A01=Euphrase Kezilahabi
Abortion
Africa
Author_Euphrase Kezilahabi
Category=DS
Category=FBA
Category=FQ
City
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Existentialism
Family
Female sexuality
Feminism
Girlhood
Marriage
Postcolonialism
Swahili
Tanzania
Tradition
Translated literature
Upbringing
Village life
Womanhood
Women's education
Product details
- ISBN 9780300276558
- Dimensions: 127 x 197mm
- Publication Date: 12 Aug 2025
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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A controversial Swahili classic by one of Tanzania’s most revered writers, banned on publication and finally translated into English
A New Yorker Best Books of 2025 Selection
Teenage Rosa lives with her parents and four younger sisters in a village on Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria, where she attends the local school and helps out on the family farm. Life would be relatively peaceful if it weren’t for Rosa’s father, who drinks to oblivion and abuses his wife and daughters. Initially relieved to be admitted into a residential school on the mainland, Rosa soon discovers that she’s ill prepared for life outside her village. As she becomes accustomed to the attention—and manipulations—of men, she begins to understand her sexuality as a weapon. But this understanding, born of the need to survive in a world of double standards, comes with a price.
Rosa Mistika is a radical narrative exploration of womanhood, maternal love, agency, and authority—and the first-ever Swahili novel to address issues of domestic violence, sexual coercion, and abortion. Through the story of a young woman and her community it poses the enduring question: To what degree are we responsible for the choices we make, and to what degree are we acted upon by forces outside our control?
A New Yorker Best Books of 2025 Selection
Teenage Rosa lives with her parents and four younger sisters in a village on Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria, where she attends the local school and helps out on the family farm. Life would be relatively peaceful if it weren’t for Rosa’s father, who drinks to oblivion and abuses his wife and daughters. Initially relieved to be admitted into a residential school on the mainland, Rosa soon discovers that she’s ill prepared for life outside her village. As she becomes accustomed to the attention—and manipulations—of men, she begins to understand her sexuality as a weapon. But this understanding, born of the need to survive in a world of double standards, comes with a price.
Rosa Mistika is a radical narrative exploration of womanhood, maternal love, agency, and authority—and the first-ever Swahili novel to address issues of domestic violence, sexual coercion, and abortion. Through the story of a young woman and her community it poses the enduring question: To what degree are we responsible for the choices we make, and to what degree are we acted upon by forces outside our control?
Euphrase Kezilahabi (1944–2020) was a Tanzanian novelist, poet, and scholar. Jay Boss Rubin is an award-winning translator from Swahili. Annmarie Drury is professor of English at Queens College, City University of New York.
