Rosa Mistika
The Margellos World Republic of Letters
- Auteur: Euphrase Kezilahabi (Tanzania)
- Soort boek: Swahili roman, Tanzaniaanse roman
- Engelse vertaling: Jay Boss Rubin
- Uitgever: Yale University Press
- Verschijnt: 17 juni 2025
- Omvang: 176 pagina’s
- Uitgave: paperback / ebook
- Prijs: $ 18,00
- Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris
Euphrase Kezilahabi Rosa Mistika recensie en review
- “A tremendously important novel.” (Abdulrazak Gurnah, winnaar van de Nobelprijs voor de Literatuur in 2021)
- “Carefully and beautifully translated, Rosa Mistika is a profound meditation on how we come to independence as individuals, as women and men steeped in patriarchy, and in societies still wearing neocolonial rags—and then when tasked with freedom, what we do with it.” (Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ)
Flaptekst van de Swahili roman van Euphrase Kezilahabi
A controversial Swahili classic by one of Tanzania’s most revered writers, banned on publication and finally translated into English.
Teenage Rosa lives with her parents and four younger sisters in a village on Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria, where she attends the local school and helps out on the family farm. Life would be relatively peaceful if it weren’t for Rosa’s father, who drinks to oblivion and abuses his wife and daughters. Initially relieved to be admitted into a residential school on the mainland, Rosa soon discovers that she’s ill prepared for life outside her village. As she becomes accustomed to the attention—and manipulations—of men, she begins to understand her sexuality as a weapon. But this understanding, born of the need to survive in a world of double standards, comes with a price.
Rosa Mistika is a radical narrative exploration of womanhood, maternal love, agency, and authority—and the first-ever Swahili novel to address issues of domestic violence, sexual coercion, and abortion. Through the story of a young woman and her community it poses the enduring question: To what degree are we responsible for the choices we make, and to what degree are we acted upon by forces outside our control?
Euphrase Kezilahabi is born on 13 April 1944 on Ukerewe Island in Tanzania. He was a Tanzanian novelist, poet, and scholar who wrote in Swahili. On 9 January 2020 he died in Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.