The "renovated" poetry of Theobald Mvungi and Said Ahmed Mohamed: on mechanisms of transformation of traditional Swahili verse

Contemporary Swahili poetry is developing according to three main trends. The followers of the first trend - the so called "traditionalists" - stick to classic forms of old Swahili poetry. Following the Swahili canon of versification, traditionalists continue to be within the limits of two main genres of old Swahili literature - tendi (long poems) and mashairi (moderate lyrics and philosophical verses). In Swahili poetry foregoing sudden changes were marked by the appearance of a group of young authors on the poetic stage in the 1970s, who gave a dare to tradition. Their venture radically changed the character of Swahili literature, marking the appearance of the second trend of Swahili poetry, the \\\"new\\\" or \\\"modernistic\\\" poetry. But along with traditional and \\\"modernistic\\\" schools there exists a third trend of Swahili poetry - it is that sort of versification, which one may call \\\"transitional\\\". In general it looks lile pure \\\"modernism\\\", where at first sight one cannot see even the faintest resemblance with the traditional canon, but the more careful search makes it obvious that there is a true continuity between traditional and contemporary art. The best examples of such transformation are the poems of two prominent figures of contemporary Swahili poetry, the Tanzanians Theobald Mvungi and Said Ahmed Mohamed