Interlude 3 Tupijeni Makamama (Let’s Embrace) Mahmoud Ahmed Abdulkadir

Composed in March 2010, this poem was written for a workshop organized by the Research Institute of Swahili Studies in Eastern Africa (RISSEA). Focused on the preservation of Swahili culture in changing times, the workshop asked whether development necessarily entailed leaving one’s traditions. In this poem, Mahmoud Abdulkadir reminds the reader that waSwahili were historically more advanced than other population groups in Kenya, and he suggests that Swahili people can again attain that status. According to the poet, development does not require abandoning cultural practices. Rather, waSwahili ought to be selective and appropriate only those developments that do not contradict or violate Swahili traditions....