania. Born the third child of six children on the island of Tumbatu, he saw the deaths of his twin brother and a sister in childhood. His father was Gora Haji, a respected sea captain and fisherman, and his mother was Mize Mjumbe Juma, a homemaker. His family grew to include 11 half-brothers and half-sisters. At the end of his life, he had two l ...
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Swahili Language
Swahili, also known by its local name , is the native language of the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent litoral islands). It is a Bantu language, though Swahili has borrowed a number of words from foreign languages, particularly Arabic, but also words from Portuguese, English and German. Around forty percent of Swahili vocabulary consists of Arabic loanwords, including the name of the language ( , a plural adjectival form of an Arabic word meaning 'of the coast'). The loanwords date from the era of contact between Arab slave traders and the Bantu inhabitants of the east coast of Africa, which was also the time period when Swahili emerged as a lingua franca in the region. The number of Swahili speakers, be they native or second-language speakers, is estimated to be approximately 200 million. Due to concerted efforts by the government of Tanzania, Swahili is one of three official languages (th ...
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Zanzibar Revolution
The Zanzibar Revolution () occurred in January 1964 and led to the overthrow of the Sultan of Zanzibar and his mainly Arab government by local Africans. Zanzibar was an ethnically diverse state consisting of a number of islands off the east coast of Tanganyika, which had been granted independence by Britain in 1963. In a series of parliamentary elections preceding independence, the Arab minority succeeded in retaining the hold on power it had inherited from Zanzibar's former existence as an overseas territory of Oman. Frustrated by under-representation in Parliament despite winning 54 per cent of the vote in the July 1963 election, the African Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) early in the morning of 12 January 1964, led by John Okello, the (ASP) youth leader of the Pemba branch, mobilised around 600–800 men on the main island of Unguja (Zanzibar Island). Having overrun the country's police force and appropriated their weaponry, the insurgents proceeded to Zanzibar Town, where they ...
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Tanzanian Writers
This is a list of Tanzanian writers. * Agoro Anduru (1948–1992), short story writer * Mark Behr (1963–2015), fiction writer also connected with South Africa * Fadhy Mtanga (1981– ) novelist, poet and photographer * Abdulrazak Gurnah (1948– ), novelist and critic * Ebrahim N. Hussein (1943– ), playwright, essayist, poet and translator * Prince Kagwema (1931– ), novelist * Euphrase Kezilahabi (1944–2020), novelist, poet and scholar * Jacqueline Massawe, poet * Aniceti Kitereza (1896–1981), novelist * Elieshi Lema (1949– ), novelist, children's author and publisher * Amandina Lihamba (1944– ), playwright * Ismael R. Mbise, novelist and academic * Penina Mlama (1948– ), playwright * Sandra A. Mushi (1974– ), fiction writer, poet * Elvis Musiba (died 2010), businessman and Swahili novelist * Godfrey Mwakikagile (1949– ), writer and specialist in African studies * Christopher Mwashinga (1965– ), poet, Christian non-fiction writer, and essayist * Ras Nas, ...
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Zanzibari People
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. The capital is Zanzibar City, located on the island of Unguja. Its historic centre, Stone Town, is a World Heritage Site. Zanzibar's main industries are spices, raffia and tourism. In particular, the islands produce cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black pepper. For this reason, the Zanzibar Archipelago, together with Tanzania's Mafia Island, are sometimes referred to locally as the "Spice Islands". Tourism in Zanzibar is a more recent activity, driven by government promotion that caused an increase from 19,000 tourists in 1985, to 376,000 in 2016. The islands are accessible via 5 ports and the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport, which ...
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Swahili-language Writers
Swahili, also known by its local name , is the native language of the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent litoral islands). It is a Bantu language, though Swahili has borrowed a number of words from foreign languages, particularly Arabic, but also words from Portuguese, English and German. Around forty percent of Swahili vocabulary consists of Arabic loanwords, including the name of the language ( , a plural adjectival form of an Arabic word meaning 'of the coast'). The loanwords date from the era of contact between Arab slave traders and the Bantu inhabitants of the east coast of Africa, which was also the time period when Swahili emerged as a lingua franca in the region. The number of Swahili speakers, be they native or second-language speakers, is estimated to be approximately 200 million. Due to concerted efforts by the government of Tanzania, Swahili is one of three official languages (the ...
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Solomon
Solomon (; , ),, ; ar, سُلَيْمَان, ', , ; el, Σολομών, ; la, Salomon also called Jedidiah (Hebrew language, Hebrew: , Modern Hebrew, Modern: , Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yăḏīḏăyāh'', "beloved of Yahweh, Yah"), was a monarch of ancient Israel and the son and successor of David, according to the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament. He is described as having been the penultimate ruler of an amalgamated Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Israel and Judah. The hypothesized dates of Solomon's reign are 970–931 BCE. After his death, his son and successor Rehoboam would adopt harsh policy towards the northern tribes, eventually leading to the splitting of the Israelites between the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. Following the split, his Patrilineality#In the Bible, patrilineal descendants ruled over Judah alone. The Bible says Solomon built the Solomon's Temple, First Temple in Jerus ...
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Zanzibar International Film Festival
The Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF), also known as Festival of the Dhow Countries, is an annual film festival held in Zanzibar, Tanzania and one of the largest cultural events in East Africa. ZIFF is a non-governmental organization established in 1997 to develop and promote film and other cultural industries as catalyst for the regional social and economic growth. The film festival The annual multi disciplinary arts and cultural festival is ZIFF’s major activity; the festival is an all-arts affair, with 8 days of local and international discussion panels, workshops, 10 days of screenings of the best local and international cinema and evenings of musical concerts including a Gala each evening. All festival programs are a culmination of the realization of the capacity of film to fuse together the best of each art-form, offering a wide range of Entertainment, Educating and Networking options for world audiences. The festival is arguably the largest multi disci ...
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Hemistich
A hemistich (; via Latin from Greek , from "half" and "verse") is a half-line of verse, followed and preceded by a caesura, that makes up a single overall prosodic or verse unit. In Latin and Greek poetry, the hemistich is generally confined to drama. In Greek tragedy, characters exchanging clipped dialogue to suggest rapidity and drama would speak in hemistichs (in ''hemistichomythia''). The Roman poet Virgil employed hemistichs in the ''Aeneid'' to indicate great duress in his characters, where they were incapable of forming complete lines due to emotional or physical pain. In neo-classicism, the hemistich was frowned upon (e.g. by John Dryden), but Germanic poetry employed the hemistich as a basic component of verse. In Old English and Old Norse poetry, each line of alliterative verse was divided into an "a-verse" and "b-verse" hemistich with a strong caesura between. In ''Beowulf,'' there are only five basic types of hemistich, with some used only as initial hemistichs ...
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State University Of Zanzibar
State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) is a public university located on Unguja Island in Zanzibar, Tanzania. The university was established by an act of House of Representatives of Zanzibar in 1999 and became operational in 2002. Faculties Currently, the University consists of the School of Kiswahili and Foreign Languages (IKFL), School of Continuing and Professional Education (SCOPE), the School of Education (SE), School of Natural and Social Sciences (SNSS) and Computer Centre (CC). Additional institutes and schools will be established in the future as demanded by the Act and as the University grows. The Institute of Kiswahili and Foreign Languages has been teaching Swahili, Arabic, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge . ...
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Zanzibar Archipelago
The Zanzibar Archipelago ( ar, أرخبيل زنجبار, sw, Funguvisiwa la Zanzibar) consists of several islands lying off the coast of East Africa south of the Somali sea. The archipelago is also known as the Spice Islands. There are four main islands, three primary islands with human populations, a fourth coral island that serves as an essential breeding ground for seabirds, plus a number of smaller islets that surround them and an isolated tiny islet. Most of the archipelago belongs to the Zanzibar semi-autonomous region of Tanzania, while Mafia Island and its associated islets are parts of the Pwani Region on the mainland. List of islands Main islands * Unguja Island – the largest island, colloquially referred to as Zanzibar, has 896,721 inhabitants *Pemba Island – the second-largest island with 406,808 inhabitants *Latham Island (also called "Fungu Kizimkazi") – tiny and uninhabited *Mafia Island – 46,850 inhabitants Surrounding Unguja Island *Bawe Island * ...
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Taarab
Taarab is a music genre popular in Tanzania and Kenya. It is influenced by the musical traditions of the African Great Lakes, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. Taarab rose to prominence in 1928 with the advent of the genre's first star, Siti binti Saad. According to local legend, taarab was popularized by Sultan Seyyid Barghash bin Said (1870-1888). He enjoyed luxury and the pleasures of life. It was this ruler who initiated taarab in Zanzibar and later it spread all over the African Great Lakes region. The sultan imported a taarab ensemble from Egypt to play in his Beit el-Ajab palace. He subsequently decided to send Mohamed Ibrahim from Zanzibar to Egypt to learn music and to play the Kanun. Upon his return, he formed the Zanzibar Taarab Orchestra. In 1905, Zanzibar's second music society, Ikwhani Safaa Musical Club, was established, and it continues to thrive today. Ikwhani Safaa and Culture Musical Club (founded in 1958) remain the leading Zanz ...
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Dhow
Dhow ( ar, داو, translit=dāwa; mr, script=Latn, dāw) is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with settee or sometimes lateen sails, used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Typically sporting long thin hulls, dhows are trading vessels primarily used to carry heavy items, such as fruit, fresh water, or other heavy merchandise, along the coasts of Eastern Arabia, East Africa, Yemen and coastal South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh). Larger dhows have crews of approximately thirty, smaller ones typically around twelve. History The exact origins of the dhow are lost to history. Some claim that the sambuk, a type of dhow, may be derived from the Portuguese caravel. The dhow was the ship of trade used by the Swahili. It was a dhow that transported a giraffe to Chinese Emperor Yong Le's court, in 1414. Another source suggests the ship that carried the giraffe to China was part of a large Chinese fleet led by Zheng He. Ships ...
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