There are a few Kiswahili literary studies that shed light on the current topic. For instance, Mule (1991) examines how female writers have depicted women in Kiswahili drama. He states that when women engage in literary production, they in turn enhance the hitherto
13 The list of novels examined in Kenya was compiled by Jonathan Ndunde Korofia. This is one the senior Kiswahili High School teacher at Moi Girls‟ High School, Eldoret- Kenya.
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lacking female voice in society. The implication is that female authors tend to stress the female voice in their works. In the current study, gender has been considered in the selection of the novels. The findings confirm Mule‟s argument in two ways. Firstly, the author‟s gender/sex is reflected in the nature of the generational conflicts captured in the four novels.
Secondly, the male and female authors differ in the manner in which they deploy narrative voice and focalization to depict specific generational conflicts. For instance, apart from Shafi Adam Shafi who uses both male and female characters as the main characters (Denge and Yasmin), the other authors‟ protagonists can easily pass for being the image of their creators.
There are incidences where Akida (male protagonist) in Kufa Kuzikana says he is the writer of the story that he is relating (KK.55). This insinuates an authorial voice manifested in the homodiegetic narrator in Kufa Kuzikana.
The female protagonist (Tumaini) together with other minor female characters like Halima, Amina, and Riziki are positively portrayed as the champions of the required change in their communities in Tumaini. They are particularly against cultural practices such as forced circumcision and early marriage for the girl child. On the contrary, most of the male characters are portayed as opponents of change. The same can be said of Kipimo cha Mizani where the two main characters; Salama and Halima are portrayed as victims of machismo.
The positive portrayal of the majority of the female characters in the female authored novels clearly shows that gender counts in reading the Kiswahili novel. This captured point is well articulated by Warhol (in Herman et al, 2010:237) who stresses; “narratives not only reflect but reinforce gendered attitudes and behaviours in the reading audience”.
Kimani Njogu analysed seven Kiswahili novels written by authors from Zanzibar. He rightly observes that Kiswahili novellists tend to highlight socio-economic and political conflicts in societies from which they hail (Njogu, 1997:9, 90). Generational conflicts captured in Vuta n‟kuvute and Kipimo cha Mizani show that novelists not only obtain their resource materials from their social environment but also write for their communities (Vasquez, 1973:112).
Focussing on the woman‟s voice in Unyago14 oral poetry, Mwai (1999) examines how circumcision for the girl child was intended to socialize her into her adult social roles. During the seclusion period, the initiates were taught among other duties, how to take care of a
14 Unyago is a Kiswahili word referring to the traditional teachings given to girls on their roles as adult members of a given ethnic group. It is part of the circumcision rite initiating the youth into adulthood. Kamusi ya Karne ya 21. Nairobi: Longhorn Publishers, 2011
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husband and the home. The current study goes further to show how the circumcision is contested as means of socialization. It is one of the factors spark generational conflicts in captured in Kufa Kuzikana and Tumaini.
Musyoka (2008) and Wamalwa (2009) examine power struggles between the youth and the elderly members of society and youth challenges in John Habwe‟s novels respectively.
Wamalwa observes that the youth are faced with myriad socio-political, economic and psychological challenges beyond their ability. Based on the findings of the current study, the youth challenges and power struggles are a manifestation of generational conflicts captured in the Kiswahili novel.
In her analysis of Burhani‟s novels including Kipimo cha Mizani, Rose Mavisi (2007:102) pays attention on the portrayal of female characters. She concludes that the writer‟s gender and ideological background impacts on Burhani‟s portrayal of her female characters. By examining both male and female authored novels, the current study affirms Mavisi‟s claim.
Moreover, Mavisi notes that there seems to be a conflict between Burhani‟s older and younger female characters. The current study clearly shows generational conflict to be a major theme in Kipimo cha Mizani. Moreover, the study findings show how gender and the socio-cultural background of the author determine the narration generational conflicts in the selected male and female authored Kiswahili novels.
The use of drama as a technique in the depiction of themes in is the focus of Ochenja (2008:
ix-x) in the analysis of Kufa Kuzikana. The current study advances the idea that the deployment of HMNV together with CF in in the depiction of generational conflict on ethnic prejudice in Kufa Kuzikana basically entails drama or mimesis.
Bertoncini‟s overview of the themes and language use in Kufa Kuzikana is quite informative.
She affirms that there are ethnic conflicts propagated by the elderly generation in the novel (2007, 2009:59). Bertoncini‟s overview thus warrants this study which considers ethnic prejudice as one of the factors that generates generational conflicts. The researcher in this study attempts to establish reasons why the older generation more than the younger one is inclined towards ethnic prejudice. Moreover, Bertoncini‟s allegation that Kufa Kuzikana is laden with moral didactism goes further to affirm this study‟s thesis that the novel is a crucial tool in performing a cultural communicative act. The performance of the communicative act
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is assessed through interviewing some of the pupils and teachers that studied Vuta n‟kuvute in selected schools.
Three studies that focus on focalization and narrative voice are worth mentioning. These are:
Mlacha (1991:54-61), Wamitila (2008:84) and Hailemariam (2010). As Wamitila (2008:85) rightly points out, Mlacha‟s essay is informative and enlightening but it eschews the intricacies and technicalities associated with point of view (focalization). In his article Point of View in Kiswahili Narrative Fiction Wamitila (2008:84) expounds the concept of focalization. He discusses how three planes (aspects) of point of view (temporal, linguistic and ideological) orient the reading of Vuta n‟kuvute. He notes that a characteristic feature in Vuta n‟kuvute is the fact that spatial-temporal facet of point of view involves the swift of temporal position by the narrator actualised through the use of present tense. This is what the current study calls homodiegetic narrative voice or character focalization. This is what happens when when characters engage in conversations, monologues or even a stream of consciousness. A demonstration of monologue and stream of consciousness is captured in the following excerpt:
Mwajuma…alijishika kiuno. “Wacha nikamtafute Denge, leo, ndo leo, lazima nitamwona…” Alitembea kama aliyeshikwa na kichaa na maneno ya yule askari kanzu yakivuma masikioni mwake. “Denge ni koministi, kasoma Urusi na watu namna hiyo ni hatari sana…” (VN.66)
[Mwajuma… held her waist. “Let me look for Denge, today is today, I must find him…” She walked around as if she had gone mad as the words of that police detective rung in her ears. “Denge is a Communist who studied in Russia and such people are very dangerous…”]
The incident captured in the excerpt discloses the conflict between the younger generation represented by Denge and the colonial officials represented by Koplo Matata over political ideologies. Conversations such as the one between Yasmin and Raza (VN.3), Yasmin and her uncle (VN.18) exemplify homodiegetic narration and character focalization. Moreover, as Traore (2002:39) points out, Vuta n‟kuvute abounds with dialogues and interrogations like the one between Denge and Mwajuma (VN.68), Denge and Yasmin (VN.87) and Matata and Yasmin (VN.99). These examples affirm the assertion by Pinells (1983) that point of view is actually a key narrative device through which the „dominant opposition‟ in a novel can be articulated. The current study demonstrates how focalization and narrative voice serve as the major devices through which the conflicting parties are identified in the selected novels.
Wamitila‟s essay sheds light on how how the ideological facet of focalization generally orients the reading of the narrated events in Vuta n‟kuvute. However, due to the broad
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spectrum of Kiswahili fiction undertaken, the essay does not carry out an in depth analysis based on one specific theme. This is achieved by examining the deployment of focalization and narrative voice in the narration of the theme; „generational conflict‟ in Vuta n‟kuvute, Kipimo cha Mizani, Kufa Kuzikana and Tumaini.
In his study, Hailemariam (2010) analyses the narrative voices employed in the narration of the story in R.C. Binstock‟s novel: Tree of Haven (1995). He observes that two homodiegetic narrators having distinct voices are engaged in narrating the events of the story.
Hailemariam‟s study informs the current study on the typology of narrative voices and their communicative roles in a narrative text. Besides identifying various narrative voices, the current study advances the idea that both narrative voice and focalization are necessary in the communication process in a given narrative text. Indeed, narrative techniques are not ends in themselves but a means of achieving certain effects (Martin, 1986:152-3). We cannot know what a narrative is except in relation to what it does. This is the reason for our examination of narrative voice and focalization as narrating agents of the generational conflict theme.
Flavia Traore‟s article entitled: Investigating Topics and Styles in Vuta n‟kuvute (2002:35-41) is informative too. She rightly observes that the novelist skilfully balances the techniques of showing (where the events are mimed by the characters) and telling (where the events are told by the narrator) (Chatman, 1978:30). The current study is a step further in the sense that it undertakes a comparative study of Vuta n‟kuvute and three other novels.