Annachiara Raia

Annachiara Raia is an Africanist specialised in Swahili Muslim intellectual traditions with a background in the languages, history and cultures of the Islamic countries. She has studied Classical Arabic, Swahili and Somali languages and literature at the University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’ (Italy). She holds a PhD (2018 cum laude) in Literatures in African Languages and Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies, in cotutelle between the University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’ and the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies at Bayreuth University (Germany).

From April 2017 until February 2019 she was wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin at the University of Bayreuth working as a specialist of Swahili Language and Literature at the Faculty of Languages and Literatures - Literatures in African languages. Since 2019 she is senior researcher and assistant professor in African Literature, both at the Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) and the African Studies Centre in Leiden.

Her academic activities include not only teaching and conceptualising courses on African literature, postcolonial theories, oral traditions, Swahili libraries and heritage for the African Studies programmes, but also extensive archival and ethnographic research in East Africa with, artists, thinkers, librarians and family-run bookshops located in Kenya and Tanzania.  

Annachiara is co-convenor of the CRG African-language archives - Unpacking local epistemologies at the ASCL and principal investigator for two ongoing research projects: The cultural preservation of the Ustadh Mau Digital Archive (UMADA) project and the NWO Talent Programme Veni SSH 2021 research on Portable Islam: Swahili Literary Networks in the 20th century Indian Ocean.

As part of her broader transdisciplinary research, she is affiliated with the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam in Society (LUCIS) where the research programme Travelling Islam: The Circulation of Ideas in Africa was established. She is also a cluster member in the project ‘Multiple Artworks - Multiple Indian Ocean’ (MAMIO) at Bayreuth University and a member of the CRG Africa in the World - Rethinking Africa’s Global Connections at the ASCL.

She is author of Rewriting Yusuf (Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2020), a monograph that spans a wide range of world-local literatures. This study was awarded the Kulturpreis Bayern 2018 by the Bavarian Ministry for Research and Art and inspired the theme for the Zenobia Foundation’s 6th Annual Conference in 2021 in Amsterdam.

Keywords: African-languages literatures, manuscript studies, digital archives, Islamic literary networks in Africa, orality and literacy, Swahili literature, Indian Ocean intellectual practices

Dr. A. (Annachiara) Raia
Senior researcher
+31 (0)71 5273372/3376
Room number: 3.A11
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22

In this fragile world: Swahili poetry of commitment by Ustadh Mahmoud Mau
(2023)
Editors: A. Raia; C. Vierke
Type of Publication: Book

Seeking 'ilm on Lamu: Ustadh Mau's library and services for the benefit of his community
(2023)
A. Raia
Editors: A. Raia; C. Vierke
Type of Publication: Book Chapter

Introduction to travelling Islam
(2023)
A. Raia; F. Ngom; M.M.A. Kaag; M.G. Kossmann
Type of Publication: Journal Article

Special Issue: Travelling Islam: the circulation of ideas in Africa
(2023)
A. Raia; F. Ngom; M.M.A. Kaag; M.G. Kossmann
Type of Publication: Other

Easy to handle and travel with: Swahili booklets and transoceanic reading experiences in the Indian Ocean littoral
(2022)
A. Raia
Editors: M.A. Thumala Olave
Type of Publication: Book Chapter

Beauty before your eyes
(2021)
A. Raia
Type of Publication: Other

Introduction ASCL library web dossier 'Somali literature'
(2021)
A. Raia
Type of Publication: Other

Between the lines: re-citing Qur’anic verses in Swahili manuscripts
(2020)
A. Raia
Editors: A. Brita; G. Ciotti; F. De Simini; A. Roselli
Type of Publication: Book Chapter

Travelling texts beyond the West : introduction
(2020)
C. Vierke; A. Raia
Type of Publication: Journal Article

“Knowledge is richness beyond wealth”
(2020)
A. Raia
Type of Publication: Other

Angaliya Baharini, Mai Yaliyoko Pwani : the presence of the ocean in Mahmoud Ahmed Abdulakadir's poetry
(2019)
A. Raia
Editors: F. Aiello; R. Gaudioso
Type of Publication: Book Chapter

Swahili palimpsests : the Muslim stories beneath Swahili compositions
(2018)
A. Raia
Type of Publication: Journal Article

A mosaic of scripts : Arabic script in Africa from a comparative perspective
(2017)
A. Raia
Type of Publication: Journal Article

Remarks on Swahili manuscripts in Arabic script : layout and orthography of the Utendi wa Yusuf
(2014)
A. Raia
Editors: I. Kraska-Szlenk; B. Wójtowicz
Type of Publication: Book Chapter
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2

Rewriting Yusuf : a philological and intertextual study of a Swahili Islamic manuscript poem
Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Archiv afrikanistischer Manuskripte 12, 2020
A. Raia

'Seeking 'ilm on Lamu: Ustadh Mau's library and services for the benefit of his community'
In: A. Raia; C. Vierke: 'In this fragile world: Swahili poetry of commitment by Ustadh Mahmoud Mau', Leiden: Brill, 2023.
Full text

'Mabanati in search of an author: portable reform texts and multimodal narrative media among Swahili Muslim communities'
In: A. Raia; C. Vierke: 'In this fragile world: Swahili poetry of commitment by Ustadh Mahmoud Mau', Leiden: Brill, 2023.
Full text

'Easy to handle and travel with: Swahili booklets and transoceanic reading experiences in the Indian Ocean littoral'
In: M.A. Thumala Olave: 'The cultural sociology of reading: the meanings of reading and books across the world', Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.

'A network of copies: transmission and textual variants of manuscript traditions from the J.W.T. Allen Collection (Dar es Salaam)'
In: R.H. Samsom; C. Vierke: 'One text, many forms: a comparative view of the variability of Swahili manuscripts', Hamburg: Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, 2021.
Full text

'Between the lines: re-citing Qur’anic verses in Swahili manuscripts'
In: A. Brita; G. Ciotti; F. De Simini; A. Roselli: 'Copying manuscripts: textual and material craftsmanship', Hamburg: Universität Hamburg, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, 2020.
Full text

'Angaliya Baharini, Mai Yaliyoko Pwani : the presence of the ocean in Mahmoud Ahmed Abdulakadir's poetry'
In: F. Aiello; R. Gaudioso: 'LUGHA NA FASIHI. Scritti in onore e memoria di = Essays in honour and memory of Elena Bertoncini Zúbková', Napoli: Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale, 2019.
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'Remarks on Swahili manuscripts in Arabic script : layout and orthography of the Utendi wa Yusuf'
In: I. Kraska-Szlenk; B. Wójtowicz: 'Current research in African studies : papers in honour of Mwalimu Dr. Eugeniusz Rzewuski', Warsaw: Dom Wydawniczy Elipsa, 2014.

'Introduction to travelling Islam'
in: Islamic Africa, vol. 14, pp. 1-4, 2023.
Full text

'Travelling texts beyond the West : introduction'
in: Asian journal of African studies, vol. 48, pp. 1-29, 2020.

'Prayers uttered down on paper: a stylistic analysis of Swahili devotional lyrics'
in: Journal for Islamic studies, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 102-140, 2020.
Full text

'A mosaic of scripts : Arabic script in Africa from a comparative perspective'
in: Quaderni di studi arabi, nuova serie, no. 12, pp. 207-218, 2017.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6
Leiden: African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL), 2021.
Leiden: Things That Talk Foundation, 2021.
Leiden: Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam and Society (LUCIS), Leiden Islam Blog 2020.

Blogs by this author in the ASCL Africanist Blog: