Economic Perspectives in East African Literature: A Study in Selected Novels in Kiswahili

Abstract

This paper examines economic perspectives in East African Literature with a particular focus on one author who wrote his works during the colonial times and two others who created their works in the postcolonial period. Whereas Shaaban Robert wrote his novellas in the 1950 when East African countries had not attained their independence, Euphrase Kezilahabi and George Katama Mkangi wrote in 1970s to 1990s long after the formation of East African States. From reading their literary pieces, it becomes increasingly clear that the society which Shaaban Robert depicted was hierarchical in which economic points of view and attitudes depended on the class in which a person belonged. On the other hand, Kezilahabi and Mkangi portray a highly adversarial society in which economic attitudes are defined by the binary model of social description.