A New Historicism Approach to Paradox in Religious Faith in Selected Kiswahili Novels

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing specific Kiswahili novels using a New Historicism Approach in the quest to show that witchcraft, adultery, lies, power struggle and other vices characterize the daily activities of worshippers in today’s religious set up. In exploring and debating these issues this paper will focus on two novels: Kisima cha Giningi (Abdulla, 1968), Paradiso, (Habwe, 2005).It is significant that the former is a Muslim and the latter a Christian and that both explore the issue from the perspective of their respective religions. The paper shows that faith in religion is vital for the wellbeing of worshippers and the society in general . It is however, argued that the church and mosque are undergoing momentous changes, largely caused by human greed, socio- cultural differences and globalization. Faith in God is ordinarily seen as key to moral and spiritual well being of worshippers and the foundation on which a just and virtuous society rests. This is however contradicted by the events in the selected novels. Although our reference is fiction, the role of literature in depicting these social realities cannot be underestimated. It can be argued so because writers are themselves products of given societies that might be undergoing the turmoil in focus.