It’s not just catechesis: Swahili educational and moralising literature published by Ndanda Mission Press

This paper analyses a rich selection of educational and moralising novellas and novelettes written in Swahili and published by the Benedictine Ndanda Missionary Press in Tanzania. The analysis investigates nineteen Swahili fictional texts as a way of ‘preaching’ moral virtues in an African language, which convey catechetical knowledge: the Ten Commandments and the Sacraments. The texts will be examined as examples of ‘intercultural exegesis’ of the Scriptures and as media enacting Christian ‘meta-praxis’. This paper illustrates how these Swahili popular novelettes can be interpreted as creative means of disseminating Christian ethics through the Swahili language, thus contributing to the development of catechetical epistemology and lexicon.