| Popis: |
The rise of Swahili in the American academy in the 1960s was prompted by two forces: African identity politics among African Americans, on the one hand, and the politics of the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union, on the other. Both these sources of Swahili ascendency were themselves a response to the unfolding dynamics and counter-dynamics of independence politics in “Swahiliphone” Africa, that is in the East African nations where the Swahili language was in wide use. But now that the Cold War is over more or less, and the nature of African American politics has undergone significant change in focus, what is the fate and direction of Swahili studies in the USA? This is the central question that this article will seek to address as it considers, at the same time, the shifting disciplinary areas with which the study of Swahili has been associated. In the process the article will also touch on the state of Swahili studies in some other spaces of the world. |
