This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Africa: Kenya / Tanzania / Uganda Mid‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Africa, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Africa on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AfricaWikipedia:WikiProject AfricaTemplate:WikiProject AfricaAfrica articles Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by WikiProject Kenya. This article is supported by WikiProject Tanzania (assessed as Mid-importance). This article is supported by WikiProject Uganda (assessed as Mid-importance).

Great to have this started!

Let's see, Knappert (1982) describes four genres of Swahili oral literature: the tale ( ngano), the song ( wimbo), the epic ( utenzi), and the proverb ( mathali). Where does that fit in with the three-way distinction into riwaya, tamthilia and shairi? Especially utenzi seems to me to cross the border, as tenzi are often written down (literature) but are also recited (oral literature). — mark ✎ 13:22, 26 September 2006 (UTC) reply

I changed the birth of swahili literature from 16th to 18th century. Original version (16th century) was probably a typo.

Is there a place to list Swahili non-fiction books? -- McTrixie 17:21, 16 November 2006 (UTC) reply

List of Swahili non-fiction books? I mean, if you're going to start a list and maintain it I think it would be best to do so in a separate article. I don't think a list would be a great addition to this particular article; right now it needs more text, not more lists. — mark ✎ 17:43, 16 November 2006 (UTC) reply

No no, not in this article. And I don't have enough to start a nonfiction list now. -- McTrixie/ Mr Accountable 19:12, 19 December 2006 (UTC) reply

The correct word is Methali NOT Mathali.Correct this please — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.199.119.60 ( talk • contribs) 16:00, 10 September 2007 (UTC) reply