Shakespeare in Swahililand

Having grown up in Kenya and Switzerland, with periods living in Mexico, Zimbabwe, and the United States, Edward Wilson-Lee now lives in Cambridge, where he teaches Renaissance literature and is a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College. His research focuses on books, libraries, and travel, which during this project has involved journeys to and through Spain, Italy, India, and the Caribbean. He is the author of Shakespeare in Swahililand and The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books, which won the Pen Hessell-Tiltman Prize.

‘Part travel book, part history of Swahili-speaking African nations, part exploration of Shakespeare’s power to touch the human spirit, this is a remarkable account of how his work is woven into the fabric of African life’ Daily Mail‘Amid the dozens of books flooding this anniversary season this … is one of the more interesting … Wilson-Lee’s account of his East African Shakespeare-hunt is vivid and full of insights’ Independent‘It has successfully told a lesser-known story of Africa, and it is a story worth knowing’ Economist‘Part memoir, part weird and wonderful history of Shakespeare in East Africa’ Telegraph‘A perceptive and entertaining guide to the Bard’s reception in Swahililand’ Literary Review‘I thought nothing could surprise me about the impact of England’s greatest cultural figure, but this fascinating, readable book about his influence in East Africa certainly did’ The Lady‘Wilson-Lee goes in search of Shakespeare in Africa and finds him entwined in every twist and turn of the drama of colonization and decolonization of the continent from the 17th century to the present. The result is a masterly literary detective adventure’ Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o