Ulinganishi wa kimuundo baina ya ushairi wa Kiswahili na kiarabu katika diwani ya Shaaban Robert na diwani ya Abdul-Aziz Muhammad

Abstract

This is a comperative study of the structure of Kiswahili and Arabic Poems from the Anthology of Shaaban and Abdul-Aziz. A review of related literature revealed that no study has been made on comparing the structure of Kiswahili poetry with that of Arabic poetry.There has been long time conflict about the origin of Kiswahili poetry which has not been resolved. Therefore the research was carried out with an intention of showing the major aspects of the structure of traditional poems of two languages that made the structure of two language related and to narrow the knowledge gap. The objectives of this study were to show the surface structure of the poetry of both languages in the anthologies of Shaaban and Abdul-Aziz; to identify the similarities and deferences between the structure of Kiswahili and Arabic Poetry in these two anthologies with an intent of analyzing the structure of poems of these two languages to get a clue of the origin of the conflict between scholars. The study was guided by the following research questions: What is the surface structure of Kiswahili and Arabic poetry? And what are the similarities and defferences between Kiswahili and Arabic poetry with regard to the surface structure? This study was guided by Reconstructionist theory that was founded by Ferdinand de Saussure (1950s). Content analysis was used as a method to collect data which constituted both the structure and form in the selected anthologies that had Kiswahili and Arabic Traditional poetry. The data was qualitatively analysed. The findings reveal that traditional poetry for both languages can be identified by their structure; to a greater extent these poems have the same outer structure and some defferences. This study is a contribution to the field of literature. Reseachers, literature critiques could have a look at the outer structure of the Kiswahili and Arabic poetry while studying the origin of Kiswahili poetry.