Elieshi Lema | |
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| Born | 1949 (age 74–75) Kilimanjaro, Tanzania |
| Occupation | Writer Publisher |
| Alma mater | University of Dar-es-Salaam |
| Genre | Poetry, Novel, Children's literature |
Elieshi Lema (born 1949) is a Tanzanian writer and publisher, also active in Tanzania's civil society.
Lema was born and raised in the village of Nronga in Moshi District of Kilimanjaro Region. [1] She studied library science and worked at the national library. She continued her education by studying English literature at the University of Dar es Salaam and creative writing at San Francisco State University. [2]
Lema began writing poetry and then children's books [2] in Swahili. Her short story Mwendo dealt with cultural practices harmful to the girl child in Tanzania. In 2001, she wrote her first novel titled Parched Earth in English. [1] This novel has been translated into Swedish and French and received honourable mention for the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. Another of her books for young adults in English, called In the Belly of Dar es Salaam, was on the shortlist for the Burt Award for African Literature. [3]
As a co-editor, she also published works by Tanzania's first president Julius Nyerere, titled Nyerere on Education: Selected Essays and Speeches.
Lema is co-owner of the publishing house E&D Vision Publishing, [4] which also operates a book café in Dar es Salaam. [2] E&D Vision Publishing mainly has published children's books, textbooks and titles about African history, both in Swahili as well as in English. In 1998, they published the first booklet for young readers on the history of the Dinosaurs of Tendaguru, which also became known as recommended reading in Kenyan schools. [5]
Both as a writer of young adult literature as well as a publisher and educator, Lema has focussed on books for children as the basis for a publishing industry in her country. [6] She is also a founding director for the Tanzania Cultural Trust Fund. Further, she has served on the board for the African Publishers Network, Haki Elimu, the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme, the Tanzania Media Fund and on the executive board for the Publishers Association of Tanzania, [2] as well as the Children's Book Network. [3] [7]
In an interview about her experience about the challenges of building a sustainable reading culture in East Africa, she said: [7]
One of the most important things is the political will for governments to invest in sustaining a reading culture - it's not something that is easy and can be done within three years of promotion. It has to be constantly addressed. It is getting worse because facilities like rural libraries, and community libraries do not exist, so people have no access to books. Access is only found in schools. And then the moment children graduate from primary schools, they get into communities where there's nothing to read. And within two to three years, they've fallen back into illiteracy or semi-literacy.
— Elieshi Lema, Tanzanian writer and publisher
as author:
as editor:
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Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. According to the 2022 national census, Tanzania has a population of around 62 million, making it the most populous country located entirely south of the equator.
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Shaaban bin Robert, also known as Shaaban Robert, was a Tanzanian poet, author, and essayist who supported the preservation of Tanzanian verse traditions. Robert is celebrated as one of the greatest Tanzanian Swahili thinkers, intellectuals and writers in East Africa and has been called "poet laureate of Swahili" and is also known as the "Father of Swahili." He is also honoured as the national poet.
Following Tanganyika's independence (1961) and unification with Zanzibar (1964), leading to the formation of the state of Tanzania, President Julius Nyerere emphasised a need to construct a national identity for the citizens of the new country. To achieve this, Nyerere provided what has been regarded by some commentators as one of the most successful cases of ethnic repression and identity transformation in Africa.
Nancy Abraham Sumari is a Tanzanian author, business woman, social entrepreneur and beauty pageant titleholder. She is the Managing Director of Bongo5 Media Group (T) Ltd, The Executive Director of The Neghesti Sumari Foundation and The Jenga Hub, as well as a published author of the children's book series, Nyota Yako. In 2017 Africa Youth Awards named her among the 100 Most Influential Young Africans.
Muziki wa dansi, or simply dansi, is a Tanzanian music genre, derivative of Congolese soukous and Congolese rumba. It is sometimes called Swahili jazz because most dansi lyrics are in Swahili, and "jazz" is an umbrella term used in Central and Eastern Africa to refer to soukous, highlife, and other dance music and big band genres. Muziki wa dansi can also be referred to as Tanzanian rumba, as "african rumba" is another name for soukous.
Godfrey Mwakikagile is a Tanzanian scholar and author specialising in African studies. He was also a news reporter for The Standard — the oldest and largest English newspaper in Tanzania and one of the three largest in East Africa. Mwakikagile wrote Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era — a biographical book on the life of former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere set in the backdrop of Africa's early post-colonial years and the liberation wars in the countries of southern Africa in which Nyerere played a major role.
Edwin Semzaba was a Tanzanian novelist, playwright, actor and director. He wrote his works mainly in Swahili. He taught in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he taught, among other courses, creative writing and acting. He won the first award of East African Writers awarded by the Institute of Swahili Research for his novel Funke Bugebuge and the "grandchildren's adventure book writing competition" awarded by the Swedish Embassy in Tanzania (2007).
Jean Pruitt was an American Maryknoll Sister operating in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She was best known for her activism in promoting Tanzanian art and defending Tanzanian children's rights. She worked with the Maryknoll Sisters and the Roman Catholic Church of Tanzania from 1969, and she received several awards for her contributions to Tanzanian society and culture.
Rakesh Rajani is a Tanzanian civil society leader. Rajani has established and led key social initiatives in the evolution of education in Tanzania and East Africa since 1991. He has worked with Haki Elimu as an advocate for young people through education, as well as with open government, ICT, and the organizations Twaweza, and Uwezo. Rajani is known for his expertise in the field for International Development work, particularly related to child rights, education, democracy, and open government in East Africa.
Penina Muhando, also known as Penina Mlama, is a Tanzanian Kiswahili playwright, a theorist and practitioner of Theatre for Development in Tanzania.
Martha Mlagala Mvungi was a Tanzanian novelist, short-story writer, academic and teacher. She wrote in both Kiswahili and English.
The Tanzanian Broadcasting Corporation is a television network. It is Tanzania's national network and is government-owned and operated.
Marjorie Mbiliniyi is a scholar, feminist and gender activist. She was born in New York and studied educational sciences before settling in Dar-es-Salaam and became a citizen of Tanzania after married a Tanzanian. She worked at the Department of Education at Dar-es-Salaam university. Mbiliniyi has dedicate herself to collaborate with and organize women to fight against patriarchy and neo-liberalism in Tanzania and beyond. She worked as a lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam where she retired in 2003. After her retirement from academia, she served as the Principal Policy Analyst at the Tanzania Gender Networking Program; later known as TGNP Mtandao from 2004–2014.
The Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA) - Swahili: Chama cha Wanahabari Wanawake Tanzania (CHAWAHATA) - is a nonprofit non-governmental organization focused on women's rights and children's rights, based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and they also keep an office in Zanzibar.
Dinosaurs of Tendaguru is a Tanzanian booklet for young readers on natural history, focussing on the discovery and subsequent excavations of dinosaur fossils at Tendaguru hill in Lindi Region of South Eastern Tanzania. It was written in the country’s official language Swahili by Tanzanian authors Cassian Magori and Charles Saanane, with illustrations by the German graphic artist Thomas Thiemeyer. This book was published in 1998 with the support of the Goethe-Institut in Dar es Salaam, the local branch of the German cultural institute, by E&D Vision Publishing, Tanzania.
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