Mohammed Khelef Ghassani’s “Kwetu”: poetry, place, and liberation

Abstract

This article explores the themes of freedom and enslavement in the poetry of Zanzibari poet-journalist-activist Mohammed Khelef Ghassani. Starting from the layered meanings of the Kiswahili adage “Mwacha asili ni mtumwa” [he who abandons his origins is a slave], adaptations of which figure prominently in Ghassani’s most famous poetry collection, N’na Kwetu: Sauti ya Mgeni Ugenini [I Have a Home: Voice of a Stranger in a Strange Land], the article elaborates a balance Ghassani seeks to maintain between different and overlapping notions of freedom developed against histories of slavery in Pemba, the threat of assimilation in Germany, and ongoing suppression of political speech in Zanzibar. The poems include reflections on violations of foundational rights and state-sponsored violence against which the poet’s genealogical, literary-linguistic, and affective claims to both community belonging and individual free speech stand as firm counter-resistance, declarations of freedom against another kind of slavery.