Rosa Mistika: A Novel (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

By: Euphrase Kezilahabi

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Synopsis: A controversial Swahili classic by one of Tanzania&’s most revered writers, banned on publication and finally translated into English Teenage Rosa lives with her parents and four younger sisters in a village on Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria, where she attends the local school and helps out on the family farm. Life would be relatively peaceful if it weren&’t for Rosa&’s father, who drinks to oblivion and abuses his wife and daughters. Initially relieved to be admitted into a residential school on the mainland, Rosa soon discovers that she&’s ill prepared for life outside her village. As she becomes accustomed to the attention—and manipulations—of 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. Rosa Mistika is a radical narrative exploration of womanhood, maternal love, agency, and authority—and 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?

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