3 - The Crisis of the Bildungsroman

Summary

The education of younger generations is a very complex issue which is a priority for Swahili novelists especially in the context of a colonial world which is bound to change and to question of rules of the game. A principal feature of the Swahili novel is the fact that the Bildungsroman has no place in its repertoire. The one who looks to the world in order to develop is doomed to failure. The world is not a teacher. It is riddled with traps that those who are not well advised will fall into. The key proverb of the Bildungsroman goes as follows: ‘The one who does not listen to the elders will break his leg.’ A proverb such as ‘What the mother does not teach will be taught by the world’ can hardly be interpreted positively. This proverb implies that the world (ulimwengu) cannot play the role of a teacher, which means that the result can only be a disaster (Ndalu and King'ei, 1989; Wamitila, 2001).

This brings to mind the title of a Kenyan novel: The World is a Saw (Simani, 2002). Formation is impossible: either one is educated or undeveloped. A person is either raised well or is lost. As far as education is concerned, prose literature takes over from poetry in offering advice on good behaviour. In prose literature, rules of good behaviour in society are explained (Dumila, 1972, 1979); and readers are warned about bad behaviour (Baka, 1969). It is noteworthy that this kind of didacticism did not find its way into romantic fiction. Just like the Bildungsroman, the educative novel did not find its mark. We have seen that Shaaban Robert’s works could not be limited to a didactic approach despite the fact that ethical issues are ever-present in his works. Utopianism precedes didacticism in Shaaban Robert’s work in which social evolution depends on the quality of interpersonal ties.