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SOAS Baraza Swahili Studies Conference
Key information
- Date
- to
- Venue
- SOAS University of London, Main Building
- Room
- Khalili Lecture Theatre (KLT)
About this event
We are excited to host our 13th annual Baraza Swahili Studies Conference at SOAS. The conference fosters academic interaction and exchange for new or emerging research, develops ideas and interests for mutual benefit among Swahili scholars and students.
This year’s Baraza main theme is ‘Retrieving the past, reshaping knowledge’ a theme that calls for renewed engagement with the deep intellectual, cultural, and historical foundations of the Swahili world, while also encouraging innovative approaches that speak to contemporary realities.
Our papers this year explore how communities, texts, artistic traditions and digital forms draw upon the past to generate new forms of knowledge, identity, and expression. This theme invites contributors to consider the dynamic interplay between memory and modernity, heritage and transformation, continuity and reinvention.
We look forward to lively discussions that address issues around the cosmopolitan Swahili culture and society, changing aspects of Swahili language and linguistics; about the historical trajectories of Swahili literary and cultural writings and other forms of expression.
KARIBUNI.
Programme
31 October 2026, Khalili Lecture Theatre (KLT)
| Time | Session / Presentation | Speaker(s) / Chair |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00–09:30 | Coffee and registration | |
| 09:30–09:40 | Welcome remarks | Ida Hadjivayanis (SOAS) and Angelica Baschiera (SOAS) |
| 09:40–11:30 | Panel 1 – Linguistics | Chair: Ms Angelica Baschiera |
| 09:40–10:00 | Sheng: Digital Prestige and the Enregisterment of an Urban Youth Language | Chege Githiora (Kenyatta) |
| 10:00–10:20 | Beyond Standard Swahili: AI Translation of Colloquial Swahili Varieties and Sheng | Merceline Ochieng (KU), Annah Kariuki (KU), Lutz Marten (SOAS) and Hannah Gibson (Essex) |
| 10:20–10:40 | Beyond lexical innovation: the mb_t_ pattern in Shembeteng | Evans Kiplimo (SOAS) |
| 10:20–10:40 | Language attitudes in Nairobi and the shifting status of Swahili | Tom Jelpke (SOAS) |
| 10:40–11:00 | The Nubian Influence in the emergence of a Ugandan Swahili variety | Nelson Nsereko and Innocent Masengo (Makerere) |
| 11:00–11:30 | Parallel developments in two East African urban settings: Comparing features from Nairobi Swahili and Lubumbashi Swahili | Nico Nassenstein (Mainz) and Mio Yamamoto (Osaka) |
| 11:30–11:40 | Q&A | |
| 11:40–13:20 | Panel 2 – Swahili Worlds | Chair: Prof Lutz Marten |
| 11:40–12:00 | Thinking Swahili, understanding the world: the onto-epistemic phenomenon of mji | Irene Brunotti (Leipzig) and Lara Krause-Alzaidi (Leipzig) |
| 12:00–12:20 | Muslim Women’s Perceptions and Roles in the Demand for the reintroduction of the Kadhi Courts in Mainland Tanzania, 1990s–2010s | Mr Shabani Mohamedi Mwakalinga (Ghent) |
| 12:20–12:40 | Pseudo-Canonization of Shaaban Robert in China: Translation, Academia and Rewriting of Writer’s Image | Ruilin Ding (UCL) |
| 12:40–13:00 | Nyumbani, Baharini // At home, in the Ocean: The Religious and Spiritual Significance of the Indian Ocean in Contemporary Zanzibari Life | Lois Ocquaye (SOAS) |
| 13:10–13:20 | Q&A | |
| 13:20–13:40 | Book launch: Mansura and the role played by DL2A Buluu Publishing, in the dissemination of Swahili literature and safeguarding of marginalized East African narratives | Issak Esmail (Paris), Mathieu Roy (Paris) and Mohamed Saleh (Paris) |
| 13:40–14:30 | Lunch | |
| 14:30–16:30 | Panel 3 – Text and Heritage | Chair: Dr Ida Hadjivayanis |
| 14:30–14:50 | The Eyes wander and so does the Mind: On the Poetry, Photography and Photo-Poetry of the Zanzibari Poet Nassor Hilal Kharusi | Clarissa Vierke (Bayreuth) |
| 14:50–15:10 | Was Fumo Liyongo a water monster? History and myth in the making of a protean legend | Martin Walsh (Cambridge) |
| 15:10–15:30 | Unbounding Analyses for Unbounded texts: Reading the openness of the Fumo Liyongo Epic | Ret’sepile Makamane (SOAS) |
| 15:30–15:50 | Performing Familyhood and Epistemic Justice in Kelvin Kagambo’s Short Films | Cristina Nicolini (Orientale) |
| 15:50–16:00 | Q&A | |
| 16:00–16:15 | Book launch – Salama Binti Rubeya: Memories from the Swahili Littoral / Salama binti Rubeya: Simulizi kutoka mwambao wa Bahari ya Hindi | Salha Hamdani (Harvard Fellow) and Ida Hadjivayanis (SOAS) |
| 16:15–16:30 | Social Location and Lateral Texts | Prof Farouk Topan (SOAS/AKU), Abdilatif Abdalla (Hamburg) and Mohamed Saleh (Paris) |
| 16:30–16:50 | Coffee break | |
| 16:50–17:50 | Panel 4 – Publishing and Activism | Chair: Dr Martin Walsh |
| 16:50–17:10 | Bugle Calls for a Canon: Complete Works and Literary Memory at Mbiu Press (Tanzania) | Uta Reuster-Jahn (Hamburg) |
| 17:10–17:20 | Reshaping Kiswahili Literature in the Digital Era: Tanzanian Women Writers, Self-Publishing, and Literary Activism | Izabela Romanczuk (Warsaw) |
| 17:20–17:40 | Kutoka ukombozi na ujenzi wa taifa hadi diplomasia: Kiswahili, utambulisho na ushawishi wa Tanzania | Ambassador Abdallah Possi (Geneva) |
| 17:40–18:00 | Operation Triangulation: The English-Bridge AI Translation Model for Non-Native Kiswahili Integration in the Horn of Africa | Abdiqani Gelle (Somali National News Agency, SONNA) |
| 18:00–18:20 | Abdilatif Abdalla @ 80: Mwalimu wangu, rafiki yangu, Mwenzangu harakatini | Wangui Wa Goro (SOAS) |
| 18:20–18:30 | Q&A | |
| 18:30 | Closing remarks | Ida Hadjivayanis and Angelica Baschiera |
African Languages
Programme
Sunday 1 November 2026, DLT
| Time | Session / Presentation | Speaker(s) / Chair |
|---|---|---|
| 11:00 | Registration | |
| 11:00–11:10 | Welcome remarks | |
| 11:10–12:20 | HAUSA – Retrieving Pasts | Chair: Dr Carmen McCain |
| 11:10–11:30 | Retrieving the Oral Archive: Literary Activism, Power and Social Justice in Traditional Hausa Society | Ibrahim Malumfashi (Kaduna State University) |
| 11:30–11:50 | Retrieving a Buried Past: Slavery, Memory and the Hausa–North Africa Route in the novel Shaihu Umar | Ibrahim Shehu (Kaduna State University) |
| 11:50–12:10 | Beyond Speaking: Orthographic competence as the missing link in Hausa Literacy | Muhamad Abdullahi (Bayero) |
| 12:10–12:20 | Q&A | |
| 12:20–13:10 | IKINYARWANDA – Visual Arts From the archives of Mgr. Alexis Kagame | Prof Alena Rettova (Bayreuth) |
| 13:10–14:00 | Lunch | |
| 14:00–15:20 | KISWAHILI – AI and Digitisation | Chair: Dr Ida Hadjivayanis |
| 14:00–14:20 | Umuhimu wa Semi za Kale za Kiswahili Zenye Dhana ya ‘Mate’ katika Kukuza Ustawi wa Jamii ya Sasa | Athumani S. Ponera (Dodoma) |
| 14:20–14:40 | Kutoka Darasani Kuingia Mtaani: Ufundishaji Kiswahili Ulibeba Lugha na Utamaduni Katika Uhalisia – From the Classroom to the Field Trip: Teaching Kiswahili by Integrating Culture and Authenticity | Zainab Ali Iddi (SUZA) and Fatma Soud Nassor (SUZA) |
| 14:40–15:00 | Muhammed Said Abdulla in the Eyes of Artificial Intelligence: Classical Literary Swahili and the Issue of Digital Authenticity | Yussuf Hamad (Zanzibar) |
| 15:00–15:20 | Retrieving Linguistic Heritage, Reshaping Educational Futures: Implementing Kiswahili in Uganda's Competency-Based Curriculum | Hellen Egessa (Makerere) |
| 15:20–15:40 | Strategy for Establishment of a Swahili Creative Economy and Innovation Ecosystem: Kiwandeo Kreative District, Lamu, Kenya | Omar Kibulanga (The Aga Khan) |
| 15:40–15:50 | Q&A | |
| 15:50–16:00 | Closing remarks |
Contact: cas@soas.ac.uk
Image: Ida Hadjvayanis
