Rosa Mistika

A controversial Swahili classic by one of Tanzanias most revered writers, banned on publication and finally translated into English On Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria, teenage Rosa lives with her parents and four younger sisters in the village of Namagondo, where she attends the local school and helps out on the family farm. Life would be relatively peaceful if it werent for Rosas father, who drinks to oblivion and abuses both Rosa and her mother. Initially relieved to be admitted into a residential school on the mainland, Rosa soon discovers that shes ill prepared for life outside her village. As she becomes accustomed to the attentionand manipulationsof men, she begins to understand her sexuality as a weapon. But this understanding, born of the need to survive in a world of double standards, comes with a price. Censored shortly after its publication in 1971 but subsequently adopted as required reading in secondary schools across Tanzania and Kenya, Rosa Mistika is a radical narrative exploration of womanhood, maternal love, agency, and authorityand the first-ever Swahili novel to address issues of domestic violence, sexual coercion, and abortion. Through the story of a young woman and her community it poses the enduring question: To what degree are we responsible for the choices we make, and to what degree are we acted upon by forces outside our control?