Masculine and Feminine Constructions of Migration in Swahili Literature

'Mbali na Nyumbani' and 'Mhanga Nafsi Yangu'

Abstract

There is a contention in Kiswahili literary discourses which argues that apart from migration rooted in refugee movements, the predominant form of migration discernible in Kiswahili literature is that of male labour, migration that is motivated by economic imperatives - which also implies it is migration in search of better education, training and employment opportunities. This is the migration that accounts for the relocation and exodus of Africans from their domiciles of origin to new and distant habitats (Senkoro, 2010). This paper seeks to argue that the male trajectory of migration was only true up to a point and it therefore intends to deconstruct this trajectory through a comparative examination of the portrayal of gender - the male-female dichotomy of migration in selected Kiswahili literary works, namely; Mhanga Nafsi Yangu by Said Ahmed Mohamed (2012) and Mbali na Nyumbani by Adam Shafi (2013). In trying to deconstruct migration as a masculinist concept, this paper proposes to examine the two selected novels on the basis of the journey and search motifs so as to understand and interrogate the complexity of migration experiences, determine types of migration and their implications in constructing masculine and feminine nuances of migration. Theoretically, this study is framed on international migration theories and their socio-criticism, which help the reader understand the causes and complexities of the phenomenon of migration particularly in terms of how they construct a masculine or feminine trajectory.