Deconstructing and reconstructing holy meanings through an ‘exegesis’ of W. E. Mkufya’s novels

This study introduces an original reading of William Mkufya’s Swahili novels through an investigation of not only direct and indirect intertextual links from the sacred texts, namely the Bible and the Qur’an, but also explicit or implicit references to them. Mkufya either refers to or critiques some religious prescriptions deconstructing and reconstructing meanings as an exercise to ‘decolonise the mind’ (Wa Thiong’o 1986). Beside this, Mkufya in his novels experimented with style and genre-blending to articulate plural philosophies and epistemologies. This ‘exegesis’ of Mkufya’s novels has been conducted through a combination of personal conversations with the author and in-depth textual analysis of the following novels: The Wicked Walk (1977) which Mkufya self-translated into Swahili as Kizazi Hiki (“This Generation,” 1980), Ziraili na Zirani (“Azrael and Zirani,” 1999), Ua La Faraja (“The Flower of Consolation,” 2004) and Kuwa Kwa Maua (“The Existence of Flowers,” 2019).