Secret of Swahili literature is out

In his book, Aspects of the Novel, Edward Morgan Forster has outlined the basic characteristics of the novel as a genre. Forster, for example, states that a novel should have not less than 120,000 words or 403 pages.

Most African novels, particularly those written in Kiswahili, may not meet Morgan’s criteria for the simple reason that the tradition of writing and reading in Africa is arguably not so much established as compared to that of the West.