We Are Still in the Fort

Muyaka bin Haji al-Ghassaniy (1776–1840) was the earliest secular Swahili poet whose identity is known. He has been credited with bringing Swahili verse “out of the mosque and into the marketplace” with his commentary on daily life in Mombasa and its frequent battles defending its independence against the Omani Empire. He also popularized the mashairi quatrain form that serves to this day as the predominant form of Swahili verse.Richard Prins is a lifelong New Yorker who has lived, worked, studied, and recorded music in Dar es Salaam. He currently teaches creative and expository writing at Queens College. His own poetry has appeared in dozens of publications such as Gulf Coast, jubilat, and Ploughshares, and his creative nonfiction was selected for inclusion in The Best American Essays 2024. He is the author of the Birdhouse Prize–winning chapbook We May Eat Fruit and Brain Flavor: A Lyric History of Swahili Hip Hop, as well as the translator of the Africanfuturist novel They Are Us, for which he received a 2023 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant and a 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship.

“How refreshing to see one of the major Kiswahili poets of the nineteenth century being given a new breath of life and being ‘resurrected’ for the English reading public! By beautifully translating some of Muyaka’s poems, with introductory notes for each of the three sections, Richard Prins has done a great service to the better understanding of Muyaka’s verse and further popularization of Kiswahili poetry in general. I very much enjoyed reading the volume.”—Abdilatif Abdalla, author of Voice of Agony

• A Note on Muyaka and his PoetryA Note on the TranslationPart I: I Swipe Their String of Fish—Poems of Mombasan SocietyIntroductiona fraying ropeukuukuu wa kambaeverything would be scatteredtruly your friendthey walk around with axeswhat counts is how you share itrise!stick up for a scoundrelgossipers are gossipingTima and ImaMwana Kauwa and Buleif I was looking classyI wishyet some of them go nakeda poor man's hendon't be a donkey breederdestitution, get thee goneJingapoetrydon't get attacheda man ran away from fatewhen they happen to unitePart II: Take Your Misery With You—Poems of Love and MarriageIntroductionoaoaBwana Muyaka is heremy heartwhat we're tied toand what will you be wearing?when half a lovewhat's mine is yoursmy old dinghyhave you come for me, SorrowloveMwamkasiminnow, lion of the seawould that I were a sparrowno grass growsthere is a roadto meet again with youif love was but a mirrortwo pathsthat thief who stole my stuffgive me back my shawlthere's nothing that can't happentake your misery with youPart III: We Are Still in the Fort—Poems of War and StateIntroductionif you know it, you know nothingmtambuzwa hatambulithe world is a brittle treeyou might walk on land, hippodiving into the earthgo beat on the hivePate's men are freewho builds a house won't sleep theretwo big fishLamu vs. Mombasawe are manly lionsthe fortmeow, kitty, meowno stranger to patiencequietthat ancient rumbling drumbeatwhen you're in Zanzibardance of the spinning topthe ponds ran out of waterwhat would you do for a treat?days of eating junkeven in dead of nightthe dead leaf said to the greenthe world is nothing but ashlet it all die inside youo the world is a carcassthe dead are dead alreadySources Cited