Swahili Fighting Words

The filmmaker travels to Swahili traditional village in search of his identity linked with contemporary Swahili hip-hop. How do individual experiences map onto complex narratives of national histories? Can poetry create a nation? “Swahili Fighting Words” examines these questions, through the story of one young man, his family, and the 1940’s epic Swahili poetic battles poetic battles that mark his, and potentially, the nation’s understandings of Tanzanian history.