Negative Politics and Underdevelopment in Africa: An Analysis of Selected Kiswahili Literary Texts

Abstract

Despite her vast resources, Africa still struggles with development issues. Africa, arguably, remains the least developed continent. Her numerous natural resourceshave not been fully exploited internally for the benefit of the continent. This state of underdevelopment leaves most people poor and struggling in life. Yet most African leaders do little to change this state of affairs. Instead, most politicians ride on the poverty status of the citizenry to attain and remain in leadership positions. At independence there were promises of fast development in everysphereof life.To date, this still remains a dream in many of the African countries. The same promises of development have been and are being repeated every election year,but are forgotten as soon as the aspirants win political seats. Literary artists have made an effort to present Africa’s development woes in their works. This study analyses development problems that Africa faces, from a literary perspective. The analysis is based on two Swahili literary works namely,KufaKuzikana (Ken Walibora, Kenya) and Amezidi (Said Ahmed Mohamed, Tanzania). The purpose of the analysis is to show how literary artists look at issues of governance and development in Africa. In many countries around the world, politics drives many aspects of human development. Herein then, an effort is made to show how negative politics leads to underdevelopment as depicted by writers of literary works in Kiswahili. Light is also shed on how the situation can be changed, from a literary perspective, to enable Africa develop. Such an analysis is important insofar as it helps expand the understanding of the relationship between politics and socio-economic development.